[Warren Kiefer]

Originally Posted by bkcunningham1

The story reads:

VHA president proposes solution to golf car issue
STAFF REPORT

THE VILLAGES - Villages Homeowners Association President Bill Gottschalk accounted Tuesday a possible solution to the issue of golf cars entering and exiting the community across private property on Paradise Drive.

The VHA proposal, which Gottschalk plans to present to the Amenity Authority Committee, calls for the developer to donate to the district government the home site on Paradise Drive, which had previously been utilized as a golf car path. As a condition of that donation, the district would build and maintain a gate that would allow access to Villages residents only.

According to Gottschalk, the VHA-proposed solution is a compromised reached after hearing the various concerns of residents and meeting with both the district and the developer.

"We found that all of us-district, developer and residents-shared similar concerns about both security and convenience," he said. "Previously, at this particular location, nonresidents had unfettered access, allowing them to travel in and out of our community and utilize our facilities, paid for and maintained by Villages residents.

"At the same time, we all recognize the desire of many Villagers to access certain convenient serves, particularly medical services, like the urgent care center. In addition to these issues, the developer had a liability concern with all these golf carts passing back and forth across private property. We believe our proposed compromise balances all of these concerns and gives Villages residents both added security and greater access to needed services."

Gottschalk said the compromise is consistent with the philosophy of the Vllages Homeowners Association, which is to e an effective advocate for the residents and to work constructively with the community partners like the district and the developer to solve problems.

"We have a regular and constructive dialogue withe both, which enables us to do more than complain, but rather to actually get things domes that benefit our residents and our community." he said. "Personally, I appreciate how everyone was willing to come together to work on this issue and that the VHA could be the catalyst for this resolution."

Today's Daily Sun article is a lot of smoke and mirrors. So the president of the VHA has come up the the long sought after solution. In reality, the solution does not address the concerned residents questions and it is NOT the VHA position to provide those answers. Why after all the passing years the Developer became concerned about the safety of residents crossing private property. Harold Schwartz himself encouraged the use of that parcel of property and if I understand correctly, had a gate erected which later was ruled to be in violation and had to be removed. I am convinced that all of this wall issue could have gone better if the party who had the wall erected would have stepped up to the plate and provided the desired answers. It is still a mistake to have the VHA do the explaining. I can assure you that in the next POA bulletin there will be a well researched article with factual comments.