LL Cottager's Representation at Annual Meeting

At this year's annual meeting there was representation from only 37 of a possible 144 properties, 26%. This is poor representation!

I would think that in this day and age, when properties values are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, cottage owners would take more of an active roll in how their cottage association is managed.

Some examples:

A few years ago there was a motion put forward to make lake road access year round. This action involved almost doubling the cottager's yearly fees. Because of the large increase in fees it was determined to table the issue until the following meeting (1 year) to allow people to contemplate the move. The anti-year round access folks did not mobilize an effort to oppose and it appeared some were not even aware of the move because they did not get involved in the final vote. After the motion passed some owners balked at paying the fee.

Lorne Road is in terrible shape and I am sure every cottager would like it repaired. The Township's latest date for repairs is 2014 and that date is not firm. O'Hara's brought this to the meeting and asked for support to get a group together to attend a Township council meeting and making representation for a quicker solution. A better cottager representation at the meeting may have made more cottagers aware of the possibility of lobbying council and given a greater impetus to such an effort.

Lake health should be a concern to all of us. Recent trends are positive but there is much work to be done. Cottagers should be concerned as our ecology is fragile and any reversal could have effects on our leisure activities and more importantly on property values. Involvement by all cottagers can be just the awareness of the forces that may impact our lake and therefore be more cognizant of healthy lake practices.