Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Neighborhood eyes monthly fee to renovate pool, facilities
NORTH LITTLE ROCK — Volunteer board members of Indian Hills Community Club discussed a proposal to charge neighborhood households $20 a month for the next 16 years to renovate the pool, tennis courts and lakes.
Established by the developers of North Little Rock’s Indian Hills subdivision in 1965, the Indian Hills Community Club owns the Indian Hills pool and tennis courts at 39 Coronado Circle, as well as the two lakes located between Pontiac Drive, Osage Drive, Flintrock Road and Coronado Circle.
After operating on voluntary dues and volunteer management for almost 60 years, the facilities are in need of major restoration that exceeds the community club’s ability to fund.
An urban service district would need to be established to keep the country club a neighborhood-owned facility. The community club would become a special district established by the North Little Rock City Council upon a petition by residents.
The Shady Valley and Windsor Valley neighborhoods would not be included in the service district because they are not considered to be in the Indian Hills subdivision.
The petition would need 25% of registered voters in the district to sign requesting the establishment of the new urban service district.
The Indian Hills Community Club board hosted a community meeting on Thursday at the First United Methodist Church in North Little Rock to discuss the issue.
Volunteer board president Bernadette Rhodes said elected officials have informed the board that 25% would not be satisfactory and they would want a higher level of support.
“It would be a big effort to get that many signatures,” she said. “But I feel the same way, if we’re going to pursue it, I want to see a high level of demonstrated support for the plan.”
If passed, each household would be charged a monthly fee on their water bill that would be used for the renovations, plus maintenance and operations. The board members met with a bank and calculated that it would cost $20 a month per household over 16 years, which amounts to $1.5 million for renovations and approximately $100,000 a year for operations and maintenance.
All residents in the urban service district would automatically have access to the pool, courts and lakes at no additional cost.
According to a statement on the community club’s Facebook page, the $240 per year is less than last year’s cost of the club’s membership for a family of four and would allow for extensive renovations to the pool, bathrooms and courts while affording each household access to the full facility.
The urban service district would need an advisory board to manage business in partnership with the city.
The other option the community club has is to ask the city of North Little Rock to take over the property. The City Council would accept the land as a donation, fill in the pool and maintain the rest of the amenities.
Rhodes said after conversations with Mayor Terry Hartwick and Ward 4 council members that overall there is “very little interest” from the city in maintaining or renovating the pool due to cost.
“But we’ve also been given the input that it would be mowed and lit and that it would look better than it does today,” she said. “But there are no guarantees of any kind of equipment that would be installed or renovations that would be made.
There’s no guarantee of any of that, it would just be up to residents advocating for — with their council members, with the mayor to maintain it or add amenities and it would be up to the city government. The benefit of that approach is that our tax dollars that we’re already paying would be able to be spent on that property.”
An architect who lives in Indian Hills volunteered to work with a construction company on a quote for renovations of the pool house, installation of a commercial pool, the additions of pickleball and basketball courts and landscaping of the lakes.
Rhodes said the urban service district would have to incur a bond debt for the $1.5 million project. The district’s 16 years of collecting $20 a month serves as collateral for the bond.
Rhodes also mentioned that this would allow the board to work with the neighborhood to decide if the community club would be open to North Little Rock residents outside the district for a higher fee or to family friends and other details.
“It would be a significant benefit to the folks that live there,” she said. “And number one just for recreational and not just the pool, because we have a lot of people say ‘Well, I don’t use the pool,’ but, fishing lakes, kayaking, tennis, pickleball, basketball, there’s significant benefits and there’s trails in the woods that people can use. So there’s a lot to value in that property.”
At the meeting on Thursday, Erika Jamerson, a new resident in Indian Hills, said she lived in Wichita, Kan., prior to moving in and their old neighborhood, Rockwood, paid for their community pool on top of the Homeowners Association maintenance dues.
Jamerson ended up managing the pool, which offered swim lessons, water aerobics and senior swim times. The community club’s pool was what drew them in to move, but it’s not just about the pool, she said.
She expressed concern about the upkeep of the area around the lakes.
“Our neighbors next to us, Don and Mary, they’ve been here 46 years … and they remember the creek flooding — the little creek that runs through the neighborhood — and they remember it flooding so high that cars couldn’t get through,” she said.
A compromise that another resident brought up in the public comment session of the meeting was to make households with members over the age of 65 exempt from paying the extra $20 a month, which Jamerson agreed with.
Wendy McCloud, a resident of nine years, said she’s against the renovations and wasn’t aware until seven years ago that the community club had a pool.
“One of the reasons we decided to purchase here was because it didn’t have a homeowner’s association. And we decided to buy a house with a pool, and we didn’t know there was a community pool,” she said. “We didn’t know anything about it. It wasn’t told to us by the Realtors. It wasn’t told to us by the people who were selling it.”
Two years ago, McCloud’s neighbor ended up telling her about the community club’s Facebook group, and that’s how she found out about the proposal for the renovations and the urban service district.
“The few things about it that really bothered us was that 25% of the registered voters in a subdivision of 1300 houses can send this to the city council for a vote and we already know from our aldermen, he will vote yes for it because he thinks it’s a great idea,” she said. “And if the city council wants to move forward with it, then it takes 50% of the registered voters in the neighborhood to get it off the ballot. So 25 to get it on, 50 to get it off, that is insane to me.”
McCloud noted that the community club board members did not take into consideration that many residents not on Facebook would not be aware of the proposal and would potentially be forced into a homeowners association fee.
“The other thing that bothers me, is that they originally were going to include Windsor Valley and Shady Valley and I went over to their Facebook page and said ‘Did you know about this?’ and they had a huge uproar,” she said. “Then suddenly it was, oh we’re not going to include Windsor Valley. But there was no information about why they weren’t going to talk to them anymore other than I know that they had an absolute fit on Facebook.”
Pamela Esters, an Indian Hills resident and mother of five, has a grandson who is a cancer survivor, and has autism and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, but was able to be in swim lessons for the first time through the community club.
“Where they had him go was indoors but it was done via the pool with safety before skills. It was amazing,” she said.
Even if she didn’t have children, Esters would prefer to move forward with the renovations and the urban service district for the benefit of the neighborhood.
“I know a lot of people say well, I don’t use [the pool]. Well, you may not use it, but you can’t tell me if your grandchild is there, they’re not going to that pool, or they’re not wanting to go,” she said. “And then you’ll send them somewhere else to go and pay to get in a pool and you’ll spend more than $240 a year. I don’t agree with it being closed, I don’t agree with it being sold — none of that. I just think it needs to be something that the community pulls together to make work.”
Esters said she gets her positive attitude from the fact that she knows God and “whatever he says can be done.”
Rhodes said the volunteer board members are only concerned about the neighborhood and the home’s property values.
“Nobody on the board, at all, would benefit financially any more than any other homeowner in the neighborhood from either route that we take,” she said. “I mean, we’re all in this together.”
Personally, Rhodes would like to keep the pool because she has children who use it and their family friends work as lifeguards over the summer.
“It’s a great thing for teenagers and kids in the neighborhood to get their first work experience,” she explained. “I would be happy, personally, to pay that money. I know that there are people who feel otherwise and I don’t begrudge them that feeling, but I think that as a board we have the responsibility to figure out a sustainable long-term solution for the property — whatever that might look like.”
Rhodes also mentioned that she isn’t aware of any other pool that offers swim lessons in North Little Rock and that it’s important children learn to swim.
Brandon Musick, a volunteer board member, said the community meeting on Thursday addressed residents’ concerns and was what the board wanted.
“I hope people take away that we care about what they think,” he said. “And we’re not here to try to force something on people they don’t want. At the end of the day, we’re here to try to do what’s best for the neighborhood and the community.”
The feedback forms distributed at the meeting Thursday had a place for residents to indicate which option they prefer and will be tallied to see which had the highest vote. After the next few board meetings, a decision will be made, Musick said.
The data from the feedback forms will be shared via email, mailers and on the club’s Facebook page as well as the board’s final decision.