CR 103 is just east of Wal-Mart and CR105 is by Wal-Mart on the West side and goes by the Leahy Golf driving range.

Yes, CR 101 is by Crisper's and the Methodist Church. Woodridge and Wedgewood both cross it. The cones are there, but there is no signage on the cones from the Palm Ridge Side (at least there wasn't yesterday) and there were lots of carts that were not the street legals crossing.

I know this is redundant info but I decided to post it anyway..........in support of the fact that the VCDD, at least Eva Rey in this specific instance, is responsive to our questions:

"Bill:

Thank you for your e-mail submitted via the Districts’ website and the opportunity to answer your questions.

Pieces of the cement tunnel wall have begun to break away and fall onto the path. We are currently working with the engineers and the testing company to determine what the problem is with the tunnel and what it will take to resolve the issue. They will be taking core samples tomorrow. We should receive the results of the core sample testing in approximately 3 weeks. As I am sure you can understand, the safety of Village residents is paramount to District management and closing the tunnel is necessary to ensure everyone’s safety.

Please continue to monitor our website and local media for any new information available on this issue.

Sincerely,

Eva M. Rey, MPA
Director of Purchasing and Support Services
Village Community Development Districts
1894 Laurel Manor Drive
The Villages, FL 32162
Phone (352) 751-6700
Fax (352) 751-6715
eva.rey@districtgov.org
"Hospitality, Stewardship, Innovation & Creativity, Hard Work"

Note: Under Florida Law, email communications are public records. If you do not want your email address or email contents released in response to a public-records request, do not send electronic email to this entity."

Bill

In my opinion, there would be no huge safety issue with carts crossing CR101 up by the Methodist Church. Rather than have the orange cones that say NO cart crossing, they should put the cones in the middle of CR101 and have them say "CAUTION: Golf Cart Crossing". A street legal cart is no safer than any other cart for crossing a road like CR101.

For all the tax money Sumter County gets from TV, they should be able to handle a temporary situation, such as this, quite easily.

I'm pretty new here, so am I way off base in this thinking ???? :shrug:

Sounds rational to me!

Bill

Tonight saw quite a few people parking near Crispers and walking across 101. That is much more dangerous than a planned detour.

I'm really bummed out about the tunnel closing - I ride my golf cart to work in the Palm Ridge Plaza (I'm a Master Tax Advisor for H&R Block). I looked for cross walks so that I could park my cart around Crispers and walk to work, but I couldn't find a legal place to cross CR 101.
Guess I tell my hubbie he gets the cart and I get the car!

Do you think calling a commissioner would be of benefit?

I thought a street legal cart was licensed to travel 10 to 15 MPH faster than a non street legal cart.

Is there a statute that says you can't walk across 101?

From my understanding, a street legal cart gets you an additional 5 MPH. There are few other benefits, but speed isn't really one of them.

I considered purchasing a street legal cart, but in the end, didn't think it was worth the extra cost....

Bogie Shooter.... that's a great idea! Not sure who that would be, but I'll find out and contact them today... I'll post any response I get.

Thanks for the suggestion!

If the tunnel is unsafe for carts to go through because the concrete is crumbling, doesn't it stand to reason that it is unsafe for cars and trucks to travel over?

Today's Daily Sun has an article (page C-1) stating that the tunnel may be closed 4 weeks or longer. It further mentions that Sumter County Officials are not permitting golf carts to cross the roadway and there is no detour route in effect.

Earlier today, I sent a note to the county commissioner, responsible for District 3, who is Don Burgess. In that email, I made a couple recomendations that would allow cart traffic to cross CR101 in a safe manner, in my opinion.

Once I receive a response, I will post on this thread for all to see. If you are interested in contacting Don yourself, his email address is don.burgess@sumtercountyfl.gov

This should be a very easy issue to resolve...ie creating a detour for carts to cross CR101. It's done all the time for road construction projects. In fact, there was detour created for the reconstruction of the cart paths on the north side that had cart traffic on Buena Vista Blvd. for quite a distance.

We'll see how responsive the county government is to such requests...

Cheers.....