What's New

MAY 2026 NEWSLETTER

ONLINE VOTING POLL RESULTS

Below are the final numbers from our poll. We would like to thank everyone that participated in this poll.

Results of the online voting Poll

Yes - 922 votes (41.2%)

No - 1315 votes (58.8%)

Participation Breakdown

Total Member SignIn - 2874

Members that participated - 2237

Percentage of participation - 77.8%

Total people through gate - 7945

Note, many members sign in multiple times through the week or month, but only got one ballot.

A breakdown of demographics

Less than 5 years being a member:

548 - Yes (46.2%)

638 - No (53.8%)

More than 5 years being a member:

374 - Yes (35.6%)

677 - No (64.4%)

Member has a Camp

Yes - 465 (34.9%)

No - 867 (65.1%)

Member does not have a Camp

Yes - 465 (50.5%)

No - 448 (49.5%)

Northeast District

Yes - 203 (39.5%)

No - 311 (60.5%)

Northwest District

Yes - 237 (40.3%)

No - 351 (59.7%)

Southeast

Yes - 238 (45.4%)

No - 286 (54.6%)

Southwest

Yes - 242 (39.9%)

No - 365 (60.1%)

SPECIAL HUNT

The Wildlife Committee will have a special hunt on the weekend of May 30th. Mark your calendars for this event!

SUMMER BASH

Come join us for a day of fun and adventure for the kids put together by the Activity Committee, celebrating the summer time with our SUMMER BASH. The Summer Bash starts at 4pm on June 20, 2026 at the front gate pavillion with waterslides, snow cones and hot dogs. Later in the evening we will have a movie and popcorn. We will be showing An American Tail. Hope to see everyone there.

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 buggys, 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.

We have decided to allow members who are renewing their buggy lot to make that payment online at RRPOA.net. This applies only to members renewing their buggy lot. If you would like to purchase a new buggy lot spot then you must do so at the gate.

POLK COUNTY BURN BAN

Polk County has reinstated the Burn Ban effective May 6, 2026 due to the continuing drought conditions. This ban prohibits campfires, bonfires, unpermitted controlled burns, burning of yard and household trash, burning organic debris, igniting fireworks, noncommercial burning of materials other than for religious or ceremonial purposes.

POKER RUN

Mark your calendars for the upcoming Poker Run at River Ranch on June 13th. Sign ups will start at 10:00 am at Sandy Slough. There will be RR vendor sponsors at each of the stops. Prizes will be given for best hands, worst hands and for trash that has been picked up. Hope to see everyone there!

PLAYGROUND

The playground is officially completed with the solar shade and lights. Again, thank you for everyone that participated in the raffle, donated additional money and donated materials. We know that the kids have been playing on the playground and are glad to see them enjoying this.

FLORIDA FOREVER BOMBING RANGE RIDGE PROJECT

CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO FROM 12-20-25 MEETING

We now have our form letter available for members to use and can be found by clicking on this link.

This can also be found on our website at www.rrpoa.net. On the website you will see links for the pdf webform, the word document and an example of how to fill out this letter. This letter is currently setup for one property parcel and one owner. If you have multiple properties you can use the word document and list them all under the Parcel # information and make sure to add up all your acres. We will also have a printed copy of this form available at the front gate, just ask when you come through. We are trying to provide as many options as possible to members, since members have different comfort levels with technology.

Properties of interest in the Bombing Range Ridge project of interest in regards to the Wildlife Corridor are as follows:

303101 303102 303103 303104 303113 303114 303122 303123 303124 303125 303126 303127 303128 313107 313119 313126 313127 313128 313129 313130 313132 313133 313134 313135 313201 313202 313203 313204 313210 313211 313212 313213 313214 313224 323207 323218 323219

If you are unsure of if your property is in this area you can verify by looking at your property information on your deed and looking at the first six numbers or going to www.polkpa.org and searching for your name. To search for your name, type in your last name (space) first name. The search will return Parcel IDs associated with your name in the following example: 30-31-10-000000-011010. Simply look at the first six numbers, in this example 30-31-10 and compare to the list of numbers above to see if your property is in the target area.

Please note that every owner on the property MUST fill out the letter in order for your property to be removed. Example, if you have 3 owners on a piece of property, then all three owners must send out a letter.

Please note these letters MUST be sent via certified mail to the following address:
Florida Department of Environmental Protection
Division of State Lands
Office of Environmental Services
3900 Commonwealth Blvd., MS 140
Tallahassee, FL 32399

Please be sure to include a copy of your deed or current tax bill to prove ownership of said property. More information from the Florida Forever website regarding faqs about removing your property can be found by clicking on their website

KIDS COMMUNITY GARDEN

Some members have asked the board if they could start a community garden in the camping area for kids. The board approved this request and will allow this garden to be setup on a designated piece of RRPOA land that is to the southwest of the playpen. If you are interested in participating in the community garden please contact Jeanette Garcia at (305) 632-1767. She will be organizing this garden for the kids and is open to all members kids. We are still framing out how this will work and looking at fencing, wells, etc that members have decided to donate for this.

We do understand that they are people who like to destroy things just for the sake of destroying things and will adapt as necessary. If there is not a lot of interest either then we may end up scraping this as well. The board thought this was a nice request for the kids to help them learn gardening and have them look at growing food. Again, we do understand that this is a work in progress and will adapt as necessary if there is interest from members.

RR DUMPSTER EXPERIMENT DURING MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND

At the May board meeting it was discussed to try placing a dumpster in the exit gate area on the right hand side. We are trying this as an experiment to try to work out kinks to see what would work best for Thanksgiving weekend. It has been noted that the back ups from people leaving on Thanksgiving weekend is due in large part for people blocking the road stopping to throw out trash. Not everyone needs to throw out trash and we are looking at different areas that would make sense to allow people to completely pull off the main grade to throw away their trash. This is just an experiment and will be a work in progress to see what makes sense when it comes to Thanksgiving weekend. Photos are below showing locations of dumpsters for this weekend. We are also looking for feedback from members on how this would work for convenience sake, etc to see if we can keep traffic moving while allowing others to drop off their trash as needed.

RRPOA DUMP

We have been holding off posting anything for members about the dump because we have not finalized anything or completely worked out details. Unfortunately on a non affiliated facebook page some one put a post and had some misinformation regarding this and we would like to clear things up.

Many months ago it was discussed at the board meeting to look at moving the dump to up front to become a transfer station. The thoughts were that with it being moved up front then there would be better control. We were going to take parking from up front for this and move the archery range. This would be squared up with the fence for the pavilion to the grade road. The archery range would be moved to the kids fish pond and on the property to the west of that, owned by RR. The current dump would be cleaned and would become additional overflow parking for members.

As part of moving this, the hopes were to plan out a drive through so that members that need to drop off trash could do so by getting off the main grade and keeping traffic moving. We are still on the fence about working this part out and do not have any definitive ideas on how this would work yet or if it even would work.

There will also be a ramp that will be built for members to use to make it easier so they could back directly up to the dumpsters to dispose of their debris, kind of like we had back in the day.

Despite false rumors, members will not be charged for using this. It will be free for them with the exception of disposing campers, same as we have had for years. We did discuss charging contractors money for them using this to dispose of their materials. The board felt it was not fair that all members should have to pay for the disposal of a contractors material when they are charging their client money for their services. RR has already spoken to these contractors about doing this and they were in agreement. Again, members WILL NOT be charged for anything other than a camper disposal fee, same as has been for years. Only contractors will be charged for disposing their material as RR members should not have to pay for a business disposing their material and making money. It just isn’t fair to the members and this was what was said many times during the meeting discussions.

Next week, we were going to start on the first phase of this by moving the archery range and would have sent out a notice then. Sorry for any confusion and misunderstanding people may have had about this. This is still a work in progress and we don’t have all the final details worked out.

RIVER ROAD BRIDGE

At the last board meeting it was decided that the club will be installing a small bridge on River Road to help people navigate the trail. We are hoping the bridge will provide passage for members to travel without having to worry about getting stuck in muck or ruts on this trail, while also keeping people from driving through others camps when trying to go around. We expect this to take a few weeks to complete as we are still waiting on materials. The bridge will have guard rails and we expect it to be strong enough for a truck and trailer to cross as we are going to support with metal beams as well.

FENCE REPAIR

The Fence repair went well with group A, group B and group C all working hard. A lot was accomplished and we appreciate all the volunteers that came out. Here are some photos we snagged from Cheri Kidd. Thanks again, RRPOA is grateful for volunteers such as these to help keep RR maintained for the wildlife and nature.

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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