Are the amenity/utility collection boxes at The Villages’ postal stations a relic?
It’s a question being asked by officials here in Florida’s Friendliest Hometown.
Last year, some of the collection boxes were raided by a thief who made off with the personal checks of about a half dozen residents.
That crime prompted the Recreation Department to take a look at the viability of those boxes in a modern age.
Many years ago, the boxes were used by a high percentage of residents. Today, about 77 checks per month are collected at each of the 107 postal stations here in Florida’s Friendliest Hometown.
In 2026, residents have about a dozen methods for paying their monthly amenity/utility bills including mailing a check, PayPal, credit card and automatic bank draft.
A courier still visits the postal stations every day to collect the checks. Members of the Project Wide Advisory Committee, which oversees amenities south of County Road 466, think that expense may be the bigger problem.
PWAC Chairman Don Brozick said the boxes may have outlived their usefulness, especially since the residents who still want to drop off a check could do so at any regional recreation center.
“The boxes were a good concept when they first started. But things have changed,” Brozick.
Steve Bova, who represents Community Development District 10 on PWAC, said he finds it’s simpler to use the automatic bank draft option. He suggested that the collection boxes have become dinosaurs.
“That option has become obsolete,” Bova said.
Recreation Director John Rohan said the lesson learned from the recent theft is that residents’ personal information shouldn’t be left in a box that could be the target of criminal activity.
The Amenity Authority Committee will be asked about the future of the collection boxes when its members meet at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday at Savanah Center.
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