Whose watching the money?
 

Over $1.5 million dollars each to repair several exec golf courses?
$1 million dollars to dump stone to stabilize the foundation of the Morse Blvd bridge?
$250k for a traffic light on Colony Cottage?
Who is getting this money?
Why isn't the present grounds company paying to repair the courses they were responsible for?
Why isn't Sumter County paying for the Morse Bridge and traffic signal?
Please help answer these questions.

I wake in the middle of the night worrying about oir golf courses and all the money we spend

Oh my……….!

Should probably engage, educate and learn.

This is not the place.

As you can see by previous posts, most Villagers do not care to spend their days worrying how their amenity fees are spent. Most simply want to enjoy their retirement. Going to county or CDD meetings, speaking to an attorney, organizing a boycott or similar, fighting the cause in court.... Too much for those who just want to enjoy their final chapter of life. Unfortunately, some may take advantage because they know there is a slight chance of recourse.

But! Every now and then, there is that ONE who will take the time to fight back. Some have been successful and our community is better thanks to them.

If you truly want answers, and are not just ranting, then I urge you to attend the next PWAC meeting and ask your list of questions there. Here, you will get discussion. There, you will be talking to those who make decisions. Let us know how it goes.

Exactly.

From districtgov.org -> committies -> Project Wide -> Agendas, the next meeting is Monday morning (4/8) at 8:30 in Seabreeze.

I would like to hear more about this. Where and when was this discussed? Do you have a link to the information?

I honestly think the $1.5 million for the golf courses is not enough - golf course renovation is expensive.

I think they are doing more than dumping stone.

https://www.**************.com/2014/...oogle_vignette

The Developer paid the first $100,000 to install the light, the District paid the balance.

I took this to be a new expenditure, not the light that was put in place in 2014.

I believe that light is on District property so neither the State nor County would be involved.

Hopefully, the District and County are looking into a similar light near St Catherine.

EDIT: I just read the article about a supervisor arguing against the light on Colony Blvd. It turns out his prediction was wrong and the light is helping the situation. I travel through there often and am thankful for that light. Again, I hope they find a way to install one down near Sawgrass.

Clearly sarcasm

Ditto!

Yes, the cost of everything continues to rise, so $1.5M, depending on the level of work to be done is no longer unreasonable, this is one of the reasons why we have the R&R funds in the SLAD & RAD budgets. After 15 years of heavy play and usage, there will be a need for refurbishing the courses, the companies can only do so much before nature wins. And yes, all of this work is competitively bid.

Glad to see you’re an engineer, NOT, there’s a lot more that goes into stabilizing the island shoreline than just “dumping rock”. The island is CDD property not the county so the CDD/PWAC is responsible for the cost, not the county. There is and never has been anything wrong with the bridge, the issue is island shoreline erosion.

The traffic light at Colony is a project from 10 years ago. The horse is dead, stop beating it.

All of these projects are competitively bid work, so the money goes to whoever was most responsive and had the best bid. Your obvious insinuation is that the “developer” is getting the money and you would be wrong. The developer owned companies rarely bids on work for the district government or county projects, they have more than enough work in house to keep them busy, they don’t need to chase low bid work. The largest expenditure by the District and CDD governments with the Developer is for IT services and maintaining the tee time system, and even this is a very small percentage of the total budgets. Yes, it was all competitively bid.

The county does not do golf cart/multimodal paths and doesn’t fund these project (traffic light) and doesn’t fund work on property they don’t own/have responsibility for (the island resentment - it’s NOT the bridge).

Taking a little time to educate one’s self would go a long way in answering your own questions, but then again, finding answers wasn’t the point of your post now was it, it was more about stirring up an issue where one doesn’t exist.

My wife and I live in a beautiful place, surrounded by nice folks, enjoying the benefits of a reasonable (cheap, by some standards) cost of living. I'm not up to my armpits in snow for half of every year. None of the roads I drive on are covered with ice. I pay far fewer taxes than I did before we moved here. Everything we could possibly ever need is within a 15-minute golf cart ride. I don't feel the need to carry a gun here: most "crime" in and around TV is pretty picayune compared to that where many of us hail from. I can enjoy outdoor recreation NOT defined by XC skiing or drilling through two feet of ice so I can fish, and I can do it for 12 months out of every year.

The track record of those in charge around here speaks (thunders) for itself. And I would far rather have those in charge CONTINUE to be in charge, and doing it their way, than I would the ax-grinders and nitpickers who find fault with them.

I've been here for 4 years, south of 44. I've ventured far to the both, and farther south, east and west to explore all areas of The Villages.

It's beautiful everywhere, and most of the people I've encountered have been happy and seem to be enjoying their sunset years.

Unfortunately, there are a few that have no idea what it takes to run a business, nor what it costs to build and maintain things.

They seem to live their lives with a permanent gray cloud over their heads, and a permanent frown on their faces.

Me, I cannot believe the cornucopia of surroundings and activities that are available to everyone for less than $299 per month.

Me, I'm quite happy, and I appreciate the developer's efforts to make The Villages one of the best places to live.

Yes, I helped run a small business that grew into a large successful business that operates worldwide. I know what things cost, and how to run a profitable business. To me, The Villages is amazing, and I wonder why there's nothing like it elsewhere. Lakewood Ranch comes close.

It's a beautiful time in the Villages so who cares? Your are invited to see how one board spends 20 million. Please read more info by looking at AMI vs AMR water meter systems

That's how unions get started. Management (The Villages) screws over the workers (Village homeowners) until the Village homeowners have had enough and hire or put together a group of retired or active LAWYERS to fight against ABUSES by management (The Villages). If that RESISTANCE group could be very active and very strong, it could FIGHT on the side of the Village homeowners. There are numerically many MORE homeowners than the Villages family ownership. And those homeowners would have MORE TOTAL wealth than the Villages family ownership. The trick would be bringing these opposing power structures into relative BALANCE.

If one starts with the principle that NO society is PERFECT, then the nit-pickers are doing a GOOD service by pointing to areas that could be IMPROVED.

Yes, we live in interesting times, too interesting! When I was here for 4 years, I was "golly gee whiz" isn't this place a perfect Paradise? Now, after 11 years, I can see LITTLE imperfections in the system. For example, a small sink hole at a residential intersection that goes un-repaired for months. A residential street stretch where 25% of the automobiles and golf carts SPEED dangerously in. Funny also that during and after Covid how the residential STOP signs have become "slow down just a little as you go through them" type of signs. Then there is about 30% of all golf carts that have their top speeds illegally jacked up over 20 MPH to around 35 MPH. Funny how they RARELY get tickets, yet could easily cause accident and injury. I could go on, but I wont.

This forum occasionally can be very useful to get accurate, fact-based information, like the above answer. Thank you. And, it’s good to see some reminders to resist stirring a pot. Seems like that is the new, emerging American activity in many circles of discussion.Thanks to all of the researchers, those who serve in local government, and the problem solvers (regardless of political persuasion), who put in a lot of hours with little, or no recognition. That’s what made America a great country, IMHO. I have no connection to Gold Wing Nut other than I occasionally read, and review, his good work and contributions to the community. I always learn something useful.

The Villages can spend all the money they want
But until they stop over watering the green to draw down ponds.Which interns
Creates nan environment for black fungi to grow which is impossible to eradicate.
Just loom next time you play a course with bad greens

I was told the draw down goes to the fairways and most of the time greens are avoided.

I have not slept for 2 weeks worrying about all these things.

Hope we get answers soon. I need my sleep.

Agree
While 'politicians' (generalization) pay attention to forums like this, they love no shows at public meetings. Zoom participation not as effective. Attend, speak if its allowed and your objections will be part of the minutes of these meetings. May not change a thing but it's more effective than a rant after money is appropriated and work is completed....

don't go to the wood shop .....

Is there ANY data at all to back up these silly numbers? 30% of the carts are jacked up to do 35mph? Yeah right. I’d wager it’s less than 1%.

What's the old bumper sticker...'Unions...the folks that brought you the weekend'...

I agree that a union operation would yield better and more consistent results. Unfortunately, or fortunately, it will cost all concerned. I believe most would welcome that...the others still have TOTV ...

A decent crowd today. I don't know if I should say it was larger than normal or if it was smaller than the SRO crowd last month. Still, there were over a dozen people in the audience.

No one from the audience mentioned anything from the OP's list but the golf courses and revetment projects were on the agenda and discussed by the committee members.

Appreciate the info, thanks!

Joe

I am going to have to disagree with you. I sat on the CDD10 board and PWAC for 7 years and was Chairman of both for the last 4 and 2 years respectively. I, like all of the other board members (except 1 on PWAC - represents Brownwood) are residents and hated meetings with no shows and poor turnouts. We would much rather hear from the public for their input and when making decisions.

The worst part about getting public opinions is that even after being presented with FACTS, many still rant on repeatedly with misinformed opinions. Most people do not fully understand the issue, history, agreements in place, and legal background and ramifications that the Supervisors or Commissioners do. This background information is explained to the public by both the elected officials and district staff but tends to fall many times on deaf ears as it doesn't match their opinions. So much misinformation is passed on this website, nextdoor, facebook, and on that other online site that can't be named here that it is sickening to those at the front of the room (a major part of why I started doing my videos was to help counter this). Many think their words and their meanings are no heard, they are, loud and clear, but because they are either misinformed or un or under informed on the issue, they will carry little influence on the board members.

For me, one of the most frustrating times are budget season and the budget workshops, I sat over 40 budget workshops in my tenure on the CDD boards, throughout all of these a total of 5 residents were in the audience and a grand total of 2 questions were asked - 2 questions total in 40 meetings! But once the budget is finalized then it's twisted and maligned on social media, then the crying and outrage starts. Supervisors are accused of "being in the developer's pocket" and being puppets because people "know" that the developer is making a fortune on every deal that the district government carries out.

Interestingly, during my time on the boards, the 2 biggest items in all of the budgets that involved developer owned companies were the IT contract with TSG and the printing contract with the Daily Sun, in total these represented less than 2% of the total budgets. These agreements with "interested parties", aka the developer, are documented in the annual audits conducted on all the CDD and committee finances. And yes, these agreements are competitively bid.

My comments above also hold true for the 2 years I've served on the BOCC except the participation, by percentage, is much worse. The level of misinformation is also worse.

So true for City & County governments as well.

No body gets involved or gains an understanding.

Much easier to be a back-seat driver and whine later.

Most whining is NOT based on facts.

:cryin2::cryin2::cryin2:

You’re preaching to the choir kind sir!

I prefaced with ‘generalization’... as yours and mine could include municipalities as well. You would agree, since your public service spans decades, that all were much less attended back in the day, less scrutiny by media, no social media, Zoom and ‘forums’. Not a bad thing today as far as accountability. Sunshine Laws or the like another tool to that end. I’m one of those weirdos that still honors public service. Its difficult, your family makes a sacrifice as well and the decorum has definitely changed. That said, I love a packed house, public participation and civic engagement. It’s healthy for all sides of the equation..

GoldWingNut, it’s always refreshing to hear from you as you post on TOTV.
Your fact presentations continue to debunk the agenda crazy posters.

Don

Maybe you can explain what Bret Hage is doing to justify his $925,000 a year pay check after "retiring" as a county commissioner. Educate us!

He was not a county commissioner he was a state representative. This is a part time position and pays between 16 and 75k per year. His full time position for the last several years has been the logistics manager for the villages. Responsible for overseeing and directing the supply chain for all construction operations in the villages, a multi billion dollar organization. This includes homes, infrastructure, roads, and everything else that must be available on time each day to continue to build the community. His salary is comparable to his contemporaries at other large corporations with similar responsibilities. But as this is a privately held company, there are no stock options that most of his peers receive.

Where did you get the county commissioner info?

End up like Oren Miller

:shrug: How do you tell someone you are uninformed without telling them you are uninformed? :ohdear: SMH again!

27 Synonyms & Antonyms for UNINFORMED | Thesaurus.com