GVR directors approve new guest passes

Directors of Green Valley Recreation approved a new guest-pass policy at their monthly board meeting Tuesday.

GVR members will be able to get up to two passes that can be used by an unlimited number of guests at such things as pools and spas. The first will cost $20, and the second card $10.

The idea of the two cards is that if a GVR member has several guests, some could use one card to go to a facility, and others could use the second card to go to another facility at the same time.

Among other things board members on Tuesday also approved joining the Green Valley Community Coordinating Council in sponsoring a needs assessment survey and agreed to provide a $10,000 insurance deductible to replace the spa at Abrego North center.

Some board members and members of the audience raised a number of questions about the guest passes and pointed out ways they could possibly be thwarted.

But GVR President Altie Metcalf said there would be people who try to beat the system, but she said the cards would work for 90 percent of members.

She added the system won’t work for “the 10 percent who are trying to get something for free.”

The new cards can be read electronically. They will resemble the GVR member cards, but will be a different color. The guests would swipe the card through the electronic reader to open gates.

In a memo, GVR Executive Director Anndrea Blackshear said the new cards will be good for up to a year and can be renewed on Jan. 1 of the following year and the cards would be bar coded so they can open access doors and gates.

GVR Recreation Manager Allison Brown told the board the cards will be more cost-effective than “the current guest passes.”

“It’s not a perfect system,” Brown added. “People can get around the rules.”

Blackshear said, “If someone wants to beat the system they’ll find a way.”

“They’ll work for most people,” she added.

Brown said the majority of those who attended the guest-pass study sessions approved the plan, including the $20 fee for the first card, but some had misgivings about the fee, suggesting $5 to $10 would be a better deal.

With little discussion, the board said OK to paying the $10,000 deductible for the Abrego North spa. A leaking line had damaged the ground beneath it.

Stan Riddle, a GVR board member and also first vice president of the Green Valley Community Coordinating Council, spoke on behalf the joint effort to do a community needs survey.

But he was careful to point out he’d not vote because of concerns there might be a perceived conflict of interest.

He said that by being in the project at the start, GVR could offer questions that would be answered in the survey.

Another local needs assessment survey about two years ago didn’t ask questions pertinent to GVR, he recalled.

He said by being in on the planning for this survey, GVR could insert questions useful to the organization.

jlamb@gvnews.com | 547-9749