SUN CITY – Put something popular in one place for 12 years, and then move it, and you’ve probably got a controversy on your hands.
This is what has happened with the relocation of the CAM Desk in Sun City’s Prairie Lodge from the main entrance area in the center of the building to the far eastern end, next to the new Fountain View Center.
The CAM desk, of course, is one of the most prominent and busiest places in all of Sun City. It is the development’s Times Square, even in some ways it’s Disney World. It’s where residents buy or reserve tickets for entertainment events, buy trash stickers, make appointments with Wentworth staff members, get information, use a copy machine, meet their friends, and obtain answers to a thousand questions. In short, it was where the action was, Sun City-wise. Note the emphasis on “was.”
Now it is at one end of the facility, not in the center of it. Some residents say this will take some getting used to. Some, of course, just don’t like change. Others are embracing the move.
“It was so easy to find it in the center of the building, and now it’s way down on the other end and inconvenient,” one resident recently complained to friends. Others are more philosophical: “We’ll get used to the new location, just like we did with the other one,” they say.
Barry Marcus, a member of the committee that planned the development of Fountain View, provided several rationales for the relocation.
“First,” he says, “the support people for CAM are almost all down at Fountain View. The offices are below. The CAM desk now is right next to them, making communications and member service coordination easier. Also, we have a parking problem in front of the main lobby entrance. Parkers for the golf course, the restaurant, Drendel Hall, fitness center, and so on, [all park] in a congested area at the center of the [exterior of the] building. The parking area in front of Fountain View was empty. Now, we have spread out the parking to relieve congestion. In addition, the bus pickup area for day trips was near the lobby. Now it has been shifted over to the Fountain View area, using a formerly empty parking area. And we also believe the newly renovated atrium is a beautiful place for members to gather and meet.”
But is the new “action place” happening? Some say it is, as neighborhood groups, charter clubs, and special interest groups have quickly filled the new space with dawn-to-dusk activities. Others, including those who primarily use the swimming pools, fitness center, multi-purpose room, and Drendel Hall (all located near the center of the lodge) say the new location is inconvenient, and it’s a longer walk from the parking area to the center.
It’s a lively dialog, and the jury is out on where it will end.
