Criticism continues to mount with regard to cost overruns at the members-only Brownwood Woodshop.
The $3 million facility which opened last year is increasingly seen as a money pit as additional costs mount for items such as an air compressor, canopies and a dust collection system.
Project Wide Advisory Committee members earlier this week reluctantly agreed to pay $38,000 for the additional air compressor. However, members expressed uneasiness at the additional need for the brand-new facility.
Community Development District 7 Supervisor Steve Lapp, serving as CDD 7’s alternative PWAC representative at Monday’s meeting, cast the lone vote against the $38,000 expenditure for the wood shop. He said that PWAC caved in and approved the money for the purchase.
“In the end, they got out their rubber stamps,” Lapp 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 nearly 300 residents 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.
“Everybody’s paying for it, but not everybody gets to use it,” said CDD 7 Supervisor Daryl Klinko.
He was critical of a recent video produced by The Villages marketing department touting the high-end equipment enjoyed by the woodworking club.
“It made it sound like the greatest thing ever. It showed off the expensive equipment. But it didn’t explain that it’s nearly impossible to get in there,” Klinko said.