• Lake Report: After several weeks of minimal algae growth, the recent warm weather has brought out some new patches. Aquatic Systems was here late last week and treated the lake. In talking to Jeff Whaley, our contact at Aquatic Systems, he acknowledged that they spent considerably more time and chemicals on the lake than they expected. He indicated that the contract renewal would need to be at a higher rate. This doesn’t surprise us since his quote for the current contract was about half of the previous lake company’s cost.

• 8 Acre Report: Our attorney has set up a non-binding mediation session for Sarasota County and King’s Gate Club to work out the differences in what they have paid us for that portion of the 8 acres that they took by eminent domain and what we believe it is worth. That will be held on April 10th. A group of the Board of Directors will be at this session to represent the Club’s interests.

• Usually, when someone sells something at a profit, Uncle Sam wants a piece of the pie. That would be about 30% of the profit for a corporation. Since we only paid about $12,000.00 for the 8 acre tract and sold a portion of it for $209,000.00 plus whatever more the mediation will produce, the tax consequence will be sizable. However, our accountant tells us that IRS Code Section 1033 allows an entity that has property taken away from it involuntarily, to be able to shelter those gains into another project like the new building. If that works out and we believe it will, that will be a great bonanza for the Club.

• Woodshop Report: The new lathe is in place and now Vern Crane says that it is so popular he wants four more. We are glad the guys have enjoyed the lathe, but they better find a new source for any more.

• We reported earlier that Palm Harbor had damaged the control boxes at the front gate while moving one of the units for 86 King Arthur Drive. They finally sent us a check for the damages but not until I threatened to complain to the Better Business Bureau and announce to our owners that they had chosen not to pay for damaged they cause when on our property.

• You may have heard that Sarasota County had imposed three impact fees that amounted to $4,300.00 on KGC as a part of the permit fees. Since it didn’t make sense that this project had any impact on the County, we sent a letter to Commissioner Nora Patterson and asked her assistance in removing these fees. She turned the letter over to the County Administrator, who then turned it over to a young lady who deals with complaints about these fees. At first, the young lady told us that the fees were based on square footage not on additional people that might be served by the project. After advising her that we wanted to know the appeals process for this decision, she called the next day to tell us that the fees had been removed for the permit.

• Some time ago, the fountain in the lake stopped working. The motor was the problem. We took it to the motor shop. The parts needed had to be ordered which took a looong time. Two weeks ago the motor was fixed and back at KGC. The electrician has been tied up on a long project for Sarasota County but will be here today to reassemble the fountain. Meanwhile the volcano at the southwest end stopped working, he will attend to that also.