[Arctic Fox]

Originally Posted by Dr Winston O Boogie jr

This gate was built a long time ago to allow access to that area. Now it have been closed with no explanation.
If there is a good reason for it's closing I think that Villages residents are owed, at the very least an explanation.

And that, really, is the heart of the matter, good doctor.

Any attempt to propose an "innocent" reason as to why the wall was built - liability issues, closing a gap, keeping out pesky neighbors, reducing street noise for a handful of residents - has to include an explanation as to why it was done at 6 o'clock on a Saturday morning.

I can't believe that the developer was having a hard time sleeping on Friday night and suddenly said to his wife, "You know that gap that has been in existence for twenty years? I really need to get that fixed or the residents of my closed community will be nagging me to do so. Let me call my contractor right now so he can pre-cast a suitable wall section before dawn".

[njbchbum]

peachie -

if you knew the history of this cart path you would know 1] there was no trespass as the assisted living facility and mr. brown went out of their way to redirect the path when construction of harbor chase began; 2] thus, crossing the land was done with permission = no trespassing; 3] irritation does not stem from a feeling of privelege but from the unannounced loss of a 20 yr crossing upon which residents had come to rely.

where does your info that the path was only to allow access to medical offices come from? if that was so, why is it that access has been lost now rather than having left the area accessible and walling off the area around the offices?

on what info do you base your belief that spruce creek residents will shortly be allowed to cross 441/27?

what liability/implications does the villages have if people drove the cart path not on their property? as mentioned before, the owner of that property facilitated the use of his land for travellers...he had no fear of liability apparently. and he has told a poster here that he had NOTHING to do with the building of the wall. [see previous post] so your statement that he brought this upon us does not seem to be correct.

the villages is not an 'enclosed community' nor a gated community; roads are public and anyone can push a button to get a gate to raise...not to mention that the griffin ave gate to the historic side does not even have a gate.

you are, however, correct that the problem does not start/end with the historic destrict - others from throughout the villages used that access point and are also impacted adversely.

[mulligan]

Originally Posted by shankerman

This is typical of The Villages.
Why in the world would they block cart access to their own Urgent Care Center and lab???
Must be someone decided they weren't getting any money from letting people use that path. The GREED so prevalent with the Morse family continues to boggle my mind.

I'm puzzled. Where do you see greed, as opposed to sound business practice ???

[njbchbum]

Originally Posted by mulligan

I'm puzzled. Where do you see greed, as opposed to sound business practice ???

where do you see 'sound business practice' in the building of a wall that prevents villagers in getting to villages facilities?

[Bogie Shooter]

Originally Posted by shankerman

This is typical of The Villages.
Why in the world would they block cart access to their own Urgent Care Center and lab???
Must be someone decided they weren't getting any money from letting people use that path. The GREED so prevalent with the Morse family continues to boggle my mind.

Welcome to TOTV.

[mulligan]

Originally Posted by njbchbum

where do you see 'sound business practice' in the building of a wall that prevents villagers in getting to villages facilities?

Look around at 100,000 + people living in a fairly nice environment. Several hundred successful businesses providing jobs for thousands. Home sales holding steady or rising when the rest of the country is struggling. Looks fairly sound to me.

[Bogie Shooter]

Originally Posted by gocubsgo

We were just there in our cart. There must have been 15-20 carts sitting there AND a couple stuck on the other side of this wall!!! These people worked at Walmart and Lowe's and got walled out! How are they supposed to get home now? This is a golf cart community. One woman was in tears because she doesn't have a car and that's where her Dr is !

A VERY bad idea that no doubt will bring in a lot of calls and complaints. What was TV thinking doing this???

Originally Posted by gocubsgo

Just came back from Lowe's...in my car...and out of curiosity I drove past there. There are 6 people stuck on the other side, one has called the police and on TV side I counted 26 carts lined up and tempers flaring. No warning, nothing in the precious Villages Sun and no notice...just slapped up the wall and stuck a sign in the ground. Wanna take bets on how long it is before we see graffiti on that damn thing?

Originally Posted by gocubsgo

If the hospital is worried because people are migrating to Ocala for health care, then why put up a wall and block everyone from going to the medical buildings on the other side??

Originally Posted by gocubsgo

One lady told me they put up that sign at 7AM this morning. I was able to get through 3 days ago and that sign was not there.

Originally Posted by gocubsgo

What about the poor woman this morning who had no car and couldn't afford a taxi ? What is she supposed to do? Bum rides from neighbors everytime she wants to shop or go to the Dr?

Originally Posted by gocubsgo

Great photo Dr W...for those of you who have no clue as to the seriousness of this situation (and there are quite a few I see), the wall was put up where it says Cart Trail on the photo.

All of you who are laughing at this and calling us whiners, I want you over there on the south side to imagine a wall going up and blocking off Colony Plaza with no way to get around it. I'm tired of everyone thinking this a "get over it" situation.
This thing was slapped up in the middle of the night. That doesn't say up and up to me...that says sneaky. NO notice and no regard for the fact that residents were going to be stuck on the other side trying to get in after working all night! It's cold, cruel and harsh. I missed a DR appt this morning because my husband took the car and I couldn't get over there! That's not "you people have no clue"...that's reality and reality for us sucks right now.

Interesting......................................

Originally Posted by gocubsgo

We are the few I guess that are actually leaving TV. We are heading to southern TN within the next 6 months. We miss kids, seasons and find we can buy a bigger house for much less money up there. We aren't fond of the oppressive heat here in the summer and we find it WAY too crowded in the winter.

[orgunvs]

Many of my friends and myself did not know about the protest this morning. What do you guys think about meeting at the radio station at 10:00am every day this week? Word will get out! This effects all of us.

[EdV]

Originally Posted by graciegirl

....Where is Edvin Mass when you need him to tell us what is happening with the cart paths. Is this the SAME cart path that he was updating us on?...

Well Gracie, I’ve been conspicuously absent on this issue because I’m 600 miles away in the Smoky Mountains and on the way up here last month, I took a bad fall and I’m recuperating from a fractured knee cap. I just caught this thread and spent a couple of hours reading through it so I could post intelligently without repeating anything that’s been said. But my tongue is sore from biting it.

1. This was a shock to me and I never saw it coming either.
2. The golf cart access path sits right on the county line between Sumter and Lake counties.
3. The property on the west side is listed as owned by “Villages Tri-County Medical Center Inc.” which is a nonprofit organization not affiliated in any way with Gary Morse or his companies as far as I can tell.
4. The property on the east side (on Paradises Dr.) is listed as owned by “Villages of Lake Sumter Inc.” which is of course Morse’s company.
5. From the photographs taken by BKCunningham and others, it’s impossible to say which property the wall is on. Six inches either way makes it one or the other.
6. Using aerial photographs from Google Earth, I can tell you that in 1999 the path through there appears to be just a dirt path. But in the 2004 photograph, Morse had paved his side with a divider and the Tri County Medical side installed a golf cart sized roundabout with pavers.
7. Sometime on or after the 2004 upgrade, access gates were installed there to limit access to card carrying TV residents but the town of Lady Lake soon after made them remove the gates. The reason being that you cannot discriminate access to a public road (Paradise Dr.)

These last two points are extremely important if a legal battle ensues. Both property owners made significant roadway improvements on or before 2004 with intent to provide safe paved golf cart access through that area. So that useage has been in place for over a decade.

Now, has anyone contacted the building permit departments at Lake and Sumter counties to determine for sure to whom the permit for the wall was issued?

[chuckinca]

Originally Posted by Arctic Fox

I can't believe that the developer was having a hard time sleeping on Friday night and suddenly said to his wife, "You know that gap that has been in existence for twenty years? I really need to get that fixed or the residents of my closed community will be nagging me to do so. Let me call my contractor right now so he can pre-cast a suitable wall section before dawn".

A precast wall section needs 30 days to cure BEFORE installation - - -

.

[OldManTime]

You all aren't going to believe this...but the path is a

BUILDING LOT !!

In the town of Lady Lake

[gocubsgo]

Originally Posted by mulligan

Look around at 100,000 + people living in a fairly nice environment. Several hundred successful businesses providing jobs for thousands. Home sales holding steady or rising when the rest of the country is struggling. Looks fairly sound to me.

Why do you people who have absolutely NO clue what's going on over here think you have to come into this discussion to do nothing else but throw gas on a fire? All you do is ridicule and sit there and throw judgement on a subject you are far removed from. Go to a different thread and talk about golf. Leave this problem to the people who care about each other and are affected.

Thanks for all the support...

[gocubsgo]

Originally Posted by Bogie Shooter

Interesting......................................

Really? You have that much time on your hands that you went through this thread and pulled out my posts?

Get a life...

[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

Originally Posted by graciegirl

"They" didn't close the Orange Blossom restaurant. The restaurant who was leasing the facility failed to renew the lease. I am sure that the Morses want to rent it to a new restaurant business, greedy and dispicible as they are. If it is sitting there empty..they aren't getting rent money. Could it have been that the restaurant folks weren't making as much money as they wished, or their business had dropped for some reason?

The wall is the issue. Maybe you are right and Gary is an ugly greedy person. Those of you who are posting that yet haven't moved here, maybe you should rethink it.

I hope the answer will not be that we will never know why. Because many are sure that they do know why.

I agree that the closing of OBH restaurant, the cowboy statue or the many other things that keep being mentioned in these posts are totally irrelevant to this issue.

I don't believe that the Morse's want to the see the historic district destroyed as they still make money on most of the homes that are sold here. I don't know if the Morse's are greedy or not and I don't care. I suspect that they are just business people who want to do what's best of their business. I'm not going speculate about the reasons that this wall was erected nor am I going to engage in personal attacks of the Morse family.

I don't think that any of that is helpful to this discussion or the goals of the people who have been affected by this wall.

I would simply like, and I believe that we all deserve, that either the wall be taken down or a reasonable explanation of why it was put up.

Can we please try to stick with the issue here and stop with all of the speculative comments that only confuse the discussion.

[rubicon]

I support the wall along the Mexican border and so I support a wall all along The Villages.