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Sun City resident offers Mountain View suggestions

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Here’s my opinion on the Mountain View project with a little different take.

First, I am 110% in favor of a performing arts center. Second, it seems that the Recreation Centers of Sun City drums one thing into the heads of every new director, and that’s their fiduciary responsibility to the corporation. So let’s take a look at a few facts.

Fact No.1. It takes money to maintain and staff each recreation center. Fact No. 2. Sun City is not a growing community. There are only a finite number of rooftops and its borders are well defined and limited, so excluding the Vintage Vehicle Club’s building, was there really a need to increase the number of recreation centers by adding the Grand Center? Fact No. 3. Fairway Center is less than one mile away from Mountain View. It’s much newer with many and more amenities than Mountain View.

Here are some suggestions.

Dedicate the current space occupied by Mountain View to a state of the art performing arts center with only limited sporting facilities. Increase the number of pickleball courts, eliminate the lawn bowling since there are several other locations to lawn bowl and take a very hard look at eliminating some of the other outdoor amenities since Fairway is so close that will make increased parking spaces available. I believe the new performing arts center should be able to accommodate at least 900 seats so that the Sundial indoor concerts can be transferred to that facility.

Take advantage of a flat floor and provide retractable, terraced, theater-type seating. By using retractable seating the theater will be able to set-up a dinner-theater type environment or other special banquet type occasions.

The performing arts center can be used for more than just the Sun City Players and indoor concerts. A lecture series could be added as well as many other venues not excluding the possibility of renting the facility to local outside community groups. The more the facility is used the more cost efficient it becomes.

Is it fiduciarily responsible to eliminate any amenities built at Mountain View with PIF money that will be eliminated or unusable within the required 15-year depreciable life? Or not to take the opportunity to cut costs by reducing our recreation facilities back down to seven? The addition of the Grand Center and Vintage Vehicle Club building has only increased the cost of maintenance and staff requirements and financial burden on the corporation/community.

I suspect a large number of those currently living near and using Mountain View will have, unfortunately, passed-on by the time the new facility is finally completed. The center will be closed down for 1-1.5 years and the people who had used that center will surely find an alternative. I would suspect that by the time the new Mountain View facility is finally completed most will have gotten themselves into a new routine and Mountain View will hardly be missed.

A performing arts center has been promised for many, many years only to be pushed to the back-burners while other facilities bypassed the process and were built. Consolidating the design to just a performing arts center with a few outdoor sporting facilities will greatly decrease the cost of not only building, but maintaining and staffing.