{"id":11074,"date":"2026-05-01T10:00:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T10:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/?p=11074"},"modified":"2026-05-01T20:16:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T20:16:54","slug":"may-2026-newsletter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/?p=11074","title":{"rendered":"May 2026 Newsletter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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\u201cEverybody Wants to Stay Here\u201d<\/h1>\n

A Visit with Mike Hacker<\/h2>\n

By Dale Dauten<\/h4>\n

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\u201cHow you do anything is how you do everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0Harv Eker<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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We recently had the chance to sit down with Mike Hacker, the head of the maintenance teams for sister parks, The Resort and Silveridge. When we asked Mike how things were going at the parks, he smiled and said, \u201cThe residents are great.\u201d And that\u2019s how Mike judges his work \u2013 how residents are feeling. This echoed what he\u2019d told us the last time we sat down with him, as this is how he assesses his team\u2019s work:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to take care of the residents, and we want the property to look so good that everybody wants to stay here.\u201d<\/p>\n

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That attitude creates a dynamic where the crews and the residents care about one another. Mike told us this, \u201cThe residents do such nice things for us. They\u2019ll get everybody lunch, or then I’ll go to the shop, and they’ll have dropped off water or Gatorade, or somebody will drop off cookies or bring doughnuts. Everyone is just so nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Still, as anyone who\u2019s taken care of any property knows, problems inevitably crop up. Despite that, Mike tells us that their number of urgent issues has gone down: \u201cWe’re just getting so much better \u2013 when we get a problem like a water main leak, we fix it and improve it — and we fixed them all. It\u2019s the same with the cable and internet \u2013 Jesse and his team at Freedom are great. I used to hear complaints about cable, but they keep upgrading and now I never hear about problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So, does that mean that there were no maintenance crises over the most recent season? Mike replied, \u201cNothing crazy. But there was something sad: one of our crew members, Chon, passed away. He was older, but it wasn\u2019t like he had any problems that we knew of. Then one day he told me he had to go to the doctor. That was on a Wednesday, and he passed on Friday. That was the low point of the season. But for the parks themselves, everything was smooth.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

One specific maintenance challenge has always been the softball field at The Resort. So much so that the head of the parks\u2019 management company, George Igualt, went to what he calls \u201cDirt School,\u201d put on by the company that supplies professional sports teams, to try to improve conditions at the park\u2019s ballfield. That caused us to ask Mike for an update on this past season. \u201cThe grass looked really good,\u201d Mike told us, adding, \u201cit looked a lot better this year than it did last year because last year was so hot for so long that we almost didn’t put the grass seed down in time. But since it was cooler this year, we were able to put it in two weeks earlier, so it had plenty of time to grow. There are always some problems, and they have a wish list for during the summer, but it looked good.\u201d<\/p>\n

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(Speaking of wish lists, the off-season is when the parks\u2019 ownership\/management team schedules the biggest maintenance items and undertakes upgrades. We\u2019ll get a report on those plans later this summer, when we sit down for our annual visit with George Igualt.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

While meeting with Mike, we asked about his mother, who became one of the park residents a while back. Mike offered to introduce us and so we gladly the opportunity to meet with her and her dog, CeeCee.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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Mike\u2019s mother, Janet Paul, moved into The Resort three years ago, after her husband, Mike\u2019s stepdad, died and Janet sold their house in Ontario, California. We asked how things are working out and she replied, \u201cThere’s so much to do here. Everybody in the park says, \u2018if you’re bored, it’s your own fault.\u2019\u201d Indeed, for Janet, there is no off-season. She\u2019s a year-round resident and says, \u201cYou have what we call your winter friends and your summer friends. I play pickleball a lot, so I’m more with that group in the season. But then in the winter we get back into our line dancing and our potlucks and our crafts. We stay busy.\u201d<\/p>\n

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We asked Janet about Mike\u2019s growing up, wondering if she had stories we might pass along. She recalled that he was an athlete in school, how he was on the varsity baseball every year, that he broke his collarbone while on the track team, and that \u201che tried wrestling but didn’t like the little outfit they wore.\u201d She also went on to recall that \u201cThe pastor’s name at the church was Hacker — no relation \u2013 but people thought Michael was his grandson, so he probably got away with some stuff.\u201d Then again, she tells us that Mike has always the sort who couldn\u2019t tell a lie, so no memorable misadventures.<\/p>\n

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As for having his mother living where he works, Mike, an only child, says that he doesn\u2019t \u201chave to worry about her as much\u201d now that he \u201csees her most every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Janet also showed us some of the handmade joke-gifts that Mike had given her since moving in: There\u2019s what might appear to be a pickleball racket, although it is actually a toilet seat lid, and there\u2019s the Pool Survival Kit where the \u201csuntan lotion\u201d turns out to be a can of Crisco.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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These days, Janet has become so immersed in the social life at the park that Mike explained that his biggest problem now is finding her: \u201cShe always tells me that, oh, I’m gonna go play pickleball or I’m going line dancing. Then I have to cruise around the park to find her golf cart. I’m like, OK, my mom’s around here somewhere. Then I hear that she’s on H Street. Okay, I go over there and ask, Where’s my mom? She’s on J Street. Where the heck is my mom?\u201d<\/p>\n

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Here\u2019s a look back at the biographical article about Mike<\/h3>\n

From August, 2020<\/h3>\n

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The People of the Park:<\/h2>\n

Meet Mike Hacker<\/h2>\n

By Dale Dauten<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cMike is a quiet, soft-spoken guy, but I soon realized that he knows a lot.<\/p>\n

Every time I talk to him, I learn something new \u2013 and it\u2019s all positive.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s just what we need, a great fit.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That\u2019s head of the parks\u2019 management team, George Igualt, talking about Mike Hacker, who George recently named as the new Maintenance Manager. We managed to get Mike to talk about himself and we\u2019re glad we did \u2013 he\u2019s had quite a life \u2013 and he even came through with some great photos from the 1980s that will make you smile.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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Although he was born in Southern California and spent his early years there, Mike moved with his father to Southern Illinois at age 13, and went to Carterville High, where he blossomed into a three-sport athlete: football, baseball and wrestling.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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While he was the halfback on the Carterville Lions football team that won their conference his senior year, it was baseball that won him over \u2013 he made the varsity even as a freshman, played centerfield all four years and kept at it, playing in baseball and softball leagues into his forties.<\/p>\n

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His high school sweetheart back then \u2013 this was the 1980s — was a girl with the interesting name of Manissa. Remember that name \u2013 we\u2019re going to encounter her again.<\/p>\n

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Meanwhile, Mike finished high school and gave ITT tech school a try, but at age 21 joined the Army, serving for nearly a decade. His specialty ended up being Stinger missiles, the surface-to-air missiles that can be shot by troops or mounted on vehicles. Mike served in the Gulf War in Iraq and spent time on the DMZ in South Korea, but his favorite assignment was as in Instructor for NATO, stationed in Germany. For three years he taught classes to soldiers from around NATO, certifying them in the use of the Stinger.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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(For Mike, the highpoint of the NATO training was working with a simulator. Trainees would see a pinpoint appear on a screen, along with sound effects to match, and there came incoming planes, any one of 35 aircraft. The trainee had to decide which was friend and which foe, and then \u201cshoot\u201d with a laser beam and watch the plane blow up on the screen. Among Mike\u2019s trainees were regulars like the British Special Forces, along with the occasional dignitary, like the time the Prime Minister of Ukraine, contemplating a purchase of Stingers, stopped in to check out Mike\u2019s operation.)<\/p>\n

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After Germany, the Army wanted Mike to \u201cgo ride on tanks\u201d and that\u2019s when he decided it was time to try civilian life. He had a sweet assignment lined up, working for a military contractor in El Paso, but abrupt changes in the company\u2019s fortunes put an end to that plan and instead he went to school to become a truck driver. He drove semis for four years but, as Mike explained, \u201cby then I was married and had babies and my wife said, \u2018You need to come home.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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Mike\u2019s uncle, who lived in Phoenix, offered him a job, doing maintenance work for apartment complexes, but insisted he need to start on the upcoming Monday. So Mike and the family made an instant move to the Valley and settled in Phoenix. It turned out that Mike had a knack for the job \u2013 he was nominated five times for Maintenance Supervisor of the Year by the Arizona Multifamily Association.<\/p>\n

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Despite devoting himself to his job, he ended up starting a business of his own, cleaning offices at night. While Mike eventually moved to Mesa and ended up getting divorced, his business has been a constant for ten years now. Even with his fulltime job at The Resort and Silveridge, he still spends three evenings a week and Sundays on his cleaning company. He says of holding two jobs, \u201cI start at five in the mornings at the parks, and I\u2019m done in the early afternoon. Then I go into the cleaning business in the evening.\u201d Mike shrugged, smiled and said simply, \u201cI work a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And now, as promised, we can get back to that high school sweetheart, Manissa\u2026<\/p>\n

She recently found Mike on social media and the two renewed their friendship. I\u2019d asked Mike if he had any photos from his football days or time in the military, and no, he didn\u2019t, but he said his old girlfriend had sent photos from high school. He passed along one of him and a classic one from the school prom:<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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(Thank you, Manissa.<\/p>\n

Naturally, we couldn\u2019t resist asking Mike if there\u2019s a rekindled romance going? And he said there is. How does a guy with two jobs have time for romance? She lives in Chicago but has been to visit.)<\/p>\n

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These days, you\u2019re likely to encounter Mike in his golf cart, zipping from one project to the next.\u00a0He described his goal for the parks\u2019 Maintenance team: \u201c<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to take care of the residents, and we want the property to look so good that everybody wants to stay here.\u201d<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cEverybody Wants to Stay Here\u201d A Visit with Mike Hacker By Dale Dauten \u201cHow you do anything is how you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[24],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11074"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11074"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11075,"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11074\/revisions\/11075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}