Richard Wainwright has lived at Lake Royale for years. During that time he has served in many and varied capacities.
He has been Vice-Chair on the Board of Directors for 2 ½ years and Chair for 2 years. He started the POLC (Protect Our Lake Committee) and built it up over the years applying for 3 grants and receiving 3 grants. He served on the CERT Committee beginning in its infancy and developing it to 40 members. He applied for 5 grants and received 4. He also served as the treasurer during his time on the committee. He served on the Recreation Committee and he and his wife Barbara purchased the food including salad fixings and potatoes for the monthly “Steak Night” and cooked the potatoes and arranged the salad components every month.
Richard assisted the county by serving as the Community Service facilitator for those individuals that had to do community service as ordered by a county judge. He assisted those residents that lived at the lake and had to complete their hours of community service. He had them clean up trash on our roads, build check dams and even had them work on building the two offices on the second floor of the POA office building. Normally, the local police department would supervise these individuals but at the time the Lake Royale Police Department was too small to allow any officers to supervise and therefore Richard handled the job.
He also used his expertise to design the new guard shack that had to be built at the front entrance. This included the blueprints, the survey and obtaining permits from the county. Richard even donated the foundation for the building and the Hardi-Plank siding for the outside of the building.
Richard also wrote/changed two NC State Laws. One involved burning items on your property. The law at the time allowed burning within 100 feet of your home. Richard added that nothing, other than a camp fire could not be burned within 100 feet of your home at Lake Royale.
Another law that he changed was in reference to the Drug Force Team instituted by the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department. He changed the law adding the Lake Royale Police Department to the other Franklin County Police Departments to share in any revenue that was received from drug cases. Prior to this, private company police could not take part.
When the Mini Golf Course was rebuilt, Richard played a part in its revitalization. Another large clean-up was completed by removing 100 derelict camping trailers from their lots with some of them actually being sold for revenue. This greatly improved the overall appearance in the Multi Use Section.
Richard has brought up the idea of Lake Royale writing liens on those residents who have not paid their yearly dues. He explained how he spoke to the Franklin County Clerk of Court recently to confirm that an individual (not necessarily a lawyer) could file the liens for a nominal cost. Richard had already filed liens against property owners years ago. When he explained the process to a Board Member, the member told him that when Richard did it, the liens were not legally filed.
This is not true as all liens that Richard filed were registered by the Clerk of Court and entered in the court records legally.
Board Members should not automatically tell a resident that what they say is not true. They should do their own research before they accuse a resident of lying as in this instance.
Lorraine Ryan
Investigative Reporter – BODWatch
