[golfing eagles]

Originally Posted by Janie123

We are a gated community which, I believe, reduces your insurance premiums… at least my agent asked and that’s what they told me

We are NOT a gated community; we are a community that happens to have gates for traffic control. The roads are owned by the county and therefore we cannot restrict access.

As far as insurance goes, check your itemized invoice. My homeowner's insurance charged $151.00 MORE for being in a "secured community". No idea how that makes any sense. Then again, they charged $4 more for being a single-story home. Another head scratcher.

[Altavia]

Originally Posted by golfing eagles

It was never meant to be system to restrict entry to Village residents only, it is primarily a traffic control system. Security is achieved by the video surveillance, community watch drive throughs, and watchful neighbors. At many MMP crossings you cannot see entering traffic, but you can see if the gate is down.

PS: Brought to you by the same "brain surgeons" that developed the most successful retirement community in human history.

For sure, I read this as good news.

Hopefully they are preparing the system with a more state of the art resident gate entry system.

[golfing eagles]

Originally Posted by Bilyclub

You must not get around TV much. I would say that many of the manned gates have either a MMP crossing at them or are on cart lane streets. Pretty sure it would be easier to name the manned gates that don't fit the description than the ones that do.

Absolutely. You can count them on one hand.

[Wilson02852]

It's great being retired. Can sit around all day and read enlightening posts by so many experts.

[NatureBoy]

When were the oldest gates that use the cards installed? That's how old the software could be. It could be running an a Pentium PC or a VAX minicomputer, and have severe limitations compared to modern computers. And have extremely high maintenance costs - companies don't like supporting very old systems; they want you to upgrade to the latest. Upgrading/replacing the back-end system every 10 or 20 years makes complete sense.

Next would be upgrading the card readers & cards. How many gates are there? Every single one of them would need to be replaced, and probably rewired & networked with wi-fi or modern network cabling. That doesn't sound cheap. Or, the whole system could be scrapped in favor of license plate readers - Oh, wait, FL doesn't require front plates, so that's out. Every resident would need to get the new dongle. That sounds like a nightmare.

And everything can't be replaced all at once, so there would need to be a time (months? years?) when both systems worked at the same time. That's not cheap or easy.

The gates control traffic flow. They tend to be at places where golf-cart traffic intersects car traffic. The gates let both types of traffic see each other. If there was nothing, I think we'd have a lot more golf-carts getting run over by contractors & residents.

Sounds to me like the people in charge publicized the decision making as required & OP missed the memo.

[Gunny2403]

I could care less!

[M2inOR]

The gates simply are there to slow everyone down.

Normally when they're functioning properly, the gate closes and opens for each car.

As others noted, they help the carts on the MMP when they are crossing the roadways.

Most people stop, even when the gate arms are missing because someone in their car or cart didn't wait properly.

When the gate arms are damaged and missing, some vehicles zoom thru without slowing down or stopping. In the last 2 weeks after the tropical storm recovery, I see a number of arms that have been damaged by inconsiderate drivers. They also ignore the temporary stop signs.

Cloned cards may be a problem. With other technologies, cloning is and should be difficult or impossible to do. Imagine if it was easy to clone your chip-enabled credit or ATM card. Bad enough that store and restaurant people can take a photo of your card and sell to others to use.

Bottom line, whatever system is used for safety at the gates, let's hope that improvements make it safer for everyone.

[raney3099]

Don’t see the big deal. It’s not gated anyway. Just have to press the button and anyone is in.🤷*♀️

[rrtjp]

Originally Posted by golfing eagles

It was never meant to be system to restrict entry to Village residents only, it is primarily a traffic control system. Security is achieved by the video surveillance, community watch drive throughs, and watchful neighbors. At many MMP crossings you cannot see entering traffic, but you can see if the gate is down.

PS: Brought to you by the same "brain surgeons" that developed the most successful retirement community in human history.

You know this because you have lived in every retirement community in human history, lol.
It is an archaic system. Maybe the brain surgeons subcontracted the gate system out to Curly, Larry and Mo?
Honestly I really don’t care what gate system is used here. I have nothing really to complain about living here in the most successful retirement community in history. Only one that does is probably the guy making money on cloning cards.

[JeanC]

Or……did you know the card works without even rolling your window down!!! Just pull up close enough and bam.

[golfing eagles]

Originally Posted by rrtjp

You know this because you have lived in every retirement community in human history, lol.
It is an archaic system. Maybe the brain surgeons subcontracted the gate system out to Curly, Larry and Mo?
Honestly I really don’t care what gate system is used here. I have nothing really to complain about living here in the most successful retirement community in history. Only one that does is probably the guy making money on cloning cards.

Thank you for your insight----any other pearls of wisdom?????

[RICH1]

Don’t ask questions, you might get an answer you don’t want to hear!

[mkjelenbaas]

Originally Posted by twoplanekid

I asked this question of staff->

I heard a rumor from Bruce that the gate card system in the Villages is going to change. Be forewarned that I have been giving out and using the devices that are placed in car mirrors to activate the gates for over a year.

So, please tell me the reason for the change and why my cards will no longer work. Is there a way that these cards can still work?

I believe that the using the old cards and having to wave them out an open car window is archaic in this electronic age. So, if changes are made when will we receive a device that will automatically raise gates without human interaction?

A very large number of Villagers may be upset when they find out these (auto open) cards no longer work and then need to go back to the old, old way.
I am sorry that this change was not highlighted in a newsletter to let people know that this change was going to take place.

I hope you have some good news for me about this issue as it looks very bad at this point in time.​

and ->
One additional questions about data if collected. What data is collected , who has access to the data and data collected is used for what purpose.
I thought long ago that I was told no data was collected nor retained by the gate card system and not talking about the security cameras at the gates.

Thanks again,


they responded by saying ->


Thank you for reaching out regarding the gate access control system upgrade. This project was approved in September, with support from the Amenity Authority Committee, Project Wide Advisory Committee and the Village Center and Sumter Landing CDDs.

The District has been seeking a new software vendor for a number of years to replace the existing system. As growth continued year after year in concert with the volume of card reads at the gates, the incoming data began to overburden and, at times, exceed the capacity of the existing software database. As a result, there are instances of unauthorized cards successfully opening gates; when the new system is in place, only properly credentialed cards will open the gates.

The District identified Software House C-Cure as a viable alternative to replace the existing software. This software provides a robust and expandable access control system. The capacity of the database is capable of storing one (1) million gate cards and it is administered through one centralized database. An additional benefit to Software House C-Cure is that the software is compatible with nearly all existing peripheral equipment at the gate locations – motors, readers, arms, loops, network electronics etc. In addition, all gate cards issued by the District will continue to work. By implementing this solution, only the controller itself would be replaced.

The access control system at the gates continues to serve a vital role in the community with regard to traffic management, calming and monitoring. The benefits of proper management of the access control system will further enhance the overall management of gate card data, prevent card duplication and provide more robust reporting capabilities. This is a significant benefit to residents, Staff and local law enforcement agencies. Gate card transactions are utilized to understand the volume on certain roadways, identification of individuals in the event property is damaged, and law enforcement routinely asks for reporting at specific locations.

There are certain areas in the community, such as the RV lots, that have limited access and require specific credentials assigned to the gate card. Regardless of the type of access, the District does not condone the unauthorized duplication of cards. When cards are assigned, they are tied to a specific residence or contractor based on the credentials. As with any access control system, it is not expected that these would be duplicated since it would also unnecessarily burden the volume of cards in the system.

The AAC and PWAC both expressed interest in exploring options to improve the method in which the gates are activated, including the type of devices and/or methods for opening a gate arm. The first step in the project is to upgrade the back-end software. Once that is accomplished, Staff will be communicating the Committees/Boards on other opportunities to enhance the functionality of the gates.

I then replied ->

I totally disagree with this assessment and wish that a public discussion had taken place. I understand that access control systems at the gates serve to slow traffic and let golf carts cross. However many of your other comments I would question.

The few that need restricted access to RV lots could have been given special cards. What other areas and how many other Villagers are affected compared to the total Village population?

You never answered my question as to how much detailed data the system is keeping on people accessing public roads. We are not a gate restricted community.

If the volume of individual cards that a new system can handle is 1 million, then what’s the big deal about duplicates? Plus, the cards are cloned to one that is already in the system. I don’t under this concern about duplicates. What are the specific benefits to the public in this new change other than making many thousands of duplicate cards not function?
CLONED CARDS WILL NOT WORK???

I again ask what data is collected and who has access to this data. Is this data used by public or private firms? Can I access the data? A private or public firm is the only one assigning gate cards at this time? Please note that I am not discussing the gate cameras. I believe cameras which are now located at the gates help identify individuals for law enforcement and not gate cards as you suggest.

What is the total cost of the new system for both hardware and software going to be for residents? This change to the gate management system should have been presented and discussed at a large public meeting with details in the paper and on the district website beforehand.

I am on the NSCUDD board and have always advocated for preannounced large public discussions of changes we make that affect the public. NSCUDD has held many advertised large public meetings to discuss changes and I am proud we have done so because that is the way it should be done.

a link to details on the contracts found on districtgov.org

Coversheet

Boy - that is a lot of typing!! And I am wondering why you have such an interest - maybe $$$ are involved??

[PJackpot]

How can anyone be concerned about an upgrade to the gate system? You expect them to keep old technology simply because it still works? It's outdated and its functionality is limited. Software has to constantly be upgraded for numerous reasons. Besides, this upgrade sounds like it's going to save a ton of money on maintenance. As far as data goes, I can't imagine there is any real personal information on the access card, other than residential information that is publicly available anyway. My guess is the same people who would be concerned about an upgrade to the gate system are the same people who can't wait to get their hands on the latest iphone. I'm fine with the decision that's been made. By the way, I have one of the readers installed on my car, and I still don't have an issue with upgrading the system. The installed reader is not that great anyway. I find you have to be right on top of the receiver to get it to work. It's handy in the rain, I'll give it that, but I find I still use my card a lot of the time; and if it doesn't work after the upgrade, I'm out $20...big deal.

[PersonOfInterest]

Originally Posted by Bilyclub

You must not get around TV much. I would say that many of the manned gates have either a MMP crossing at them or are on cart lane streets. Pretty sure it would be easier to name the manned gates that don't fit the description than the ones that do.

In the southern hemisphere the 2 manned gates I know of are Fenney and Marsh Bend. Neither have golf cart crossings. The gate at Morse and 466 also Morse and 441 has cart path in front of the gate if I'm not mistaken. Pardon my use of 'Most' which was an overstatement.