[Goldwingnut]

Originally Posted by MrLonzo

I'm wondering if there are any new sports pools for lap swimming coming in the new villages in the south. Or maybe even an indoor pool in the Eastport area? I haven't seen any announcements.

Yes, there’s a sports pool coming to Eastport/Olympia Regional Rec Center according to the plans that have been submitted and permitted. Will there be more Regional Rec Centers? Considering the amount of property owned by The Villages of Lake-Sumter and the various over holding companies operated by “the developer” there is little doubt that there are many more to come. None however have been announced and probably won’t be announced for at least a year or two, if not longer. The RRC are a rare breed, currently only 13 exist (I still question calling Fenney a RRC) and because of their size and features, they are very expensive to build, Olympia (#14) will be the largest and most expensive built because of the new and added feature that they are adding.

An indoor pool is very unlikely to occur. It is a very expensive facility because of the water and high humidity the building and all the support equipment must be able to withstand. The operating and maintenance cost are also extremely high due to the corrosion caused by the chemicals and the humidity. And don’t even go down the road of “the developer can afford it”, the developer doesn’t now, never has, and never will pay for it, the residents have to pay for it through their amenity fees, it’s called “a business” not a charity, and they own none of us anything other than what was included in our contract to purchase our homes here. You bought a house not a rich uncle to take care of your every want and need.

I agree that more time maybe could be allocated to lap swimmers, but how much? How many lap swimmers are there using the pool to swim laps each day, based on my own personal observations, it is a very small number. Is it fair to the rest of the residents to have to stand around and wait to use the Sports pool (not called a Lap pool) to play water polo, water volleyball, or water aerobics while it sits empty or 1 person is using it to swim laps or may want to swim laps. I think not. I know John Rohan and many of the staff at the parks and recreation department and they make their decision based on facts and data. If the demand was higher they would, without doubt, allocate more time for lap swimming, the fact that they haven’t is evidence enough to support there not being sufficient demand.

The rec department could simply combine all the house allocated to lap swimming and apply it to one facility and reserve it for 8 hours a day 7 days a week for lap swimming. But then that would disenfranchise many more residents that live around that RRC, and of course the complaints would start here on ToTV and on NextDoor about how unfair it is that they have to drive “all that way” to get to the only pool that allows lap swimming.

It’s a balance and no matter what, someone is always going to be unhappy and complain.