The June 25 final governing board meeting of the current fiscal year is in the books and the Recreation Centers of Sun City West officials can move forward in two key areas of operation.
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The June 25 final governing board meeting of the current fiscal year is in the books and the Recreation Centers of Sun City West officials can move forward in two key areas of operation.
The governing board voted unanimously to approve capital and operating projects of more than $50,000, after a motion was made by governing board member Gerry Connor. Specifically, this gives RCSCW General Manager Bill Schwind permission to spend the approved capital expenditures during July and August when the governing board goes dark. The approval includes the expenditure for each capital project or operational expense more than $50,000, as approved within the budget, and authorizes Mr. Schwind to sign the contract, purchase order or check for each expense.
“We met as a staff and took a look at all capital projects. We assigned priority numbers to them and that $5 million dollars got split down to $3 and $2 million dollar marks and that’s what we are proposing,” Mr. Schwind said. “We will take another look at the projects in December and January as far as moving forward and bring them to the board.”
Additionally, RCSCW officials were seeking approval of the Paycheck Protection Program loan application and submittal of the loan forgiveness certification criteria material. The governing board unanimously voted to approve this as well.
Mr. Schwind went through the $2,245,716 million awarded to the association, which is a federally-backed loan through the Small Business Administration. The initial application was denied, but the RCSCW association received funds on a second round when monies became available, Pete Finelli, RCSCW chief financial officer, said.
“Basically these loans are provided to help people from being laid off, there are 40 million people currently in this country without a job and we did everything we could to protect our best asset. Personally, our number one asset is the people that work here and what we can do to benefit them. We want to retain employment for these people and if this PPP helped us, great,” Mr. Schwind explained.
He added the association did take some revenue hits, including, but not limited to, golf course green fees, driving range fees, all events, tours and traveling that was canceled, craft fairs, golf lesson programs, tournaments in the sports pavilion, food and beverage and tenant and guest fees.
“We were notified we received the second round of funding and in a bag on my desk sat a deposit slip worth $2.2 million into our account,” Mr. Schwind said. “To date, we haven’t spent one nickel of that money. It has been in our bank.”
Association officials used its own funds in the account now to pay and keep their employees while no additional money was coming in, according to Mr. Finelli. The PPP funds are in the account but are not being spent. Officials will only use it to restore operational costs if the loan is forgiven and anything in excess will get rolled over to the reserve funds, per policy, Mr. Finelli explained.
The SBA will determine this month if the association’s loan will be forgiven. If it is not, the money will be returned, according to Mr. Schwind,
During the shut down the organization was continuing to move forward. Mr. Schwind said a lot of the revenue that comes in is used to balance the budget and that stopped coming in.
“The PPP helped support and we are still paying our people and the expenses are going out the door and revenue is not coming back in, so the PPP heps us get to that balance,” he said.
Governing board member Jim Young asked Mr. Schwind if he was comfortable with the rules and conditions required to meet the loan forgiveness. He admitted the association was somewhat surprised when they money showed up in the account, but after documenting all the criteria the association meets the guidelines and is just waiting to hear if it will be forgiven later this month. Additionally, governing board member Tim Hurley inquired about putting the loan money into the reserve fund if the loan is forgiven, but it was stated the funds would go back into the operational spending account, which is where it came from, per information from fellow governing board member Bryan Walus.
Reporter Jennifer Jimenez can be reached at jjimenez@newszap.com or follow her on Twitter @SCW_Independent.
I am passionate about sports and community writing and shining the light on positivity, while delivering the facts. I have been with the Independent team for five months, but in the game for 15 years. I am a proud Grand Canyon University alumni. Born and raised in Peoria, I also am blessed to have a street named after me called Jennifer Rose Court.
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