Oakmont Pool Changes Town Hall Q&A Session - Oakmont Auditorium
Chris Herring conducted the meeting. There were approximately 25 members in attendance plus several staff. He introduced Mike Gerring of Pure Vision Technologies, a company located in Mesa that’s been in existence about 11 years.
The discussion centered on the advantages of using AquaGen “Incorporates An Ultra- Fine Bubble Generator, A Version Of Which Has Been Shown To Generate Over 100 Million Ultra- Fine Bubbles Per Milliliter Of Water. By Atomizing Pure Oxygen, And Not Breaking The
Surface Tension Of A Water Molecule, Injecting Them Into The Water Increases The Dissolved Oxygen Content In The Water. The Extra Oxygen Present In The Water Provides A Residual Of Natural And Mild Oxidizer That Works Alongside Your Primary Sanitizer Of Choice” versus the present system.Our present system:
- Salt Cell Generation has a life expectancy of approximately 18 months;
- Cartridge Filters are labor-intensive to clean;
- The Ultra Violet system has increased equipment maintenance and reduced part availability;
- Changing from a cartridge filtering system with deep bed sand filters.
In order to convert what we now have:
- Replace the Salt Generation system with Aqua Gen, an ultra-hyper dissolved oxygen system;
- Replace the current chemical controller with a new controller;
- Complete all necessary re-piping
- Install a backwash holding tank.
Down Time for both pool and spa would
be 7 – 10 days.
The Aqua Fitness group does take breaks throughout the calendar year that they could take advantage of BUT Water Volleyball would have nowhere else to go during the installation.
The advantages of changing systems:
- water clarity;
- soft water feel;
- reduced chemical usage by 50%;
- faster breakdown of oils and lotions;
- lower total dissolved solids level;
- increased performance of UV systems;
- increased bather comfort for sensitive users;
- increased benefits of Ozone systems;
- and healthier water when backwashing to the sewer system.
My questions included:
Was the project prompted by the Board
and what drove the need to change (no, operational and cost factors);
Did this project go through an RFP and
if so, how many bids were received? No, it did not go through RFP. This company
is on the preferred vendor list so they don’t need to use RFP. And I believe
they already have contracts with RCSC presently.
When did he expect to present this to
the Board? Chris said it had to go through the Board Bid Commission first and
that will be within the week.
If this was successful, were they considered for the other pools? Yes.
The projected cost for this project is approximately $200,000.
Chris was pleased with the number of questions/comments from the small group.
Many spoke in favor of it; no one spoke
in opposition.
I thanked Chris for holding the Town Meeting before the change was going to take place. We members appreciate getting the facts before the project starts.
Jean Totten, Advisory Panel, Sun City Advocates
5 comments:
This will be interesting to follow. My first reaction was it was all about saving money. Given your comments Jean there may well be more to it. I know when we put in a pool three years back we had three choices, the salt system appeared to be our best option given what we wanted from it. I had heard how much members loved Oakmont compared to the other pools in Sun City so i would have expected more opposition. The biggest issue is regarding the users, if they are happy, that is what matters.
I am new to Sun City and am trying to learn how this place works. My comment is not really in regard to Oakmont specifically - I haven't been there yet and don't know anything about their pool. My question has more to do with the process. I don't understand why this project (and others, I've heard) do not have to go through an RFP process. Because a vendor is on some approved list, they can be awarded Sole Source? I get it if it's for a small dollar amount, but $200K is a pretty good chunk of change, and it sounds like this could possibly lead to similar projects being done at other pools. It seems like it would be in our best interest to obtain competitive bids, just like homeowners do when embarking on projects. I feel like I am not understanding something here. Can somebody explain it to me? Thanks!
Hey anonymous. Well stated and clearly something that has been said often regarding the bid process in Sun City. Over the years it has appeared as if contractors looked at Sun City as the golden goose. Competitive bids are always well buried and at the board's discretion. Right or wrong, we'll never know. As much as we talk about transparency, we haven't really seen if for a good number of years. The argument is we somehow get hurt when people know what is going on. I just never bought into the argument.
New Idea to implement today. We need vendors to make competitive cost commitment bid on each project. I suggest 5 proposals including two firms that have successfully cost contributed with RCSC Sun City projects earlier. Let No incumbent business receive favor in win status. Contractors / Vendors / Architects Earn each project one at a time always. Also, Multiple architects must be implemented immediately.
So who decides what the process is? How do they decide if something goes out for bid or not? I'm going to guess that somewhere in the convoluted by-laws there is some process that is then contradicted somewhere else, allowing them to do whatever they want. I've only been here a couple of months, but I have watched some recent RCSC meetings on YouTube and did attend the annual meeting and the following board meeting in person. So far I am not impressed by our 'leaders/representatives'. Obviously, no business should be run this way. Any ideas on how to force competitive bids, or is this something the board has to agree to do? I know this is one of many serious problems here. It is already becoming overwhelming. *sigh*
Post a Comment