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The Pelican’s Eye: Report #3, May 16, 2005

Election Results:
The Dauphin Island Property Owner’s Association held its annual membership meeting on Saturday, May, 14, 2005. The meeting started on time and ended at approximately 1:00 pm with all votes counted and four persons elected. 401 Ballots were received. The results were as follows: Pam McDermott with 292 votes; Ron Benoit 290 votes; Jim Druhan 269 votes; Linda Smith 250 votes; David Connolly 233 votes; Diane Zettle 129 votes.

As prescribed by the Constitution, McDermott, Benoit, and Druhan will serve 3-year terms; Smith will serve a 2-year term.

However, the composition of the Board changed again unexpectedly with John Reed’s announcement of the resignation of Ed Boles. Ed is moving off the island and must, therefore, resign. New and old Board members will surely feel the loss of Ed’s monumental contribution, a contribution which began during the period of the lawsuit which led to the court-ordered election. During that period, he labored tirelessly to verify petition signatures. Ed’s forte was retrieval of misplaced records and the production of carefully designed data presentations. Among his many other services, we now have a nearly up-to-date mailing list based on tax records and a stream-line voting procedure that insures a timely and accurate counting of all ballots.

The Board voted to appoint David Connolly to fill Ed’s place until the next membership meeting. The current membership of the Board stands as follows: John Reed, President, Jackie Previto, Vice President, Pam McDermott, Secretary, Ron Benoit, Treasurer; Tom Brennan; Linda Smith; Dave Connolly; Jim Druhan; and Barbara Williams.

Amendments
All amendments passed by a vote of 98% to 100%.
Opinion Poll
We asked the membership to rank in order of preference the following choices:
  • Keep our land as a golf course without development: Vote tally: first choice 175; second choice 108; and third choice 47;
  • Preserve our land as green space for our enjoyment: Vote tally: first choice 95; second choice 162, and third choice 70;
  • Develop our land to support a golf course: Vote tally: first choice 103; second choice 44, and third choice 168.
    • From the results it seems fair to conclude that 73% placed preserving the golf course without development and preserving land as a green space as their first choice; 27% put development as a means of saving the golf course as their first choice.
    For second choice 79% placed preservation without development and/or preserving land as green space; 21% put development as a second choice.
    Weighing the results of the poll as a whole, 77% favored golf-course without development and/or preservation of green space; 23% favored development.
    Town Poll
    In addition, we asked the membership to vote YES or NO on the following question: “In order to keep the golf course, would you consider some arrangement with the town with strict covenants that protect our land from development?”
    215 voted YES; 55 voted NO.
    Dues
    Members present at the meeting voted unanimously to support the Board’s resolution to require annual dues of $100.