As printed in the Bainbridge Spirit June 27, 2011

Post date: Jul 3, 2011 7:35:09 PM

News from Tanglewood Lake

It seems like wherever I go throughout Northeast Ohio people ask me,” What’s happening with the golf course, weren’t you folks trying to buy it or something?”

Addressing this question, 150 Tanglewood residents recently met to passionately discuss the negotiations to purchase the land on which the golf course sits. “Why buy the land?” some residents argued vigorously. Indeed, the new ownership appears to be successfully maintaining course conditions and attracting more golfers. But will they or future owners decide to develop the land for real estate or allow drilling, destroying the beauty we all enjoy? We hope not. Who can forget the uncertainty when Tanglewood Golf went into receivership? Rumors of housing developments flew. Additional oil and gas drilling was being pursued on the golf property, jeopardizing the safety of our water supply. We had a fight on our hands and our residents mobilized to secure the future of our community. Our community successfully raised the funds necessary to fight development; maintain the grounds in the event of another course failure; and fund a possible purchase of the land the golf course sits upon. Neighbors, it’s a bittersweet truth that owning the land within Tanglewood is likely our only guarantee to control development and prevent drilling. No one likes the prospect of continuing to pay an assessment. But the course has had several owners so far, and what will future owners do with the land? It’s disturbing to note that two potential future buyers decided to crash our residents-only meeting: Tanglewood Golf ex-owners Dennis Romanini and Marc Strauss. How confident are you that we can protect Tanglewood from the likes of these or other future owners without owning the land? That’s the Tanglewood dilemma.

Daniel Foster, a Tanglewood resident and trustee, can be reached at tlaarchitecturalreview@gmail.com