"We Are All the Same People" I had the pleasure of discussing this phrase with one my favorite Berkeley Lake personalities, the fabulous Miss Kitty Dales. I had asked for her permission to use this phrase as a bellwether when crafting how I wanted to approach my duties as President of the Berkeley Lake Homeowners Association and she kindly agreed. No matter what organizations we belong to, or where we live in this great city, or what we believe to be true, we all benefit from the experiences and closeness that we all share.

I believe it's important to know who we are and how we have evolved as a community, and to rely on that common identity when choosing a course of action. We do have a strong sense of identity here in Berkeley Lake, and we honor our proud tradition of independence. A case in point is that our elections seem to illicit great emotion on all sides of an issue. Berkeley Lakers are a feisty breed, to say the least. I want to embrace those many personalities and communities that make up our beautiful city, I believe we are all in this together, and we will move forward together. We are special, because we say that we are and because we have the fortitude and vision to be who we want to be.

My commitment to you this year is to make progress on siltation issues that have been a subject of great debate for many years, and to accelerate the momentum that the previous Boards have created. I want to thank the Membership for their support, as well as those who have chosen to serve on the Board this year. I also want to thank Randy Kirkus, George Kaffezakis, and Clay Keller for their hard work. You all will be missed and I look forward to seeing you at the BLHA events. I have served as Secretary on the BLHA Board of Directors for the last three years, and I am honored and humbled by serving this year as your President. My wife Julie and I moved to Berkeley Lake ten and a half years ago from Pensacola, FL. I had spent eight years flying for the Navy, which included an overseas tour better known as Desert Storm, and I thought that separating from military service would forever sever a lifestyle built around tight friendships, a sense of community and purpose.

I was wrong. I've had the great pleasure of living here and having meaningful friendships with people who are committed to the protection and betterment of this community. We are a special community, and we tend to attract those who want to foster closeness and camaraderie. Both Julie and I were extremely fortunate to find such a beautiful, high-spirited and close-knit city.

I have a clear purpose for this year and foremost I want to increase the awareness of financial responsibility that we all need to be onboard with. Our lake is man-made and is kept healthy by human intervention and the financing from an all-volunteer BLHA membership. Contrary to what some may believe, the BLHA is not designed for and is not financially capable of taking on the daunting task of removing large amounts of siltation from Lake Berkeley — not at the present yearly membership rate, that is. According to my records, our"siltation" fund was created in 1993 and was set at $25 per year. A great deal of BLHA siltation fund money was spent on legal fees in 1998, during the 14-month effort to sue a developer responsible for causing 6,500 cubic yards of siltation to settle in Lake Berkeley.

This $25 fee had remained the same until this year's Annual Membership meeting where a motion was made and seconded by attending members to raise this fee to $50. The motion passed and our yearly dues are now $200, of which $50 will contribute to the siltation legal fund. A reality check will reveal that $200 per year is roughly $16.50 per month, or 55 cents per day. A can of Coke per day is a tough comparison to the many wonderful attributes that being a member of the BLHA has to offer, but that is our financial reality. For those of you who have felt that the previous $25 per year (or $6,250 combined effort based on 250 members) was an effective dollar commitment, then I will be happy to assist you in understanding the financial reality that we are faced with year after year. Obviously, we need to make some tough choices moving forward and decide if we really want to hedge our bets in hopes that nothing major occurs with the well being of our lake, and our future. The choice is yours. We have run out of commercial developers to sue who had previously funded the siltation effort in the past. We're all that's left. The "same people" I spoke of earlier.

Whether you are currently a member of the BLHA, or a member of the 246 households protected by a covenant which exempts you from any financial responsibility for taking care of our lake (I thank those of you who have chosen to be BLHA members), or you are a member of the surrounding communities, we all benefit from having a healthy and clean lake that is our namesake and contributes greatly to our identity, and to our property values.

I opened this with Kitty's phrase: We are all the same people. We are all Berkeley Lakers. We are special, and I believe that deeply in my heart. I also believe that we have to be realistic and must get engaged with what it's going to take to maintain financial responsibility over the next few years in order to take care of the inevitable problems siltation will undoubtedly cause. This BLHA Board has been discussing many options besides simply raising dues. My goal is to help us all preserve the quality of life we have come to expect. I thank you all for being members of BLHA and look forward to discussing the important and daunting issue of siltation with you in the future.