By Sam Richards

Staff writer

 

Friday, December 13 (10:00 a.m.): A new series of room-reservation fees unanimously approved by the GRF Board last week provides for 13 club rooms to operate as “no fee, no service” spaces that Rossmoor clubs can reserve for free, and that require no formal set-up.

The adjusted fees, as outlined at last week’s Board meeting, make the following rooms “no fee, no service” spaces:

• Creekside: Bunker and Mulligan rooms

• Dollar: Card Rooms 1, 2 and 3; Chess, Eisenhower, Garden and Ivy rooms

• Gateway: Multipurpose Rooms 1, 2 and 3

• Hillside: Pine Room

In addition, Gateway’s Oak Room (cards and table games) and Hillside’s Las Trampas space (performing arts) can be reserved for those specific uses.

“No fee, no service” spaces, by definition, will receive no set-up by GRF custodial staff, and will get no cleaning between uses. Furnishings may not be rearranged; no audio-visual services can be requested; and no food will be allowed.

Recurring bookings may be made by clubs only, but other groups could have informal (and non-guaranteed) meetings in those spaces, said Ann Mottola, GRF’s director of community services.

She said a representative of each club will be invited to be trained to use “plug and play” audio- visual connections, which could be used for guest speakers to show a PowerPoint or other program.

Board members offered several suggestions for minor tweaks to fees and definitions; Mottola said the wording of the approved room-reservation fee changes will be “softened” or otherwise adjusted to reflect those clarifications. Another clarification: What were once called “set-up fees” and “impact fees” are now simply “service fees.”

Board members said they were happy with the basic fee structure, part of a prolonged effort both to establish fees and to rework policy, especially in light of turnover among GRF employees in recent months who do most of the scheduling.

“I think this is an excellent resolution,” Board member Carol Lehr said. Board President Leanne Hamaji said the data collected during this “painful” process will be invaluable in serving residents in future years.

While the fee portion of the room-reservation process is now largely settled, the policy part of that equation is ongoing, Mottola said. “It will take as long as it needs to take,” she said.

Mottola’s room-reservation fee presentation, which includes the rooms (and applicable rental fees) for which fees will be charged – mostly larger spaces than the “no fee, no service” spaces – can be viewed at https://tinyurl.com/mpfhckxm Machinery and Equipment Budget The Board on Thursday adopted the 2025 Machinery and Equipment Budget, at $715,575, as recommended by the GRF Finance Committee two days earlier. The biggest expenses as part of that include:

• $198,000 for various golf equipment, including a $55,000 mower replacing a 2007 model, and a fairway sprayer, a lightweight utility vehicle and a standard utility vehicle

• Two Ford F250 pickup trucks ($116,000) for use valley- wide

• $115,800 for a new air handler control system for the Fitness Center pool. Replacement parts are no longer available for the existing 16-year-old system

• $95,000 for replacement heaters for Dollar Pool, the Fitness Center spa and warm pool, and the Hillside Pool

Other expenses are for replacement stackable chairs at Creekside, replacement of kitchen appliances at Creekside, custodial equipment replacement, replacing fitness equipment at the Fitness Center, and new landscaping equipment.

The Dec. 5 approval vote for the 2025 Machinery and Equipment Budget was, formally, the “first reading” of this action; the second (and final) reading is expected to be made at the Board’s January meeting.

The Board, however, did not formally take up any “Priority 1” 2025 Capital Projects on Thursday, as the GRF Finance Committee earlier in the week deferred an approval recommendation, with committee members saying there was some additional evaluation being done of the various choices. A first-reading approval of a Priority 1 list is expected at the Board’s January meeting.

But Mottola did offer an overview of the Priority 1 projects to the Board. The capital projects preliminarily designated as Priority 1, meaning their completion is “essential to continuity of service and/or operations,” are now expected to come before the full Board at its January meeting. The proposed list and funding amounts, as of Dec. 3, included:

• Pickleball building project, $3,983,000 in 2025 (started in 2022)

• Golf course bridge replacement project, $600,000 (started in 2023)

• Implementation of the NetSuite records management and financial operating system software, $544,472 (initiated in 2023)

• Tice Fitness Center pool and spa plastering, $250,000 (work started in 2023)

• Food & Beverage Capital Project, $250,000 (started in 2023). The Board enlisted Synergy Food Service Consul-tants for this study, its stated end product being development of a report explaining what types of food service are possible, practical and wanted in Rossmoor. A final report is expected by early 2025.

• Golf course water pump replacement project, $85,000 (in planning since 2024)

• An emergency generator for the Entry Control Facility (the main entry gate), $30,000

• Gateway (and pickleball) solar project, $10,000, started in 2022, expected to finish in 2026 Other planned GRF capital projects on a five-year timeline have been assigned Priority 2, 3 or 4 status, with corresponding priority times. All can be seen at https://tinyurl.com/ bd3hfydc In other action Thursday, the Board:

• Approved a lease agreement with Yamaha Golf Car Company for 36 golf carts, to replace the existing rental cart fleet that has served Rossmoor golfers for the past five years. GRF Director of Golf Mark Heptig said the aging fleet has been experiencing break-downs as of late. “The fleet is ready to be retired,” Heptig told the Board. The new carts likely will be delivered by the end of December.

• Approved spending up to $65,000 to Terra Landscape Co. for a landscaping project at the corner of Rossmoor Parkway and Golden Rain Road that would include three new small Golden Rain trees, and to complete the ongoing median strip turf removal along Rossmoor Parkway. The Rossmoor Parkway-Golden Rain Road intersection, wide-ly considered the community’s most visible corner, lost its 50-plus-year-old Golden Rain tree last March after it sustained a split trunk.

• Approved extending the working life of the GRF Marketing Task Force from six months to nine months, with the final meeting now expect-ed to take place in May. The task force first convened in September. GRF Board Member Dwight Walker, the task force’s chairman, said the ex-tension will allow more time to explore branding and marketing strategies, and help ensure that task force recommendations are effectively incorporated into GRF’s 2026 budget-planning process.

• Reappointed Judy Stillman (Women’s Nine Hole Club) and Pat Iacullo (Men’s Golf Club) to two-year terms as club representatives to the GRF Golf Advisory Committee.