Sheriff, county attorney address concerns about Tanglewood Lakes reinstalling gates
- Charlene Sims, Journal staff
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
By Charlene Sims, Journal staff
MOUND CITY – While Linn County Sheriff James Akes said he recommended a “soft” reinstallation of the electronic gates at Tanglewood Lakes development to avoid trouble, County Attorney Justin Meeks warned that anyone who tampered with the gates there would be prosecuted.
Both Akes and Meeks met with the Linn County Commission on Monday, March 30, about the situation at Tanglewood Lakes, which changed following the meeting on March 23.
At its March 23 meeting Commissioners Jason Hightower and Jim Johnson signed an agreement with the Tanglewood Lakes Owners Association (TLOA) to absolve the county of any responsibility for the lake development and a quitclaim deed for the roads.
That brought swift negative reaction on social media, particularly from residents who in the past had their electronic cards cancelled because of any number of infractions including nonpayment of dues or allowing another person with a cancelled gate card to enter on their card.
At the March 30 meeting, Akes said that he got a call from the board president of Tanglewood, Chuck Stevens, following the commission’s action. Akes said that Stevens had seen on Facebook where some individuals had threatened to tear down the gates, once the gates are up. Akes said Stevens asked for some advice.
Akes continued, “You know, the best I could tell him was a soft approach to the gates. I advised him, send out letters, let them know that the gates are going back up. Send out their cards to swipe into the gates, make sure that they work.
“I asked him what his plans were as far as how soon was he going to put the gates up? And he says, ‘Well, in two weeks.’ And I just told him my personal opinion I thought two weeks was too soon. I thought that you’d have a softer landing if you sent out a letter, let the people know that the gates are going back up and this is the procedure.
“And then I also told him that a great start time might be four weeks. You send the letter out now and then in two weeks you send the letter out again and let them know that time. That way you have the time to get the cards in people’s hands and make sure that they work and that kind of procedure.
“We went into a little bit more detail of when the gates do go up. You make them active on a Saturday. The board members could stand next to the gates to make sure that nobody has any malfunctions with their cards. Get it addressed and make sure that everything is just a smooth, seamless transaction there. And hopefully, he takes our advice. I did tell him that if he had any issues we could go up there and assist and make sure that everything was seamless.
“So, that’s where we are at with that. As far as the threats that he perceived as threats on Facebook, I mean it was more of a freedom of speech type thing. This is what we’re doing. Right now, we don’t see any perceived threat right away.”
Meeks added that his office had also received some phone calls too and they were not perceived as threats but obviously he felt like he has a good working relationship with the sheriff’s department and the undersheriff.
Meeks continued, “I think we have a game plan if someone decides to make a silly mistake and commit a crime, we’re gonna to charge it and we’ll prosecute it.”
Akes said, “Absolutely, so if somebody decides to take it into their hands or we end up with an incident like we did last time, It’s completely different and they’re not restricting them to and from their property. They simply have to swipe the card. They’re not restricting them or their access or removal of their property. So there should be no issues for them to enter or exit the property.
“So, if they do touch the gates it is going to be criminal damage and they’ve got very good cameras. They’ve got a very good camera system set up at the gates and we’re going to have access to that. We are trying for a seamless transition into this.”
“We don’t want to prosecute anybody, but we will, Meeks told the commissioners. “And the sheriff will make arrests and give them to the PC if something happens.”
“The cameras are good enough to catch whatever mischievous behavior there is,” said Akes.
“We don’t want that behavior though,” said Meeks.
“With the letters going out, explaining everything and when this process is going in to effect, nobody should have an excuse that I didn’t know,” said Akes.