A Villager says he is in “purgatory” as he languishes on the waiting list to join The Villages Woodworking Club.
Robin Edwards, of the Village of Hadley, took his case Thursday morning to the Community Development District 7 Board of Supervisors.
Edwards said he is 177th on the waiting list to join The Villages Woodworkers Club.
“It’s a purgatory where no one ever gets admitted to the club,” he said.
“Drive by the site of the wood-worth-waiting-for and you can see 50 parking spaces, they’re less than half full,” Edwards said of The Villages Woodshop, located on Rolling Acres Road.
So why the waiting list?
He said the club is dysfunctional and has deliberately closed its doors to new members.
“They had a vote, and decided to shut the ‘club’ to new members, and keep it all to themselves to ‘preserve the level of access’ for some,” he accused.
He said the club “is syphoning off funds from the rest of The Villages fees for the use of a small group of cronies.”
Edwards also said the planned addition of the second wood shop won’t solve the problem.
“A new wood shop will not solve this resource management and scheduling squeeze,” he said.
He estimates there are as many as 11,000 wood workers in The Villages.
“My suggestion is to use the golf tee time reservation system/scheduling model to grant access to the shop, for fair access, measured utilization and for public monitoring,” Edwards said.
CDD 7 supervisors took no action on the matter as it was determined it was not within their purview.
