Making his Mark at Winding Oaks

In my last post about our subdivision pool, you saw a picture of Ripley assisting our neighbor who has been the moving force behind getting this project done. Even the current board of the subdivision would not disagree, and most of them were invisible over the summer as they stayed in their northern homes and seemed impervious to resident concerns that the project - promised for completion by this date LAST YEAR, was that important to them. Elizabeth and I were told by the President and Vice President of the Board that "our plan is to have this open by October (2010)" when we contemplated buying this house, which is very conveniently located in close proximity to the pool.

The Vice President of that board was defeated, while the President stayed on, but found himself surrounded by newer members more willing to spend money on improvements. One of those improvements was the park surrounding the pool, which I've also blogged about in terms of clearing out ten years of neglected debris and overgrown tree canopy. Again, credit flows to the man in the picture, who suggested it would take more than one day of labor to do this correctly and convinced the board to spend a little more to get a lot more.

The man pictured is Mark Hullinger, who bought a home here over a year ago, and proceeded to rebuild it from the foundation up. Mark also decided my own comments, snide as they might have been, warranted an "official" (although unelected) response, and he created his own Winding Oaks News Service, posting on YouTube his progress reports. They were quite good, and had very professional production values, including a nice intro to each report. Google Winding Oaks News Service, and you'll find multiple reports. When it appeared Mark had taken over the role of keeping residents informed (which the board had not been doing), I deferred to his work.

I'm going to lead a "DRAFT HULLINGER" movement at the next board election, as we need more resident Trustees, and Mark has earned this job if he'll take it. I'm already on a condo board for our rental unit, so one is enough for me.

Yes, that IS water in the pool. Mark says we have another week of minor work, but the fence is now in, and the restrooms are coming along so we can get Board of Health approval. Believe it or not, we are required to have diaper changing stations in both the mens and ladies rooms. I asked Mark who in this neighborhood of septuagenarians and octogenarians needed a diaper changing station. He answered "I guess it Depends".