The Villages 5-12-20 Construction Update - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
 

Here’s a new look at the construction going on here in The Villages. While the placement of the Chitty Chatty bridge is big new, so is a new Villages water tower being built west of the Village of Fenney.

Because I have spoken out against the developer and the county in this video, I’m sure it will probably be banned and taken down soon. It won’t be the first time this has happened.

The Villages 05-12-20 Construction Update - YouTube

I mention in the videos the contact information for the county commissioners which is below.
Sumter County Commissioners: 352-689-4400
Al Butler – Al.Butler@sumtercountyfl.gov
Doug Gilpin - Doug.Gilpin@sumtercountyfl.gov
Don Burgess - Don.Burgess@sumtercountyfl.gov
Gerry Breeden - Garry.Breeden@sumtercountyfl.gov
Steve Printz - Stephen.Printz@sumtercountyfl.gov

Sumter County Administrator
Bradley Arnold - Bradley.Arnold@sumtercountyfl.gov

Thanks Don for keeping us informed.

The same thing happened to the church on 44a & 143 on the back side of Lake Deaton......no cart access. There is already a cartpath right to their back door.


BUT....the road access (turn lane) is terrible.

Thank you, Don, for informative update.

Once again excellant coverage.
Petty, and vindictive regarding the church, and as you proved, the reasons do not hold water.

Thank you!

Thank you for the excellent update.

I concur. Petty and vindictive is the only way to put it.

wow

How long before the speculation starts about the water tower out in the middle of pasture land owned by the developer? Hmm, seems there is a water tower very near Brownwood town square? On the other hand, that's over around Coleman and aren't they obligated to build an industrial area out that way?


:popcorn:

Good stuff, thanks.

There is also a water tower at Turtle Mound golf course. Water tower is not an indicator of a town square.

The New Covenant Methodist Church purchased land from the Developer to build the soon to be independent Lake Deaton United Methodist Church. The Developer required the church to build a fence on church land that would prohibit golf carts outside the Villages from accessing the connecting multi modal path to the church. After using the path, we enter church property to park our golf carts on one side of the fence (church property) to then walk through a gate to the church. Road 143 just south of the church was changed to Wesleyan Way.

Makes sense.

nice...thank you

I don't think it will be difficult for people to get to the Grace Tabernacle church.

Just south-east of the church, there will be the intersection of Meggison Road and CR468. I assume there will be a stop light at that intersection.

If a person driving south-east on 468 wants to get to that church, they can drive to the intersection, do a U-turn, and get to the church easily.

TV Video & Information
 

Great video & information - thanks!
The same thing happened with FBC Leesburg at their new campus. They actually had gold cart access before TV took it out because they would not agree to sell them the land. Very vindictive!

Why is the water tower important?

Which village is the largest in TV?

VA, while I agree with your opinion most of the time, this time I don't. Yes, it can be assumed to be a stoplight there and doing a u-turn is easy enough on a one-time basis. Consider the 30 minutes before services start and you'll have 50 cars trying to do a u-turn with on-coming traffic. Not a safe situation.

Don, you are amazing! Great video again - thanks for detailing everything

Thanks Don .. I have to say I had a difficult time getting my bearings on this video. I'll watch it another time or two to get developments around Deluna straight from Chitty Chatty. If I'm not mistaken, you mentioned Rt 470 at least twice in the video. Right now the only connection to it and the Turnpike entrance is Rt501. Are the future plans to have another road parallel to 501 intersect with 470 closer to the Turnpike ? Does the Villages now own all the pasture land on 470 from 501 to the Turnpike?
Back to the traffic light at the Everglades ..Will cars be able to get to brownwood via Meggison Road instead of Warm Springs to Rt44 ? Again appreciate the updates

Yes, that is true.

Yesterday I pulled out of Sparr's and tried to do a right-on-red to go east on route 44. I almost caused an accident because someone going west on 44 was doing a U-turn at the same intersection. Fortunately, we were both going slow, so it was not too close.

But if there was a left turn into the church off 468, there would be a lot of cars backed up. A person would come out of the roundabout and then be surprised to see the left lane all backed up.

In your opinion, would it be better if there were a roundabout at the 468-Meggison intersection? Do you think TV will do that?

May I ask, who has been taking down your videos? The Villages, or TOTV? If the videos are on your You Tube channel, how can either one of those entities take them down? I'm just curious, not trying to start anything.

Great video! Thank you!

What bothers me is the dragging of their feet on the construction of the Magnolia shopping plaza. Shame on them for making the residents wait for an area that people need. Just build it already. And I dont even live down there. Hope you guys get your plaza soon.

Are they building houses on the land adjacent to the federal prison yet? There’s also a quarry just beyond the prison which supplies the gravel for the concrete used in construction. The prison is lighted at night and the quarry blasts to get the stone, and then grinds it into gravel.

Ought to be interesting if people buy there only to discover where they live...the hard way.

emailed the county administrator this morning. Not a church goer but not happy with their decision either. Thanks for pointing this out.

Thanks Don! The commissioners should be a shame. They will answer to a higher power.

I hope The economy Recovers with all that building?

I emailed the county and got this back

Ms. Ciccolella,

That is far from the truth. The truth is that before The Villages ever decided to advance south of SR 44, the County entered into an acquisition agreement for right-of-way from the church based on plans that did not provide a full median opening to the church. The church accepted the conditions, understood it, and was appropriately compensated for the right-of-way.

Bradley

Corbin Trail now goes thru Linden and Monarch Grove and it is obvious they plan to extend it south of Monarch Grove. I have no idea if it will eventually intersect 470 or 501.

Remember, some misguided people think they will build a new Town Center near the turnpike and just north of 470. I hope we all live long enough to learn who is wright or wrong.

If you complain to YouTube about a video they will block it and notify the provider of the action. They do not supply a reason why or who complained. The provider is given the opportunity to address the issue and a decision is made to continue to block or restore the content. This has happened to me on both YouTube and Facebook for some of my videos on the construction progress, all have been restored after appeal and review. Again these complains are anonymous so I can't say who complained, but the list I'm sure is very very short.

my response from Bradley Arnold

Without the facts or attending this church, I understand why you would feel that your commentary was justified. The church agreed to the plans that did not have a full median opening concurrent with the County’s payment for their property for the additional right-of-way required for the widening of the road.

Bradley




Bradley Arnold
County Administrator
Board of Sumter County Commissioners
Tel: 352-689-4400
Fax: 352-689-4401
Sumter County, FL - Official Website | Official Website

WOW! Thank you AGAIN!!!!

Okay. The County Administrator says the purchase specified that the church property would not have a full median opening, and I have no reason to disbelieve him. I do question, however, why that was spelled out in the first place. Don has shown that the turn being too close to the roundabout is not a consistent rule.

We only need to think back to "the wall" on the historic side to believe that X number of people with decision-making power in TV administration were indeed capable of being petty and vindictive. (In fairness, they also were caring/PR savvy enough to later modify their decision.)

I see no reason why they would just agree to such a thing unless not given a choice or the alternative choice was worse. And why would the pastor share that the church had even offered to share in the cost if that was the issue? I consider myself a logical person, and this response also does not hold water.

I am working on getting more information and documentation. One items of fact comes from the Wildwood City Commision meeting of 5/8/17 were the traffic circle is shown to the west of Grace Tabernacle church instead of the east as it is now. If this were the case when the church sold the property and agreed to the turn lane conditions then it would all make sense as to the agreement.

With the traffic circle to the east, even the post office has informed the church that it's not safe as has stopped delivering the mail to the door. How will a fire truck or ambulance get to the church? Station 47 is just a half mile down the road but will have to drive over 3 additional miles to safely turn around.

More to come on this topic.

Thank you.

Is the church complaining?

Thank you so much. I really enjoy your videos.