The July 17 town hall-style public forum, the first ever in Sun City, was certainly a success in drawing a crowd.
Board president Jerry Kirschner and association executive director Bill Pennock presided at the event and turned it over to the residents so they could ask questions and make comments on any subject they wished. Nearly 250 residents filled the Fountain View Center for the unique occasion.
There was one serious issue between the newly chartered Bean Bag Club and the board regarding a room reservation matter (see related story in this issue). But the rest of the 90-minute event was a generally friendly dialog among Kirschner and Pennock, CAM staffers, and residents on subjects ranging from synchronizing the clocks at Prairie Lodge to the CAM website to the upcoming renovation of the Prairie Lodge parking lot and watering grass in the current heat wave/drought.
“This is the first town meeting we’ve ever had just for residents to ask questions and make comments,” Kirschner said. “It’s an experiment. We’ll evaluate it afterward and then decide if we want to do any more of them.”
Pennock opened the meeting with a series of announcements:
Work will begin soon on a $1.2 million renovation of the Prairie Lodge parking lot.
“About 170 new spaces will be added, bringing the total to more than 700,” he said. “The number of handicapped spaces will be tripled, drainage will be improved, and many of the angled spaces next to the Whisper Creek golf pro shop and Jameson’s will be eliminated in favor of spaces striped at 90-degree angles to the driving lanes.”
He also said the lot will be extensively re-landscaped. The work should be completed in 2013. The indoor pool at Prairie Lodge will be closed Aug. 12-22 for maintenance purposes.
Below is a summary of other questions and comments, and responses:
Why can’t board meetings be broadcast or published on the website? And are wireless services going to be available at the lodge? Kathleen Flannery, director of information technology and communications, said work is on going to solve the challenges of wireless installation and board broadcasts and meetings to those who don’t have Comcast programs in their homes.
“Wireless is a bandwidth problem,” Flannery said. “And we’re working to tier the services so that business clubs and individuals have their own tiers.”
A resident who identified herself as a master gardener advised the audience that the drought conditions have gotten so serious that lawns are in danger of dying out, and not just going dormant.
“Don’t assume your lawn will come back on its own,” she said. “You need to water them as much as you can, at least until it starts to rain more frequently.”
Also on the subject of water, Pennock said, in response to another audience question, that the Village of Huntley has “come close” recently to a decision to either ban watering entirely or restrict it more severely.
Rich Wille, president of the Angler’s Club, provided information about continuing efforts to halt erosion along the edges of Wildflower Lake, and to ask if there are any plans for more improvements in the future.
“These things are being discussed, but if you [the club] have any suggestions for us, please let us know,” Kirschner said.
“Rocks have been added to the north and east sides of the lake, but more work is needed on the west side,” Wille said. “The lake level is down about six inches in this drought, and we have seen a number of large fish, including a 31-inch northern pike, die recently.”
How open is Pulte Homes to suggestions for changes in our covenants and governing documents? a resident asked.
“Pulte has verbally said no to that, but we have received two letters that appear to possibly give us a small window of opportunity to discuss the matter with them,” Kirschner said. “We will keep working on it with them.”
What is going to happen with the resident satisfaction surveys? was another question.
“We keep working on our mailed surveys, but the apathy is overwhelming,” Kirschner said. “We get only 150 responses, at most, each year, in comparison to the several thousand mailed out. We will keep trying.”
A couple of residents asked about plans to redecorate Prairie Lodge.
“We think the lodge is beautiful now, is redecorating really necessary?” one asked.
“It is necessary, because a lot of the materials and furnishings have outlived their usefulness in 13 years,” Kirschner said. “We have funds in reserve to do this and not charge residents for it.
“Could some of us experienced in decorating help out,” another resident asked. “We tried that a few years ago, and it got chaotic, so we will hire professionals to do the work,” Kirschner added.
There was a moment of humor when a resident asked what the board was doing to save money and reduce costs.
“We ordered no snow this year,” Pennock replied with a straight face and then a quick smile. “We crank cost savings into our annual budget process,” he added. “It is part of our budget planning each year.”
“Our budget is zero-based each year, we do not roll over money from one year to the next,” Kirschner said.
Barry Marcus, chairman of the board’s Finance Advisory Committee, said, “We do a balancing act each year between our reserves, our available funds, and our anticipated costs. We know people here are on fixed incomes, and income is often down. We have minimized budget increases and we are currently $300,000 under budget in expenses this year. That excess goes into reserves. No one is spending money just because it’s there.”
Other questions related to upgrading the paths at the community gardens, guidelines for solicitors in Sun City, whether the kitchen in Fountain View Center can be unlocked and available to groups, whether the clocks in Prairie View can be synchronized better, changes in the 2012 board election procedures (an outside organization has been hired to run elections from now on), the reorganization of board advisory committees, a complaint about the condition of the wetlands site on Cold Springs Drive, and perceived problems with supervision at Prairie Lodge pools on weekends.
When it was over, Kirschner asked if residents wanted more of these town meetings.
“Yes,” was the enthusiastic answer from most of the attendees.
