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Inside The Bubble

Unauthorized Guide to The Villages, Florida

The Villages Hot Air Balloon Festival

Next week, May 31-June 2, The Villages Balloon Festival will take place at The Villages Polo Club.

A similar event took place last year, but they are calling this The Villages Polo Club’s first annual balloon festival.

The event will feature hot air balloon flights, tethered balloon rides, entertainment, food, a beer garden, as well as retail and arts and crafts vendors.

If you’ve never witnessed a balloon glow at night, it is truly a sight to see!

If you already live in The Villages (or nearby), it would be well worth your while to check this event out. Don’t live here yet? I can’t think of a better time to make a visit.

This is a ticketed event. General admission daily tickets are $15 for adults, and $10 for youth aged 11-18yrs of age. Children 10 and under are FREE.

Check out https://thevillagesballoonfestival.com for more information.

In other news…

An emergency declaration has been issued so that work can finally begin to repair the damage cause by sinkholes in The Village of Calumet Grove. It was determined that the area could pose a flooding danger, especially with hurricane season right around the corner. – Villages-News

I can’t believe how fast the month of May is slipping past us, but I realize I never shared this month’s edition of Vmail, in which Tracy Morse and Devon Wiechens talk about some exciting design updates on the Brownwood Hotel and Spa.

The video also gives you a closer look at The Village of Marsh Bend, where residents can enjoy a stroll, jog or ride down the brand new Hogeye Preserve Pathway.

Until next time!

2019 Evening With the Developer

This week was the annual Evening With the Developer event, during which the developer provides his updates on what’s going on in the community and what’s to come.

For the most part it was pretty standard “this community wouldn’t be what it is without you, the residents” type fare, but there were a few nice surprises among the updates.

One nice announcement is that Rialto Theatre in Spanish Springs will be undergoing some major upgrades including a new lobby, an improved sound system, and reclining seats.

The developer gave an update on The Villages Grown project saying that work would begin soon on their first retail store in Brownwood, and that produce will be delivered throughout the community via a restored Airstream this summer.

And a few weeks ago we mentioned the demise of the Hacienda Hills Country Club restaurant, but at the Evening With the Developer event The Villages director of operations provided some vague hope for those who wish to see Hacienda Hills live another day, saying that The Villages was exploring their options of putting another restaurant in that space.

Villages-News has a nice roundup of the evening’s events that you can read right here, and The Villages Daily Sun posted this highlight reel on their Facebook page:

In other news…

It’s usually much later in the stages of development that you begin to see maintenance rate increases and possible special assessments, but residents in one of The Villages newest areas, The Village of Fenney might already be seeing some small increases in their maintenance assessments. – Villages-News

A lot of you have been writing in and asking about The Lofts of Brownwood, and here’s a small update on the perks residents there will have. – Villages-News

I’ll leave you with another video worth watching this week. An 82-year old Villager covers “That’s Amore” with his granddaughter:

Have a great week!

Burger King in The Villages Robbed

The main excitement in The Villages this past week did not involve two buddies scoring back-to-back holes-in-one or the announcement that The Villages is getting a Huey-Magoo’s (which is only my favorite place for chicken tenders in the whole wide world), though believe it or not those things did happen.

Unfortunately, the big excitement was the armed robbery of a Burger King in The Villages that took place last Saturday morning, right around the time this newsletter usually gets sent out.

Three employees and one customer were inside when the robbery took place, and thankfully from the reports I’ve read, it sounds like no one was injured.

Last I checked, one suspect has been apprehended, and another one remains on the run. – MyNews13

In others news…

This week, The Villages developer Mark Morse will host his much anticipated annual “Evening with the Developer” event.

This year’s event will take place on Wednesday evening at The Sharon. This is a ticketed event, and only members of The VHA were able to secure tickets.

We hope to bring you the highlights of this year’s event in our next issue, but if you’d like to take a look back at what was covered last year, you can check out our 2018 Evening With the Developer Recap here, or watch video of the event in two part: Part 1 and Part 2.

These days, it’s getting tougher and tougher to find someone who stays in a job for 30 years, let alone a job in a place where more than 100,000 people have decided to live after they retired from their jobs.

But that’s exactly what Lynda Feustel has done:

So you’ve probably heard of and can sympathize with instances where one person has complained about the poor condition of their neighbor’s yard and landscaping.

But have you ever heard about somebody complaining because their neighbor’s landscaping was too nice?

Well now you have.

This story definitely gets my vote for “Only in The Villages” this week. – Villages-News

Can we all collectively roll our eyes over that one?

Have a great week.

-Ryan

Adios, Hacienda

Another piece of Villages history is gone.

The Hacienda Hills Country Club restaurant, at least in its current incarnation, is closing its doors for good this weekend.

You can’t really say it will be missed. In recent years the food and service have gone down the drain.

Villages-News reports that the developer is still trying to sell the restaurant, swimming pool, tennis courts and parking lots to the residents via the Amenity Authority Committee, but that hasn’t always worked out in the past. (El Santiago anyone?)

The developer plans to continue to own the golf course and pro shop. – Villages-News

In other news…

In my monthly process of rounding up interesting stories for my monthly newsletter, I came across a piece I missed earlier in the month and I thought it was worth sharing with you here.

According to Community Watch Chief Nehemiah Wolfe, Community Watch drivers are now patrolling more than 1 million miles per year in The Villages. Wow! – Villages-News

Mark your calendars, because next Sunday is Cinco de Mayo, and there will be lots going on from 4:45 to 9 pm at Spanish Springs Town Square, including live entertainment, food trucks and more.

Make it a great week.

-Ryan

The Villages Keeps Growing and Growing and Growing…

The Villages’ growth rate is like the Energizer Bunny

Nothing like a play on the Energizer Bunny commercials to start us off here…it is Easter weekend after all.

New Census data came out this week, and as the title of this post suggests, The Villages keeps on growing!

From July 1, 2017 to July 1, 2018, The Villages Metropolitan Area grew by 3.1%, from 124,933 people to 128,754 people.

This ranks 6th among all metropolitan areas in the country for y-o-y percentage growth.

The Census Bureau also looked at percentage growth since 2010, and for that time period, The Villages ranks 1st with a growth rate of 37.8%.

I would say that’s an eggcellent amount of growth no matter which way you slice it. (Ok, I’ll stop.) – Census.gov

In other news…

They say a full moon brings out the crazies.

<looks outside…yep, its a full moon!>

Better buckle up for these next two headlines:

One resident is facing a felony charge after allegedly attacking another resident at the Atlas-Canine Dog Park. – Villages-News

And, a Villager in a golf cart was caught with marijuana but released by police so he could make his tee time. (You can’t make this stuff up folks!) – Villages-News

This week’s history lesson is all about The Villages record for the largest golf cart parade in the Guinness Book of World Records, set back in 2005 with 3,321 carts participating. Can you imagine what they could do today with all the additional carts and people here now? Wowza! – Villages-News

Have a Happy Easter!

-Ryan

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