What's New

DECEMBER 2025 NEWSLETTER

DISTRICT MEETINGS

The district meetings will be held on 1/17/2026 at the front gate pavillion at the following times:

Southeast District @ 12:00pm

Southwest District @ 1:00pm

Northeast District @ 2:00pm

Northwest District @ 3:00pm

To determine which district you are in go to RRPOA.net and click on the Important Documents link in the main menu. Your district will be determined by the address listed on your drivers license. As per the bylaws, you can only vote for the directors or alternate directors running in your district. When coming to the district meeting we will ask to see both a copy of your drivers license (to verify the district you are in) and a current membership card (to verify your membership status).

Those running for the districts director positions are as follows:

Southeast Directors:

Josh Hutcheson

Shane Bradley

Southwest Directors:

Cliff Goodrich

Donald Sparks

Northeast Directors:

Jarrett Whitehead

Jamie Stone

Corey Dziubek

Kevin Leiby

Northwest Directors

Stephen Johnston

Steven Johnson

Alternate Directors will be nominated at the district meetings. Any member in good standing is welcome to be nominated as an alternate director in their district as established by their drivers license.

We are encouraging members to attend their district meetings to not only vote for their directors or alternate directors, but this is also the member’s opportunity to discuss issues that they would like brought up and possibly voted on at the General Assembly meeting in February. This is also member’s opportunity to ask questions or make comments to their directors about issues in RR.

RRPOA Kids Playground

We have finished the property raffle and would like to thank everyone who bought tickets to help support this. The playground has been purchased and was recently delivered. We plan on working on installing the playground sometime early 2026. Thanks again for everyones support.

We would like to congratulate Monty Winslow as the first winner of this raffle.

We would like to congratulate Jonathan Roberson as the second winner of this raffle.

We would like to congratulate Martin McGuire as the third winner of this raffle.

We would like to congratulate Norman Sayre as the fourth winner of this raffle.

CHRISTMAS BUGGY PARADE

The ATV and Activity Committee will be having their Christmas Parade on 1/3/26 @ 6:00pm. Previous years we have always had this Parade New Years Weekend so that all members can participate and it does not interfere with the Kids Christmas Party or members actual Christmas.

Members who want to participate can decorate their SXSs, buggies, ATVs, etc and meet at the front gate to line up around 5:30pm. We will be giving away prizes for the best decorated buggy/ATV/SXS, etc. We will also be throwing out candy to kids watching the parade on the parade route. Santa will be there and so will the grinch.

The parade route will be along main grade from the front gate to the Melbourne sign. Come join us for this awesome event and decorate your buggies with post Christmas cheer!

BUGGY LOT

We wanted to let members know that we have an area at the front gate called the Buggy Lot that members can rent a spot for their vehicles and leave them there after the member leaves for the weekend. We are now allowing members to rent a spot for their campers that are 35 feet or less in addition to buggy's, SXS or ATVs . These spots are essentially parking spots and people will not be able to camp out of their campers in this area. The Buggy lot costs $250 per year and is in a fenced off area that only people whom have a spot can get a key to. The front office does walk throughs on the buggy lot to check on the vehicles parked there.
If you are interested in renting a buggy lot spot, please contact Ms Sandy or Ms Angel at the front gate.

ONLINE MEMBERSHIPS

We want to let members know that our website host, Shopify, has been having a lot of issues with sending emails such as forgot password or account activation emails. We have multiple people whose emails have been blocked by their provider or the Shopify provider is just having issues.

That all being said, we have changed the account login process so that all you need to do is type in your email address and a code will be sent for you to log into your account. Please note that we are trying to sync this system with our Counterpoint system so if you do not use the exact same email that you gave the gate then the accounts will not sync correctly. We recommend that if you are a current member and this is your first time using the online system you may want to double check what email you have on file by contacting onlinestore@rrpoa.net.

We are hoping this will make things easier on members to log into your online accounts.

As a continuation of Ms Sandy's commitment to keeping the membership informed, we would like to share with the membership an update on projects that we have been working on. We will give a brief explanation of each item as we have previously done. We apologize for the length of this post.

Cattle gaps - This project is to improve the current cattle gaps from the hunting area to the camping area to keep the cows from crossing into the camping area. To date, the gaps that have been replaced have worked well with the exception of one cow that was brave enough and figured out how to jump the gap. All cattle gaps have been upgraded except for gate # 8. Additional pavers were purchased and since there was a minimum order we had to order a few more than actually needed. We will keep them on hand to as replacements for repairs as needed. Total cost for the year for the upgrades and repairs to the cattle gaps is $4191.87.

Water gate - This gates are to replace part of fencing so that they can swing up to allow water to flow and minimize the stress on the fence. All water gates have been installed. This project is complete. A total of $917.90 was spent on this project.

Road Repairs - The road committee have come up with recommendations on repairs to help with trying to get the flow of water off main grade. With many different people fencing off property, changing roads, raising camp levels and extensive grading of roads have caused main roads to be lower than other areas. With the main roads being lower than camps, it has caused water to flow through these roads causing further erosion and repairs needed. The association has purchased culverts and material to have on hand to perform the repairs as time permits. The total amount of money spent on maintenance, stockpile material and culverts to date is $42,838.65.

Hwy 630 Property - The club had the opportunity to purchase a piece of property between Hwy 630 and the front gate. The property would join other properties that the club owns, allowing for more options for material storage or any other needs that may arise. Cost of this property was $50,000.

Safety Vests - Forestry recommended that RR Fire Committee members that would be involved in either fighting fires or provide crowd control have highly visible vests. Fire Resistant High Vis Safety vests were purchased for Fire Committee members. These vests are more expensive than regular high vis vests. Costs for these vests were $3,708.17.

Property Taxes - Polk County recently raised taxes on all the properties that RR owns. Currently RR owns around 905 acres. Property taxes for 2025 was $25,184.97, representing an increase of $13,374.23.

Electric - There was numerous improvements to the electric on the ice machines and upgrades to air conditioners with the additions of mini splits. With all these upgrades from this year we were able to save $989.07 on the electric bills for the year. Improvements on the electric on the ice machines was $537.50.

Garbage Truck - We continue to monitor saving for having our own garbage truck and for hauling our own trash. Accounting for the actual costs of fuel, employee wages, truck payment and insurance we are seeing a savings of $27,691 from May - November 2025. This is a little better than what we had expected for the first year and has helped us to do many other improvements in RR.

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BY LAWS

At the October 21, 2023 the RRPOA Board of Directors voted to update the current By Laws for our membership. This update was made to clarify requirements for membership, requirements for running for Director, Alternate Director and Officer positions on the board. Updates were also made to make the By Laws in compliance with required changes to Florida Statues and the RRPOA Articles of incorporation. A copy of the By Laws can be found on this website under important documents or by clicking this link.

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NEW NIGHT TIME SIGN IN PROCEDURES

Starting April 2, 2023 there will be a new sign in procedure for members that are signing in between 10pm and 6am on Sunday thru Wednesday. Temporarily, RRPOA will have the red shed open on Sunday thru Wednesday from 10pm to 6am to sign in members. During this time, we will have the gate house closed and will not be selling memberships, ice or other items at the gate. We will still be able to sign out guests or family members that are using those passes.

The field will be marked and roped off appropriately so that members can drive up to the red shed and sign in during this time.

Looking through our historical records we have determined that this change should only impact approximately 5 - 10 members. The gate house will be open as normal from Thursday thru Saturday. We will make adjustments for upcoming holidays as needed if we still need to use the shed during that time. Our goal is to have minimal impact or inconvenience to our members during this time.

As always we appreciate our members understanding.

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2/18/23

Notice:

At the board meeting on 2/18/23 the board voted to increase the membership dues to $175 and increase the family pass and guest pass to $145 per year effective March 1, 2023. This increase is due to the state mandated increases in minimum wage. The board also decided to increase the dues to provide benefits for our employees. We have never offered medical benefits to our employees and would like to start doing so in an effort to be more competitive and maintain our employees. Finally, these additional funds will also be used for the increases in our liability insurance. We appreciate the members' understanding as to why we feel the need to increase the membership dues.

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NEW EXIT GATE

RRPOA IS GOING TO OPEN THEIR NEW EXIT GATE STARTING SEPTEMBER 2, 2022. WE ARE USING THIS GATE TO ALIVEATE SOME OF THE TRAFFIC CONGESTION AT THE FRONT GATE FOR BUSY HOLIDAYS OR BUSY WEEKENDS. PLEASE SEE THE PHOTO BELOW FOR WHERE THE NEW EXIT WILL BE. PLEASE NOTE THAT WHEN THE NEW EXIT IS OPEN THE OLD EXIT WILL BE CLOSED, SO PLEASE EXIT THERE TO AVOID TRAFFIC BACKUPS. IF THE NEW EXIT IS NOT OPEN THEN PLEASE CONTINUE TO USE THE OLD EXIT. THIS HOLIDAY WEEKEND WE PLAN ON HAVING A DEPUTY STATIONED AT THIS EXIT TO HELP WITH THIS PROCESS.

FORESTRY MEETING

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5/12/22

Notice:

Due to the labor shortages that RRPOA is experiencing, similar to other businesses, we are strongly urging that members renew their membership online. This is going to be especially important to do with the upcoming Memorial Day holiday. At this time we will not have to staff to process memberships at the gate expeditiously. If you have to renew your membership at the gate during the Memorial Day holiday please expect to wait in long lines depending on the time of day you do this. Our staff will be limited and will focus on signing in members that have current memberships.

Please note that if you renew your membership online, our remote workers generally work M-T, Th-Sat and generally start after 12:00 noon and work until 8pm. If you do your membership outside those hours then it will have to wait until the next day. That is why we ask that you give 24-48 hours to process the membership. Instructions on how to purchase a membership online can be found by going to RRPOA.net and clicking on “Renew or start a membership” button or you can click on the following link to go directly to that page: https://rrpoa.net/pages/faq. Once memberships are purchased a confirmation email is sent and in that email it states that the membership will not be processed until all the required paperwork is signed. This paperwork is required whether you do the membership online or at the gate. Once the membership is processed another email will be sent from “remotegate@rrpoa.net” stating that the membership is good to go. If you do not receive that email then they are still processing the membership.

Please note that we will also be emailing members who are expired or are going to expire to advise them about their membership so that we can make the process as quick as possible for members to come through the gate. We appreciate your understanding as we try to continue working the gate with limited staff as best as we can. Also if there are any members that are willing to volunteer during the Memorial Day weekend at the gate, they can contact Ms. Sandy.

RRPOA

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The new Check In Shed is up and running. We are proud to say that this shed runs 100% on solar power with a backup generator. This shed will be open as needed on Friday afternoons into the evening, Saturday morning into the afternoon and Sunday morning. It will also be used on holiday weekends to speed up the check in process and actually has a check in window at both sides of the shed to allow for two lines of vehicles to check in. We are asking members to completely drive around the loop to go to the shed so that you do not come at the shed at an angle. We are asking that you have your ID's and/or member card out and ready to give to the employee at the shed to check you in to speed up the process. If you need to purchase anything at the gate, please just park in the field and do not go through the line for the check in shed. This is a drive up shed and members will not need to exit their vehicles to sign in. There may be a few glitches are we are getting used to this new process and we hope for your understanding.

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RRPOA is tentatively going to allow brothers and sisters on the family pass. This is in addition to children and parents that are allowed to come in on the family pass. We are requiring that you upload all the documents such as the birth certificates, marriage licenses, Driver’s license, etc to you online account. If this is not uploaded to the online account prior to the sibling coming out then they will be turned away at the gate. You can also email these documents to onlinestore@rrpoa.net. For the sibling you will need your birth certificate and you siblings birth certificate, marriage license if either of your names have changed and driver’s license for both you and your sibling.

If you are going to take a sibling to RR on the family pass we are asking you to also email onlinestore@rrpoa.net. Our remote employee is going to input all their information into our family pass database upon approval of the documents sent. So when the sibling comes out for the first time if they are in the system the gate knows they are approved and can sign in quicker. If they are not in the family database then the gate will not allow them to come in. The remote employee will send the member an email upon approval of the sibling so they will know all is good. If the member does not receive this email then the sibling is not good to come in.

If this becomes too troublesome for the gate because people do not upload documents in advance then we will not allow siblings on this pass, so please make sure that you upload prior to coming out. Please upload or email these documents at least 48 hours prior to coming to River Ranch. Hopefully this trial goes well for everyone and appreciate your support and understanding.

It is with a heavy heart that we would like to inform our membership that our president Pete Edwards passed away yesterday. Out of respect for his family we have delayed notifying the membership until we had given them a moment to catch their breath and start to deal with their grief. They have just given their blessing to post this notification. Pete Edwards has been involved with this association for over 40 years and loved River Ranch dearly. He was always willing to talk to members and resolve any and all situations to the best of his ability. We are tremendously grieved to make this announcement and at this time are trying to process this as well.

RRPOA Board

Effective immediately RRPOA is changing our policy regarding guests/family that have not been signed out. Previously our policy was to send two warning letters and then suspend guest/family privileges on the third time a members does not sign them out.

Now members who do not sign out their guest/family after one time will have their privileges suspended until they come to a board meeting to resolve their situation.

If members have questions or would like to discuss further they may contact their director or attend the next board meeting.

Sincerely,
RRPOA Board of Directors

RRPOA

River Ranch Property Owner’s Association

During the Board Meeting on October 19th 2019 the Board adopted new rules for the size of trailers allowed through the gate. For the purpose of this regulation “Trailers” shall include, mobile homes, campers and any other shed like structure manufactured or custom built.

Members will be allowed to enter through the gate for purpose of bringing a trailer to their own deeded private property or on River Ranch property with previous board approval as described below.

The trailer must meet two criteria:

1). The trailer cannot exceed 12’ wide measuring the outer width dimension of the vertical wall of the trailer. The 12’ wide is being restricted due to the size of our gate.

AND

2). The trailer cannot exceed 400 Total Square Feet regardless of the length.

The method for calculating the total square feet of the trailer to ensure approval is as shown in the below mathematical equation.

The width of the trailer _________________

Multiplied by the length of the trailer __________________

Equals Total Square Feet = __________________ Square Feet

See Example Below

The width of the trailer 10 Feet

Multiplied by the length of the trailer 40 Feet

Equals Total Square Feet = 400 Square Feet

NOTICE

RRPOA will be implementing a digital sign-in program in August. The tentative date for this implementation will be August 12, 2019. Members, spouses and disabled dependents will no longer sign in using the log books. You will still need to come to front gate but will give your card to employees at the gate and they will sign you in digitally and provide a receipt for the sign in. Please note that this is a work in progress and we will fine tune this as we move forward. Further implementation will include tablets so we can be mobile and sign people in at other locations other than the front gate office.

Please note that children between 16 thru 20 will need to sign in using the books. Also note that guests that have signed in for the weekend and leave with a member to go to town and come back will still need to sign in using the books.

We have moved toward this new sign in program to hopefully make the sign in process a little easier on members and to provide more accurate information for insurance purposes. We respectfully request members' patience while we implement this process. We fully expect minor changes to procedures as we work through this implementation and will keep members updated regarding any changes.

RRPOA

IMPORTANT NOTICE

IF YOU ARE PARKED BY THE TRASH TRAILER, BLOCKING ROADS BY THE FRONT GATE OR PARKED PERMANENTLY IN THE FIELD BY THE FRONT GATE YOU WILL BE TOWED AT YOUR EXPENSE! WE CANNOT HAVE ROADS BLOCKED, THE TRASH TRAILER BLOCKED OR THE FRONT FIELD PERMANENTLY FILLED WITH CARS. WE HAVE A TOW COMPANY IN LINE THAT WILL TOW YOUR VEHICLE. SIGNS WILL BE POSTED IN THE AREAS THAT WILL HAVE VEHICLES TOWED IF YOU ARE PARKED.

Please note that if you need to call 911 our association is identified as the River Ranch Hunt Club in Polk County. The address is as follows:

River Ranch (Hunt Club) Property Owners Association
18550 County Road 630 East
Lake Wales, FL 33898