I've been planning on moving to the Villages for almost a year now. Next month I'm scheduled for 6 days for another lifestyle visit. This third visit was to narrow down areas to live. With the LLC gone TV is just another very large retirement community. I'll probably spend 4 of the 7 days looking outside TV. Sad for me but probably sadder for all those already invested in TV

Let's hope someone in the Morse family read this trend
"I've been planning on moving to the Villages for almost a year now. Next month I'm scheduled for 6 days for another lifestyle visit. This third visit was to narrow down areas to live. With the LLC gone TV is just another very large retirement community. I'll probably spend 4 of the 7 days looking outside TV. Sad for me but probably sadder for all those already invested in TV"

:( 4 Letters To The Editor in today's "Daily Sun" nothing mentioned on TOTV about them today. (1 from Schwarz)

Letters to the Editor:

Daily Sun
1100 Main St.
The Villages, Fl.32159

Email:

letters@thevillagesmedia.com


Larry D. Croom - Reader Ombudsman

Larry is the newsroom's primary liaison to the community
and welcomes your comments.

Email:

larry.croom@thevillagesmedia.com

Phone:

(352) 753-1119 ext. 9366

Not trying to be funny or disrespectful, but if the plaintiffs are deaf/hearing impaired, how can they hear the presentations in the first place and then be able to sign for the the rest of the attendees?

Sorry, but the LLC is not even close to the only thing that sets TV apart from other large retirement communities. There are tens of thousands of happy people here who never set foot in the LLC.

It's not only the ALC affected by the suit. It has the capacity to affect ALL classes in TV - yes, Rec centers

Would have loved to have a M-80, & see who runs out of the house when it went off

There is so much more to TV than the LLC. Is that the only thing you investigated on your previous visit?
It is not just another very large retirement community.

Its interesting how the same thing can be said 500 slightly different ways.................................

In Schwarz' letter, he calls Randy McDaniel a liar. So, what's the truth. Were the deaf offered accommodations that would be deemed reasonable by an independent arbitrator? I think Mr. McDaniel and TV needs to get communicating because the truth about the situation has yet to be made clear.

Thank you. That's been my point all along. If so, we're back to the jackass theory.

A number of people have already made positive suggestions about what the community can do next … contact Orlando media, contact AARP etc. I support those ideas.

Other believe our best hope is convincing the Developer to reopen negotiations with the plaintiffs. It’s ok to hope, but hope is not a strategy. If I was the Developer, there’s no way I’d touch it at this point but maybe we’ll get lucky? But I’m certainly ok with asking again etc

In the meantime, and given the feckless letter from the VHA, the POA is now the only group we can look to who will actually fight, and fight hard, to protect the interests of all TV residents. The President of POA, with approval / inputs from his Board, should appoint a “Lifelong Learning College Task Force (LLCTF)” Leader whom in addition to being a Villager, is also ideally a retired attorney with a proven track record in litigation.

The Charter of the LLCTF should be something along these lines:

1. Investigate what legal recourse is available for TV residents, if any, to recoup damages from the responsible parties, and to include approaches for disincentivizing any similar future lawsuits. Determine what assistance, if any, is needed from independent outside counsel as well.

2. Determine what legal and other steps need to be taken now to better protect our interests from potential future attacks upon the RLGs, Clubs etc from unreasonable and/or financially impossible demands, while also fully complying with the law.

3. Craft a plan to recreate a LLC-like entity, using alternative means and volunteer efforts to included restoring classes, even if in a limited way at first. Consider using the Rec Centers and/or Savannah Center as facilities, club-like membership etc. This effort could logically branch off into a separate Task Force later on at some point. It should also address reasonable means to address the needs of deaf students, where applicable.

We also need legislative remedies longer term. After the LLCTF gets started and has a chance to better research the specifics, the President of the POA should then personally visit both Congressman Daniel Webster and State Senator Dennis Baxley, and other political leaders TBD. The POA President should ask them for their assistance to begin examining legislative remedies at the Federal and State levels. Invite them to attend and address a future POA meeting as well. I note that both of these gentlemen visited, and made personal presentations to, a meeting of The Villages Straight Shooters (i.e. Gun Club) a few weeks before the election. We have 120,000 voters here in TV … they will pay attention!

The ADA statutes need technical improvements and reform. The protections afforded the disabled MUST be preserved (i.e. after all, we will ALL be disabled at some point). However the imperfections which currently allow blatantly unfair and arbitrary actions such as this lawsuit need to be eliminated for good. The recent CBS 60 Minutes expose is further evidence this is already a national problem, and not just unique to TV.

Everyone has a different agenda. With 115,000 residents and 18,000 enrolled, it was another way of spending retirement. I never attended the LLLC or anticipated going anytime in the near future. I spend my mornings, five of them a week, at MVP working out and taking gym classes. Afternoons I play golf (many more courses than anywhere else), go to the movies (we have 3 multiplex theaters), go to the squares and listen to music (3 squares music everday), shop or eat out (many restaurants). Others I'm sure bowl, play pickleball, play way more golf than me, or eat out more than me.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_aWflL2jDpW...Sumter_lzn.jpg

If you have your mind set on furthering your education, there is always Lake Sumter State College exactly 13 miles from Colony Plaza. They offer 2 year programs and some 4 year programs.

Lake-Sumter State College | Home

http://www.lssc.edu/Style%20Library/...me/slide-2.jpg

I would say that at this point it is up to the Court to decide who is lying.

Apples and Oranges but expected since the LLC has no impact on your life. For those that the LLC has impacted this is not something to rationalize away because you don't play.

I don't think he's rationalizing it away at all ... simply pointing out the broader context of the TV lifestyle.

Your right it is apples and oranges. I was trying to show a perspective Villager there is more to The Villages than the LLLC. I only included the college to show that we do have some alternatives, not to your standards, but something others might find interesting. We have a lot of classes at MVP, I take a couple everyday. They probably aren't much different than LLLC offered on some levels. One class today was Yoga instructed by Suzanne Duncan, her husband was just featured in the Sun for bicycling across the United States. Physical education is even more important to some of us at our age.

This reminds me, I forgot in my first post about softball. We have the largest softball league in America. Over 200 teams, 2500 players at 11 different ball diamonds. That you won't find at Top of the World or anywhere else. When I came to TV I played neighborhood league 15 seasons in a row, that's 5 years, every Saturday morning. It really brings back your youth.

Didn't mean to touch a nerve but with health care changing and now no LLC the unique nature of TV is less unique. I'm still interested in TV and no the LLC wasn't the only draw but those two things were the reason why I never considered any other place. Hoping it all gets worked out

sounds like it could be made into a "defamation of character" lawsuit.

"Defamation of character occurs when someone makes a false statement about you that causes you some type of harm. The statement must be published (meaning some third party must have heard it), false, and it must result in harm, usually to the reputation."

I have to side with Bogie and JW on this one.
First of all, health care did not change---health care INSURANCE did---quite a different thing
We may be in the process of losing the LLLC, but, on average it is a very small part of TV lifestyle. In fact, we may lose a resource that most other retirement communities never had in the first place.
You need to do what is right for you, but don't get bogged down in the emotional response to the closing

Questioning.....
 

1. Just out of curiosity, please provide the names of other "large retirement communities" that are more attractive places to live in than The Villages now that the LLC is closed.

2. What makes them more attractive?

3. If you were one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit do you think you might make some anonymous posts on TOTV pressuring the LLC to give in by claiming you were a prospective purchaser who was disinclined to buy here if the LLC remains closed?

That's a decent point well taken. But, possibilities could be lip reading, pre printed text of the class content for that day (would require a lot I know and wouldn't be perfect), speech to text software for the interpreter, possibly instructors who sign. There is almost nothing that can't be accomplished in life with a little ingenuity, will power, and cooperation. I hope this gets worked out.

I fully agree with virtually every comment you have made on this topic.

If 18,000 or so Villagers have been harmed by this action, do we as a group have any potential legal recourse with respect to the plaintiffs?

---///---

phrase everything as an opinion, not fact

Where is the POA and VHA in all of this mess?!?!?!
 

We belong to both the Villages "POA" and the "VHA"... We can only HOPE that Both of these "Resident/ Owner groups" will take a MAJOR stand to "Right this Wrong"!!! It is a MOST TERRIBLE WRONG against TV and ALL of us who live here (atleast 99.9% of us who love and support the LLC)!!! Hoping we can "Get It Back", for sure!!!

Very hard to get a libel suit to stick against something written on a public discussion forum like this one.

foolish
 

Why did you ride by the plaintiff's house? how do you know the cars and golf carts are theirs? You sound pretty presumptuous to think that they want money based on autos in a person's driveway.
chilout

Whether most other retirement communities had an LLC is immaterial, in my opinion. We had it, that was a large reason for our moving here, and now it's gone. It does me no good to say, "Oh, well, nobody else had one either."

Maybe we should all send letters to the Congressman and senator NOW, not after task force is appt. we don't know they will form a task force for sure. Someone sent me a pm that they called AARP and sent them the newspaper article. If the Congressman and Senator get 500 plus email in a week, a sleeping giant might wake up. Even if the ADA gets fine tuned to avoid the problems shown on 60 minutes. I don't know if it needs to be individually crafted letters or one strong appeal that some bright poster can put together that we all simply print, sign and mail. I only say that because I believe many more will actually send the letter faster that way. The faster, the better, in my opinion.
I am more upset this can happen , than I am about the actual closing (but I did use and really enjoyed LLLC).

The context of the comment was the sub-thread from a poster that was now going to spend more time looking outside TV for a retirement home---hence the comparison. I too had a class cancelled and am unhappy. But the sky is not falling. Carl in Tampa put it best---even without the LLLC, where is there a better place to live?

My concern is that we are becoming a less nice place to live. Facilities are already very crowded during the busy season. The LLC took some of the pressure off the crowding by offering alternatives to the free-with-amenities-fee activities.

It is not dead yet. We can bring it back in some other form. The need is to have reasonable accommodation for those who are deaf who want to share in the educational experience. I do think that we each should write our State and Federal representatives to make sure that the ADA is being applied in a reasonable manner rather than a bureaucratic one where the words of the ADA are more important than the spirit of the law. We do not need red tape loves; we need more people who actually act like Christians or those who follow the Golden Rule which is found in many religions.

I still think the whole mess is two sides in a ****ing contest with the community being showered. Faults on both sides mainly related to pride.

The Worst Hurt
 

I just heard that the person's who were impacted by this decision and had children in the Charter School allegedly lost the right for the kids to go to the Charter School because they no longer worked in the Villages. If that is true or even close to the truth and just one child allegedly lost his or her right to attend the Charter School that is the worst to happen. That is a terrible shame that because of some adults allegedly acting out they lost their rights to a good education. We should all be ashamed to allow something like that to happen to a child..In my opinion this is disgusting.:throwtomatoes:

Why not increase the course fees as required to comply with the statutes?

There are plenty of schools in the area. No one is going without an education. There will now be room for new TV employees' kids. I'm neither ashamed nor proud of TV. Pride or shame of TV should be deferred to the developer. We didn't build TV. We don't run TV. It's like being proud of being on medicare.

I just sent a letter off to the POA, Property Owners, Association of Florida on the left side see contact us. Please do the same.

Never looked at other retirement communities because I've always been focused on TV. My main focus is still TV but now I'm curious about other communities

From what I hear other communities have similar amenities but on a much smaller scale. These other communities will be compared to TV as the standard
I can promise you I am not a plaintiff in the LLC case. I also recognize that I have no vote in resolving this case because I'm not a property owner in TV...yet. I was trying to point out, as others have, that property values and appeal could change with the permanent loss of the LLC. Hoping this all goes away with no money to the plaintiffs.

Disappointed
 

I am disappointed to read that some residents don't care if a child loses his ability to attend The Villages Charter School. It is obvious those persons never had to move much, make friends, adjust to the school, etc etc. What selfish attitudes and disheartening to think there are people like that in our communities. As the saying goes "it takes all kinds to make up the world". :throwtomatoes: