I am going on record...
I oppose the demolition and resurrection of the Mountain View Recreation Center for the following reasons.
1. COST
The estimated cost for the replacement of a perfectly good, if not old, facility ranges WILDLY from a low of $27,000,000 all the way up to $55,000,000
On the subject of "old," I hasten to remind MOST OF US that we are older than Mountain View. Who among us has not had one surgery or another to extend our lives or at least for pain relief? Why does not the "Old Girl" deserve the same RESPECT, even the same treatment?
2. TRAFFIC AND PARKING
IF the center is allowed to proceed, as forecasted, and IF both playhouse and gym experience HALF their planned usage, the Old Girl will just hang her head to cry loud enough to drown out the noise of traffic.
3. FOOTPRINT
As we age, no matter male or female, our bodies begin to sag and spread. (This does not apply to ME, however.) The existing property can BARELY SUSTAIN what is there right now. This Old Girl has decked herself out in every brand of shapewear she can find. The older she gets, the more she strains to fit! Taking on more poundage (the gym) is only going to cause her Spanx to pop its clogs!
4. NO UTILIZATION DATA FOR A GYM.
Zip, nada, and zero data to indicate the need. Period. No gym in 62 years causes one to question the wisdom of spending Millions on a huge building that May end up sitting empty much of the time and Begs The Question: Why replace a "given" that has excellent usage data (data that reflects rising demand for pickleball) with an unknown that has NO DATA? "Yeah, let's throw $15 million at that project and see if it sticks. It's a gamble, but there is nothing to lose." No, the Board did not SAY that, but they sure are acting like it! Nothing to lose. Few or none of us have multi-million dollar decisions to make. Why are they being so CAVALIER with this one enormous decision that has the POTENTIAL of ending PIF as we know it? For those of us not familiar, PIF is short for Preservation and Improvement Fund. Simply, a capital improvement that exceeds $300,000 is eligible for a slice of the PIF pie. Presently, the PROJECTED budget is through 2035 and it sits at $103,404,880. Of that amount, $39,677,403 is designated for Mountain View. This was presented at the RCSC Board meeting on 11/18/21. Mountain View accounts for well more than one-third of the next 13 years of Sun City's Fiscal Life! In a perfect world, numbers remain stationary; in this world, there is an unwelcome phenomenon described as INFLATION. We all know it well because we have been enduring a Huge Spike in inflation just the past few months. I daresay that REALISTICALLY, we can assume at least a 15% adjusted for inflation number since November 2021, which comes to $45,629,013, which now (in 2022) accounts for 44% of our entire PIF budget! What do we know about the next 12 years? Very little to nothing at all. At this dicey time where the health of our very Democracy hangs in a surreal balance, I wonder at the wisdom of a Board that blindly follows an ACCOUNTANT'S guided tour toward the abyss.
WHY be in such a hurry to spend piles of money in these uncertain times? What is wrong with adopting a "wait and see" attitude for AT LEAST another 12 months to see how the Viewpoint Lake project fleshes out?
Respectfully submitted,
Kristi Svendsen - Advisory Panel, Sun City Advocates
1 comment:
One of the beauties from the creation of the Advocates was; we agreed we didn't need to agree with what others where thinking, saying or writing. In fact, we understood that disagreement was healthy and allowed for options and exercises in thought.
With that caveat out of the way, i shared these comments with a member of the Advocates yesterday. I neither liked or agreed with the 90 day moratorium. I had even less interest in the 30 day extension. All either did was delay the inevitable. What was the point?
Here's why none of this made sense: Nothing is going to happen until they (the RCSC) gets this plan to an architect who then can get it in front of a contractor. They are telling us that process alone is 18 to 24 months away. That's a long freaking time and costs will continue to spike up.
More importantly, and this is the one that truly irritates me, there have been square footage studies done over the years relative to what would fit where. I would be stunned if the RCSC has thrown them away. What is even more shocking is they have not seen the light of day.
We've long argued for total transparency from them. The question is will that information ever be shown? Do they still have it? If not, then let's just get to it, put it out for the architects to reduce it to paper and then let's see what will actually fit on the available space. More importantly, let's see what everything will cost and whether any of it, some of it or none of it makes sense.
Here's the real kicker, by the time all of that happens, much of the board will have turned over; perhaps as many as 6 of them will be gone from the board. It's just time to get on with it. Dealing with what-ifs and who-knows is an exercise in futility.
The goal for every board should be to make decisions on the basis of sound/solid information. As always, just one man's opinion.
Post a Comment