Quote:
Originally Posted by Goldwingnut
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.
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Well said, as always, although the “water polo” made me laugh…won’t the horses drown???
As a lap swimmer I can share in the frustrations, but it really comes down to efficient use of the available space. An hour of lap swimming at one of the sports pools will accommodate at most 8 to 10 people. The same hour for water volleyball will get at least 72 people and water aerobics 50-70, depending on the instructor’s class limits. And from my observations trying to swim after either of these, they are almost always full and many times turning away people.
Yes we get the short end of it in the winter months when there are fewer hours in the day and we lose those open swim slots in the late afternoon/evening.
But like everything here (such as the crowded golf courses in the winter), we aren’t willing to pay to have available capacity all the time for every person and activity.
I think the rec department does a decent job of balancing the needs of everyone with the available facilities. Sometimes we have to wait our turn - not something we Villagers do very well sometimes.