District Manager Janet Tutt is claiming social clubs in The Villages are “raising holy heck” over recent changes to Recreation News.
Her comments on the weekly insert in the Daily Sun came at a Community Development District 1 Board meeting Friday morning in which a supervisor expressed “disappointment” over the costs residents are shouldering for the publication.
Villages residents will pay more than $700,000 in amenity fees in the coming fiscal year for the publication, production and distribution of Recreation News.
“A lot of the information is redundant. Is there any thought to reducing the number of copies?” asked CDD 1 Supervisor Charlie Amante, who raised the topic.
Tutt said that while much of the conversation has centered on costs, many residents are concerned about the cost-control measures which have limited what they can publicize about their social groups in the Recreation News.
“Clubs have raised holy heck with us,” Tutt said. “They can’t get their information in as often as they would like.”
However, she praised efforts by Recreation Director John Rohan to reduce the size and cost of Recreation News.
She assured Amante that residents north of County Road 466 would be paying the same or possibly less in the future for their share of the production of Recreation News.
She also said the Amenity Authority Committee’s share for Recreation News is $198,000, which is a small percentage of its $42 million budget.
CDD 1 Chairman Ellen Cora shared details of a recent breakfast conversation with Villages Media Group chief Phil Markward.
“The consensus of the people who run the Media Group is they are not ready to go online,” Cora said.
She said there is also nervousness in the print industry over the availability of newsprint.
“A lot of newsprint comes from Canada. If a tariff is put on paper, paper will cost more,” she said.
“If they can’t get paper at current rates, they might have to increase the price of the paper to absorb some of the costs,” she added.
Cora said she would be in favor of reducing the number of copies of Recreation News.
“I would be perfectly happy if copies would only be available at recreation centers,” she said.
Recreation News also came up at the Community Development District 3 Board of Supervisors meeting later on Friday morning.
“People are concerned about the cost,” said CDD 3 Supervisor Marie McAvoy.
She said she has heard from residents that it doesn’t need to be published so often.
