Vandals mar Sunrise organizing effort

DINGMAN - As disagreement between residents and management at Sunrise Lakes continues, vandals broke into a maintenance yard this week extensively damaging equipment owned by Sunrise developers Bill and Bob Ramagosa An open disagreement has flared recently between some residents of the 875 home community and the Ramagosas. Residents claim the developers failed to maintain the community’s deed-guaranteed amenities and have provided no security. Some residents have been organizing a property owners’ association to force the developers to live up to their contractual agreements. Speaking before about 180 residents at a residents’ organizing meeting Tuesday, a Sunrise employee, who identified himself only as Chris, said vandals riding all-terrain vehicles gained entrance to the fenced-in equipment storage area at Sunrise on Monday night. They damaged several pieces of the Ramagosas’ construction equipment stored there. An excavator was described as “completely destroyed,” a fuel tank at the “processing plant” was filled with sand; chains lashed to the quads were wrapped around doors to pull them off; and windshields and windows were smashed. “There may be residents that don’t want any association. There are plenty of gated communities that you can move to,” shouted Charles Roberts, a Sunrise resident. He held up photographs of the damaged equipment. “Look, the vandals damaged over $20,000 worth of equipment,” he said as he was booed and told to sit down by voices from the crowd. One police estimate put the damage over $50,000. State police investigated the vandalism, but no further details about their findings were available at press time. Resident Virginia Kennedy chaired the 90-minute meeting. Kennedy has been involved in organizing residents along with another Sunrise resident, DeAnna Margiore. “We have only three objectives in mind. One is to make the Ramagosas deliver what they agreed to in our deeds when we purchased in Sunrise. We want a clearer financial statement as to what our dues are being used for. We also need to have some security in Sunrise to keep us safe,” said Kennedy as she laid out the objectives of the association. Kennedy told attendees this was “not going to be the usual kind of association with a bunch of rules to follow and gates at the entrance.” “This is just a contract issue. He is in breach of his contract. He takes in almost a half million dollars from us and he is not spending it on keeping up our community. We need a unified voice,” said Lou Sanci, another Sunrise resident. Kennedy said that she and Margiore have been in contact with an attorney from outside the area. Kennedy said they need to get $100 from at least 100 residents to give the attorney a retainer and to begin legal action against the Ramagosas. As he has in past, Bill Ramagosa declined to comment to the Courier on the meeting or the vandalism. “I have no comment,” he said.