A tale of woe...

In another thread the question was asked about "what nursing school?" Carole explained it was Grand Canyon University. Of course that still begs the question, "where is it? For anyone familiar with Lakeview Rec Center and Viewpoint Lake, it is on the lake and just east of the rec center. Or for a better frame of reference, immediately behind the Core Institute on Thunderbird.

Let me start by assuming the blame rather than implying it was others. A little history though first: I was in my first year on the board and Carole was in her second. We were the proverbial "hair in the biscuits" on the board and that was part of the problem.

But before we go down that path, let's recap this remarkable piece of property known as the Lakes Club. It was built and opened in 1972 by the Del E Webb Development Corporation (DEVCO), It was vintage John Meeker, big, luxurious and expensive; so much so the story goes Bob Johnson fired him, but quickly repented. It got off to a rocky start. On the day before it opened a guy doing final touch-ups started a fire and the place went up in smoke, which is when Johnson found the opulent bathroom fixtures and went ape-poop.

It finally opened and during those final years to build-out, 1972-1978 was the location that helped sell Sun City. It housed a bar, fine dining and meeting rooms. It was massive, and now is even larger with some 38,000 square feet of space. Best of all, the entirety of the property is on the Lake. Beautiful frontage with space to do virtually anything one would want.

Sadly, it's the one amenity the DEVCO Corporation didn't deed back to the community. Over the years the Lakes Club became a private Country Club with memberships being sold, much like a golf course would. It's a sad story in that Sun City residents bought lifetime memberships that when it closed got screwed with an offer to drive across town to another like setting.

The property went up for sale in 2001. It eventually sold in 2002 for 2 million dollars. It included not only the Lakes Club but all the property to Thunderbird Ave. I once asked a former board member from the RCSC why they didn't buy it and he said "we didn't have the money."

It's an interesting situation because now the building is owned by one company with the land owned by the Sun Health Foundation. I won't bore you with the details, suffice to say Carole found out the prior nursing school was leaving and the building would be up for sale. Several of us toured it and it left me drooling. This behemoth of a building clearly needed work, but the potential was beyond compare.

It's too long a story to relate, but the end result was we never really moved on it. Several board members were in limbo on why we needed it and it died a quiet death. Almost a year after we had toured it, we found out Grand Canyon was leasing a portion of it for the nursing school.

I was so frustrated and angry I turned in a letter of resignation but was talked out of quitting. I learned a long time ago if you wanted something you aggressively went after it, you didn't wait for it to come to you. I should have been more pushy. It was the kind of topic that belonged in front of the long range planning committee but it never got there. Shame on me.

Now we are several years down the road and here we sit with the board saying we need replace the Lakeview Rec Center. The building is iconic and the biggest problem we have in Sun City is space allocation for clubs. Had we bought the Lakes Club, we would have removed all of the administrative offices from the Lakeview Rec Center. Thus opening up club space there as well as the Lakes Club accommodating any number of other clubs. We could have moved the Visitor Center there and could have used it as a community center, a focal point for every potential buyer coming to Sun City.

It was the best of all worlds.

 

I would not like the Visitor Center to be at Mountain View.
It is more centrally located now.

 

Thanks for your kind words Carole. As you well know the investment and emotional attachment when filling the role as a director increases dramatically when you start caring too much. And I may run again someday but it won't be as a gatekeeper.

There is lots of wasted space at Mountainview and by reconfiguring the pool and fitness room the RCSC could gain needed space for a large and comfortable theater. The bigger question is lawn bowling, mini-golf, tennis and pickleball. When they did Fairway, they met with the clubs and users and worked out agreements that made sense. This should be no different, and should be done in conjunction with a LRPC.

As far as why the "process failed" regarding the Lakes Club, I think I finally get it. It took the new and improved Long Range Plan for me to see the light and get a firm grip. Water over the damn at this point, but it will never sit well with me as we trudge forward.

The Visitor Center wouldn't be moved to Mountainviw, it does need to be centrally located.

 

Do you mean the visitor center in Bell?

 

Yup, that's the one.

 

The people staffing it were very friendly but there wasn't much to look at except flyers. At the time I was thinking that it would be good if this place were part of the museum. I know people can go to the museum too, but the two places would be good paired together. More things to look at to look at and get the idea of what is Sun City. Well, I doubt that it will move but that's just my feedback when I visited my first time in Sun City.

 

What do you mean B, that you might run again but not as a gatekeeper? I don't understand all the positions to know what gatekeeper you mean.

 

Fair enough question C. The board is an interesting exercise in futility. With three new candidates elected every year, the revolving door becomes quite a challenge. I've been trading emails with another former board member trying to understand how we got to the point we are at today. Not that it's bad, just far afield from where either of us saw it going.

Looking back I question what I/we accomplished in those three years. Admittedly, I caused some of the problem by coming in like a bull in a china shop. But the reality is you can't change the culture of an organization by sitting there like one of those bobble head dogs in the back of a car window.

In retrospect, I've analyzed it to the point where I wouldn't go back just to vote on spending 5 million dollars on this golf course and 6 million on the next. The reality is there should have been a dialogue in the LRPC of whether 30 million dollars should be shoveled at a game (golf) that is struggling to stay afloat. There wasn't, and in fact what we got was the long range planning committee kicked to the curb. It makes no sense...none at all.

Sure, I can say I voted against it, but on my watch it was dismantled. I suppose I could have gone for a threatened self-immolation but hell, all that might have happened was some of the other board members would have brought the marshmallows for toasting (that's a joke).

This community was built by a collective process and the more we dismantle it, the further we are removed from our history. The more the concept of self-governance is reduced to 9 board members and directed by staff, the more we fall into an agenda that may not meet the needs of the most.

Let me give you the classic example: Do we need 6 more million dollars spent on the golf courses in Phase 3 or would we be better off with a 6 million dollars Lakes Club/community center? I'm not going to tell you the answer, but I will say this question never reached the long range planning committee before it was dismantled. Does that make any sense at all?

And so we are clear, when golf was first started in 1960, the DEVCO Corporation knew there would be less than 20% of the Sun City population that played the game. Today, as we are dumping millions into the courses, it's still at less than 20%. While a community center would serve a far greater % of the people living here and be the catalyst for homes sales 7 days per week.

The point is, all this happened while I sat in the room and watched it unfold. I wouldn't go back and want to be a party to more of the same. If I ran again I would bring a slate of 3, run on a campaign platform with defined goals and why we felt it was important to move in that direction.

Anyone can sit in the room and play follow the leader. It's never been my style and to do it again would be a fools game on my part.

Hope that helps.

 

Well I hope you decide to do that one day. And BTW, losing the Lakes Club for 2 million and still spending that much on less used amenities sounds like a tragic mistake. I haven't seen the Lakes Club but the size and location is enough to make me hope they can buy it if it comes for sale again. What a missed opportunity.

 

I don't know if it meets the term "tragic," but it is sad that building isn't included in the amenities we have in Sun City. It played an important role in the selling of Sun City and rightfully it should be doing so again. We've had two bites at it; the first time we didn't have the money (2001), the second time (2011) it sure as hell wasn't because we didn't have the money.

Even though you didn't walk to the front of it E, the link you posted has a great picture of the beauty and serenity of the land kissing the lake frontage. In the far corner there's an empty theater type space where doors could have been placed that opened to the water, perfect for meetings and events housing 400-500 people. There's a dozen or more classrooms. The entirety of the administration building could have gone in for one stop shopping. The Visitor Center, a little bistro/coffee shop. Perhaps even a wine and beer license, with a small bar type setting where folks could have sat along the amazing water front and surfed the net or simply enjoyed sunsets with loved ones.

And if you really want to kick it up a notch, I suggested a party boat complete with dock/pier that was available for rental or cruises. But there was more; tear down those old RCSC buildings adjacent to it and add in walking trails, barbeque grills and tables for outdoor enjoyment. Tie the walking trails into Meeker Mountain and measure distances so people could track their millage.

It was a scenario that was almost beyond potential. No question the cost would have been high; 5 or 6 million by end game. But measure that against 20-25 million to redo the Lakeview Rec Center, it being closed and displacing the clubs for god-knows how long and to say nothing about losing an iconic building. It was a no-brainer for me.

It is water over the damn E. But if we don't learn from our mistakes, we are damned to repeat them. I guess what finally pushed my button was when I saw another 6 million dollar plus remodel of a couple of golf courses that are in good shape (Willowcreek and Willowbrook). And then to see the board proposing a $500 hike in PIF, it was more than I could take. I had to eat it while on the board, but now I have the ability to express my frustrations without reservation or fear of reprisal.

And here's the good news, the number of readers/followers is growing steadily on this site. People in Sun City have a right to know. It's been my biggest argument with past boards; the right to know has been held closely by those on the board and with the staff. If we truly believe in self-governance, that has to change.

 

Geez. You guys spent more time talking about one use of a word of hyperbole than I did using it. :glee:

 

And the picture you posted of it is quite beautiful and the description B wrote about it's potential is great so I'm sticking with my hyperbole. Those nursing students barely have time to enjoy the view so it's wasted :dejectionand I can say that since I spent about 10 years in that field of study)

 

Just remember:

Hyperbole is a beautiful thang.

 

Not offended at all Emily. Got to joke about something.