Hot Springs Village Review

• Marketing and the POA board are worried about getting people to move here. I would worry about getting people to stay here.

• Wanting people to play more and more golf is not going to work. There are only so many tee times and so many good days. Plus, the courses cannot take a whole lot more play.

•  I would moderately improve the East end gate until more businesses appear. Better signage would help. Buying architectural plans at exorbitant prices is a waste of our money. We have plenty of talent in the Village. Someone can come up with a modest plan, at no cost.

• I would keep the interim manager, although I understand she wants to retire. We will spend thousands and get less.

• We need to replace the next three POA board members who are coming up for re-election. It would be nice to see some younger people step forward, if there are any.

• Our restaurants need help. We need to rethink everything concerning our food service. They are playing to a terrible crowd: Rich but cheap. Old and can't see at night. Enormous competition for those people that can see and will spend some money. Add it up. It ain't going to work.

• The easy days are over. Cooper used them up and handed the place over to us. Now we have to manage to keep what we have, grow at a slow and controlled pace and keep fee's as low as possible. People no longer view the purchasing of lots as a future place to build. Reality is drying up a lot of those dreams. The lots left are not very good for investment buying. The days of buy and build or buy and sell are over. Even if the lots do sell, the cost of developing them will bury us, or cause builders and buyers to forget it. It is no longer adequate to think outside the box. The box needs to be replaced by a pyramid of needs and wants. One of the first things we need to correct is to build a community designed to handle an aging population. Hot Springs Village is not made for the elderly population we are becoming. In all likelihood, we will become a municipality in the not so distant future. Making this work will take a lot of skill and a lot of money.