The next Jonathan Association Board of Directors meeting will be held Tuesday, October 9 at 6:30 p.m. in City Council Chambers, One City Hall Plaza.

(Mollee Francisco is a staff writer for the Chaska Herald. She can be reached at mfrancisco@swpub.com.)

Has anyone else watched the replay of the Jonathan Meeting yet? If not, go to the City of Chaska's Video-on-Demand service and take a look (http://www.chaskacommunitycenter.com/vod/jon10-2-07.htm).

I guess what's really bothering me, now that I can look back at the proceedings, is that the attorneys would not answer a very, very simple question, posed by a number of Jonathan residents: How much is all this going to cost?

The attorneys had done very little due diligence in this process. Here are some examples, brought up by our neighbors during the meeting:
* The attorneys had failed to contact ANYONE from the original developer, the Jonathan Development Corporation, even though such people are still alive and well in Minnesota.
* The attorneys misleadingly called the Aeon Homes (formerly Central Community Housing Trust) project on the corner of Hundertmark and Clover Ridge Drive a "neighborhood," when, in fact, it is a retail and apartment complex.
* The attorneys had not spoken to former Executive Directors of the Jonathan Association, including Gayle Kincannon.
* The attorneys had not spoken with the former legal counsel to the Association, Marsh Hallberg.

I was also frustrated by the representatives of the townhome complexes. These representatives said time and time again that they are being "double charged," and that they don't use the Jonathan amenities. This requires two answers:

First, townhome associations do not just pay for the upkeep of common property. For their monthly sub-association dues, townhome owners receive:

* all of their exterior landscaping, including lawn mowing, tree maintenance, and bush trimming
* all of their snow removal, from their sidewalks and driveways
* an escrow account to be used to replace and repair exterior portions of their homes, including roofs, siding, personal walkways, and shared sidewalks.

It is simply incorrect to say that because a townhome owner pays sub-association dues to cover those costs, that they should somehow be exempt from paying dues to provide maintenance to the common property outside their windows.

Second, many of the townhome owners from the Traditions at Clover Ridge Townhome Association claim that they don't use the Jonathan common property. However, I see them several times a day running their dogs, off-leash, on the Jonathan common property next to my home. There are at least 7 townhome owners who are there DAILY, so claiming that they receive no benefit from their Jonathan Association dues is disingenuous, at best. Plus, some of them like to leave "presents" from their dogs for the kids who play football on that same piece of property.

Finally, I should point out what one of the Realtors mentioned during the meeting on Tuesday... If you're living in Jonathan, and are thinking of selling your house in the next few years, I wish you GOOD LUCK. Your Realtor is obligated by law to inform any potential buyers that there is pending litigation that can affect your property. Since the Jonathan Association Board of Directors continues to fail to provide property owners with any idea of what this legal action may cost, the chances that someone is going to buy your home are small - they don't know what they could be signing up for by buying your property. They'll go to Points West, or Chevalle, or somewhere where the Board of Directors isn't trying to tear apart the community.

Oh, and hiding the litigation from potential buyers wouldn't be smart, either. What happens if you don't mention this pending litigation to the potential buyer, and the Jonathan Association problems cause them to owe $15,000 to cover the costs of this legal action? The buyers can sue you for not disclosing material information about the property prior to the sale.

So, Jonathan neighbors, I urge you to take a good, hard look at the facts here. No matter what you WANT to believe, this is your money, your property value, and your community and the Jonathan Association Board of Directors is trying to take it all from you.

Think about how much you have to lose if this litigation succeeds, and how very little you can possibly gain.

-Katie Tierney
Traditions at Clover Ridge (Single-family)

I'm very angry at the fact that $51,000 has already been spent on legal fees. I think that money would have been better spent cleaning up Lake Grace and making it usable again. It's so frustrating to know that a few dissatisfied people can spend so much of the association's money and there seems to be nothing we can do about it.