John and Susan Nuttall believe it's time for members of the Bella Vista POA to start an informed conversation about amenities, and they're ready to help with information. In late June, they presented a report about golf to the POA membership. This month, they're looking at recreation.
"There are no recommendations, no suggestions," Nuttall, a former board member, told about 30 members gathered in the community room at the Country Club. "It's just information."
Most of the information was gleaned from the POA website, he explained. He also used some numbers supplied by a Ph.D. student, Natasha Brand, who is studying trail usage on the Back 40 trail system. Seven trailheads have counters like the ones used to track traffic on roads. While the counters can't give an exact number -- some people may be counted twice, some trail users may not pass one of the seven trailheads -- they provide a good estimate.
More than 101,000 people were counted between July 1, 2017, and June 31, 2018.
Some of the numbers the Nuttalls needed were not available -- for example, while the POA knows how many boats are registered, no one knows how many people use each boat or how often each boat is used. So Nuttall coined a new term, "realistic usage." He assumed that each boat went out once a week during the summer months with two passengers. He believes that is a conservative estimate.
There's a perception that recreation and lakes receive more than their fair share of assessments, Nuttall said, but his numbers show that's not true. While golf is a much larger department and brings in more revenue, every amenity is subsidized by assessments. The ratio of assessment to fee is similar. Golf pays 66 percent of costs through fees. Recreation pays 60 percent of the costs through fees. The number for lakes is 63 percent.
The recreation budget also covers the dog park, the softball field, basketball and pickleball courts, four playgrounds, two miniature golf courses, and some parks and pavilions. There is no usage tracked for those amenities.
Recreation also includes the trail system. The POA pays $35,000 a year toward trail maintenance, an amount that is matched by the city. When compared to the total budget, $35,000 isn't very much, Nuttall said. In fact, $35,000 could be paid by the increase in camping fees at Blowing Springs Park, probably due to trail users.
Brand's research has shown that, while the mountain bike trails have attracted riders from 19 states, most users are from Bella Vista. Those numbers are very similar to Lake Bella Vista, which belongs to the city of Bentonville, but is heavily used by Bella Vista residents.
Usage at the pools and the fitness centers is tracked by member's usage fees. Both have remained fairly steady, although Nuttall warned, pool numbers are affected by weather. He expects that 2018 will see an increase in pool usage because the new beach at Avalon is considered an outdoor pool for the accounting of finances.
The fitness centers saw an increase when the fitness room was added at Metfield,
Tennis has been decreasing in recent years, possibly due to an aging population, Nuttall said. Some of the tennis players may be switching to pickleball, but that is another amenity that isn't tracked because there is no fee.
Although the golf numbers had been discussed at a previous meeting, Susan Nuttall reviewed a few. The highest number of rounds played in Bella Vista was in 1998 when 365,000 were counted. The average has been decreasing by about 4 percent annually ever since, with the exception of 2012 which was an exceptionally good year because of pleasant weather.
A chart showing golf and recreation together illustrates that recreation numbers are increasing while golf numbers are decreasing. Recreation claimed 212,000 individual uses, while golf was at 151,000 rounds in 2017.
Lakes is a much smaller number, Susan Nuttall pointed out, but it's been increasing recently. The number of kayaks registered on the lakes is probably responsible for the increase, she said.
John Nuttall said he's often asked why the POA offers amenities to all the residents of Bella Vista and the answer he said, is simple. The Covenant that formed the POA in 1965 listed its purpose clearly:
"To promote the health, safety and welfare of the residents and commercial owners (of real estate inside the POA)."
General News on 08/15/2018