June Board Meeting...

The challenge we all face in Sun City is how we move forward. The past 12 years has been so golf-focused we have fallen behind in too many areas to even begin counting. We absolutely have to upgrade every aspect of out IT. Without that we fall even further behind. The Grand Ave project is a work in progress and while they claim 7 or 8 million dollars will get it done; we'll see. The Mountainview project, another 10 million dollars plus has been temporarily put on hold. Three more golf out buildings are in the budget for another 4 to 5 million dollars. Folks are excited about rebuilding Lakeview, but they have no plan for where administration and all the clubs there would be displaced for the two years its down. And that says nothing about the 15 to 20 million dollars to get that done.

In the meantime, the softball players need a new clubhouse, the dog owners want a second park and clubs are crying for more space. That's what happens when you have no plan and just fly by the seat of your pants. While it sounds good to buy a second dog park, any raw land in Sun City is way too expensive to try and buy and renovate. The original location for the second park is already owned by the RCSC (behind the softball field), but the cost for remaking it into a dog park would be best done with the already over-stretched PIF.

The dog club has done an admirable job in policing Duffeeland. It isn't/wasn't their job but they said they would do their best, so kudos to them for stepping up. If you look at other age restricted communities, dog parks are a given and paid for out of rec fees (in our case, lot assessments). The comments made at the meeting the other day fit into what we are seeing around the country. Seniors love their pets, especially their dogs. My guess is way more people that own dogs don't use the park than do. Lots of reasons, but without asking, we'll never know.

The point to all of this is we have lost our way. From those early years when the communities opinions mattered, we have simply allowed the management and the board to tell us what we need/want. While i sound critical, it's because i am. I was on the board while we did some of it. Even having voted against much of it, it was done on my watch. No question, we are are a remarkable place to live, but my goodness, we could/should be so much better.

 

In my perfect Sun City world clubs would work together to try and meet most of everyone’s needs. Since this hasn’t been even close to the reality in the first 59 years I have my doubts it will ever happen but I try to remain positive.
These are my lego’s and I intend to grow from the current 10 members to 1000 very soon so I need all of them, you can’t have any to build a small shed in the parking lot to store your stuff.....
Can you imagine even asking the MAC Club to downsize or merge back into the Computer Club? Then walk a few doors down to the piano club and try to imagine if there is even enough oxygen available in the room when five members show up at the same time! Add 6 - 8 pianos and you don’t even need a warning claustrophobic’s need not apply for membership.

 

It's called space allocation and in Sun City West, they have a committee to study it. In Sun City the board just relinquished any input into the matter and said it's up to management to figure out. Perfect.

Space was always going to be our biggest challenge. The Lakes club with its 36,000 or 38,000 square feet was always the solution that made the most sense to me. It's a land lease with the ground owned by the Sun Health Foundation and the building owned by someone else. The building was potentially for sale while Carole and i were on the board. We looked at it, but it was simply an exercise to placate us. Golf was the agenda item and nothing was going to get in its way. Too bad, because had we been able to buy it and push one golf course remodel back (Willowbrook/Willowcreek), most of our problems would have gone away.

Sadly, we couldn't even have the discussion to buy it in an open public forum. Those closed door work sessions were so detrimental to finding workable solutions. They did allow those with an agenda to get what they wanted done.

 

Bill, while agree with almost everything you mentioned I disagree that buying properties are out of the reach of certain large and well funded clubs. As a community we have seeded a hospital, museum, church expansions and many others so maybe I'm in the clouds but I don't think buying an existing eyesore in the community should just be tossed aside before careful consideration. There are a lot of disgraced pet food companies right now that may be "touched" for contributions and sponsorships so it may not all fall on the community. As they say Go Big or Go Home and I think in this case the pet owners should Go Big!

As for the space near the Sun Bowl, I can imagine that as a future garden club, rose club or hey, future cannabis growing club. While a Senior being hit from a wayward softball may result in a trip to the hospital and the resulting bill I can't imagine what would happen if someones fur baby was hit by a softball....lawsuit, class action law suit.... Just my opinion of course but remember I lived in lawsuit prone California for many years.

 

Unfortunately you suffer from the same malady i do 3Gscaz; nostalgia. If you know how it was, it's often what we want it to be. If only.

In the late 60's, 85% of those living in Sun City contributed something to build Boswell hospital. Didn't matter if it was a dollar or ten, people tried to do their part. But hell, they used to have 25 candidates for open board position and the majority of folks voted in those elections. Sadly, times change. Doesn't mean we can't make the effort to go back there, it just means it would take a concentrated effort well beyond what most are willing to give.

The bigger challenge is in how people view the RCSC. Rec fees in the days were $40 a year. Board members worked way more and actually ran the community. Their investment in it was a stimulus to the population at large. Now we have management running the show and lot assessments are ten fold plus that.

Consider this as well: When a club buys anything, it instantly becomes the property of the RCSC. Should the dog club or dog lovers in general raise the half a million dollars (wag) needed to buy the property, once they turn it over to the RCSC to manage, they take ownership. Ouch.

If you are serious about the area across from the Marinette Center being converted to a dog park, the first step is to see if it is even for sale. If so, how much? What we know is these old strip centers are being converted to medical complex and they are willing to pay up to own them. There must be terrific tax incentives for them to sit empty the way they do, because it's as if the owners don't care if they sit there forever.

 

9885 W Union Hills Dr
Sun City, Arizona
Call for Pricing • HIGHLY VISIBLE HARD CORNER LOCATION • FULLY SIGNALIZED INTERSECTION • LOCATED DIRECTLY ACROSS FROM THE MARINETTE RECREATION...
Status: For Sale
Price: Price Upon Request
Property Type: Retail
Sub-Type: Freestanding
Building Size: 8,980 SF
Building Class B
Lot Size: 40,075 SF

A tight squeeze for two sided dog park.

 

The Union Hills property lot size is 52,953 SF. Most if not all of the current 8000 SF building would be demolished. What I like about this one in no residential neighbors and utilities are already built out. And yes, I understand that just like fundraising for a hospital ownership would be turned over but the buyers would drive the overall design and functionality not to mention the timeline so the buildout doesn’t go along at less than a snails pace. This is also twice the size of the mortuary property at 107th and Peoria which has residential neighbors. Parking may be tight but I think the proximity to the Rec Center would negate most of that issue. Overall Union Hills just keeps looking better and better.

 

I believe the topic of this thread is June Board Meeting.
Can we get back to the topic and move all dog park chatter to a thread dedicated to Dog Park.

Going off topic seems to occur often here and care should be taken to stay on topic.

Just my opinion.

 

Sorry, I'm new here! Where do I find the dog park thread?

 

3genscaz - once you are logged in, in the top right corner is an item "Post new thread"
Click on that and create a topic