Sea Pines POA (Property Owners Assn.) last spring tried to increase the annual gate fee for bike rental companies’ vehicles by nearly 500%. We threatened to take them to court and got the local paper to put the story on the front page. We beat them, and ended up paying the same fee for each vehicle that all other venders pay. Now they want to charge us $1.00 for every bike we bring into the plantation. This is reasonable I suppose to help pay for the upkeep of their bike paths, but there is a catch. The bike companies inside the plantation are exempt from this fee. That includes three Marriott timeshare properties, and three bike rental companies, plus some mom and pop operations. It would appear that this is a blatant case of market manipulation and unfair trade practices. On Nov. 4 there will be a meeting with the bike rental companies and the Sea Pines POA leadership. Stay tuned for the fireworks.