These are my personal images and photos that show the beauty of the view from Deer Ridge Mountain Resort and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Cobbly Nob and the Gatlinburg, Tennessee area.
Just click the Play button to watch - or click Big Picture to see a much larger slide show on a dedicated page here at DeerRidgeOwners.com.
Deer Ridge Litigation Fund
Do you, as an owner at Deer Ridge Mountain Resort, believe we are ALL entitled to have access and be able to copy the books and records of our Homeowner's Association?
So, do I.
But, apparently, Employee Joe Thomas and President Luther Parker and the Board disagree - and are doing all they can to block access, publication and candid discussion of the Asinine Assessment, special deals and favored treatment - at the expense of all Owners.
What ARE they so afraid of us finding out?
Maybe it has to do with the HUGE $10,000 overcharge for my HOA Fees, special assessments, water and cable TV bill - which, in my personal opinion, is due to fraudulent intent or at least gross negligence by the Deer Ridge Board of Directors and / or General Manager Joe Thomas. Please see the posts for details.
We have no choice but to file a lawsuit against GGRC and RML in order to finally, once and for all, make it clear that OWNERS do have a right to all the information about our property and our investment at Deer Ridge.
If you have thoughts and ideas and suggestions, please post them here on this blog.
If you have any clout with the Board, convince them to stop the charade - and let the owners have the information that all owners own!
If you want to help cover the legal costs to get us the right to see the bids for $50,000 for nuts and bolts - and the other background documents for the $353,500 Asinine Assessment, please click on the Donate Button below.
With enough in donations, we can hire BOTH an attorney AND a forensic accountant for the whole process through the Court in Sevier County to make absolutely certain we win EVERY point - and never have to fight Employee Joe and the Board on this stuff again.
Even a $100 contribution will help show that you are in favor of an open and FULLY transparent homeowners' association at Deer Ridge Mountain Resort!
Thanks so much to those of you who have already contributed!
GENERAL DISCLAIMER FOR ALL PAGES AND POSTS AND EVERYTHING ELSE I DO OR SAY REGARDING DEER RIDGE AND ANY AND ALL RELATED PARTIES:
Note: The following, and the information on any and all other posts and pages by me about General Manager Joe Thomas, GGRC, RML and /or the Board of Directors and its members, or any related topics, are my personal opinions based on my ongoing investigation into the actions and inactions of the GGRC and RML Board of Directors and / or Joe Thomas, General Manager.
While I believe these allegations to be true based on my objective analysis, these opinions remain as only allegations until I, or others, prove things in court.
My goal is to offer all owners all the information and evidence that I have available so that everyone can reach their own conclusions.
Please note the obvious:
Everything I ever say or write in person, via emails, or on my blog, about Deer Ridge or any and all related entities and organizations or any and all affiliated personnel or owners, is strictly my own personal opinion of course - based, in part, from my owning a unit at Deer Ridge for over five years - and on my own personal history.
That history includes earning a Presidential MBA degree, being awarded a Bachelor of Science, With Honors, in Engineering Physics from UT, working for NASA as a rocket scientist at Marshall Space Flight Center, 30 years of CEO experience directly employing and managing many hundreds of people at multiple companies I personally started and operated (including one that I took public), 15 years experience buying and selling over $100 million of property and managing more than 45,000 rental units - AND being able to read and do four-function arithmetic.
Legalese - And Powered Wig - Off
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Welcome to All Deer Ridge Owners
Welcome to all owners of Deer Ridge Mountain Resort condos in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
My goal is to help all Deer Ridge owners to have a voice in the management and operation of your property.
Click on the TITLES of any of the following subjects to read the whole posting - and see the comments made by your co-owners. You can also type any term into the below search box, or any word or term in the search cloud.
Click the big image at the top of the page to return to the front page at any time.
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Investment Analysis For A Rental Condo At Deer Ridge
Will you really lose $40,000 cash if you buy a rental condo at Deer Ridge and use Ridge Management Ltd?
As an owner-occupied home, Deer Ridge is an incredible value with THE best view in the Smokies and great amenities.
However, several owners and would-be owners of Deer Ridge condos have asked me if these units are a good rental property investment or not. To help answer that question
objectively, I had to analyze the real moving parts of buying and owning here.
Get my complete, detailed investment analysis based on buying a rental condo unit at Deer Ridge Mountain Resort in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
It shows what you MUST do to make money when you buy a rental unit at Deer Ridge.
Every Dollar You Pay For Deer Ridge Is The WRONG Amount!
Please read the various posts here on this Deer Ridge Owners Blog - and see my evidence and analysis which I believe shows conclusively that EVERY dollar of HOA Fees, EVERY dollar EVERY special assessment, EVERY water bill and cable TV sent out for YEARS to ALL Deer Ridge Owners has been wrong!
In many cases at least ONE THIRD of ALL owners have been GROSSLY overcharged. My calculations show that I have been overcharged more than TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS in the past 50 months I've owned at Deer Ridge.
The Board has been WRONGLY and arbitrarily ignoring the requirements of the Master Deed and the Bylaws for YEARS.
If my analysis is correct, the Board has zero choice. They MUST abide by the Master Deed Percentages.
But they haven’t.
However, if the Board knowingly ignored the clear directives of the Master Deed and the Bylaws when allocating costs to various unit types, and overcharging certain unit types on a regular basis, my opinion is that the Board and Joe Thomas may have acted fraudulently.
If they have not been fraudulent, then they have been, at the very least, grossly negligent.
Read the various blog postings - and judge for yourself.
Comments Welcome From All Visitors
You are welcome to leave your comments on the various posts on the blog. You no longer have to be registered to comment. (Even regular contributors had trouble remembering their log on passwords!)
Note that SPAM blockers are in place - and all comments require approval to be visible.
So, let's hear from you on these topics!
To view the comments, you need to click on the post topic to see the entire post and the comments.
"We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. We know that in secrecy error undetected will flourish and subvert." — J. Robert Oppenheimer. This includes the Board of Directors of Deer Ridge Mountain Resort.
Note: The way blogs work is that one person makes posts and others can add comments to each of those posts. Since I want to give ALL owners a REAL voice in the their property and investment at Deer Ridge Mountain Resort, I will sometimes elevate a comment to a posting to increase its visibility to all visitors to the Deer Ridge Owners Blog.
The following is a copy of a comment by Tina regarding Joe Thomas’ despicable tree butchering of our trees for the benefit of non-owners of Deer Ridge:
I know a little about tree ‘pruning’. The preference for the health of any tree is selective pruning technique. Selective pruning is a procedure where selective limbs/branches are taken out to allow growth to make the tree stronger. They make a clean cut. Selective pruning is very healthy for the tree in that it makes the tree stronger by eliminating inner branches that in the summertime obtains lower light with no stubs.
However, this process allows the tree to be a tree and to get larger, appear more natural. They appear MAJESTIC and it puts up a large canopy. It creates beauty and strength promoting a natural order of health to the tree.
This was NOT the process that was done at Deer Ridge. This was simply ‘topping’. Chain saw, cut off, no more thought than that I will guarantee anyone.
The topping process is very unhealthy for any tree, of any species and WILL in time eventually kill them. Depending upon the species of the tree of course will determine the time that kill may take. For example, there was a pitch pine (soft wood) that is already dead. By topping it, it is killed immediately. It will appear like a telephone pole next year. The bark will fall off. Hopefully woodpeckers can utilize it in time before it falls down. White Pines (soft wood) will continue some growth but look more like oversized bushes. Much like if a tornado went through years prior. The white and red oaks (hard wood) will sustain but they will always appear off balance and appear to be chopped. Their ‘normal’ lifespan is long (150-200 years or more) for a healthy oak, but this will affect there health and longevity as well. While the maples (fall color trees) will sprout many re-growths, it is extremely hard on them and their lifespan. IF topping is continued, it will put them at 1/2 life. Living a total of maybe 40 years.
The problem with topping a tree is that it creates opposite of selective pruning.
It will create more growth, stubs on the ‘inside’ of the tree and therefore makes it weaker. The ‘stubs’ that get created from chainsaw topping (those are short foot or 18″ sections) die out and rot, water pockets can set in, and fungi, disease and/or insects prevail. This is actually what kills the tree.
You can already see those sections in back of E block where the trees were topped last year. A topping technique is what normally occurs under electric lines with little thought or care for the tree itself.
It is best if someone wishes to plant a tree at their home under a line to actually plant a correct size tree at full maturity to the correct area. The only problem with that is that trees like Bradford Pears are so unnatural and soft, living short lifespans anyway. They are typically weak to start with and look more like glorified bushes than trees.
There are other species, (dogwoods, red buds, some birch, like river birch etc…) but truly we should respect and take care of our natural trees here at Deer Ridge and do minimal trimming and only do what we have to to obtain our view. When a good tree trimmer prunes or even continues to top, they need to assess the cut to the species of the tree and then decide what is best for the view/tree approach together.
If the tree trimmer knows trees (which Leo does not and neither does Joe) this process doesn’t take very long. Not all tree’s (there was a wonderful very young Cherry tree back of E block) that was obliterated, which was unnecessary. It is the lack of thought and caring around here that prevails.
Keep in mind folks the trees that Jan is talking about are on the roadside not anywhere near our condo’s. For Joe to have permitted this topping along a roadside for a non-owner benefit is despicably outrageous and completely indefensible.
Those trees should have never, ever been topped PERIOD. It will not look much better for a long time. Nature will eventually reclaim, but the price to us ($) and the tree’s were both done in a GROSSLY negligent fashion by Joe Thomas.
Another problem occurs when topping is done at the wrong time of the year. Last year Joe Thomas topped our trees in early October, LONG before sap went back down into the roots and prior to fall color. This is despicable as well, further weakening OUR trees. At least this year, they did it after most of the sap went down.
I am sure that was luck, as Joe Thomas doesn’t care about being confused by facts. For him, this place is about one thing…his paycheck, payoffs, secret deals and how he can himself further down the road of HIS financial success…no matter the cost and impact to us Deer Ridge owners.
4 comments to Tree Trimming At Deer Ridge: A Guest Post By Tina
I don’t know how to answer most of your questions other than with a statement.
Same Cr*p ~ Different Day.
We pay. All of us 84. Leo did the work. Joe approved it, according to Leo. Cabin rental got the benefit. Not us. I think the trees on the top were pruned as well. Not sure who’s property that was on but saw new cuttings the same time the bottom got cut. So, maybe the top section was DR property or the cabin rental, but either way i do believe we paid for the cutting on the top and the bottom. Stench odor huh.
We lost. Tree’s lost. Cabin owner & i suppose Joey’s ‘reallocation’ or pocketbook won?
No, i am not an authority by any means, but have had a course or two in tree trimming by a couple of professional trimmers. My dad for one.
Besides, one can only teach those that care enough and wish to learn. It is a love of nature and preservation. Living with nature produces rare serenity and there are few places left that man hasn’t messed with and that is the reason we have over 10 mil. annual visitors to this area. Proving, we need not to abuse or allow anyone abuse our natural resource/property. Or, cut needlessly.
When someone elects to obliterate trees for no reason (like the small cherry tree i spoke of earlier) we affect many other species other than that tree. Last year was the first year that the cherry tree produced cherries. Several species of birds, mammals were into that tree as those cherries ripened. There was even a barn owl in it one night! It didn’t block anyone’s view where it was located.
We are so Blessed with the National Park so close by. That is the true reason our property is so lovely. When you look off our balconies at the Park it is simply gorgeous. When one is sitting on Brushy Mountain looking toward our condo’s it is a whole other story and we need to be more careful not to impact scars on this property that we all love so dearly. The view from the mountains looking at Deer Ridge, does give me a perspective for caring and a respect for nature. Just how fragile this environment/ecosystem truly is, and just what man can do to it if not acting in a responsible fashion.
We live in an era where there is greed by some. The things i personally cherish the most have not one thing to do with money but are truly, truly priceless.
Check out our new Deer Ridge Owners webcam for the current view from our balcony!
Just click the photo for the most recent update. Updated every 5 minutes.
Top 10 Cam Award!
Our new Cobbly Nob TN site was just chosen as an Earthcam Top 10 Webcam!
All of this in just our first two weeks of operation - and before we install our new wide angle, high definition lens! Stay tuned for even better images!
EarthCam, Inc. is the global leader in providing webcam content, technology and services and ranks among the top 1% of all websites. EarthCam.com is the world’s favorite webcam network and the EarthCam Network cameras have been seen on top news shows, including CNN’s Headline News.
New YouTube Channel For Deer Ridge Owners!
Check out ALL of our videos on our new YouTube Channel for Deer Ridge Owners:
We already have videos that will walk you around the whole property and give you reviews from past guests and tourists. Find out what they REALLY have to say about Deer Ridge!
We are adding even more videos in the next few weeks - so check out our Deer Ridge Owners Channel often!
Update: Just added two new videos for a total of 20 videos so far! Check them out!
Owner Files $3 Million Lawsuit Against HOA, General Manager And Board Members
A homeowner in Gatlinburg, Tennessee has filed a $3 Million Lawsuit against his HOA, General Manager And All Individual Board Members at Deer Ridge Mountain Resort.
In response to their meritless, retaliatory $1 Million defamation lawsuit against me, I have now filed a $3 Million lawsuit against Deer Ridge Mountain Resort, AKA Gatlinburg Golf and Racquet Club HOA and Joe Thomas, Luther Parker, Larry Ohm, Margie Duncan, David Barone and Tom Reise, all as individuals.
If you believe in free speech as much as we do, we need your help - no matter where in America you may live.
The Deer Ridge HOA board and individual board members have filed a $1 Million Lawsuit against me in their ongoing attempts to stop this blog and have its contents removed. Click Press Release for details.
This power clique wants to continue to block free speech on this property and to keep their illegitimate secrets hidden from other owners.
They are willing to spend tens of thousands of dollars of other owners' money on legal fees to keep themselves in power while they continue to break both Tennessee state law and Deer Ridge property law.
We need your help with the legal fees that will be required to force them to abide by the law - and insure that Deer Ridge Mountain Resort is entitled to free speech like the rest of America.
If you would like to join with others who believe in free speech and believe that all of the 305,000 Home Owner Associations across the nation should be protected from tyrannical boards that ignore the laws, please click the
Donate Button below.
Even a donation of just a few dollars would be very greatly appreciated as a way of showing that we have financial support from thousands of Americans for these important issues!
Thanks so much to all of those of you who have already contributed!
Please help us broadcast this Press Release to others you know who can spread the word. You are welcome to link to this site from Twitter, Facebook or other sites.
With your help we can fight and win this $1 Million lawsuit - and keep this blog active - and an inspiration and model for other HOA Abuse Blogs across the nation.
Neil,
I don’t know how to answer most of your questions other than with a statement.
Same Cr*p ~ Different Day.
We pay. All of us 84. Leo did the work. Joe approved it, according to Leo. Cabin rental got the benefit. Not us. I think the trees on the top were pruned as well. Not sure who’s property that was on but saw new cuttings the same time the bottom got cut. So, maybe the top section was DR property or the cabin rental, but either way i do believe we paid for the cutting on the top and the bottom. Stench odor huh.
We lost. Tree’s lost. Cabin owner & i suppose Joey’s ‘reallocation’ or pocketbook won?
tm
Fredsdaddy,
No, i am not an authority by any means, but have had a course or two in tree trimming by a couple of professional trimmers. My dad for one.
Besides, one can only teach those that care enough and wish to learn. It is a love of nature and preservation. Living with nature produces rare serenity and there are few places left that man hasn’t messed with and that is the reason we have over 10 mil. annual visitors to this area. Proving, we need not to abuse or allow anyone abuse our natural resource/property. Or, cut needlessly.
When someone elects to obliterate trees for no reason (like the small cherry tree i spoke of earlier) we affect many other species other than that tree. Last year was the first year that the cherry tree produced cherries. Several species of birds, mammals were into that tree as those cherries ripened. There was even a barn owl in it one night! It didn’t block anyone’s view where it was located.
We are so Blessed with the National Park so close by. That is the true reason our property is so lovely. When you look off our balconies at the Park it is simply gorgeous. When one is sitting on Brushy Mountain looking toward our condo’s it is a whole other story and we need to be more careful not to impact scars on this property that we all love so dearly. The view from the mountains looking at Deer Ridge, does give me a perspective for caring and a respect for nature. Just how fragile this environment/ecosystem truly is, and just what man can do to it if not acting in a responsible fashion.
We live in an era where there is greed by some. The things i personally cherish the most have not one thing to do with money but are truly, truly priceless.
One Question is…. Would anyone listen ?
Another Question is… Were we owners of those trees compensated in any way ?
Yet Another Question….. Who was compensated ?
And another Question……. Where did the money come from to rent the Equipment, and pay the wages…. Was my money used ? Yours… ?
Tina maybe you could teach Joe and the cabin people how to properly care for trees. thanks