Recreation department staff
 

I understand the recreation department is having problems maintaining staff to man our recreation centers, as a result the managers of the rec centers are required to fill in for any vacancies that occur. I understand that this is a part of their job, however, recently it is really getting out of hand with managers having to consistently work 6 or 7 days a week. The rec department is unwilling to increase wages for their part time employees that would even equal the starting pay of “fast food” restaurants in the area. I think it is more important to maintain the excellent service at our rec centers than spending our money on unnecessary things such as replacing flowers every few months at every traffic circle and major intersection in the villages? Aesthetics are nice but our amenity fees would be better spent maintaining staff than on frequent landscaping changes.

Do you want to bet that some residents prefer the flowers over the Rec Ctrs - especially the folks who do not use Rec Ctrs, pools, pickleball courts, etc,? Amenities and their fees are what you make of them.

I could be wrong but I don't believe our amenity fees pay for the rec. centers employees or the flowers.

I’m tired of the recreation department using amenity fees to pay for tennis courts maintenance - they should spend it on the executive courses.

See how that works - there are 150,000/200,000 individuals who pay amenity fees - they all have different priorities.

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I was surprised to find out that the rec centers and other Villages buildings still use a lot of incandescent light bulbs instead of LED bulbs, which are much more energy efficient. Also, when light bulbs need to be replaced, they hire a licensed electrician under contract to change them. It seems to me that they could hire a staff member to do this and save a lot of money.

as far as what fees pay for what and don’t care , but I fall into the group that cares more about how things look,I don’t golf , don’t use any courts or pools and have only been in a rec center to vote , I do love to walk , ride my bike and run around the beauty of this place

Well said.

Wonder why they do this. For some fixtures need to get up on a tall ladder and can see where you might want to hire a more experienced person but an electrician seems like overkill.

Than again we have several 10 ft ceilings and silly me bought a 6 ft ladder when we moved here and realized that aint going to work.

Agree that something needs to be done. The staff at Laurel Manor almost never gets the swim lanes in for the scheduled lap swim time in the evenings. When I call and ask why they say it’s a busy time of the day and they are short staffed. I would much prefer to have a lane to swim in than look at flowers.

What tennis court maintenance? I prefer the millions in amenities replacing sand in sand traps. After all that were most golfers hit ball anyway. See how that works :)

I sure like any well managed federal government facilities. To many managers and not enough peon’s.

There are job openings on districtgov.org for any who feel the situation is intolerable and want to be part of the solution. Whatever the compensation may be, it is greater than what we are getting paid to admire the problem.

I believe the rec center employees are paid by the amenity fee and the flowers on the roundabouts are paid by the maintenance fee, a line item on your November tax bill. Someone please correct if this is not true.

I guess the thought of having a senior citizen on a ladder doesn’t make the worker’s comp insurers very happy. Get a few accidents, the premiums tend to rise

Also, I bet the volume of work for the electrician is so high, there’s a fixed price to change light bulbs.

Many, many posters on this thread need to go to the whiners club meeting.
I knew the would eventually show with their complaining………:clap2:

You are so right! I worked for Rohan for 3 months . The Morse family does'nt seem to be " in touch" with the Villagers and the Rec Center staff. We pay our eminity fees every month. Rec Center staffing problems are not our responsibilty. I find it amazing that the Morse family will not increase the saleries and hire more help. Gimme a break . We Villagers don't do it for the money. I made a whopping $8.87 an hour.We love the life here and want it to continue.

You mean you're less than 4 feet tall???????:1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl:

You only need a ball repair tool for all the greens you hit.

The Morse family has NOTHING to do with the hourly rate of Rec Center staff.
The Morse family does seem to pay well enough to continue to build massive numbers of houses every year.

Hahahaha

Want me to show you how to stand on that top rung? The next one down would get you there. :bigbow: Seriously I am an idiot but I do that regularly with a 4’ ladder. I have a six foot step ladder and the folding gorilla ladder but like I said ( I don’t recommend this) (DONT TRY THIS AT HOME) I’m an idiot. The four footer is just easier to maneuver and I’m like a mountain goat hard to knock over. Probably famous last words :pray:

Unfortunately they pay less than McDonalds does.

I love the flowers.

The Morse family has not made any correct decisions about this place. I am certain that they are referring to posters here to set them right.

Narrow-minded & selfish.
 

All of the amenities here need maintenance. I enjoy playing both golf & tennis. One shouldn’t be sacrificed for the other.

same problem at golf courses

It looks like you will get a lot of feedback from people that know nothing about the using money collected from our fees!!

I've always have been impressed how well they maintain the common areas, keep up the good work.:welcome:

That’s exactly the point I was making.

Everything mentioned in this thread, plus a lot more, are all parts of the package. Sure, some things, services, landscaping, etc. might not be up to the standard we as individuals would like it to be, but there are 150,000 (?) of us here and I doubt there is any group of people harder to please than senior citizens.

The point has been made several times that the Morse family has built something unique and beautiful in this place called The Villages. I came here because of the whole package and have not been displeased in any way. Kudos to them and their creation.

Really
 

So you want a 65+ person hauling around a 10' ladder?. And then climbing up said ladder to change a bulb.??? When is the last time you preformed this feat.?.

My hubs who is retired military and very fit who (still does same exercise he did in military) is 59 and tons of experience and worked as a GS employee in federal system after service has applied to jobs and never heard a word from anyone. My point is I do not think they are motivated to get people hired. Bc if they were they would at least call for an interview, do something. So no sympathy from me for not getting people on board. A good hiring system that has an employee shortage would have a contact system to get people on board!

Villages should have their own winery since there’s so much mining



Villages should have their own winery with all the whining going on all the time!

I see a lot of "they won't hire" said one way or the other. Unemployment is at almost historic low levels (3.6%) and every company is struggling to find "low end" employees. Combine that with the inflation and it just isn't worth it for low-end employees to work for the low wages so many of these jobs pay. Either the low wages need to do away (our amenity fees go up) or we all struggle through this cycle of inflation. The thing is I don't recall prices of most things going back down all the way after any other cycle ends. So, I expect we need to look forward to/prepare for higher amenity fees next year.

I honestly don't know who pays for the rec centers budget, if it is part of the amenity fee then if you have a problem with how something is being done, that is up to your Community Development District.

I know it is all great fun to constantly blame the devs but sometimes it is not them.

Personally, I think the devs have done something no one has ever done before, creating a place like this that 20 years later looks brand new. That is no small feat. Most senior communities I visited before coming here look run down after less than a decade. The CDD idea of turning over management of the district to the residents is a great idea and allows the devs to focus on what they do best, building and selling 400 homes per month.

I am happy that The Villages is far from a build out.

At $12 an hour retired people aren’t going to be attracted. Once they take the 2 day a week job they realize the shortage is serious because they keep begging them to work 5. My friends who work there say if they wanted to work full time they’d have kept their real jobs. We could stop the gate guards and just use the button and cards. Move the employees to the rec centers. Bottom line is $12 and begging people to work more isn’t cutting it.

True.

Don't let your favorite philosophy cloud your judgement about "historically low unemployment" Look at workforce participation. Last number I saw was that 5.4 million Americans said they will NEVER return to work because they are afraid of COVID. Hopefully they will eventually get educated enough to change their minds, but for now they seriously skew that unemployment statistic.

I believe the hourly wages are set by one of The Districts and their yearly budget planning.

The “Morse family” may have nothing to do with it.

I’ve been here for 3 years and still trying to get a handle on all the different levels of government and how they are funded.