Gazette Article Online

GAZETTE ARTICLE ONLINE

September 15, 2007

Letter to the Editor

My husband and I moved to Holly Lake Ranch full time in May of 2003. We purchased our home in December of 2001 as a weekend get-a-way and loved it so much we couldn’t wait to be full-timers. At the time we purchased our place the only grocery store was Chevron or Texaco. If we wanted to eat there were no restaurants other than the 19th hole and at that time the food was fair and it might be an hour before you were served your food. When we purchase our house we were aware that there were dues to pay each month, I’m not sure if we even knew what all of the amenities included, but we knew we would be paying for the golf course, security and the tennis courts. We moved here for the beauty and the wonderful people we met and its affordability.

There are a few of us at Holly Lake that still work, some because we want to others because they have to. It is so nice to be able to come home to Holly Lake and have a choice of where we want to eat. We can choose to eat at home, or we can choose to eat out. Eating out is now an option without driving to Tyler or Longview. We have many choices of restaurants and foods. I don’t know about the rest of you but we enjoy the many restaurant choices we have and to us there isn’t anything better than to be able to go to the Four Seasons and be able to order a fair priced meal. Sometimes the food may not fit our taste but nine times out of ten the food we have eaten at the Four Seasons is as good as the restaurants in Tyler or Longview. In fact we went to Joe’s Crab Shack the other day and for the price we paid for the greasy, tasteless small portion of food we could have had the most expensive thing on the Four Season’s menu. We will probably go back at some point because we have had good food at Joe’s, but some people will go to the Four Seasons, have a bad experience and never try it again. Believe me you missed a fabulous barbeque buffet on September 1st and you wouldn’t find a better barbeque meal for the price at any of the barbeque places in Tyler or Longview.

I am writing this letter to those of you that want to close OUR restaurant. Granted, most of us expected to have a little non-smoking section where we could eat food that was a little healthier than burger and fries. Well, as we know that didn’t happen. What did happen was a wonderful place to have a good meal, at a good price. We can meet with our friends, bring our families or have dinner alone. There is room to have a big group of people or table for two. Someone wrote that it is costing us $16.00 a month of our dues to keep the doors open, my question to you is “How much does it cost you to drive to Tyler or Longview?” The government says it cost approximately 48.5 cents a mile for car expenses; it is at least 60 miles round trip to Tyler. My calculations say that if I drive to Tyler for dinner, I not only pay the higher prices for dinner I have an additional hour of travel time and I pay the hidden costs of wear and tear on my car in the amount of $29.10.

In 2002 my dues were $90.10 and they are now $99.85, so in five years my dues went up less than $10.00. In 2002 I did not question where my dues went; I trusted that the board and our general manager would do the right thing. We are now straddled with an expense that is not justified, but is closing the doors of the restaurant the way to go? I think not. Let’s get together and support this wonderful restaurant. Let’s find a way to make it successful. If you haven’t yet visited the restaurant I encourage you too. Go with your neighbors or friends, it can be a fun experience. Success is based on how we choose to reclaim our failures.
Bonnie Barker