It is not just the Eastman
Sewer Users being bamboozled. In 2002 and 2003 members of the ECA Council were
subjected to an emotionally-based FEAR campaign suggesting that if the Eastman
golf course were closed it would wreak havoc on Eastman property values driving
valuations to intolerable lows. This FEAR campaign was complemented by the
initiative to make the golf course (and the Center) "amenities". The
official ECA Board propaganda pronounced that if the Council passed this Declaration
change, golf course capital investments would occur and Eastman property values
would significantly increase. Ten (10) years later in 2014 most Eastman
property values have not achieved the level they were at back in 2003.
What most community members
then and now do not understand is that the whole golf amenity campaign was a
ploy. The objective was to minimize the cost on the part of ECA golf members to
upgrade and improve the golf course to a resort like level at the expense of
the non golf members in the community. In the past 10 years we have spent more
than $3 million worth of capital funds raised through assessments to improve
the golf course grounds and another $1 million plus in golf vehicles.
