by Frank Leeming, August 25, 2019
With so much going on in the Village, I thought you might like an updated look at the latest finances and statistics about the POA. To see the latest What’s Happening in Hot Springs Village, view the PDF at the bottom of the page.
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Last Wednesday, the POA staff presented its view of what should be done with the Balboa Golf Course and Balboa Clubhouse. The golf course, which was built on the cheap by Cooper in 1987, has been limping along for years. The second level of the clubhouse has been shuttered for six years.
The staff’s presentation is compelling but didn’t leave the board (or the property owners) much time to mull over the proposal. To meet the staff’s timeline on the golf course work, it recommends a board decision be made next month.
That’s not fair because this is a big deal and should be discussed openly so everyone knows what the options are. This, by the way, is another example of why the board should resume its monthly work sessions so it would have time to air these kinds of issues and get property-owner input.
To see what the staff is proposing see the powerpoint presentation below.
Balboa Golf Course and Balboa Clubhouse powerpoint presentation – 8/24/19
Balboa-Golf-Course-Renovation-2019.08.20To see an updated version of What’s Happening in Hot Springs Village, see the pdf below. You might want to save the PDF file for future reference.
Frank Leeming’s August 2019 What’s Happening in Hot Springs Village
what_s_happening_8_19
Pat McCullough
08/27/2019 — 9:54 am
Many believe we are going to need to close a golf course if our growth does not improve. This may be that chance. What about putting the golf course in “moth balls” for a while until we know if growth rate will start looking better? We need some out of the box thinking since we cannot afford to dump more money into an already losing operation. What about turning Balboa into a first class 9 hole executive course to run in concert with Coronado operations and we cannot forget the Coronado also needs some major work. We could still do the Club house project if went with a plan something like this.
Tom Blakeman
08/27/2019 — 12:55 pm
Hi Pat,
I hear you but closing or mothballing the course would be a kiss of death for the proximate owners followed by the Village as a whole. Right now doing nothing other than patching the worst cart path sections is the best solution for Balboa.
There are some “out of the box” ideas for the golf and the Village. I’ve outlined what needs to be done in my A NEW PLAN sent to the BOD and others earlier this month. If you have not seen it you can find it on this site (below) or email me for a copy.
Interestingly, I’ve not heard a peep of response from any on the BOD. No surprise really.
Tom
Kirk Denger
08/27/2019 — 11:04 pm
HSV is the premier retirement golfing community and has maintained all of our golf courses for fifty years before this scourge of New Age Urbanism infected our community and we are not about to stop now. Mothball the CMP.
Linda Anderson
08/27/2019 — 12:15 pm
The Nalley approved best estimate to tear down the Contemporary Balboa Club & Golf Course renovation is : $6, 897.181 Mil. Where is the money coming from when
” Golf ” is a subsidy of -$1,958,939 without marketing promotions? Where is the common sense approach. Diana Podawiltz brought out the best solution and that was to remodel the Club House and use the additional sq. footage for office or rental purposes. Dick Garrison said: this is the largest capital expenditure in the Village in 14 years without addressing the $45 Mil maintenance issue. This is a huge concern without an understanding of HSV’s financial stability.
Ruth Smith
08/27/2019 — 7:37 pm
The Balboa Club was always a favorite here in the Village. The lounge area is still a favorite with many. The restaurant was closed after two mismanagement’s, that were assigned by the POA. For some reason a new manager was never found to reopen it. At one time moving the POA offices to that area was a consideration. Unlike the DeSoto Club, it had not been damaged by flooding or any other disaster. It was just closed because of mismanagement by people under POA contract for the restaurant area. It was and still remains a wonderful restaurant facility and the only one we have that can handle larger groups than the DeSoto Club can handle.
It seems strange that a LODGE is needed for LARGE golfing tournaments and yet destroying the perfect place to hold banquets for these large groups is being considered. Yes, the outside of the building sadly needs repair and care due to the neglect of the POA maintaining over the past years. Why this was allowed to happen is a mystery to me unless it was to give more weight to “just tearing it down”.
I hope that the fact that it will give some competition to the new “Last Chance” and Bee Hive does not an unfair influence with the board decision.
There must be a solution, other than loosing this facility. Possibly, fixing up the club house and upgrading just nine holes at a time on the course. I played Balboa last week and yes it does need some help but it played very well and is still one of my favorite courses. I miss being able to go there for breakfast and a meal after playing. It’s more centrally located than many of the other courses (Granada, Isabella, Ponce) which is an advantage for many Villagers.
For many of us that have been here for some time, it was the Balboa Club that caught our interest and helped make up our minds that HSV was where we wanted to be for the rest of our lives.
Kirk Denger
08/27/2019 — 10:59 pm
If the Balboa club is destroyed, this would be sure to stop any restaurant competition to the Beehive and the New Last Chance restaurants. Let’s see who on the board and staff might benefit monetarily to this decision? Move along, nothing to see here.
Mort
08/28/2019 — 7:32 am
Trust me on this. These fools are so incompetent that the Balboa Club will never be torn down or rebuilt. They could not accomplish this due to their ignorance and absolute incompetence.
It was allowed to decay because we have not had good management here for years. Board is just a bunch of old tottering fools who relinquished all power to the POA people, who are just here for the $ and not wanting to work too hard.
It is a mess for sure. But don’t hold your breath….they have not been able to put a crosswalk on Desoto to connect our trails for years and years…all they do is talk about it…how can they possibly do anything like the Balboa Club???
Look how long our pocket pool took? And the little thing is going to be a disaster…very little use…very poor design…ridiculous expenditure…already over budget…and a joke. Be sure to staff it with school children so you have to close it at the end of August each year…that makes sense!
The POA employees have spent more time thinking up fancy, maningless names for their ridiculous positions than they ever have trying to improve HSV.
I thought re-naming our neighborhoods was going to fix everything. I know SOBO sure sounds cool. Wish I could live there….
NittyGritty
08/28/2019 — 4:37 pm
I appreciate your extensive connection of the dots, Frank. What a generous amount of work must have gone into putting that together. One question I have, and I apologize for asking because it seems to be obvious to others, is that the HSV annual report for 2018 shows we netted a $4.648 million cash gain for last year (before a seemingly bogus depreciation of cash) but your reports do not reflect it and nobody acts like it exists… What’s the deal?… (Anybody care to answer?… Frank’s worked hard enough!)