Frustrated officials are ready to draw a line in the sand on mounting expenses at the new $3 million Brownwood Woodshop in The Villages.
The Project Wide Advisory Committee agreed to move ahead with $79,899 for canopies at the facility located across Buena Vista Boulevard from the Eisenhower Recreation Center. The cost was about $5,000 higher than originally projected.
While PWAC members on Monday agreed to the expense of the canopies, another $38,000 for an air compressor for the facility was nearly the straw that broke the camel’s back.
“This thing has become a white elephant that benefits very few people,” said PWAC Chairman Don Wiley. “We are catering to a small group.”
He and fellow PWAC members expressed frustration that expenses continue to pile up at the woodshop which opened last year.
“It seems like we are throwing money down a hole,” Wiley said.
The Brownwood Woodshop is a sister facility to the wood shop on Rolling Acres Road and operated by The Villages Woodworking Club. Its members are the only ones who can use the two facilities. The club has 1,300 members with another 275 on a waiting list.
Residents have long complained that the The Villages Woodworking Club runs the operation with an iron fist. They contend the two facilities amount to a “private club” with Villagers who want to join kept for years languishing on a waiting list while long-time club members enjoy top-line privileges and equipment paid for by residents who cannot use it. The two facilities are funded with amenity dollars.
Residents speaking out at the PWAC meeting at SeaBreeze Recreation Center complained that the “tenant” is dictating improvements to the building while denying access to Villagers paying for those improvements.
PWAC members said members of the woodworking club “will have to come to the podium” to explain any other expenditures before amenity dollars are used to pay for them.
PWAC agreed to pay the $38,000 for the additional air compressor because production has been forced to shut down without it.