George,
I think you had better watch your tape of the meeting again. We did not come to any agreement about the ranch payment. I did not even talk to you after the meeting and the Alpha Board members who met with you did not and cannot make such an agreement. I don’t know where or how you could say we reached any kind of agreement whatsoever. Saying that I agreed to resume making the land payment is a lie. It makes me wonder what kind of a “brief” you intend to send out later.
I have, however, worked out a deal with those living on the ranch to enter into a lease agreement with Freedom Ranch. In all fairness we cannot expect those who have spent their money to purchase their homes and set them up at the ranch to pay you a lease payment to live in their own homes. These folks were given permission by you and I to move their homes here for the sake of helping us develop the ministry vision we originally shared. They did not come here simply as a place to rent. For you to compare what others might pay to rent a place like they have built with their own money is totally absurd. You do not own the structures simply because you gave them permission to put them or build them here on the ranch.
I am aware that you no longer support the original vision that led you to agree for these folks to come here and live at the ranch. From a recorded message left on her sister’s cell phone, I know your wife thinks that, “Sandi and John have lived off of other people’s money” and that, “They have tried to screw us” and that, “they are nothing a bunch lying deceiving scumbags”. It is clear to me that the hatred expressed to us a year ago last November in our own home has done nothing but intensify with my recent attempt to end our partnership and sell the ranch. It is also clear to me that rather than confront your wife to restore her you have simply taken up her cause and want to get rid of Sandi and I. So I am not surprised that you would want those living at the ranch to make the land payments for you while you try to sell the ranch.
To be “fair” with those living here I am working on agreements with them for the only thing of ours that they are using, the land for their homes and livestock. Copies of these agreements will be on file but essentially they are as follows.
Tom 15 acres @ $100/acre/year $1500.00
Elton 15 acres @ $100/acre/year $1500.00
Grandma 1 acre @ $100/acre/year $100.00
Billy 1 acre@$100/acre/year $100.00
Alpha Ministries 6 acres @ $100/acre/year $600.00
Cow lease for back (based on # of head) $1200.00
The amount per acre is doubled the going rate for pasture lease which is more than fair. In addition, I have agreed to give them 90-120 days to relocate their homes and personal property after closing when the ranch is sold. Should they move off the ranch before it sells, they are not liable for the remainder of their lease. The monthly payment of these leases totals $416/ month. Add to that the current lease payments for the RV park ($300/month) and the ranch will receive a total of $1316.00/month to be taken off the current land payment of $4078.00 leaving us $2762/month to pay the bank. Your half is $1381.00/ month not including taxes or any other such expenses of Freedom Ranch until the property is sold. When you send me your half (or send it to the bank if you don’t trust my bookkeeper) I will pay the payment and continue to do so until the ranch is sold.
I will entertain any reasonable offer on the ranch that allows us to pay off our debt, including the $300,000 to Alpha Ministries, and gives us the money to relocate and continue the ministry. Since you and Dorothy no longer share the original vision and are unwilling to allow those associated with Alpha Ministries to purchase the ranch for its intended purpose, I have no choice but to allow you to try and sell it for as much as you can.
John
I think you had better watch your tape of the meeting again. We did not come to any agreement about the ranch payment. I did not even talk to you after the meeting and the Alpha Board members who met with you did not and cannot make such an agreement. I don’t know where or how you could say we reached any kind of agreement whatsoever. Saying that I agreed to resume making the land payment is a lie. It makes me wonder what kind of a “brief” you intend to send out later.
I have, however, worked out a deal with those living on the ranch to enter into a lease agreement with Freedom Ranch. In all fairness we cannot expect those who have spent their money to purchase their homes and set them up at the ranch to pay you a lease payment to live in their own homes. These folks were given permission by you and I to move their homes here for the sake of helping us develop the ministry vision we originally shared. They did not come here simply as a place to rent. For you to compare what others might pay to rent a place like they have built with their own money is totally absurd. You do not own the structures simply because you gave them permission to put them or build them here on the ranch.
I am aware that you no longer support the original vision that led you to agree for these folks to come here and live at the ranch. From a recorded message left on her sister’s cell phone, I know your wife thinks that, “Sandi and John have lived off of other people’s money” and that, “They have tried to screw us” and that, “they are nothing a bunch lying deceiving scumbags”. It is clear to me that the hatred expressed to us a year ago last November in our own home has done nothing but intensify with my recent attempt to end our partnership and sell the ranch. It is also clear to me that rather than confront your wife to restore her you have simply taken up her cause and want to get rid of Sandi and I. So I am not surprised that you would want those living at the ranch to make the land payments for you while you try to sell the ranch.
To be “fair” with those living here I am working on agreements with them for the only thing of ours that they are using, the land for their homes and livestock. Copies of these agreements will be on file but essentially they are as follows.
Tom 15 acres @ $100/acre/year $1500.00
Elton 15 acres @ $100/acre/year $1500.00
Grandma 1 acre @ $100/acre/year $100.00
Billy 1 acre@$100/acre/year $100.00
Alpha Ministries 6 acres @ $100/acre/year $600.00
Cow lease for back (based on # of head) $1200.00
The amount per acre is doubled the going rate for pasture lease which is more than fair. In addition, I have agreed to give them 90-120 days to relocate their homes and personal property after closing when the ranch is sold. Should they move off the ranch before it sells, they are not liable for the remainder of their lease. The monthly payment of these leases totals $416/ month. Add to that the current lease payments for the RV park ($300/month) and the ranch will receive a total of $1316.00/month to be taken off the current land payment of $4078.00 leaving us $2762/month to pay the bank. Your half is $1381.00/ month not including taxes or any other such expenses of Freedom Ranch until the property is sold. When you send me your half (or send it to the bank if you don’t trust my bookkeeper) I will pay the payment and continue to do so until the ranch is sold.
I will entertain any reasonable offer on the ranch that allows us to pay off our debt, including the $300,000 to Alpha Ministries, and gives us the money to relocate and continue the ministry. Since you and Dorothy no longer share the original vision and are unwilling to allow those associated with Alpha Ministries to purchase the ranch for its intended purpose, I have no choice but to allow you to try and sell it for as much as you can.
John
If John were sincere about being “fair”, he would not be jeopardizing the ministry, and all that live on the ranch, including his own grandchildren, by the selfish egotistical act of forcing the ranch into foreclosure. The reason behind the “agreement chart” of new rent or lease payments will be address at a later date but let’s take a look at what the tenants were paying up until John called a halt to it:
Tom Benbo’s rent to Freedom Ranch was $800.00 per month as agreed to between him and John.
Elton Boney’s rent to Freedom Ranch was $650.00 per month as agreed to between him and John.
RV Park tenants paid $300.00 per month to Freedom Ranch.
John said he was paying $1,000 per month on the ranch house but that's yet to be verified.
John told me Billy Owens had never paid rent. I didn’t want to humiliate him so I never ask if and his mother-in-law, Virginia Chilton, was paying but later it was discovered she had never paid rent. I know Virginia is on a limited income and is already struggling to stretch too little too far. That is the case with many people but tell that to the power company, the phone company or your bank when you can’t make the car payment a see if they let you stop paying and continue to keep the service or the car. Dorothy’s mother is in the same situation - too little money to pay for the care she receives in the assisted living center here in Lake Placid. Dorothy is the oldest of her siblings and the duty falls to her to see that Mom gets that care. We pay the bills on her behalf as anyone that cares about their elders would. It’s John and Sandi’s responsibility to help Virginia when and where she needs it. Had John come to me and ask if we would allow Virginia to live on the property without paying we would have worked something out as long as it did not adversely affected others on the ranch.
Then there is the agreement between Freedom Ranch and Alpha Ministries for $5,000 per month.
By my math, that comes to $8,350.00 per month. Deduct $4079.00 for the land payment
and you’re left with $4,271.00 per month for taxes and other expenses.
Twice John has admitted to George he wants the ranch to go into foreclosure, once when we were in the attorney’s office in Vero. One sure way to accomplish that is to stop making the payment. I ask John if he and John Hales had talked about buying the ranch out of foreclosure and he told me “John had talked about that”, referring to John Hales. Why, you might ask, would John “want the ranch to be foreclosure on?” If John Glenn can’t get the Sweatt’s to buy the ranch for $618,000, then why not try and force them off the property and keep it all to himself?
Addition 04/04/2004: This is John Glenn’s response to the Sunday 2 pm meeting George
called and was held in the main building at Freedom Ranch. When it was pointed out 2
tenants were not and had never paid rent he came up with the above chart. He continues
to collect rent but refuses to pay the bank. He has admitted to George twice he wants
the ranch to go into foreclosure, once when we were in the attorneys office in Vero.
