Bake Sales Won’t Fix Our Roads

The days of holding Chili Cookoff‘s, annual free Concerts and bake sales to fix our dangerous and deteriorating roads that are located in our business “community“ have long passed.   

Our newspaper receives a multitude of complaints every month with residents and tourists wanting to know whom to blame for tire damage etc.. 

A few weeks ago I hit a pothole or sinkhole with my SUV and broke a shock which cost $560 to repair.

We can no longer expect a handful of conscientious community minded business owners to constantly repair our private roads at their expense.

Even with the 3-$5,000 sporadically raised by several businesses to repair the potholes with a quick fix, it is always the same group of volunteers out there rain or “shine“ trying to repair the roads. 

This has become totally unacceptable for a community the size of Seven Lakes.

I‘ve been told that many of the owners of businesses pack up at 5 o‘clock and head home to other communities in the Sandhills and don‘t contribute financially with no concern with the condition of  our Seven Lakes community roads.

It is time for the residents to take the bull by the “horns“ and address  this mess.

One option is to form a committee led by the Seven Lakes Business Guild to investigate this problem and arrive at a solution. 

We could have a group composed of 2 residents that are community leaders (with no business interests) from all three gates to represent the community as well as 6 business owners to study and offer some means to address this problem.

Raise HOA fees.  One idea could be that residents vote to raise HOA monthly fees by a few dollars per month  to raise funds which may be a possibility.

Maybe we should reconsider the opportunity to Incorporate.  We have all heard the the “gates will come down“ scenario if we incorporate which is not true.  Pinewild still has gates up. 

The only caveat is that you would still have to pay your HOA fees in addition to the new fees that would be incurred by incorporating Seven Lakes.

Maybe it‘s time for community leaders to revisit he idea of incorporation again with the entire community becoming involved in the decision making process.   

We could obtain all of the advantages of urban services like our neighboring communities to include “street maintenance“ with property taxes and sales taxes received.

Also, We have heard rumors that we are “low hanging fruit“ for another “town“ to annex Seven Lakes and become a part and parcel of possibly Pinehurst. 

With the proliferation of residential building and increasing appraised values in our Seven Lakes community we may have become a prime target for acquisition and annexation. 

In the  event of annexation, we will have lost our opportunity and will have no say in the inner workings and future of our community.

By Victoria Levinger