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The Sun Cities Independent
Page 4A Letters
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| Original Willowcreek Stream |
Creek project too costly
The Recreation Centers of
Sun City Board of Directors approved $435,000 to “waterproof” the Willowcreek Golf Course stream.
Cement plastic-lined gutter eyesores ruined the streams on Willowbrook, Riverview and Lakes West golf courses. A repeat
contractor bid $94,000 to do Lakes West, but it ended up costing us $200,000 in 1999. Since then that same contractor
has “won” bid after bid at inflated prices. He built the little Bell Lawn Bowling Club building the board passed
off as a “multi-use” building for an outrageous $410,000.
For playability and aesthetics,
Del Webb golf courses have waterproof plastic-lined natural looking streams called “golf course water features.”
The RCSC golf course deed restrictions require Del Webb quality standards, which gutters do not meet.
Pacific Aquascape is Del Webb’s golf course water features specialty contractor. They would have done Lakes West for $165,000. They did the waterfalls and streams for Sun City Grand, Anthem, Sun City Festival, etc. (see
http://pacificaquascape.com). Pacific Aquascape is shut out of bidding if the specs call for gutters.
The RCSC’s bid
commission consists of three board members who approve the specs and bids without open meetings, minutes or board approval.
If these specs aren’t for a “golf course water feature” on Willowcreek, they lose members’ faith
and deserve recall. Also, we at Sun City Formula Registry, of which I am a spokeswoman (www. annereport. com, 623-933-6192,
anne@annereport.com), believe any manager promoting gutters on Sun City golf courses is incompetent, deserving dismissal as well.
Low annual assessments require attracting golfers to Sun City. Critical to that end are Del Webb quality golf course
water features.
Anne Randall Stewart
Sun City
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| The gutter at Lakes West Golf Course |
The Anne Report UPDATE:
Since the letter above was submitted to the
Independent, it was learned that indeed the specifications were written to eliminate Pacific Aquascape ("PA") from
the bidding process by requiring them to install cement gutters or troughs which they do not do. As a result, Anne Randall Stewart contacted PA and requested
a bid with the following directive: "waterproof the stream at Willowcreek". She gave them two lengths that
the board was contemplating. The bids* came in at $203,000 and $308,000 depending on the length that the board
decided upon. This bid was drastically below the $435,000 asked for by Jon Snyder, the golf course superintendent, and
approved by the board at the March board meeting. Tom Beckwith delivered the PA bid to the board at the 4/6/09
RCSC Director/Member Exchange meeting and was ridiculed by them. It was immediately shot down by the board and General
Manager Jan Ek. They contended that PA didn't "want" the job and it was "too late" now.
And blurted that they got a bid for $275,000 to do the gutters. No Del Webb golf course has gutters marring them. Gutters
are overkill for waterproofing streams and are an eyesore that does not help sell our homes or attract golfers here.
We advise Ek and Snyder to take this
great idea of putting gutters on golf courses instead of water features to Pulte/Del Webb Corporation and see if they can
get a job managing their corporation with it. If you've seen Sun City Festival's golf course, it's a safe
bet they wouldn't get the job.
| Construction by Alliance on 5/5/09 |
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*Pacific Aquascape's bid to waterproof Willowcreek
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