Dear Members,

Thank you for all your support and patience as we work through the processes of getting our project off the ground. Finally, we have our timeline so that we can plan the summer and fall activities and ensure that we are able to provide service to the community during construction.

I have had a number of questions about what staff will be staying on the job throughout the project and what is being done for the ones who are being laid off. First, all Golf Course Maintenance and Administrative Staff will remain on through completion. Shayne will continue on maintaining the existing facilities and handling the cleaning instead of our contracted cleaning crew. Josefina is planning to go home for a few months and then will be back sometime in August. Jeff, Scott, and Kelsey will remain in the golf shop coordinating member tee times, and Patty will continue to handle the merchandise. In the Bag Room, Trevor, Pete, and Bryan will be bringing out and putting away bags for everyone playing at other clubs and will undertake a number of improvement projects over the summer. The salaried Chefs in the kitchen will do all the cooking over the summer from the mobile kitchen and Jose, Marina, and Roman will handle the service.  Once the golf course reopens, we will need to ramp up staff for more lunches and typical fall activity. Sometime later in the Fall, we will begin to hire and train new service staff and H2B visa staff in order to be ready for next season and our grand reopening.

Staff being laid off will use their vacation first and then can go on unemployment. During that time, Spring Run will pay the employee’s portion of their insurance and will get a bonus when they return.

I have made a change in the contractor’s demo plans in order to help us maintain our deadlines for completion. Initially, we asked them to preserve the lobby and bar for at least a month and focus demolition on the exterior and pool area. But after reviewing the schedule, it became obvious that having that extra month could hamper the completion date. Therefore, we decided that the demo will begin by the pool, rear of the club, and front lobby and bar about a week after we receive our permits. Once we have a week’s heads up, we will set up a satellite bar in the club room, and serve dinner and happy hours in that room, until we have to move out of there for renovations. At that point, we will move to the Lakeview Room. Dinners, Happy Hours, and events will take place in the Lakeview Room, and will be cooking out of a mobile kitchen outside. The main kitchen will be used for prep and storage.

Many owners have asked about rooms for cards and mah-jongg. The Multipurpose Room will be available, please contact the Membership and Activities Director Mark Oroyan to coordinate.

Expect regular project updates and pictures which can be found on www.springrun.com/projects2022

Please respond with any questions, and have a terrific summer!

Mike

Dear Spring Run Owners,

Recently, there have been a number of questions regarding the method of voting that Spring Run uses. While it has been in place for 16 years (all Board elections, governing document amendments, and borrowing approvals) this is the first time I have ever heard so many concerns being expressed about it. But, if you allow me to take a few moments, I can help explain it and put your minds at ease. That sounds like a job for the Spring Run Blog!

Let me take you back to the days when the grill room bar was only 4 tables, Facebook had just been founded, and the Red Sox won their first World Series since 1918. Ha! Except now, Cleveland has the longest Series drought…hmm…ok…never mind.  The year was 2004, and the Neighborhood Representatives were doing all the voting. Sure, they were supposed to canvass their Neighborhoods and accurately reflect the vote of their constituents. But that didn’t always happen, and the system permitted the NR to cast these votes any way they personally wished. In other words, an NR with 40 condo units could choose to cast all 40 votes for one candidate or one initiative, despite the results of their actual polling.

Now fast forward to 2006, when we built the current Grill Room Bar, Hurricane Wilma had just barreled through Spring Run’s Car Ports, and Yours Truly was hired!  The Neighborhood Representatives had come to a realization that the old method for voting was kind of unfair, and sought to put the power back in the hands of the people. A popular phrase was catching on at the time…” One Door, One Vote”. There was a groundswell to incorporate that into the voting procedures. The NRs ultimately voted their own power away in order to make sure every owner’s vote counted. Following an amendment to the Declaration in 2006, and a subsequent Bylaws amendment in early 2007, the modern-day procedures for voting in SR were set. Any future attempt to change them would require an affirmative vote of 75% of the total voting membership of 847, or 635 actual votes in favor.

Every election, the ballots are sent out either in digital form to one single primary email for the unit, requiring a log-in permitting only one vote per door. We also have about 85 owners who prefer a paper ballot.
Those ballot packages have a return envelope bearing a number on the front, but no other identifiable markings. All ballots remain unread/ unopened and organized into a file of their respective Neighborhoods, until the date of the counting. Iva and Michele maintain the security and initial anonymity of all Ballots until the moment they are opened in the presence of the Controller, the GM, and the Representative for that Neighborhood. All three monitor the proceedings to ensure complete integrity in the process. The results are confirmed by the NR, who signs off on the totals, often jotting down percentages or interesting trends they might share with their constituents. I then take the vote tally sheets and enter them into an excel spreadsheet to calculate the ACTUAL votes, the UNCAST votes, and the TOTAL votes.

For 16 years, I have posted and emailed these detailed and summarized results for every election and amendment. I would get an occasional “please refresh my memory” when reminding each NR on the procedure, and those NRs usually replied, “oh right! I remember. The uncast votes are redistributed in the same percentages as the actual results in each neighborhood”. Once we quickly reviewed the procedure, all was well.

But for the benefit of the rest of our owners who have not had the opportunity to count votes in the past, or have heard rumors about how concerning this voting method is, allow me to elaborate…

In order to ensure all votes count, Spring Run’s governing documents require that “all uncast votes be redistributed back into each neighborhood in the same percentage as the actual votes cast.”

Some feel only actual votes cast should count. But a low turnout does not affect this redistribution. The percentage is the percentage. Theoretically, this could favor a larger neighborhood depending on how the vote falls, but frankly, all neighborhoods are about the same size. Even Hidden Lakes, with 182 units, is divided up into 4 separate neighborhoods with between 36-50 units each. Silver Creek has 27 units, while Willow Creek has 52. Its all fairly even, and a close analysis done once by a skeptical Board Member proved there is no discernable difference when including the uncast votes or only counting the actual votes.

There is, however, one BIG difference. Those who do not vote could have changed the result. When they don’t, it is assumed they would have followed the trend in their neighborhoods. So given all this, I feel the takeaway is that the procedure is not the issue. Not voting IS!

If you have questions regarding this procedure, I would be happy to answer them, or just to clarify some of the above. Please know that although the process may seem unorthodox, the result is the same. Thank you for voting and participating in our Community.

Dear Spring Run Members,

Just a quick update on the status of COVID 19 in Spring Run. It has now been a month since the last employee who had the virus came back to work following quarantine. And while I did get a call from an owner on Friday morning who has tested positive, the number of cases amongst the membership that have been reported to me through this omicron wave is no more than seven, and all were either asymptomatic or felt like a cold. I asked each to contact anyone they had been around over the past 5 days and then I would contact anyone else that I was aware of. I am unaware of any cases of transmission from these existing cases.

Again, I will stress how effective I feel the combination of our COVID protocol policy and the air purification systems installed in the HVAC units have been.  We have kept the club open and our community safe. We hope that those of you who are hesitant to visit will feel more comfortable after hearing this update.

Feel free to reply with any questions or comments. Thank you!

Mike

Dear Member,

On Wednesday, December 8 at 1:48 pm, our Golf Course Superintendent Joey and his wife Shayna welcomed baby boy Lyle Joseph Smallwood into the world.  Lyle was 5lbs 14 oz and 18 3/4 inches long at birth. He is healthy and happy and both mom and baby are doing well.

Dear Spring Run Members,

I know many of you have played since we opened last Thursday. There have been a lot of questions and concerns as to what happened to some of the greens. Back in June, during the first closure, we aerified and performed all the cultural practices that were recommended by the USGA during their visit back in April. When we performed their recommended cultural practices, it decimated the root zones of our greens. Because we are in rainy season it is very hard to grow roots this time of year and strengthen the root zone. Roots typically stay where there is water present. Because it is rainy season the roots of grass typically stay shallower than normal. Since the aerification caused a weaker root zone on the greens, we have been doing some extra chemical applications to try and help the root growth. As we approached the second closure, I decided that we were not going to do our typical aerifications because I was afraid that would be too detrimental to the health of the greens. We started by putting our top-dressing layer of sand on the greens, so when we aerified it would push the sand in to the greens and offer a little more stability to the green. Also, instead of pulling cores we used solid tines to poke holes in the greens. This allowed us to get our aerification holes and get sand into the profile without being too disruptive to the greens. When we aerified the greens however, it pulled some sections of greens up where the roots had not healed as well as other areas. These areas were also very hard to spot since we had our top-dressing layer of sand down already. After we aerify greens, we always roll them to try and firm them back up before we start dragging the sand into the holes. When we did this these areas acted like a wave cresting and crashing. It essentially folded the sod over and created indentions in the green. Once we caught the damage, we stopped the process immediately and regrouped. We made all the necessary adjustments as quick as possible so the damage would not continue and sodded the damaged areas immediately.

I realize that this is the last thing that any of us wanted to happen. I can tell you though that, while the greens are a little unsightly right now, they have been making steady improvements every day and looking better each day. With the current progress we are making I think we will be back to normal in a few weeks’ time and looking great for season. My staff and I would like to thank you for your continued support and would like everyone to know that we are working as fast and hard as we can to heal these areas. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask.

Sincerely,

Benjamin S. Hanshew

Superintendent