Would you pay?
 

There’s a suggestion in another online paper to upgrade the ID system. Basically, install a lock system at pools, and probably rackets courts, the equipment rooms, etc
you can open the locks with your NEW ID or a code on a temp ID, usable for the length of your stay.
This would come with a hefty price tag.
Would you pay, let’s say $50, for a new ID; that leads to better monitoring of the amenities.

I don’t think this will eliminate all outsiders from using the amenities, but it would make it harder

It's not about the cost. The problem is that it won't work. I have lived in condos where the front door requires a key, but if someone wants to go in, they just hang around the front door and follow someone in. The answer is to hold the rec center employees accountable to do their job. Every rec center has a fulltime employee who is responsible for controlling access to the amenities, but enforcement is very lax. People show up without an ID, and the rec center employee just lets them in. It should be, no ID, no entry. Period.

Has anyone ever witnessed someone being told to leave a swimming pool because they did not have an ID card? If that is not happening, the current system is worthless and does need to be changed.

The cost would be much more than just $50 for each individual for a new card. The systems that would have to be in place to accepts these new cards would be excessive.

I have been turned away from a pickleball court because I forgot to take my ID, but have been checked only once (in 14 years) at a sports pool.

You’re probably right. At 50,000 homes (100,000 new IDs to be issued) - the $5,000,000 wouldn’t cover software and hardware for the system.

I'm already paying for it
 

Why doesn't my white privilege just open all the gates and doors??? (sarcasm) I'm too new to TV to be disgruntled about "outsiders". I'm in the southern most area where an adult pool is hard to find, and my limited experience at a family pool was less than optimal. A 3 foot pool does nothing to relax a 6'2" man when the teenie tiny 5 foot area is packed full of old ladies talking so loud over each other. It was totally disgusting and I couldn't last staying more than 5 minutes. No one at that pool looked like an "outsider".

With that said...what am I paying $189 a month for? You want to tack on more for a card that you want? You really think once you submit to paying extra that it would be a one time fee??? Please folks, let's not suggest to TV to take more from our retirement checks for them not enforcing rules that they wrote down already. Have you already polled people about having anger over "outsiders" to the point they'll pay extra to eliminate them? How do you identify these infiltrating scoundrels? What behaviors do they exhibit that irritates you? I need to know before I attempt to visit a pool again.

Cost? They could easily get double that estimate if they eliminate the gates and all the support costs for them.
But knowing a bit about security access systems, please understand that the gates are more secure than this new card proposal.

How is the un named paper think it can influence or accomplish anything in TV, other than stirring a bigger pot

Too new! Old ladies?

I've worked in tech my whole life. I can guarantee you within days of rollout of these, people will be offering "spare" copies for $10. The technology is just too easy to be defeated. Access cards are a 50 year old invention. You can by a package of 50 access cards for $25 and the machine to copy them is $20. Bad idea.

Question: Could the access cards be disabled if they are misused or if the owner moves out of The Villages?

But, we are already paying employees to restrict access to the amenities to unauthorized people. Why not just enact a strict policy that, if you don't have an ID, you don't use the amenities. You can watch people entering a rec center for an event, and those without an ID are routinely allowed access by an employee whose job should be to tell them to leave. Why pay an employee to not do their job?

As far as misuse, there have been very few cases where a TV resident has been restricted from using even one amenity let alone all of them. My village had a drunk guy incident that led to a ban from a specific pool for 30 days but that's the only case where I've heard of someone being denied usage of the amenities that they are paying for.

Of course individual access cards can be activated or deactivated, but they can also be copied or modified.

To all the posters saying the rec center employees should just do their job and throw out folks that do not have ids at the pool. Are you signing up for the job? If you ask someone to leave and they refuse, are you going to physically remove them? Block their entrance? Going to call the police? Go “eh” and go about your business? It is easy to make these bold claims when you are not the ones who have to enforce them.

I don't blame the rec center employees because they are only doing what they are told to do. But, if management hires someone to do a job, they should require them to do it. Why have ID cards and employees to scan them if you don't enforce the rules? It is a waste of money. Do you really want to pay someone to check ID's if they let everyone in anyway. I don't agree that people would need to be forced to leave. Most people would leave if they were told to leave. But, if necessary, you can call the police for a trespassing crime. I have seen this happen at restaurants in The Villages. The police are happy to remove a trespasser.

Rare these days for rec center employee to scan our cards for club events

Solution looking for a problem?

No, I will not pay.

We don’t worry about the freeloaders; we built our on little piece of paradise pool and outdoor kitchen.

The average cost for door card reader access control systems is $3,350 per door and as high as $4300 per door. There must be electrical service provided for each door as well as WIFI service. There is an additional annual fee based on the number of users which with TV’s number of residents would be at least $5000 per year. Even adding the card readers only to the pools would cost almost a half million dollars alone! Multiply the installation cost by the 100 pools in TV and the initial cost would be $335,000-$430,000 plus the $5000 due every year Just for the pools.
Now multiply that figure by how ever many other types of activities where you want to have card reader locks installed; now you're talking MILLIONS of dollars.

Anyone want an nice big increase in your amenity fees to cover the door lock system?

What is the big deal anyway? Who cares if a handful of nonresidents use the facilities (if there even are any abuses)? If you know someone is there who shouldn’t be, then go get an employee.
There are no hordes of outsiders using the pools. These complainers (and I think there aren't that many) need to just try and chill out and not act so high and mighty. People complaining about "outsiders" are what gives TV residents a bad reputation as a bunch of entitled uppity prigs.

I understand what you are saying but in many cases the worker knows the person as they might have entered 3 times a week for 6 months and you get to recognize people. No different when you go into Dunkins and they already know your order. In addition employees etc have access to a database that has all of our ID’s loaded in it so it can easily be looked up. I do agree that you need to have an ID, just might not be on you.

Lol cool, another thread that tells the world how easy it is to use our amenities. ToTV is owned by a marketing firm out of NY and has an office I believe south FL, maybe Naples I think as well. Point being, totv is NOT from within T V. It is a $$ making via ads social media platform.

What comes to mind when seeing posted matters such as empty snowbird houses and no security is:
"Stupid is as stupid does" - Forrest Gump

Amen. Problem is that no one wants to challenge the person without an id. Need some oversight on those responsible to check ids.
People break laws without any retribution so who cares about simple rules. Look at every level of our society nowadays. Yeah I’d pay the increase if it also included enforcing the existing rules.

Amen. See my earlier reply. Remove employees that don’t do the job they are being paid to do. Remove the supervisors of those people if they don’t supervise. Let’s get back to basics here. Wish we could start doing that again at all levels of our society.

Then I suggest you might need to go home and get it. If that happens even once I believe it wouldn't be forgotten again.

The "powers that be" (developer) has a policy for restroom usage. All restrooms are available to contractors, vendors, work crews, etc. Whether you like it or not that's the way it is. Locking the pool gates will never happen.

I suppose they could buy a system that costs that much. The salesman will laugh all the way to the bank.
Or buy the parts yourself. $100 for a controller, $10 for the reader, $100 for the door release mechanism. Installation 4 hours at $20/hr. Misc hardware and wiring $100.
Total $400 one time cost for the access system. Maybe some cost more, but others are less. Plus the cost of new exit-only gates.

But we all know that's not how money is spent here. High friends&family bidder wins.

You do not get turned away I just had it happen to me at a Pickleball court. This was in the middle of a tournament day. They take your name they write it down along with your ID and address, and then about two weeks later you get a letter from John Rohan saying you’ve been a bad person. After a few times, they can take your privileges away from you. But it never happens. If anybody ever has this happen, don’t give the person checking IDs a hassle. They’re just doing their job their residence just like you and I.

I have seen a multiple TV employees enforce the rules. 1 incident, you had multiple kids driving large trucks around the Brownwood sq with their music really loud. The TV employees confronted them, then called for backup and the kids were gone.
How often do you expect the full time employee to check ids at each court, pool, game room, pool room, etc?
There are other options at a cost. I was in high tech for 4.5 decades and there is 1 method of security that I used 35 years ago and that is using the RSA key. It is still 1 of the best security devices today and doctors use it to prescribe certain medications.
All locks to the courts/pools/game rooms/etc would have to get changed and every resident would need a key fob. Every few seconds, the code changes and the resident would have to enter the code to get in. You can’t hack this because the code changes. You lose it, you deactivate the fob.
Even it would cost a couple hundred $$$ per resident, it would be worth it. This kind of money is nothing to help secure our amenities.

Everyone should be checked. Are you saying someone is such a repeat offender that the employees believe them to be a resident?

Finally! I was going to post a similar comment.
I would like to add, that sometimes (on my daily walk), I need to use a restroom. I do not carry my ID while walking. Another thought: what if you witness a "lone" swimmer in distress and would not be able to assist!

You provided me with a good laugh to start the day. Thank you!

If the rec center people did their job, and checked ID's the system we have now would work, I have been checked at pools and rec centers. There seems to be a shortage of ID checkers here.

Note that every village rec center (VRC) has an employee on duty for every hour that the rec center is open. In addition to the rec center building, their job is to check IDs around the building (pickleball, shuffleboard, etc.) and 2 or 3 pools in the area. If the pools are an issue, surely they could visit them often enough to verify IDs and discourage freeloaders. In my opinion, these employees do not seem to be overworked. The problem is lax enforcement, especially by management who supervises the rec center employees.

I agree that an electronic system would be very expensive.

I have been asked for my ID about three or four times since July 2023. I rented in an Airbnb for two months then bought in mid-August and slowly moved in.

At a minimum, I think they should have signs at all the pools stating their policy: "use of the villages amenities requires having a valid villages ID on your person. If you do not have a villages ID with you while using the amenity, you will be asked to leave."

When I first came here and stayed in an Airbnb, I didn't see any signs telling me I had to have a villages ID. It has to be in a place that's clearly visible and easily seen.

I'm not gonna pretend that that would actually be much of a deterrent but it would give the person checking IDs a little more weight when they ask people to leave. They could just point at the sign and say sorry, it's community policy.

If they do have a person who is being paid to check IDs, that person should be vetted to make sure they can handle confrontation, much like a security guard. If a person won't leave then management should be brought in. You also don't need one person at every the anmenity all day, just someone who can make rounds. They would have to be assigned an area.

For people who forget to bring their card with them, it will only take one or two times being asked to leave and they'll begin to remember to bring it the next time.

All that said, nothing will work if there's nobody at the pool checking IDs. I bought my house in August 2023 and I've seen what looked to be an ID checker one time at the sports pool by my house, and I used it almost every day during the fall.

One thing that would be nice is to have an electronic ID that you can carry with you on your phone. It would have to have a barcode that could be scanned. People don't forget their phones that often. There's probably a cost of that though.

Math:

$50 per resident. There are approximately 150,000 residents in The Villages.

150,000 * 50 = $7,500,000 revenue to off-set the expense of the new system. I've never priced out new systems at pools but - maybe seven and a half million dollars would be enough to cover it? The cards themselves only cost a dollar when you buy them in bulk, uncoded.

People who don't forget their phones, can put those little silicone card holders on the backs of their phones. Their ID and gate card fit in them very well, nice and snug.

People who drive their cars to the pools have their drivers license with them. And probably a place where they keep their drivers license. Like, a wallet, for example. They can keep their ID and gate card in their wallet.

People who drive their golf carts to pools usually have their gate cards with them too. They can keep their ID in the same location that they keep their gate card. On the clip-board attached to their steering wheel, or in the little clip on the overhead shelf, or in the cup holder, or - in their pocket.

The likelihood of people forgetting to bring their identification with them is low. The likelihood of people thinking they're too important to bother and they intend to get around the rules instead of following them is much higher.

Who's actually the one that thinks they're entitled, the person paying for the amenity using it or the person not paying for the amenity and using it? I would suggest the latter. People who think they can knowingly break rules are people who think they are entitled.

Sure, there's problems in the world. Should we just stop in forcing anything because there's problems in the world? Maybe Disney should stop checking for passes when entering their amusement park. Or maybe forest Rangers should not ask to see passes when entering a state or national park, at least for those that require a pass.

If you were paying for something and couldn't use it because of people who weren't paying for it using it, and who were breaking the rules and no one was enforcing them, you would complain too. Or, you would just stop paying for it.

Lastly, you just unfairly demonized all old people in the villages.

This is all a pipe dream. If you want that type of security move to a real gated community that requires ID to even step foot on the property.

TV is just not set up this way and never will be.

Yeah, I get what your saying and I don't necessarily disagree but it is far easier for me to forget my wallet than to forget my phone. I also don't like bringing my wallet to the pool and leave it sit on a bench while I swim. At least my phone is secure if it gets stolen, you'll never be able to get into it. Lastly, just about everything I do is on my phone. It's just the way it is nowadays. Even our payment systems are starting to move onto our phones, such as Apple Pay. I just think it would be a great convenience.

This is the answer - this is a community with gates, not a gated community. TV is open - as are the pools, etc. - to the world “outside the bubble”, like it or not. While somewhat insulated by the sheer size & number of senior residents, it will never be “locked up secure”. Plus, as noted, there’s a gap in the ability to enforce access & rules. Live with it, ask for help if someone is being a nuisance, or move to a gated, secure community. More card readers & gadgets won’t fix it!