Treasury Report Irene Blanchard
Anyone interested in the Treasury balance, please contact sepoachairman@gmail.com.
A majority of residents are making payments on their fees. There are those, though, that have not. Please be advised that if your balance is not up to date by September 30th, you will not be eligible for a payment plan next fiscal year. The outstanding balance will be added to your 2020/2021 HOA maintenance fees with 15% interest added on. You balance should be paid by November 1, 2020.
If you balance has not been paid in full (only accounts in arrears) by December 31, 2020 will be subject to litigation and legal fees will be charged along with interest.
If you aren’t sure of your balance, please contact sepoabills@gmail.com.
If you are still in need of a car tag, please contact sepoabills@gmail.com. Note: Homeowners are allotted 2 tags, lot owners are allotted 1 tag.
Roads
With the exception of a couple of small projects, we are done with scheduled road work for the season. Dust suppressant was recently applied and some additional ditch repairs and pothole repairs were done.
We hope that you like the work done for the season. We plan to extend the Twin Lakes Drive renovation in 2021 and will likely have to deal with the effects of whatever the coming winter (sadly, just around the corner) brings us.
Please drive the 15 mph speed limit and do not use cars or ATVs to dig up the road surfaces. Also, try not to drive close to the openings of culvert pipes. With a little care, we can lessen the need for future maintenance and renovations.
Enjoy the rest of the summer and please social distance.
The Road Committee
Beach and Recreation Irene DeVito
I hope that you noticed the new fence that we put up at the Showboat Beach.
It protects the sandy area of the beach from vehicles and the gate provides for
emergency access to the lake if it is ever needed. I can remember a few times
in the 35 years that we have owned our house here, the latest being when the
lake was dragged last year in a search for a neighbor who was missing.
We also added a gate behind the pavilion to keep cars off the grassy picnic area and
to protect all the boats that are stored there. If you need to get your boat
out when it is locked, please call Irene D. at 570 289 8466. It is generally
open on summer weekends when there are plenty of people around.
The grass we planted on the hillside is growing nicely and it looks much better than
it used to. The money for that project came from the proceeds of a lawsuit
that we won. If you want to offer plants or have suggestions for that area
please let me know.
There have also been some improvements at the court area, some fencing has been repaired and some new fencing placed around the basketball area. And new nets have replaced on the badly torn old ones.
The pavilion is not being rented this year for parties because of social distancing rule
and we suggest that you don’t invite too many friends from outside the community
to join you on the beach this summer so we can all social distance safely.
A big THANK YOU to Erik Lujbli for building a rowboat rack on the North Beach. It filled up quickly needless to say!
Unfortunately, there are no more spaces on any of the racks on either beach for boats. If you need a spot for a boat, there is a waiting list that you can be put on. As space becomes available these will be assigned depending on what type of space it is (kayak, rowboat or canoe). Spaces are $10 a year and are billed with your maintenance fee.
Contact sepoabills@gmail.com if you would like to be placed on the waiting list. Be sure to include which beach you would like and what type of boat you have.
Please enjoy the rest of the summer!
Twin Lakes Utilities (Updated )
Any updates on Twin Lakes Utilities have been posted on Facebook and email chain to keep residents informed.
Twin Lakes Utilities requested the PUC to find a public utility company to buy them . The first request was denied, but a second request has been refiled.
Letters have been written by residents to and by state representatives as well as to the PUC and now the Attorney General in regards to the unreasonable rate hike TLU has imposed on its Sagamore residents.
Below are two links that residents can click to file complaints to the Attorney General:
Price Gouging Complaint
Consumer Complaint
Our Chairman, Sean Kemether has relayed this information:
“I participated by phone in a conference with the administrative law judge handling TLU’s 529 petition, which was refiled on an expedited basis. TLU advised the Court that TLU is out of money and that Middlesex will be pulling out of operating it on September 1, 2020. The PUC attorney advised very strongly that they will be in trouble eight ways to Tuesday if they go that route, and recommended that the case be one for “abandonment”. The OCA advised that it would not take a position on that question, but emphasized the need for continuous and ongoing water supply for TLU customers.
There will be another conference next week. I will update after that conference. It is very unlikely that TLU will stop operations on September 1st, but we should be prepared for a rocky road ahead.”
Any furthers updates will be posted on the Sagamore Estates Facebook page and through the email chain. If you are not on the email chain and would like to be, you can email sagamorenotices@gmail.com and your email will be put on the list. The link to Sagamore Estates Facebook page is below:
https://www.facebook.com/sagamore.estates/
UPDATE(7/24/20):
Water Update
From the Chairman:
Recently, one of our residents lodged a complaint for price gouging against Twin Lakes Utilities with the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office. Several of you filed complaints there, as well.
Our resident received the following response from the AGs office:
After speaking with multiple people in the office (and those people making contact with others out of the office), it was recommended by ALL that given the renewed effort before the PUC, you should direct your concerns with both the PUC and with your local representative (who our office recently contacted). I know that is not the answer you want to hear given that you have done both of these things before, but hopefully with this new effort before the PUC, some change will be effectuated this time.
At this point, there is nothing further the Bureau of Consumer Protection can do to address this issue, since jurisdiction is with the PUC.
It is unclear what “new effort” this person means, but it appears that the AGs office is not going to get involved. Onward we go!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please continue social distancing at the beaches and enjoy the summer!