Retreat Blog

Rosemary Beach has sent out a letter which says in part that they may not have time to finish planting all of the sea oats and that NO HEAVY EQUIPMENT CAN BE ON THE BEACH STARTING APRIL ONE. (Turtle Season)

59 DAYS UNTIL APRIL FOOLS DAY
43 DEP DAYS UNTIL APRIL FOOLS DAY (they don't work weekends).

They don't hang out in homes
They don't frequent garbage dumps
They are Monogamous
They are Nocturnal which is why most people never see them.
These are Good Mice.

For the scientific minded :http://www-biology.ucsd.edu/labs/hoekstra/Links/ProjectsPage.html

Has anyone else checked out the Weather channels "IT COULD HAPPEN TOMORROW" series ?

Very Scary.

These guys new they needed to keep the anxiety level up in the off season .
And if you don't have real storms you can at least talk about the scary things that COULD happen in the future like.... "tomorrow".

It's well proven that anxious people buy more and consume more products.
Advertisers like that.


And that's Scary.

ANY
geotubes installation must obtain incidental take authorization from the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service before the state can issue a permit.


120 days until Hurricane season

86 DEP days until Hurricane season (They don't work weekends)

Because neither the county nor the affected property owners sought federal permits before supposedly taking endangered species' habitat, ALL are liable.- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Federal Endangered Species Act take guidelines don't differentiate between temporary and permanent structures. - U.S. fish and Wildlife Service



DECLARATION OF COVENANTS AND RESTRICTIONS FOR THE RETREAT
ARTICLE VII
SECTION 20. PROTECTED SPECIES (B)(1) SEA TURTLE
PARAGRAPH 2

PLEASE REMEMBER: ANY CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITY THAT DISRUPTS A NESTING MARINE TURTLE.DISRUPTS AND DESTROYS A SEA TURTLE NEST, OR RESULTS IN THE INJURY OR MORTALITY OF A MARINE TURTLE MAY SUBJECT THE LOT OWNER TO PROSECUTION UNDER THE U.S.
ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT AND FLORIDA STATUTES.



ARTICLE IV COMMON AREAS: CERTAIN EASEMENTS
SECTION 13. ENVIRONMENTAL PERMITS AND RESTRICTIONS
PARAGRAPHS 3. & 4.

EXCEPT AS REQUIRED OR PERMITTED BY THE AFORMENTIONED *PERMITS ISSUED BY THE ACOE, AND DEP,NO OWNER SHALL ALTER,FILL,DREDGE,PLACE SOD OR EXCAVATE, OR PERFORM SIMILAR ACTIVITIES ON ANY PORTION OF THEIR RESPECTIVE LOTS, UNLESS AND UNTIL SUCH ACTIVITY IS AUTHORIZED BY OR EXEMPT FROM THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE ACOE AND DEP.

IN THE EVENT TAHT AN OWNER VIOLATES THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF SUCH PERMITS AND FOR ANY REASON THE DEVELOPER, OR THE ASSOCIATION IS CITED THEREFORE, THE OWNER AGREES TO INDEMNIFY AND HOLD THE DEVELOPER, AND THE ASSOCIATION HARMLESS FROM ALL COSTS ARISING IN CONNECTION THEREWITH,INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, ALL COSTS AND ATTORNEYS FEES
AS WELL AS ALL COSTS OF CURING SUCH VIOLATION.

* ACOE (U.S. ARMY CORE OF ENGINEERS) PERMIT NUMBER 1994-02417
DEP (FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION) PERMIT NUMBER 662512681

52 of the 220 permitted sea walls are in violation. Inspection by DEP of 110 sites indicated that endangered species habitat had been taken in 52 of the 79 completed seawalls.....

extrapolating from this it is expected that 158 of the 220 properties permitted will be in violation. The COUNTY issued TEMPORARY permits...The STATE however does not differentiate between temporaty and permanent structures.

Only 1 permit has been issued by DEP.

The Green Loggerhead Sea Turtle has now joined forces with the beach mouse and the piping plovers creating a new found concern for these threatened species.

I predict that 2006 will usher in a new era of awareness of the need to preserve the life on this planet. New planets are pretty hard to come by using current technology.

Iceland has already announced their intention to ditch oil from their energy menu.



Source: Walton Sun

There are now 1 million homes in America valued at over $1 Million .

In 2000 there were 350 thousand.

Source Dataquick Information systems,

Mamma always said " A neighborhood is like a box of chocolates, you never know what your going to get".

STAND
lyrics by REM


Stand in the place where you live
Now face North
Think about direction
Wonder why you haven't before
Now stand in the place where you work
Now face West
Think about the place where you live
Wonder why you haven't before

If you are confused check with the sun
Carry a compass to help you along
Your feet are going to be on the ground
Your head is there to move you around

Your feet are going to be on the ground
Your head is there to move you around
If wishes were trees the trees would be falling
Listen to reason
Season is calling

If wishes were trees the trees would be falling
Listen to reason
Reason is calling
Your feet are going to be on the ground
Your head is there to move you around

So Stand (stand)
Now face North
Think about direction, wonder why you haven't before
Now stand (stand)
Now face West
Think about the place where you live
Wonder why you haven't

Stand in the place where you are (Now face North)
Stand in the place where you are (Now face West)
Your feet are going to be on the ground (Stand in the place where you are)
Your head is there to move you around, so stand

From the report of 9/05

he evidence, the report details, is spread throughout the U.S., including:
In Texas, homeowners saw their premiums double after skyrocketing water-related mold claims - $3 billion in 2002 - caused dozens of insurers to stop writing or renewing homeowners policies. Mold exclusions are now commonplace in many U.S. states.
In Florida, last year's wave of hurricanes prompted seven private insurers to stop writing new homeowners policies this year or to exit the market completely, even after they'd won substantial rate increases. Meanwhile, a new state-run insurance company has become Florida's second largest insurance provider, and last year it incurred about $2.5 billion of losses from the hurricanes.
In the Midwest, crop insurance losses have grown 10-fold in recent decades and many states are currently facing a prolonged drought that has many counties being declared agricultural disaster areas.
In the West, the average wildfire is twice as damaging compared to the 1970s, and a new study projects that wildfire damage in parts of California will quadruple in the coming years due to warmer temperatures and stronger winds as a result of climate change.

Thanks to calvin at www.climatechangeaction.blogspot.com for bringing this to my attention.


More at: www.ceres.org

Workshop on Innovative Shore Protection Technology
February 22-23, 2006,
8:30 am to 5:00 pm, (location TBA), Tallahassee, Florida.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Beaches and Coastal Systems, is often faced with requests to permit, implement or fund new and innovative erosion control projects. The Department considers new and innovative shore protection technologies as applied science, intended to solve an erosion problem, and about which the Department staff and professional engineering community have insufficient information to predict project performance and reliability, and potential impacts to the beach dune system.
In 1989, the Florida Legislature enacted a law (161.082, F.S.) that allows the Department to encourage the development of new and innovative methods for dealing with the coastal erosion problems along the state’s shorelines. The law provides the Department the ability to authorize the construction of pilot projects utilizing alternative erosion control methods, upon receipt of an application from a riparian property owner or governmental entity, and upon consideration of the facts and circumstances surrounding the application. Additional guidance for the regulatory approval of new/innovative shore protection technologies is provided in Chapter 62B-41.075, F.A.C.
The Department will host a workshop on innovative shore protection technologies in Tallahassee, on February 22-23, 2006. The workshop will offer designers and vendors of new and innovative shore protection technologies an opportunity to showcase their ideas and products, and will provide information on Department rules and procedures for permitting and funding pilot projects in the state.
The workshop will allow for up to thirty (30), twenty (20) minute presentations by designers and vendors.
Interested parties must register below (presenters registration form).
Interested parties must submit a short abstract describing their product or idea, including a discussion of its prior use, drawings and results of monitoring studies (if any).
Abstracts must be submitted via email at (innovative@dep.state.fl.us) on or before 8:00 am EST on January 16, 2006.
The Department will review the abstracts and submitters will be notified of their acceptance by January 20, 2006.
Presentations should be prepared in PowerPoint format and a copy submitted in advance of the presentation for posting to the Department’s website following the workshop.
Given the fact that the number of presentation slots is limited, presentations will be offered to those parties based on: 1) submission of an abstract describing a new or innovative technology appropriate to the workshop, and 2) the date and time that the abstract is submitted. Early submission will increase the chance of being offered a presentation slot.
Anyone wishing to attend as an audience member must also register below (attendee registration form).
Additional information can be obtained by email innovative@dep.state.fl.us.

17 % of the properties in the Retreat are for sale including 4 homes and 12 lots.

34% of the properties are improved with homes that are complete or under construction.

And The Really BIG pending sale you have all no doubt heard about by now was accomplished despite all of the Hurricanes, bad press, and with no new sand , walls, bags, tubes, fences , or oats being placed on our wonderful Retreat Beach.

So if you can't armor your Gulf front house because it is not threatened under law (Florida DEP rules) and because you still have 45' to 60' of dunes in front of that house and you like that view and want it to remain because in the future it may get eroded further and leave the pilings under your house exposed which will still not make it threatened since it is a newer "conforming" structure under DEP rules and your only option will be to pay for gobs of sand to be put back under your Gulf Front home from time to time and you think it would be a tough sell getting your neighbors to help pay for it under those circumstances and the insurance company won't pay for that sand either...
then what do you do ?

Well you have to try and armor 45' to 60' out in front of your home - In front of that dune.
Save the dunes sounds better than save my home or my view.
* the Retreat documents state that Gulf front owners must maintain their lots to the water line.

You have to Make the issue saving the Dunes for everyone, sort of a save the Whales angle. Get those politically correct vibes working for you and try to herd all the rich cats in one direction so that the solution will be uniform and sell the " preservation" of value concept (fear of loss) as an added motivator to get every neighbor to help pay for it.


The problem comes in when you start messing with private vs. Common property lines and trying to determine the threat level for each neighbor to arrive at how much you are going to tax each neighbor to pay for the scheme.

Tune in next time when we deconstruct the term "Special Assessment"

127 Days until hurricane season
91 DEP days until hurricane season (they don't work weekends).

Some of mine.


1. Southern Crown

2. Royal Beach

3. Diamond Beach

4. The Promontory of Blue Mt.

5. Platinum Sands

Random random House definitions:

the act of withdrawing, as into safety or privacy; retirement; seclusion.

a place of refuge, seclusion, or privacy.

an asylum, as for the insane.

a retirement or a period of retirement for religious exercises and meditation

the recession of a surface, as a wall or panel, from another surface beside it.

beat a retreat, to withdraw or retreat, esp. hurriedly or in disgrace

to slope backward; recede

to draw or lead back

WALL STREET DROP BIGGEST IN NEARLY 3 YEARS...

How ya gonna win if your not right within - Lauryn Hill 1995

Go Donny Go GO GO !

Congrats on your pending sale listed at $9.9 m

Mr. Bohn's company knows how to Move it. They came to the Retreat and put on a clinic folks.
Impressive.
Blake tended the Vine so now he can enjoy the wine.

ARTIST: John Fogerty
TITLE: The Old Man Down the Road (lyrics from)


He take the thunder from the mountain
He take the lightning from the sky
He bring the strong man to his begging knee
He make the young girl's mama cry


You got to hidey-hide
You got to jump and run
You got to hidey-hidey-hide
The old man is down the road


He got the voices speak in riddles
He got the eye as black as coal
He got a suitcase covered with rattlesnake hide
And he stands right in the road


He make the river call your lover
He make the barking of the hound
Put a shadow 'cross the window
When the old man comes around


The old man is down the road

We pray to the Lord of everything that these 7 hearts be made humble.
We pray that you will smash their false ego and their false pride.
We pray that you will subdue the pernicious and maleficent spirit that has manifested itself within this governing body.

“When you look at the trends and put them all together, it’s undisputable that the sea levels are rising,” says Ansje Miller, director of the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative (EJCC). “Warmer seas mean more intense hurricanes…. You’re going to have intense flooding like we have never seen before. Katrina is really the hurricane of the future.”

Lyrics by George Harrison

Have you seen the little piggies
Crawling in the dirt
And for all those little piggies
Life is getting worse
Always having dirt to play around in.

Have you seen the bigger piggies
In their starched white shirts
You will find the bigger piggies
Stirring up the dirt
Always have clean shirts to play around in.

In their styes with all their backing
They don't care what goes on around
In their eyes there's something lacking
What they need's a damn good whacking.

Everywhere there's lots of piggies
Living piggy lives
You can see them out for dinner
With their piggy wives
Clutching forks and knives to eat their bacon.

With a Hearing before the court scheduled (for some weeks now) ONLY DAYS AWAY ON JANUARY 26th to hear the request for a stay of lien with our offer to pay the money in question into escrow or directly to the Court Registry, what does our board of da-wreckers do?

They file liens on their neighbors homes.
They can't wait for the Judge that GentleMen
And Ladies are petitioning through their legal counsel to render a decision.

WHY NOT?

1 in 17 people die every day waiting for an organ transplant

1 in 10 people die every day waiting for a kidney transplant

Every 13 minutes someone is added to the organ waiting list

Artist/Band: Young Neil
Lyrics for Song: Don't Let It Bring You Down
Lyrics for Album: After The Gold Rush


Old man lying by the side of the road
With the lorries rolling by,
Blue moon sinking from the weight of the load
And the building scrape the sky,
Cold wind ripping down the alley at dawn
And the morning paper flies,
Dead man lying by the side of the road
With the daylight in his eyes.

Don't let it bring you down
It's only castles burning,
Find someone who's turning
And you will come around.

Blind man running through the light of the night
With an answer in his hand,
Come on down to the river of sight
And you can really understand,
Red lights flashing through the window in the rain,
Can you hear the sirens moan?
White cane lying in a gutter in the lane,
If you're walking home alone.

Don't let it bring you down
It's only castles burning,
Just find someone who's turning
And you will come around.

Don't let it bring you down
It's only castles burning,
Just find someone who's turning
And you will come around.

Oh my word have you heard that awful sound,
When that big bad Seawolf comes around,
Seawolf gonna howl,gonna wail, gonna huff and blow,
Will your place or mine be the first to go ?

The seawolf told Jimi and Jimi told me,
Castles made of sand melt in the Sea,
Eventually,
So let it be.


Paradise of illusions, paradise bound by Time,
A reflection of Heaven turned upside down,
You can't be the Lord of all you survey,
When you live only to give everything away.




Shawn O'neal copyright © 2006 all rights reserved.

Only 133 days until the start of Hurricane season.

24 lot owners sitting on a dune
one said don't assess me and then there were 23
23 lot owners sitting on a dune
one told the board shoo! and then there were 22
22 lot owners sitting on a dune
one said this is not fun and then there were 21
21 lot owners sitting on a dune
one said there's still sand a plenty and then there were 20
20 lot owners sitting on a dune
one said it's just about to get-mean and then there were 19
19 lot owners sitting on a dune
one said the Retreat is still a great scene and then there were 18
18 lot owners sitting on a dune
one said this is almost my dream and then there were 17
17 lot owners sitting on a dune
one said make it pretty or I'll scream and then there were 16
16 lot owners sitting on a dune
one said I'll sue for my dream and then there were 15
15 lot owners sitting on a dune
one said who died and made him king? and then there were 14
14 lot owners sitting on a dune
one said can you sell it for me? and then there were 13
13 lot owners sitting on a dune
one said should I hold or sell and then there were 12
12 lot owners sitting on a dune
one said there are no hurricanes in heaven and then there were 11
11 lot owners sitting on a dune
one said which is better the sword or the pen and then there were 10
10 lot owners sitting on a dune
one said in the end it will all be fine and then there were 9
9 lot owners sitting on a dune
one said I shall never give up my estate and then there were 8
8 lot owners sitting on a dune
one said put back my sandy heaven and then there were 7
7 lot owners sitting on a dune
one said we're in a hell of a fix and then there were 6
6 lot owners sitting on a dune
one said the retreat will survive and then there were 5
5 lot owners sitting on a dune
one said special assess me no more and then there were 4
4 lot owners sitting on a dune
one said the beach looks fine to me and then there were 3
3 lot owners sitting on a dune
one said oh my what are we to do? and then there were 2
2 lot owners sitting on a dune
one said do you know if we're having fun ? and then there was 1
1 lot owner sitting on a dune
He cast an angry fist at the GULF and said "not while I'm on this dune"



Copyright 2006 Shawn O'Neal, all rights reserved.

Happy MLK DAY.

Heard around the Retreat.....

"that lake needs more water"

"compared to the sand and water around St.George Island 30a is God's country"

" Why is the pool closed again ? Can't they close the pool without closing the whole beach club? we like the views..."

I think the board might want to consider that several owners of lots come here and like to take in the views from the beach club.

And of course all of the Realtors concerned or should I say Concerned Realtors like to show this great facility when showing property here.

You know it's a little bit funny to note that I go down to the beach in the retreat quite often. And you know what ? Mr. Jim Rester is the only member of the Board that I have ever seen on the beach in a long long time.
And that includes some of the former board members as well.
So who are these people who care so much about the dunes and the beach but never go there ?

1. There was damage to the Dunes and nothing has been done. Nothing. NADA.
Including SAND, DUNE FENCING, AND SEA OATS.


2. Two of the three Dune walkovers have not been repaired 6 months after Dennis knocked them out.

3. Buying a non-beach front home but being assessed for repairs for your neighbors beach front lot or home is just plain wrong.

4. The real estate market has cooled off.

5. A person buying a non beach front home or lot in the retreat cannot properly assess what their future liability will be due to the board's faulty logic.

6. The surly attitude of the association managment company.

Do you think any of these things might affect a decison to buy property in the Retreat?

We live in a world were many things are relative and to some folks its's all relative.

The Retreat is a wonderfull place but it is not Heaven.

The people including yours truly who live here are not perfect however well intentioned they may be and do not always agree.

We are sorry if we are making YOUR DREAM LIFE in LA LA LAND unpleasent.

I got three words for you : GET OVER IT.

And two more... HAVE FUN

And one more... PEACE

Good ... More street lights on in the Retreat
Good... Web site coming back soon

Bad... No application submitted to DEP

UGLY... Only 137 Days untill Hurricane season.

From the Ancient Vedas:

The THREE KINDS OF MISERY

1. Misery caused by ones own mind and body

2. Misery caused by other living entities (includes neighbors & yellow flys)

3. Misery caused by the forces of nature

So if you are already in pain and/or mental anguish and are also on the board of a neighborhood association and are coming off a bad hurricane season....

Not pretty.


Knowledge is light
Ignorance is darkness
where there is light
There can be no darkness

Tune in next week when we cover the 3 modes of material nature.

The Retreat, so neat
Off a nearly hidden street

Ninety acres and Ninety lots
Inhabited by Mad Englishmen, their dogs and what nots

Investors,part timers,and full timers come hear
The appreciation is adding up year after year

The Beach, the Dunes, The Lake, and Sunsets
No need to ask "are we having fun yet?"

If we may judge success by the envy of our peers
Then raise you glass high and shout out three cheers

Sweet Retreat can't be beat
Sweet Retreat can't be beat
Sweet Retreat can't be beat


Copyright 2006 Shawn O'Neal all rights reserved.

From the EPA;

When a shore retreats, the boundaries retreat--regardless of whether the erosion is natural or anthropogenic.374 Were it otherwise, the public trust rights, such as lateral beach access, would be routinely eliminated--even on the ocean shore, where jetties and groins regularly cause pockets of erosion.

From the standpoint of traditional property law, the law of erosion is like the law of defeasible estates, in which title to land changes hands when a specific condition occurs.375 Courts have long dealt with conditional grants in which a landowner conveys a piece of land but only for so long as it is used for a church,376 a park,377 a railroad,378 or a school,379 or until the occurrence of a specified event.380 The law of erosion reaches the same result as would occur if the sovereign had conveyed coastal property only for so long as erosion processes do not submerge it, reserving for the public a reversionary interest that vests when the land is below mean high water.

a.Is the Law of Erosion Symmetric? The natural effect of erosion is to reduce the estate of the dryland owner. A bulkhead shifts the loss onto the tidelands owner. Given that the law of erosion does not allow a riparian owner to expand her holdings by bulkheading and filling seaward, allowing the same owner to retain the saved land by bulkheading and filling landward would be an asymmetry. Similarly, a landowner does not generally lose the right to exclude the public when she lowers dry land to become navigable water.384 It would be asymmetric to allow the landowner to gain the right to exclude the public by elevating dry land so that it does not become navigable water.

The law of erosion is generally symmetric.385 The general principles are that shoreline ownership advances and retreats with the gradual changes of the sea, and those boundaries are not altered by the private activities of a landowner that change the shoreline itself. Even if the equivalence between filling navigable waters and preventing their encroachment by elevating dry land has not been recognized by reported cases, common law courts have the ability to rectify inconsistencies in the law that are brought to their attention.386

Recently the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment issued a detailed evaluation of coastal erosion's economic hazards. The study, commissioned by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), covers the entire US coastline. Within it are some chilling nuggets of information for Atlantic coastal property owners:

* Of 170,000 structures along the 2,300-mile Atlantic coastline that are outside cities but located within 500 feet of the shore, 53,000 are on land expected to be lost to erosion over the next 60 years. In all of the US, 87,000 houses fall within the 60-year Erosion Hazard Area (EHA).
* Property values shrink as the shore grows closer. According to data derived from an exhaustive 10,000-house survey, says the report, "a house that is 100 feet from the shoreline, but expected to reach the water in 50 years, is estimated to be worth about 90% of an identical house also located 100 feet from the shoreline, but expected to reach the water in 200 years. Similarly, a house estimated to be within 10 to 20 years of an eroding shore is worth 80% of one located 200 years away."

147 Days until this:

See the Fl. Gulf coast Probabilities at the bottom of the article...



EXTENDED RANGE FORECAST OF ATLANTIC SEASONAL HURRICANE ACTIVITY AND U.S. LANDFALL STRIKE PROBABILITY FOR 2006



We foresee another very active Atlantic basin tropical cyclone season in 2006. However, we do not expect to see as many landfalling major hurricanes in the United States as we have experienced in 2004 and 2005.



(as of 6 December 2005)





By Philip J. Klotzbach[1] and William M. Gray[2]



with special assistance from William Thorson[3]





This forecast as well as past forecasts and verifications are available via the World Wide Web at http://hurricane.atmos.colostate.edu/Forecasts


Brad Bohlander and Emily Wilmsen, Colorado State University Media Representatives, (970-491-6432) are available to answer various questions about this forecast





Department of Atmospheric Science

Colorado State University

Fort Collins, CO 80523

Email: amie@atmos.colostate.edu




ATLANTIC BASIN SEASONAL HURRICANE FORECAST FOR 2006



Forecast Parameter and 1950-2000

Climatology (in parentheses)


6 December 2005

Forecast for 2006

Named Storms (NS) (9.6)


17

Named Storm Days (NSD) (49.1)


85

Hurricanes (H) (5.9)


9

Hurricane Days (HD) (24.5)


45

Intense Hurricanes (IH) (2.3)


5

Intense Hurricane Days (IHD) (5.0)


13

Net Tropical Cyclone Activity (NTC) (100%)


195




PROBABILITIES FOR AT LEAST ONE MAJOR (CATEGORY 3-4-5) HURRICANE LANDFALL ON EACH OF THE FOLLOWING COASTAL AREAS:



1) Entire U.S. coastline - 81% (average for last century is 52%)



2) U.S. East Coast Including Peninsula Florida - 64% (average for last century is 31%)



3) Gulf Coast from the Florida Panhandle westward to Brownsville - 47% (average for last century is 30%)



4) Above-average major hurricane landfall risk in the Caribbean

U.S. Government Plans Biggest Expansion Ever of Federal Flood Insurance Program
12/13/2005


The explosion in the amount of development taking place on or near our shorelines since the late 1960s is a direct result of the introduction and subsequent great expansion of the National Flood Insurance Program run by our Federal Government. The National Flood Insurance Program was started in 1968 and offers government backed flood insurance for buildings located in high-risk flood areas that the private sector logically has refused to insure. The National Flood Insurance Program is anathema to free market proponents, but is a dream-come-true for real estate developers at the expense of taxpayers. Now, after Hurricane Katrina, which is expected to cost taxpayers a whopping $23 billion in flood insurance claims, our Federal government is proposing, not a cancellation or reduction in the flood insurance program, but the largest increase in the history of the program. What we need instead of government flood insurance guarantees (at taxpayers expense) is to stop building (and stop rebuilding) in the dynamic, low-lying, shoreline areas that are subject to flooding during major storms.

149 Day's Until Hurricane Season.

you can say that again...

149 Day's Until Hurricane Season.

Who want's to bet me $100 that our board of directors will be sitting on it wringing their hands with sweat beads forming in their brains at the start of Hurricane season having provided no major amount of Sand, or tubes, or walls, etc., on the Retreat Beach or in front of the Retreat Dunes by June 1, the official start of YOU KNOW WHAT.

I'm way past an argument about whose tube or wall etc. protects us from Mother freaked out nature better than the other.

I'm simply talking about doing something vs. Doing Nothing.

I will say that according to our consultant, doing nothing is an acceptable path to take.
We payed him Money and did nothing so far so we are on that path by default.

But if we chose the do nothing path (just sounds un-American doesn't it) then we would have to give ALL THAT SPECIAL ASSESSMENT MONEY BACK.