It is easy to see why John Knox Village, one of the best Florida retirement communities, is often described as a panoramic oasis within hustling, bustling South Florida.

Nestled in arguably the epicenter of the tri-county area of Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties, residents of John Knox Village are surrounded by 70 luxurious acres of landscaping that adds beauty and serenity to their inspired retirement living.

A Life Plan retirement community in Pompano Beach, John Knox Village’s leaders wisely invested $1 million to install a Rain Bird SiteControl system, an innovative computerized irrigation program, throughout the entire campus in 2013.

What can SiteControl do?

Imagine a resident living in a villa who wants her plants watered more frequently in the winter than her neighbors. To fulfill the resident’s wishes, the only thing John Knox Village Grounds Manager James Witt has to do is push a button on his office computer or on a cell phone. A grounds worker does not have to visit the resident’s villa to personally water more often, nor is the whole neighborhood receiving unwanted waterings.

“If you call me, I can program the computer to water your plants every night,” says Witt. “With the older systems we had before this, if you watered one unit, you had to water them all every night. You couldn’t be specific.”

SiteControl has other innovative features including a GPS system that uses layered maps to graph maintenance and grounds structures like sewer cleanouts, streetlights, city water valves or Teltron boxes that coordinate the community’s alarm system.

For example, even if in one of the best Florida retirement communities such as John Knox Village the Teltron system fails in a resident’s villa, SiteControl’s GPS map allows a maintenance worker to find the correct Teltron splice box within a five-foot square area to make the necessary repairs.

The SiteControl irrigation system makes water control easy. Witt has programmed the software so that if there is more than 0.2 inches of rain, the campus irrigation system shuts down, saving water and electricity.

If South Florida Water Management District, the governmental agency that controls water usage in the southern part of Florida, decides to reduce water consumption by 50 percent in the event of a drought, Witt can comply in seconds with a few, simple computer keystrokes. SiteControl even has the capability of counting every gallon of water used on the property.

“SiteControl helps us do our job better,” Witt adds. “The system helps us be smarter about what we’re doing. We won’t be wasting time looking for things when we already have them mapped. The irrigation system is going to help us down the road with the control we have.”

An advanced system such as SiteControl provides peace of mind for existing and future residents of John Knox Village, allowing them more time to enjoy living in one of the best Florida retirement communities.

If you are interested in learning more about John Knox Village, please call (800) 998-5669 or visit this page.

— Michael Barnes, John Knox Village Web Production Specialist