In the past couple of weeks, I made a strenuous effort to get the SROA to acknowledge it had a serious problem with fencing — no, not small amounts that owners use to protect their native plants. The real problem (which the Design Committee seems to have ignored) is the miles of hazardous and unsightly old barbed wire fencing.

The first responses were typical — Board President Beenen trying to just blow me off, and General Manager James Lewis inaccurately telling the Board that the SROA properly maintained all the barbed wire fencing.

After threatening to file formal complaints for violations of the Sunriver “Rules and Regulations” and “Design Manual” and setting a deadline of 5:00 PM today for a satisfactory response from the General Manager, today at 3:20 PM, I received the following response:

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“Good afternoon Mr. Conte: “Thank you for the email below regarding the pasture fencing along River Road. In short, SROA does yearly inspection and maintenance as necessary on the various sections of wire fencing along the many acres of meadow/pasture under its control. This is not only for aesthetic reasons, but primarily for the pure necessary function to contain horses that use the pastures in a rotating sequence during the spring, summer and fall months. Not only does SROA do such maintenance, but the lessees of the pasture who use these areas for the horses that serve the Sunriver Resort stables (the trail ride operators) have the right to fix/maintain the fences for the same purposes.

“The section of the fence along River Road and meadow/pasture 8 that you noted (the area generally between the stables southward to the Skypark neighborhood, on the river side of the road) is in a state of disrepair – portions are OK while some portions have wire that is completely detached with some posts falling down. In that vein, you are very correct. This old section of fence with barbed wire has been in place for many years – as far back as any recollection can remember. The reason for the lack of maintenance is that this area has not been used any time in the recent past for the pasturing of horses – so, it was not necessary for a functional purpose. However, as you again noted, the aesthetics are not representative of what SROA/Sunriver intends to outwardly represent and the safety factors (to humans and wildlife) are of concern. For these same reasons (lack of functional purpose/safety) this old barbed wire fence is scheduled to be removed (both posts and wire) – that will occur this spring. To be very honest with you, the removal of this fence has been noted for a short time but has been lower on the priority list for overall work to be completed by our public works staff. In other meadow areas (especially those where horse pasturing occurs) – because the extensive length of the fences around the meadows/pastures as you noted – continual maintenance is required and is an on-going task. Where and when maintenance occurs is on an as-needed basis, with posts and wildlife friendly (smooth) wire installed to replace the old when necessary. Some of this fencing may be old but it is still functional and will remain until repair and replacement are necessary.

“So, as any responsible property owner (just with a much larger amount of property), SROA holds itself accountable for maintaining its properties/facilities and infrastructure to a very high standard and tries to set the example for such. Other owners in addition to you (as the eyes and ears of the community) make our staff aware of issues that they may not be aware of (e.g. fallen trees, river bank erosion, failing sections of road/asphalt, unauthorized trails/uses of common area, broken recreation equipment, paint needed on SROA buildings, etc.) – the yearly list of foreseen and unforeseen maintenance issues can sometimes seem exhaustive to our staff. However, SROA has a proven record of addressing such issues and maintaining very high standards. In this vein, I thank you for your comments and ask that you trust that the fence issue will be resolved as I stated above.

“Please let me know if you have any questions.

“James Lewis
General Manager”

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I subsequently received another email from the General Manager, stating:

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“I forwarded the entire response that I sent to you (with your original email also included) to our entire Board right after I hit send to you – I included an opening statement indicating that I was incorrect about that portion of the fence.
James”

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It should not have taken this much effort to get the SROA to acknowledge the facts and the serious problem and commit to addressing it.

Meanwhile, the Design Committee is off wasting time and creating future problems with their unnecessary, burdensome, and unenforceable attempt to impose the aesthetic preferences of a handful of individuals on other Sunriver owners.

Let’s hope the SROA Board and management pull the plug on this nonsense and turn their attention to real issues in Sunriver.