History of Emerald Lakes

1974 -

ELA Presidents

OUR ASSOCIATION:

    The roots of our Community reach back into the 1960s.  However, the birthday of our Association is January 14, 1974 when Unidel, our principal developer, filed the Articles of Incorporation for Emerald Lakes Association, Inc. (ELA) with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.  This makes 2004 our 30th anniversary year.

    As stated in our Charter, the purpose of ELA is:

    "To promote the welfare, social and recreational interests of the members by providing for the administration, maintenance, and management of such bodies of water, beach facilities, waterfront, lands, trails, parks, recreation areas, docks, piers, buildings and facilities in connection therewith as may come into the control and management of the corporation for community purposes; to regulate and control recreational and related facilities and equipment in furtherance of the general plan of the community; to levy or assess special fees and dues for the use of recreational facilities or other projects of the corporation where deemed necessary and proper for its purposes."

    The purchase of a private parcel of property in our Community automatically grants the Owners of Record membership rights in the Association and establishes the obligation to become and remain members in good standing.  Only Owners of Record may be members of ELA.

    All of the Common Areas and Community Recreational facilities owned by ELA, and therefore, collectively owned by the members, are reserved for the use and enjoyment of the members in good standing and their families and friends.

    Each private property represents one (1) vote, regardless of the number of Owners.  This one (1) vote may be exercised by any one of the Owner/members, if in good standing, by being present at a special or annual membership meeting.

    Our By-Laws specify that the business of the Association and the Community shall be governed by a Board of Directors consisting of seven (7) members in good standing who are elected for a term of 3 years by the voting members present at the annual membership meeting.  Terms are staggered, resulting in either two or three Directors normally being elected each year.  The board elects its own officers (President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer) on an annual basis.

    In performing its duties to the Association, the Board is supported by our Community Manager and our Administration, Maintenance and Recreation staff, as well as several committees of Association members who act as special advisors to the Board on specific matters.  At the present time these committees are:  Architectural Review, Communications, Elections, Community Activities, Finance, Long Range Planning, Maintenance & Security, Nominations, Rules & Regulations and Community Crime Watch.

    The success of any organization, including ELA, is measured by its membership participation.  All members are sincerely invited/encouraged/requested to please participate by at least coming to the membership meetings and exercising your right to vote.  Even better, attend the Board and/or committee meetings; or even better still, join a committee or run for a Board seat.

EARLY HISTORY

    Scientists have told us that about 280 million years ago our beautiful Poconos were formed as part of the Appalachian Mountain range.  Our swamps, lakes, rocks, boulders, and poor soil are the result of the Wisconsin Glacier which about 15,000 years ago stopped on its southern journey at approximately Route I-80.

    The Minisink or Minsi Indians of the Lenape Tribe were the only humans brave enough to settle our area in the pre-American Revolutionary War days.  White settlers had come to the Wyoming Valley near Wilkes-Barre but in 1778 the British Army and Iroquois Indians massacred over 200 persons.  Many of the survivors fled to the Pocono wilds in an attempt to reach Fort Penn (Stroudsburg) but large numbers died of starvation and exhaustion in the great swamp.

    These events prompted General George Washington to order General John Sullivan to retaliate.  Sullivan entered the Poconos at Wind Gap and had to transform an Indian Trail into a military road through Tannersville, Pocono Pines and on to the Wyoming Valley.  Sullivan marched through our area with his men in 1779 and left at least one of his starving soldiers buried at Hungry Hill (on Sullivan Trail near Route 940) in the middle of the Great Swamp.

    During the next hundred years a few brave and hearty Europeans decided to come here and harvest the fruits of nature by changing trees into lumber, picking, packing, and shipping the wild blueberries and because of the bitter cold winters, cutting, storing and transporting natural ice to the great markets of New York and Philadelphia.

    These activities spawned the Wilkes Barre and Eastern Railroad in about 1887 to haul coal from the Scranton area and to deliver our local ice and berries to the metropolitan markets.  Around 1937 the railroad succumbed to electric refrigeration and cultivated blueberries.  Even though the tracks have been removed, the old right-of-way can still be seen crossing Long Pond Road near its intersection with Sullivan Trail.

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

    Our Community started with the name of Emerald Lakes Estates, Inc. when George and Jack Chartier purchased approximately 500 acres from Louis and Tille Fisch on August 28, 1967.  This purchase included all of East and West Emerald Lakes and part of Deer Lake.  The Fisch's had developed about 15 acres along Long Pond Road from our present main entrance to the bridge separating the two lakes.  Some of these property owners have joined our Association, while others have maintained their independent status.

    Then on October 24, 1969 a new developer, Aquashicola Club Estates, Inc. purchased about 1100 acres from the Pearsons which gave us our Sullivan Trail, Route I-380 and Route I-80 boundaries.  1970 saw Aquashicola purchase 30 more acres from the Haughs;  this area now contains our baseball field, Administration/Maintenance Building and our former Campground area.  In December 1970 Aquashicola bought out the original Fisch/Chartier/Emerald Lakes Estates, Inc. 500 acre plot.

    Articles of Merger dated April 30, 1971 resulted in Emerald Lakes Estates, Inc. being merged into Aquashicola Club Estates, Inc. and then on October 6, 1972 by approved name change Aquashicola became Unidel Corp., a name familiar to many of us.  The Rebold family was the active party in both Aquashicola and Unidel Corp.

    The Jack Frost section of our development, aka the Birches, was purchased in 1973.  After declaring Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in 1977 and resuming development/sales under reorganization in 1982, Unidel acting through its Northslope Development Corp. acquired the rights in 1985 to market the properties of the Estates at Emerald Lakes, a section initially sub-divided and developed by Patton Associates, Inc.

    Then in 1986/87 certain properties, but not all, of Isaac Miller's development, known as Blueberry Estates were marketed by Northslope with Emerald Lakes Association membership/amenities rights.

    After an extension of the original "exit date", Unidel finally left our development on December 31, 1990 and on July 13, 1991, with the agreement of the Bankruptcy Court, Unidel signed over ownership of the Common Areas and Community Recreational Facilities to the Emerald Lakes Association, Inc.  Under lease agreement between Unidel and the Association of March 5, 1977, the Association had been responsible for the operation and maintenance of the Common Areas and Community Recreational Facilities but ownership remained with Unidel until July 13, 1991.

OUR LAKES

   Without our lakes we would not exist.  Deer Lake and Lower Deer Lake are gifts of Nature, having been formed, and left by the Wisconsin Glacier.  West and East Emerald Lakes (at different times known as Youngs Pond, or Twin Lakes, or Ramot Lakes or Summit Lakes) were man-made in the early 1900's, reportedly for the ice industry.  However, there is no evidence that ice was taken from our lakes, as it was from most other lakes in our area.

    The developers recognized that the topography of the area was such that the discharge of East Emerald Lake could be dammed to create Mountaintop Lake and its discharge in turn could be dammed to form Pinetree Lake.

    Pinetree was built first and it filled to overflowing overnight because of torrential rains produced by Hurricane Agnes of 1972.

    Mountaintop Lake was planned by the developer in 1972 and had he finished the dam at that time many of our subsequent headaches and hardships would have been eliminated.  However, Murphy's Law took over --- soft footings were discovered under the proposed dam location; extra excavation work reduced the money supply; several work restarts and stops didn't finish the job; the developer filed for bankruptcy and reorganized under Court supervision; the Federal Government changed the wetlands rules and made the US Army Corps of Engineers responsible to enforce the regulations; the developer did not renew his original dam building permit which would have "grandfathered" the old rules; the developer proceeded and the Corps issued "Cease and Desist" orders; the Corps insisted any work would require a new permit under the new wetland rules which meant one acre of new wetland would need to be created for each of the 35 wetland acres being flooded by the new 55 acre lake.

    The alternative was to restore the entire area to its original state at an estimated cost of well over one million dollars.

    Murphy's Law continues --- the developer left our Community at the end of 1990 and ELA acquired ownership and responsibility to complete the amenities in progress.  Finally, the Corps allowed us to proceed with the dam construction provided we would create about 6 acres of new wetlands divided amongst 17 sites within our Community boundaries.

    Completion of the two dams and creation of the new wetlands cost our Association about nine hundred thousand unplanned extra dollars.

    The gates were closed on July 24, 1993 and the lake overflowed its spillway in March 1994.

    Swimmers and fishermen will never agree on a proper level of plant life in a lake, so we have our lakes professionally managed at a compromise level, hoping to satisfy everyone.

OTHER AMENITIES

    Our 2500 square foot, 100,000 gallon outdoor pool and tennis complex on Cedar Drive was completed by the developer in 1971.  The Association has added heat in 1999 to temper the cold well water and lengthen the season slightly.

    The all-purpose Community Center, heated indoor pool and tennis complex located at the corner of Clearview Drive and Glade Drive was completed by the developer in 1975 and cosmetic renovations at the Community Center are ongoing in 2004.  This facility represents the center-piece of our Community.

    During the summer months we have lifeguard-staffed swimming beaches and bathhouse facilities at Main Beach on East Emerald Lake and Pinetree Island Park.  Each of these locations also have picnic areas and some playground equipment.

    A full court basket ball facility was build near the Administration Building on Glade Drive in 1998.

    As the need arises additional facilities are planned for the old ski slope area which terminates at a future beach/marina site on Mountaintop Lake.

ROADS AND SERVICES

    After our annual payroll expense, by far the largest budgeted expense item each year is the repair and replacement of our roads.

    In 1988, when hard decisions had to be made relative to what we would do with our roads, the Association members would not support the cost of building the roads to township standards.  This would have permitted us to dedicate our roads to the townships, with all future maintenance and plowing supported by township taxes.

    Also, the membership would not support the paving of all our roads to a lower standard.

    Therefore, we ended up with a compromise plan: -- to single-coat hard-surface about 18 miles of primary feeder roads and upgrade about 18 miles of gravel secondary and cul-de-sac roads.  The original paving work was done in 1988 through 1990 and most of the gravel road work in 1992 through 1995.

    Due to the lack of money, we did not follow through with the originally recommended second-coating of the paved roads within three to five years.  Therefore, now each year's paved road repair bill is larger than it otherwise would have been.

    In 1996/97 and 1999 we were able to pave about three additional miles, making 21 miles of blacktop and 15 miles of gravel road as of our 25th Anniversary year.

SECURITY PATROL

    The association employs a security patrol contractor to provide surveillance and protection for all Association-owned property.  This contractor is in our development or on call 24 hours each day and is available to render personal assistance to our Association members when requested.

CRIME WATCH

    A Community Crime Watch program has recently been started by a dedicated group of Association members.

WASTE DISPOSAL

    The Association maintains a trash compactor for household waste next to the Administration/Maintenance Building Complex on Glade Drive.  This facility is open and attended four (4) days per week to members in good standing.  Recycling is encouraged.

THE FUTURE

    As most of us know, our Community started out as a second-home recreational development which attracted buyers interested in building a weekend getaway, a summer retreat and/or a peaceful and quiet retirement location in the country.

    Time and progress change most things.  The origin of our weekenders and retirees, that is, the metropolitan areas that surround us, continues to change and with urban success comes expensive housing.  Therefore, the people who created this success are forced to move to the commutable perimeter for affordable housing, and our Community falls on the edge of that circle.

    Our demographics are changing and our Community must change with them.  It is obvious that our amenities must grow to accommodate our increasing number of younger adults and children.  It will happen, and we all must continue to work together for the good of the overall Community.