A Nearly Accurate History of Sunrise Beach
By Dick Hart (deceased)
Written for the 25th Anniversary Celebration of the City in November of 1998
recovered and updated in 2005 and continued by others (I hope, hjs)
Page 5 of 19
$20 a year, any un-paid assessments and insure that it was spent here
and not at Canyon Lake or some other place. Title to the parks and all
sub-divisions within the boundaries of Sunrise Beach came under their
auspices. Later in 1975 a similar agreement was reached with the
developers of Granite Shoals Lake Estates, North Sunrise Beach or
whatever name you wish to call it. Its all just Sunrise Beach Village
now anyway.
This all took some doing and required a lot of hard work. The effort
was headed up by Henry Randle who at the same time was forming a
group to incorporate the entire area into a city. For a few years the
Benefit Association was able to take care of the parks and roads but as
cost grew, the $20 assessment didn't, consequently the city had to
take over responsibility and the Benefit Association simply became a
homeowner association and contributed its income to the city budget.
For a while the contribution was a major portion of the city's budget
but, as time passed, it became a minor part of the budget and the
organization was eventually dissolved. What really expedited the
dissolution was that during a period of unpleasantness, a small group
of people who didn't like the way things were going banded together
and sued the organization and the city and its officials. It reached a
point that dissolving the association was the simplest way of ending
the ceaseless legal fees incurred with fighting a lawsuit.
The beauty of having a city and a homeowners association working
together allowed for considerable flexibility. The Benefit Association
bought the property that is now the city complex where the city would
have had to float bonds, hire special advisors and follow expensive
state-mandated rules that cost major bucks. The Benefit Association
simply bought the property and, when it was paid for, deeded it to the
city. What you see now bears little resemblance to what was
purchased. The city hall was pretty much as it appears on the outside
but that is about it. The civic center was just a big welding shed. The
main thing was that the city now had a home on which to build
something and no longer was paying rent for whatever was available
in the area. This purchase took place in 1978. The city and the Benefit
Association approved funds to add rest rooms, a foyer and space for a
kitchen but stopped short there. It was decided that no funds would be
expended until the citizens expressed sufficient desire to have a city
complex for various activities and group meetings. Thus, the Citizens
for Community Action Association was born.
The CCAA (much easier to type) was called into being by Alice Oberg,
who served as its first president. (I was second). She gathered
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