COURTESY : The Daily Commercial
Published December 31, 2003
BY JODIE MUNRO O’BRIEN 

THE VILLAGES 

A $20,000 engineering study for the Paradise Center was approved by the government arm of The Villages at its last meeting, an official said. 

Monica Andersen, deputy district administrator for the Village Center Community Development District, said the board of supervisors authorized the money and the study. 

“We are looking to remodel the center,” Anderson said. “It’s an old building.” 

She said Paradise Center, 1403 Paradise Drive, is a recreation center for The Villages. Activities, such as crafts, bingo and card games, are held at the center. 

According to the December newsletter of the Property Owner’s Association of The Villages, the engineering study will help “assess the problems that might be encountered if the auditorium building were to be saved and separated from the other buildings on the south side.” 

The association this month also sent out a questionnaire in its newsletter in efforts to gauge the problems with the Paradise Center. 

Joe Gorman, president of the property owners association said the engineering study was a nice gesture on the part of the administration. 

“It was nice of them to offer to do that,” he said. “But we need to wait on results from the survey to see what the residents want. If it turns out the residents don’t want to renovate it, then we need to talk further with the district. “The first step is to find out what’s on the minds of the resident.” 

Some of the questions on the POA survey included asking if anyone had “seen a rat in or around the Paradise Center?” and if anyone had noticed termite damage, mold or mildew problems, defective floors or carpeting or problems associated with leaky roofs. 

The survey also asks if residents would prefer to see the Paradise Center renovated or demolished and rebuilt or a combination of both options. 

Residents are also asked if they would be willing to have their amenity fee increased by $1.97 per month to pay for a new Paradise Center. 

“Something needs to be done to freshen it up,” Gorman said about the Paradise Center. 

“It has a lot of deterioration problems, is run down and it’s shabby.” 

“There are rat problems and mildew problems,” he said. 

Gorman said the Paradise Center consists of two groups of buildings. The north building is considered the auditorium, there is a pool in the middle, and the south side is the core building that is up on concrete blocks. 

He said the south building was constructed around a mobile home in the 1970s. 

Gorman compared the Paradise Center to the newer Chatham Center, another recreational center. 

“(The Chatham Center) is overwhelmingly beautiful,” he said. “When you see it, it blows you away.” 

Gorman said results of the questionnaire will be shared at the next monthly POA meeting and with the community development district. 

Andersen said she did not know how long the engineering study would take to complete.