by Joe DanielekNo Comments

HELP IMPROVE SIERRA MOUNTAIN RANCH

A train wreck in slow motion. A triple wiper, double flusher, too much info or something like that, are we talking politics here? Could be… geez that went down the drain in a hurry but it depends, you better not be flushing those, or feminine hi Gene thingy’s, shame on you.  What really can go down the toilet or kitchen sink to the septic tank… just about anything that can fit through the end of a vacuum truck suction hose than that depends (them too) on how hard of a suction they can pull as dirty deeds aren’t cheap, say money down the sink or in the tank? Vacuum truck operators be like your poop is our bread and butter… keep flushing our business down your drain cuz we want your stinking business as it’s money in our bank… stuff you flush into your tank.

I’m not a fan of the modern invention called septic systems given the mounting realization of failure rates across the United States said to be 36% where EPA came up with 50% in a study that involved a specific area. If we hide it it’s out of sight, out of mind, no problem, yea right the American way, say cat in the sandbox, go outside and play kids.

Septic systems on average develop failures within 15 years with an average lifespan of 20 years or a bit longer with extra care.

Enter the industry of composting toilets that aren’t really composting anything as they collect, dry and grind to start that process that the contents has to be removed and dealt with… composted? That’s a step in the right direction towards true composting that is fast catching on especially in dry regions and wet where using precious water to flush stuff doesn’t… what did that guy say in that commercial, that doesn’t make sense.

Perhaps off-gridders will save our planet from all the stupid stuff going on like composting humans now.

Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change 

Want to hear a good one, Sierra Mountain Ranch Property Owners Association (SMR POA) CC&R: 5. GENERAL RESTRICTIONS AND ADDITIONAL PROVISIONS APPLICABLE TO ALL PARCELS

“D. Sanitary Facilities. Toilets or other sanitary facilities shall be water-flush devices or other governmentally approved waste water disposal systems located within a residence. Waste water shall be discharged into a county or other appropriate governmental agency approved septic disposal system located on the Parcel.”

Problem is SMR is located in an arid region of central Apache County, Arizona north of St Johns within the Little Colorado River Basin that receives less than 12” of rain annually (this is not a small area). A land spotted with old growth Pinon Pines and Juniper trees that every other section of land (640 acres) is Arizona State Trust Land under open range cattle grazing leases’ limited by the state to 2.5 cows per section, again arid that doesn’t support growth of forage.

Clearly requiring “water-flush devices” falls under the definition of UNREASONABLE therefore UNENFORCEABLE. Unreasonable is defined by PLANNED COMMUNITY case law as “those restrictions which are wholly arbitrary, violate a fundamental public policy, or impose a burden on the use of affected land that far outweighs any benefit.”      

The Developer for SMR saddled them and all the other POA’s in their area with a BOILERPLATE set of CC&R’s (Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions) and Bylaws that ARE NOT tailored to their Ranch / regions conditions which is left to the Membership to correct. This “D. Sanitary Facilities” is counterintuitive to specific conditions of Sierra Mountain Ranch life as currently being experienced by full time and seasonal residents.

But the Sierra Mountain Ranch Board of Directors is exploiting this Irrelevant and Unreasonable CC&R’s with a heavy hand by provocative rhetoric. This consists of vailed and specific threats to include name calling in the Messages posted on the Board’s official website and on the unofficial private Facebook page in an attempt to Bully the Have Not’s or less fortunate to pack up and leave the Ranch. It includes blatant misapplication or exclusion of portions of County Codes and or State Laws that has most residents scared to even speak up.

Below are some excerpts of statements from the Board taken from theirOfficial Website, they have been cherry picked that doesn’t come close to exposing their efforts that include targeting by rumor certain very vulnerable full time residents with the intent to shut their friends up.   

“A lot of talk has been on the Facebook about alternative sanitary facilities (like composting toilets) being allowed by the county and while that is true, the county cedes to our SMR CC&Rs that are stricter and require flush septic systems. Our CC&Rs are the law out here because they equal or exceed the county regs.” 

“Whether the violations are from state or county regs, or from CC&R violations that have been adopted by the county as law, they are on it and enforcement is coming. Some of you out here may have noticed the shiny new Code Enforcement pickup(s) out here from time to time and based on a conversation with Michael Madrid of Apache county environmental, they have been able to increase staff for the health department, as well as building.”         

“The CC&Rs are actually part of the purchase convenants and supercede all local and state laws, and the rules are part of a private contractual agreement. One such rule relates to the requirement for a septic system and the facebookers tried to enlighten me on what that all meant.”   

“This system must be permitted, inspected and signed off by qualified personnel, and then properly maintained, and that a violation of the CC&Rs’ septic requirement is considered a county health violation and will be dealt with accordingly, by code enforcement of Apache county.”

“They are working on measures to help the awareness of the law out here and will even be looking at specific additions to the county website that explains how each development’s CC&Rs become the standard and must be adhered to as if they were actually written by the county. And it looks like we are going to be seeing a lot more of that government type of visitor out here in the near future.”

Following two blog posts are responses to the rhetoric above.

  1. MIKE HORSLEY PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE FEBRUARY 24, 2023
  2. SMR PRESIDENT HORSLEY FEB 24, 23 MESSAGE: paragraphs 10 thru 23

Additional links for reference:

On and on and on one can go where I’m willing to deal with my stuff and others in my clan hands on. It’s simple, smart, safe, savvy, sanitary, and satisfying… compost…

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