Hot Springs Village Inside Out Randy Cantrell

 



Ken Unger, Hot Springs Village Property Owners Association Director of Public Services discusses changes at the Compliance Office,  the Balboa gate access (efforts to curb/eliminate tailgaters - news flash, turns out many - perhaps most - of the tailgaters are Village residents), wastewater systems, why water systems across the state will be raising prices, and Arkansas State Act 605.











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Bodie and Steele from Disaster Masters of Arkansas join us today to explain the wide variety of products and solutions that they offer for many household problems. Based in Hot Springs, they regularly serve the Hot Springs Village and surrounding areas. Call them at (501) 441-4087.



Does this house smell funny to you? May be a regular occurrence to Realtors and others, but if you live there every day you may not know you have radon gas, mold, or other issues. Disaster Masters of Arkansas can help diagnose and solve nearly all of your home environment problems. Today we discuss how to eradicate mold, encapsulate basements, and ensure that you breathe fresh clean air inside your home. Check them out online at DisasterMastersAR.com.











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Dennis and I celebrate our 3rd Thanksgiving together as partners in this podcast. We're thankful for so many things and so many people that time won't permit us to properly say, "Thank you!"



Thanks to the Village for existing. Thanks to Cooper Development for creating such a terrific place.



Thanks to Dennis for agreeing to join me in this podcasting endeavor - and for carrying the hosting load for 2023 as Rhonda and I did all that behind-the-scenes work to get here. It's been among the best years of our lives in planning and making the dream come true.



Thanks to our sponsors - KVRE, Re/Max of Hot Springs Village, and Ike Eisenhauer State Farm - for helping us get the word out while keeping the lights on.



Thanks to our audience. Otherwise, we're just two guys with microphones talking to ourselves - something we'd likely be doing anyway, but it sure helps to have a community. Thank you for joining us on our journey.



Thanks to all the guests. There are too many of you to call out personally, but your willingness to share your stories, insights, and knowledge with us and our audience has made the show!



I'm thankful that modern technology and this permission-free way of life exist in my lifetime. Dennis and I didn't have to ask anybody for permission to start this show. Technology afforded us the opportunity to just start. I recently hired a couple of young college guys to do some work at my house. Hayden Castleberry is a young man, who with a college buddy, does all kinds of handyman, odd-job work around the Village. I bring him up because I appreciate his hustle in a world where a couple of young men can do what they're doing thanks to social media and the Internet. Like us, they can just start. And I'm thankful they did - and that we did. If you've got work you'd like Hayden to quote, call him today at (318) 366-5592.



Lord willing, we've got big plans and improvements in store for Hot Springs Village Inside Out. I'm proud to have made Hot Springs Village our new hometown! Here's a link to the Andy Griffith episode I referred to in today's show.



From me and Dennis...have a safe, happy Thanksgiving!











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The Hollis Country Store is a historic general store on Arkansas Highway 7 in rural Perry County, Arkansas.  It is located on the west side of AR 7 in the Ouachita National Forest, a short way north of the South Fourche LaFave River Bridge.  In addition to the store, the property includes a picnic shelter and two tourist cabins.  The core of the store is a stone structure built in 1931–32, with most of the other parts added in the 1950s.  



The Hollis Country Store is an excellent example of vernacular roadside architecture from the period. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. Originally built by Mike Gross and William (Bill) Furr, the store was purchased in 1940 by Dennis and Lillie Crain. Members of the Crain family have operated the store since 1940. The current owners are Donnie and Melissa Crain, the 4th generation of owners from the Crain family.



The Hollis Country Store is a popular destination for Arkansas Scenic Highway 7 travelers for its nostalgia, old-time candy and sodas, and bologna sandwiches.



Dennis







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Many people who watch or listen to our podcast are seriously considering their options when making their next move. It’s not an easy thing. For starters, we’re working to figure things out that we’ve never figured out before. This major decision comes when it may be hard to make a change, even if it is a big improvement. There are also those unknowns. Experts have long warned us not to outlive our money. Well, that sounds wise, but we don’t know how long we’ll live and we have less of an idea how long our money might last. We’re likely prone to over or under-estimate these things depending on how optimistic or pessimistic we are.





My dad started collecting Social Security when he turned 70. He turned 100 this year and I remarked, "You realize you've been collecting Social Security for 30 years?" Who could have predicted such a thing? I'm thankful and so is he, but when he started collecting he had no way of knowing he'd celebrate a full century on the planet.



Retirement is a big topic for folks our age. When Dennis and I began this online show, Hot Springs Village Inside Out, the first folks we began to hear from were people looking for a place to retire. Mostly, people were looking for a nice, temperate climate, secure, cost-effective place. Enter Hot Springs Village. I made it clear from the get go that I was in love with the Village. It was the driver behind starting our podcast and online video show. I wanted to shine a bright positive light on this place I now loved. I had no desire to join in the handful of ninnies who enjoyed the social media notoriety of complaining, whining and throwing others under the bus. I had already discovered, long before I started our show, that these folks were a super minority. In fact, they were so rare I had never met any of them in person. I still haven't and don't plan to.



Dennis and I started getting feedback from our audience. Never reluctant to share our opinions of the good and the not-so-good aspects of the Village, we aimed to give people our insights so they could decide for themselves. Mostly, we encouraged - and still encourage - people to visit and figure it out for themselves. It's a professional habit I have, helping people figure it out - not by telling people what to do, but by helping them figure out what they want to do! Dennis and I have stayed true to that part of our program and in our interactions with people who contact us.



Retirement has many different looks. For us, it means we're at that magical age where we can collect Social Security that we've paid in all our working lives. It doesn't mean not working though. Our work looks different than it did when we were 40 or 50, but we're still focused on providing enough value to others that it's worth being paid something. It has nothing to do with needing to fund some lavish lifestyle, but it has more to do with what we want to do with our time. And who we want to serve. I've got clients and audiences (I have 3 podcasts) who matter a lot to me. I want to provide increasingly more value, not less. And as a capitalist, I'm not opposed to earning a few dollars - certificates of appreciation - along the way. Almost everybody I know who is retired or approaching retirement is very interested in earning supplemental income. That's likely a sign of our times!



Years in business have made me a bit of a spreadsheet junkie. Sometimes.



I'm hardly a Microsoft Excel expert, but in the early days of computers (yes, Virginia, I'm that old), I learned there were 2 pieces of software that would change my decision-making abilities for the better. Spreadsheets and Databases.



Nobody I knew had heard the term "analytics" but we quickly learned from the big shot, smarty pants who were paving the way. We were all used to analyzing numbers using handwritten accounting ledgers and calculators that had paper tape so...

 



The Hot Springs Village Property Owners Association and the Hot Springs Village Town Home Association are joining forces to improve the level of service provided to townhouse owners inside Hot Springs Village. The Hot Springs Village Town Home Association (THA) includes almost 11% of the homes inside the Village yet many members likely have no idea of its existence.



Jeff Meeks, Assignment Editor for the HSV Voice, and Todd Noles, HSV POA Registered Forester and Common Properties Director join us today to discuss the upcoming changes in the HSV POA and HSV THA relationship.  HSV THA members pay assessments to the HSV POA and HSV THA fees, including lawn care, trash pickup, tree trimming, and more. In recent weeks there have been major changes in how the POA and THA work together. Jeff Meeks provides historical details. Todd Noles shares insights on what to expect in the coming months.











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