Georgetown Village: Who’s Pool Is It Anyway?
“…and what about the pool?” the excited, but naive, 26 year old was buying his first home and he couldn’t wait to tell his fiance all about it.
“Well, that is a community pool and you can swim in it anytime you want!” mentioned Tim, the slick salesman for David Weekley. His Otis Spunkmeyer cookies were warm and freshly baked and the air conditioning inside was blasting…I couldn’t resist….he had me….I had to buy the home.
The year was 2002, and Georgetown Village was just starting to take off. After relocating from Arizona and attending Military Intelligence Officer Advanced Course, my next assignment lead me to Ft. Hood, Texas. I fell in love with this cute neighborhood located on the Northwest side of Georgetown, Texas and the concept of unlimited swimming in a heated pool certainly had it’s appeal. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until after I signed the dotted line did I find out that this was a CITY POOL and not a COMMUNITY POOL with unrestricted 24 hour access.
Now, 6 years later, the developer is making the same mistake.
So how do you know if neighborhood marketing is a little too good to be true? The residents are a good litmus test for this. On the community website, here’s one comment by a resident:
Has anyone heard the ad on the radio for Georgetown Village? It is very nice and appealing - but the line that 
gets me is “Swim on a whim”.
Is there a new pool that has been built that I do not know about?
Because having a pool that is only open 3 months a year, only 6 days a week and for only 6 hours each of those days - does not constitute swimming on a whim.
My friend, David, joking made the sarcastic comment to me last night, “Hey check it out, we have a community pool and community center now!”
Bottom Line: Although this promotion is great for Georgetown Village, it’s important to be diligent in accurately promoting the amenities of a neighborhood. The developer, builders and real estate agents have that obligation to the future buyers of our great community. If the developer is promoting it as a community pool, I say, buy it back from the city or build another one! Most Georgetown Village residents want it and so will future ones.
Friday 25 Apr 2008 | Your favorite HOMEboy | Georgetown Village
Edward - Nicely done on this post, my friend. Any pool that is only open for 36 hours per WEEK does not constitute swimming “on a whim”, unless your whim always strikes between 1 and 7pm, and never on Tuesdays. Terrible!
Edward,
Thank you for keeping me informed. As you know the prior developer deeded the pool to the City. We are reaching out to the city to see if we can subsidize the hours for the pool. We have big plans for a resort style pool in Section 9 (area we are building on the east side of Shell). The new pool will be part of a new HOA that will be mandatory for future new home sales in future sections. We are going to have a voluntary system for current residents to join the new pool when it is brought on as we build out sec 9. I hope this helps and once again thanks for the heads up.
Clark Wilson
Buy it back! I think we could get a really good deal on the pool if we bought it from the city? According to all of their statements, it is a money pit and the crummy hours are a result of the lack of funds to man the pool. By the way, I am just dreaming.
That’s all I hear too…that the city has no money for lifeguards, hence the crummy hours, yet the High School gets to use it all the time…go figure. It’s ok to dream David, maybe Clark Wilson can help make your dreams come true!
The problem as I have understood it isn’t that the city doesn’t have the money to fund the lifeguards, but rather they never have enough lifeguards due to a lack of applicants. In my opinion, whomever is in charge of recruiting lifeguards isn’t doing a very good job and he/she doesn’t seem to learn his/her lesson year after year.
Lack of funds results in low wages. Hence, the lack of applicants. Simple economics could solve the lifeguard shortage. Unfortunately it might cost my family $40 to swim on a whim.
At any rate, Laura is correct in saying poor management is ultimately to blame. The school has no problem utilizing the pool and neither does the nightly water aerobic participants. I would like to know how to get the pool into the hands of the residents and how much accomplishing the task would cost?
I nominate Edward to spearhead the movement.
On such a large project, it would take a committee to spearhead something like this. David, you can be my co-chair.
My other suggestion is that we can apply for the lifeguard position and just let our families in and have our own water aerobics class. What a great way to make some extra cash too! Who wants to sign up?
Off topic, but where can I find the community website. I’m a resident who would like to connect with my neighbors better.
Thanks!
Jessica, thanks for commenting on my blog!
The website is http://www.myfamily.com and then you’ll need a login/password. Email Rose King for it. Her email is mexifriend@verizon.net.