To the Editor:
My wife just received a letter from The Villages Recreation & Parks Department threatening suspension of privileges. It lists three dates of non-compliance for not presenting an ID card at the FishHawk pickleball courts, dating back to July, 2023. We do not carry our ID cards when we play pickleball and have not for the 14 years we have lived here. We carry our ID cards in a wallet or pocketbook which we do not bring to pickleball. When an ID is asked for, we have our numbers memorized so it is simple for the staff to verify that we are legitimate residents.
We know all of the people we play with and it would become very evident if someone was a non-resident trying to play on our reserved courts. We self police our group every time we play. Having said that, we would suggest that the pools be monitored for non-compliance. That is where outsiders most likely would gravitate to. We’ve read that when staff goes into a pool area to check IDs, people who shouldn’t be there just jump into the pool to avoid detection. A simple solution would be to change the rules so that staff can ask them to step out of the pool for presentation of an ID.
Richard Stoebel
Village of Pennecamp
