The Windermere Oaks Water Supply Corporation (WOWSC) alerted members to the “Safely Secured” pumping barge after the recent July 4-6 flooding event. We should again thank our former manager George Burriss for this feat of engineering for our neighborhood.
As a matter of WOWSC history, in October 2018 raging floodwaters broke the pumping barge off its mooring and carried it downstream. Then WOWSC President David Bertino worked hard with George to recover the barge and bring it back to Windermere, where they began a restoration project.
Part of the project involved improving the mooring lines that secures the barge to the shore. George used encased anchors used in the oil industry such that the barge would have an industrial grade answer to future tests of mother nature.
The first of mother natures’ tests to another example of George’s superb engineering occurred in February 2021, when winter storm Uri wreaked havoc on most of Texas. George had worked with WOWSC Boards in 2017-2019 to investigate and put aside the funding for the propane generator that was eventually purchased and installed in 2020.
Then, when the winter storm shut down electricity in most parts of Texas, Windermere Oaks was one of the only communities to have running water throughout the storm. The generator enabled the pumps and other processes to continue working despite widespread energy outages everywhere else, including in Windermere Oaks. Because other water systems did not have generators, neighbors in nearby communities reported they had melted snow in their bathtubs to use as their water supply. Not so in Windermere Oaks.
Now WOWSC has endured — successfully — another test of mother nature. And George’s skill and knowledge again pulled through for us. Thank you George!
Sadly, George was forced to leave Windermere Oaks in January 2024 due to the harassment of Board members Jeff Walker and Rene Ffrench, and a group of misguided members. At least that was my contention in a previous post, here.
Recently, Walker sent me an email refuting that notion, basically saying that George refused to supply an updated statement of work to Rene and Walker, and that (some) members were “calling for his head.”
However, at the time Walker mentions, in the fall of 2023, there were five board members (Schaefer, Taylor, and Anderson). Walker indicates that only he and Ffrench asked George for the statement of work. The other Board members did not.
Thus Walker and Ffrench were acting in a rogue manner outside their authority, harassing George.
Now if the matter of asking George for an updated statement of work did occur as a full board matter, meaning that it was noticed, discussed and voted on at a Board meeting, a person would be hard pressed to find record of such lawful proceeding.
Ffrench, despite being Secretary-Treasurer at the time, did not compose or submit minutes to the Board. Go to the current website and check. The consideration of minutes was not even on the agendas in late 2023 because there were none to consider.
Even now, July 11, 2025, the few minutes that are there are “Drafts” of special meetings that Walker and Ffrench held for themselves and a few members at Townhalls, with no legal validity. The Boards in 2023 and 2024 were incredibly inefficient at producing minutes, leaving it instead to video records of meetings. That is not a valid way to conduct transparent governance for a public matter (water and waste water mangement). It is good that the current Board seems more intent on producing minutes.
The point simply is that when Walker and Ffrench took over the Board by force in 2023, they bullied their way into de facto control, forcing George out by harassment and then producing nothing in the way of transparency for members to see that they had forced him out, unilaterally, without the consent of other Board members.
George’s departure from our community is a low-point in the history of Windermere Oaks. For those who don’t know about George, consider the resolution of the 2019 Board congratulating him for all his achievements to that point, below. The current Board should make another resolution to the same effect, recognizing the additional Uri and July 4 Flood feats.
For reference of the time when WOWSC had a functioning board, with minutes, and a president’s report, and the benefit of the engineering and management expertise of George Burriss, please review the 2022 President’s report here.
WOWSC Member Alert July 5
Walker Rebuttal
2019 Resolution Honoring George Burriss
