Great job Debbie!

It must have taken weeks just to gather and scan the information, so many plaudits on your work.

I will be adding your Web site to my "favorites" list as a one-stop site for Jonathan historical documents, photos and miscellaneous.

Very nice work, Debbie. It certainly took a lot of effort and time on your part. As a citizen of Chaska and Jonathan resident, I certainly appreciate the information you collected and are sharing with the community. Informed residents can make informed decisions.

As to your questions:

1. I DO welcome the information;

2. I was not surprised by the strong Department of Housing and Urban Development / HUD connection.

3. I think the city of Chaska has helped development of the Jonathan area, but I believe previous Jonathan boards were not diligent towards the required process. I believe they were well-intended decisions, but were misinformed on the process;

4. I do not think all of the current Jonathan Association area fits the original Jonathan ‘New Town’ criteria, but I believe it doesn't matter that much. After Jonathan went bankrupt, the `New Town' concept was no longer an appropriate or valid vision;

5. It's difficult to say where the Jonathan Development should have ended, as we don't know the vision/ideas of those elected to make the decisions. I do believe it has created challenges for the Association today, but I also strongly believe that working together in a collaborative effort we can make the Association BETTER and improve the community significantly vs. finding reasons to dissolve the Association or remove neighborhoods. Some residents in the remote neighborhoods that have publicly stated they receive little to no benefit from the Association actually receive a far greater share of resources then the "original Jonathan" neighborhoods. Those on the prior board wouldn't dare to publicly correct them. Many don't believe that it's JUST a coincidence that the neighborhood by neighborhood comparison of Association money spent on it's assets and Common Area's stopped being updated when those intending to destroy or diminish the Association were on the board;

6. Other comments? If a neighborhood desires to be removed from the Association, that neighborhood certainly has the right to do so. However, they should use their own resources (time and money) and not those of the Association. According to the current Association President, the last board spent "just under $200,000" on legal fees to dissolve the Association and/or have neighborhoods removed. This money was paid by homeowners to improve and better the Associations assets, e.g. Lake Grace, trails, Eitel House, etc. as required by the Associations Governing Documents. It will take a long while to recover the missed opportunities to better our community. Another example of this occurred this year when a small neighborhood, which is refunded most all of their dues, asked the board to pay for MORE legal services to see how they could succeed from the Association. The President at the time said the Association would send the matter to the attorney, presumably paying for the opinion. Why wouldn't the President say, "with all due respect, we invite you to pay for the legal opinion yourselves. It's not an Association matter."

To provide a more complete view of the Jonathan Association and its history and the decisions previous board of directors made, you may want to consider a section on past elections, including how the apartment vote tabulations have changed over the years, how the board removed the right of homeowners to vote via proxy and seating a board member which the Associations attorney clearly stated in a written opinion was in violation of the By-laws (and which some on the board chose not to share this information with other board members). By exposing the problems, the Membership will be better informed and may take a greater interest in their community to ensure these injustices don't reoccur.

Debbie, do you find it interesting that those who make negative comments on these posts most always decline to identify who they are and hide behind their screen names? Certainly it's their right, but it is rather weak to put it kindly.

Thank you again for your efforts with this project Debbie. You're truly an asset to our community!

Sincerely,
Mike Sibley

I've been Looking at the current pictures of Lake Grace on the www.jonathandocuments.com website, and while I'm not disagreeing with you on the point that it's in disrepair (because it is,) but I think it is an unfair comparison to use pictures of what look to be professionaly done, took in the summer and used for commerical use, against (again, guessing here)are self taken pictures of Lake grace in the WINTER. Again, I'm not disagreeing with you, Lake grace has fallen to disrepair, but the current pictures are misleading in showing what Lake Grace looks like now.

And for those of you who are talking about who badly Jonathan is taking care of it's ammenities, what is stoping you from helping Lake Grace? Yes you pay your dues and expect something to come of that, but if you really want something to change, your going to have to take the initiative. The only recent repair that I know of to Lake Grace was done by a Boy Scout as a project for becoming an Eagle. He did work with the Jonathan association,but it was pretty much planned and done by volenteers who care about their neighborhood. It's easy to complain about Jonathan at your computer desk, but at least be proactive and do something yourself.

Jonathan 'New Town' District - I have received a request for a copy of the Jonathan 'New Town' District proposal that I wrote in early 2008. (I mentioned this during the most recent Historical Preservation Commission meeting). My proposal was a first pass at addressing the categores for designation. I have uploaded a copy of my proposal to the www.jonathandocument.com site.