The Quail Valley MUD and the City don’t get along. Or more specifically, Owen and the MUD don’t get along. Without going into details, the City (Owen) would like more control over it and the MUD feels that they are fine, just the way they are.

‘I think the above article and the comments generated show the lack of foresight demonstrated by the City in taking over QVGC…’

This is the real issue. The City goes off half-cocked on major projects. They want to take over the country club, but don’t look into what the actual costs to renovate will be until AFTER they take it over. The City wants to purchase the tennis center and they don’t look into what the renovations will cost until AFTER they purchase it. They take over the country club that includes the Executive 9, and instead of at least maintaining the property (regular mowings, edging cart paths, cutting down the 7 foot tall weeds and saplings growing in the once waterways) they let it sit idle.

The funny thing is that the residents are not the only ones that suffer – the City suffers as well, based on their poor decisions. The tax base shrinks when property values drop $20,000 per home due to neglect the City has levied in areas like the Executive 9. The lack of basic maintainance doesn’t help them either. Now instead of having to simply shore up some of the waterways, fix the cart paths and then call it a day, the City instead has to spend more money due to neglect they themselves caused!

Now the City says, “…funding will come from the November 2008 bond program…” Yet, back in June, both the Mayor and City Manager Frank Simpson publicly stated that the bond was never intended for renovations or improvements on the Executive 9. In fact, the 17.5 million dollar bond package was for all of the parks – not just one in Quail Valley. WHAT?!?

I swear – these guys are in serious need of an enema, cause the crap is flowing in the wrong direction and coming out of their mouths.

Or it’s going to take yet another big bond election.

How many home owners surround the former Executive 9?
The word is that 89 homes surround this property; however in truth 22 of them don’t actually come in contact with the former golf course. Many home owners that are on the course itself have a water view… or at least they did until the City eminent domain’ed the property.

How many waterways are on the former Executive 9 property?
All of the waterways are joined, however if you count them out separately, you would have 10 oddly shaped and somewhat small waterways. This was of course prior to the eminent domain – now, there are three waterways that have at least some water in them consistently, four waterways that have huge weeds and what can only be described as saplings growing in them, and three other waterways that come and go with the rain. At times these have a foot or two of water in them, and other times they are bone dry.

Are there any fish left in the waterways?
There may be some left in the three waterways that stay consistently wet. However, back in May, as the water levels plummeted and the heat became intense, tons of the fish died. The stench of dead and rotting fish was terrible and lasted no less than 5 weeks. The City’s solution? Send out one golf course employee to use a net and gather up the dead fish from the banks. It wasn’t a daily solution and most often than not, the vultures and other predators (rodents) got to the fish before the employee did.

Where did the water originally come from?
Ah – this is an excellent question. The water came from a water delivery system that was run from the sewage treatment plant down the street. What?!? Sewer water?!? No, no, no… that is what the City calls it when they want to freak people out. Actually, the water is referred to as effluence and it is actually cleaner than the water that naturally flows through Oyster Creek. The facility treats the water, and then the mean and awful golf course management (prior to the eminent domain) released it into the head waterway when the water levels on the Executive 9 were below normal. The City currently uses this effluence to water the El Dorado and La Quinta grounds. The previous course owners used effluence to water the grounds as well, but not nearly as much as the City is using (or claiming to use).

Who paid for that water delivery system to be introduced into that area?
The home owners did. Shocking, I know. The home owners (not just the ones that live around the Executive 9, but also ones that live around the adjacent El Dorado course) chipped in and paid for the line to be run. They paid the golf course management to perform the task and it was done. The City claims that they didn’t know anything about it and that no permits were pulled. Many of us find this interesting, since the line had to be run under a City street and after the system was complete, the HOA, a few residents, and golf course representatives held a ribbon cutting ceremony – not far from a few of the council members homes.

How many stories has the City released about why they can’t fill the waterways back up?
By my count, we are up to 7… but I may have dozed off and missed one or two. So far, we have heard:

The TECQ mandates the ‘sewage water’ is not acceptable for use in that type of waterway.
The water delivery system is no longer functional due to 1970’s irrigation lines that have rotted.
The water delivery system is no longer functional due to the pipe that burst under a house.
The water delivery system is no longer functional due to a broken pump system.
The amount of water needed to irrigate the grounds exceeds the amount of water needed to fill the waterways and there is not enough water to go ‘round.
It would cost millions of dollars to fill the waterways due to new regulations that pertain to ‘Waters of Texas’ that discourage unsustainable waterways and the City doesn’t have that kind of money.
And my personal favorite:

When the City held the public input meeting a few months back, they learned that the residents want the waterways back so that they may go boating on them. Effluence is clean, but not clean enough for recreational sports.

Ha!! At least they are keeping us entertained.

It will be interesting to see what their engineering consultant comes up with. I have a feeling it will be something along the lines of, “Sorry – but this whole water thing… in my professional opinion, it isn’t going to work.”