Continuing Phase 3 of the SAC Agenda, “Exploring Alternatives,” the meeting of July 14 concentrated on presentations given by a Member of the community, a member of the Committee, and two Board members. The following is a summary of the presentations and reflects the opinions of the presenters for informational purposes.
Sun City resident and Member in good standing, Tom Trepanier, felt that the plan presented by CCBG and presented in 2021 garnered the support of the community. He also felt that the PAC could be smaller than originally drawn and should include retractable seating. Because he feels that a gymnasium could be used for a variety of sports, he is in favor of building it, and liked the idea of enclosing the pickleball courts.
Dan Haberman, president of the Pickleball Club, broached the question, “What will make people move here,” as he began his presentation. He said that we need to continue to provide the amenities and facilities that the members want, and Pickleball is high on the list. He stated that the Pickleball Club needed 45 courts; they would love more but will settle for 45 at the absolute minimum. He also stipulated that the club would prefer the sites to be at only two locations (20 at Marinette; 25 at Mountain View) due to Round Robins and Tournaments. He felt that after listening to the presentations given, the PAC belongs at Lakeview.
Director/Treasurer of the RCSC BOD, John Fast, gave two presentations, and added that the Guiding Principles for him included Proportionality (facility is proportion to need), Flexibility (needs to be able to be used flexibly), Affordability (both Capital and Operating Expense) and Non-Duplicitiy (should not Duplicate what other centers have). His approach to the cost is to allocate the money to the project based on the expected Member benefit.
His first presentation centered on Lakeview and why/what could be located there. He, like other presenters before him, felt that Lakeview could become the Crown Jewel of Sun City, especially with the addition of adding a café and moving the Visitor Center to that center. He showed an illustration of adding wings to the existing round building. He felt that pickleball did not belong there (due to the noise) but would agree to that sport housed there if a building housed the courts.
His second presentation featured Mountain View. He “jazzed” up the “resort” pool adding with the addition of pergolas and cabanas for shade, more seating, and a spillway waterfall. He also felt that the addition of a sports/lap pool would be beneficial to the area. He felt that a new, possible 14,000 square foot building built on the existing footprint could create a wow factor. And the tennis courts that are currently there should be converted to either dual purpose courts or pickleball courts.
Director/Secretary of the RCSC BOD, Jean Totten, gave a presentation entitled, “This is Not Your Typical SAC Presentation.” She feels that a little caution needs to be observed and would like to see a guarantee on making sure that before anything is built anywhere in Sun City from now on, it will be as up to date as possible when it comes to Technology and Safety/Security. Once those are taken care of, building can begin. She did not state a case for either location but urged all members of the committee (and the community) to think outside the box. She illustrated the issues that the BOD has on its plate this year and pointed out the responsibilities of the Board and included a slide on the responsibilities of the Members.
Discussion followed the presentation. President of the RCSC BOD, Kat Fimmel, mentioned that the $27M is in the PIF to spend in the best way possible with the community benefiting from it.
Vice-President of the RCSC BOD, Karen McAdam, touched briefly on the PIF and the PIF budget that was approved on November 18, 2021 by the then seated BOD. That budget is what Management abides by. That budget illustrated that besides monies allocated to Mountain View, there was (is) a large chunk of money – over 30M – earmarked for the Golf Allocation funds to comply with ADWR (Arizona Water District). The dates are from this year until 2035. The BOD/Management is hoping that the experiment conducted at the North golf course using TIF TUFF, will bring those costs down. This would be the good news.
She went on to state that the Budget & Finance Committee realizes that our coffers look very full from a PIF perspective with 32M presently in the bank and an expected 6-8M added each year. We look adequately resourced. However, we are horribly under-resourced in the area of Capital Expenses that do not qualify for the PIF.
NOTE: Press releases regarding the work of the RCSC Board of Directors Strategic Alternatives Ad Hoc Committee (SAC) are authored by the ad hoc committee and distributed/posted by RCSC media staff.