Schaper: Options for Sun City pickleball to pay its own way
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By Mary Schaper | Sun City
On Nov. 20, I attended the town hall at Sundial Rec Center without knowing it would only be about Mountain View and pickleball. The email that had been sent to homeowners did not specify topics to be covered. I was in for a surprise!
In brief, there was no agenda. Upon entering I received a one-page schematic of four floor plans not identified other than the “M” plan was for the name of the architect. The back side of the printout had items and dollars assigned.
Briefly the first floor plan would be $25.2 million. Found it interesting that there was no category for cost overrun 10% to 20%. Learned the Mountain View renovation has been talked about for over 20 years and the first architect plan cost $191,000. This current updated schematic was $10,000. The strategic committee put information together of what add-ins were proposed with 40% of the meeting talking about pickleball and15-plus new courts. By the way, no committee member announced their name or position, and no names or contact information were provided.
After many years of corporate planning and financial management, it is apparent why this “project” has not gotten off the ground. I suggest reading the Sun City website for what was envisioned for the community to have good value, active community and 55-plus community. It was mentioned Sun City needs younger people. Yes, the ability to pay for new improvements may be greater, however the entire community is chartered at 55-plus. It was also mentioned that “any previous financials or information from previous Mountain View committees must have been thrown away as the current committee could not find any.” It was mentioned, “pickleball is the No. 1 sport in the country,” but no source was quoted. However, in doing minimal research on Google, it is not listed for best activity sports for age 55-plus.
The current increase in annual fees was due to $10 million for maintenance not completed or scheduled and salaries of workers. Curious, what happened to the maintenance oversight, let alone when did Sun City start worker “salaries and benefits” versus part-time workers and no benefits as well as volunteers.
The general manager is for all the current recreation centers day-to-day expenses along with current changes (monetary) in process. The general manager has the responsibility of alignment with the annual budget. We are sorely in need of a leader that can create and handle a large project agenda both material and financial.
Applause to all who have participated in the strategic planning committee thus far, however it is going around and around in talk and there is no map of what are needs or is proposed. I suggest settling on something for the benefit of the entire community.
Suggestion one is for a project plan where all people could speak from the same page and constituencies can be heard equally.
To be clear, who is paying for all of this Mountain View project with its proposed add-ins? I inquired of four of the people who spoke at the town hall but didn’t identify themselves as committee members. I thought a simple question was how many households that pay annual dues are there? The answer in unison was “I don’t know for sure.” Answers of 30,000, 33,000, 35,000 and 36,000. Thus far there has been no mention of a future growth fund for the community either. Coming away from the meeting it seemed there is a desire to be the “premier senior community for pickleball.” This is all well and good, however who pays for it? Being in the business community, I learned the best deal to receive when you want something is to get someone else to pay for it. Having formerly lived in Pebble Creek, I learned that the annual dues (10 years ago) was $1,000 and to be a golf member was $10,000 per year. It seems there is a strong constituency for pickleball and additional courts. Then grandfather the current groups and how they receive membership fees and have a stipend such as a start of $1,500 per year per household for pickleball. Over time this should assist in paying for the major upgrade.
Perhaps a better suggestion and more likely to actually get started and completed is to pair out the add-on pickleball courts that impacts more rec centers and Mountain View. Separating this would allow for targeted discussion of costs, reduction of lanes from lawn bowling, and clarify the pickleball discussions. The current membership in Pickle Ball is 1,200. This is people not households. We have professional sport people in other activities in Sun City, however we have not found over the years to have bigger golf, swimming, or tennis facilities for tournaments.
