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Last updated 9-6-25
 

We love the HOA. No benefits, just costs.

Located 1.5 miles west of the Dubuque County Fairgrounds is the  Western Springs subdivision off of Old Highway Rd in Peosta, IA.

Come see how the majority of homeowners in the association treat Jim and Michelle Kolfenbach.

The Issue:

The majority of lot owners believe we should have to pay for private roads we don't live on, have access to or use. 

Purpose of this site:

To gather support for doing the right thing and forcing a vote.

Facts

The association only has two assets(expenses). The private roads Westmont Heights and Brentwood Court.

We are the only lot that doesn't live on or have access to their private roads.

We did know we would be part of an association however never imagined we would have to pay for their private roads that we don't live on or have access to.

The creator of the association, Jerome Simon, said he would have exempted our lot when he was in control of the association had he considered our unique situation. He motioned in year one to exempt us, which is documented.

We have argued our unique situation with the association internally since the first assessment about 20 years ago, to no avail. Which is why we are making this public.

There have been two votes regarding our unique situation over the years, however both resulted in members doing the wrong thing.

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We have contributed/donated/threw away a minimum of $9,940.00 for roads we don't live on or have access to.

Our Well group consists of 6 lots. One lot still hasn't built a house on the lot over the last 20 years. The lot owner has access to the well at anytime however the Well group decided not to charge them. Which is right. But the association thinks we should pay for roads we don't have access to or live on?

We contacted the association on June 1st, in writing, to let them of our intent to take our situation public. Our hope was that they would allow another vote to let newer members have a voice. As of June 29th we have not received a response.

American Flag on Pole

Dishonorable in Dubuque Co

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9-6-25. Thank you to the seven lot owners, living on the private roads, that have signed the petition in favor of doing the right thing. We appreciate it.

We did take down our yard signs today, temporarily. We have been told there will be discussion at the next meeting regarding our unique situation. We will resume our campaign after that if the association continues the tradition of doing the wrong thing. 

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Google Maps

Land Records Link

Dishonorable in Dubuque Co

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Western Springs Property Owners Association
Members

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Comments from the Board

In case you are wondering why its been a 20 year uphill battle to get the association to do the right thing, see below for comments from current or former board members. â€‹

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"As we are ALL users of this road.. it is our duty to provide the necessary resources for creating a pleasant environment." Again we are forgotten about except when it comes to taking our money.

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"Kolfenbach is a a full lot owner, so he should pay like the other lot owners". Even though we are the only lot with no access to your private roads? 

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"We cant be "fair" for the people who live on the edge". So we are referred to as people who live on the edge? As far as we know we are the only lot member not living on or using their private roads. See roster, we are.​

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"You should be blaming Jerome Simon". He is the creator of the covenants/association, for those that don't know, and hasn't been a voting member in over 15 years? Jerome also motioned in 2005 to exempt us? This board member was in attendance at that meeting, according to approve minutes.

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" I didn't even know you were part of the association until a few years ago". 

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More Comments to come

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Dishonorable in Dubuque Co

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Recent Events

Monday 9-1-25. We received another two petitions over the past couple of weeks. We had hoped to receive an additional four. Unfortunately still two lots that voted to exempt us from the association but have not returned the lesser petition of just exempting us from the roads. We did send them a follow up letter two weeks ago letting them know we did need them to sign off on the new petition but nothing returned back as of today. 

Sunday August 3rd. We received 4 petitions returned from others that did not vote in the last petition and are very thankful. Unfortunately of the 5 additional votes we believe we had based on the first petition we only received one returned vote. So no gain as of now so we will have to move forward with our campaign. We had taken down our first campaign sign last week due to the storms but unfortunately it looks like we will have to put it back up along with another for the east bound traffic. Traffic on this site has stalled since we removed the sign but will increase with the east bound traffic. 

Friday July 25th. We received our petition we mailed to ourselves so the association members should have received theirs as well. We decided to put a one week pause on the next phase of our campaign to give members a chance to respond. We will resume Friday Aug 1st, if we haven't received the signatures needed.

On Tuesday July 22 we mailed out 22 petitions to the association members(occupied lots) requesting to be exempted from their private roadway expenses/assessments. All mailings included a SASE along with the petition tailored to their lot for ease. This will be our last effort to get the association to right this wrong on our own. It would have been much easier to call a meeting for a vote, which is what we alluded to on our June 1st letter. If we don't have the 16 votes we are told are required, we will simply continue on with our campaign and drawing attention to the association.

On Sunday July 13 we decided to take a petition to the association members. Though our petition wasn't a success, partially due to us asking to be exempt from the association rather than the roads, we did learn a lot.  See below.

Some folks were caught off guard that we had an issue with the association. As our site states, we have been fighting this for 20 years and will be providing the members with a copy of our initial letter 20 years ago. There were many letters over the years and two votes where the majority chose to do the wrong thing.

Some were upset that we all of a sudden took this issue public. The board was provided with notice on June 1st 2025. We stated our intentions to take this public and gave them 30 days notice, which we honored. We are not sure why they did not inform the members.

This next comment comes from one individual and after that visit we couldn't stomach another.  So we stopped midway thru the list. The comment was- You should be blaming Jerome Simon.  Jerome hasn't controlled the association in 20 years nor is he a current member, but Jerome motioned to exempt us. This comment came from a member who was in attendance at that meeting in 2005. Again, we will be providing the association with a copy of the meeting minutes as we only deal in fact.

One person mentioned that they don't appreciate us mentioning Jim is a veteran at the top of our website. We only wish you could see it from our side. 20 years of injustice. We simply stated a fact to draw more attention to the injustice but we have removed that reference from the main page for now. We have no intention to offend people even though we have been on the receiving end of it for 20 years. As shown from our website we called out no one at this point. Everything on our site is fact and supported with documentation or was said verbally face to face.

More to Come!

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