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LAKEWOOD ESTATES
CIVIC ASSOCIATION
AND NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH
MINUTES OF MEETING,
MAY 26, 2009
There were about 50 in attendance, plus
Councilman Jamie Bennett and two candidates for office –
Steve Kornell, for District 5 Council, and Velma Thompson,
for District 6. Besides the usual Working Cow ice cream, we
had a cake from Jamie Bennett congratulating us on the 4
wins we took at the Mayor’s Neighborhood Awards; cookies
from Mr. and Mrs. Jose Bijalba, who live on the north side
but who advertised in our last newsletter and got such a
good response they wanted to thank us; and Terrence
Villaverde donated an apple pie that was given away using
tickets from the 50/50.
Two fire alarms went off during the
meeting, apparently caused by a photo-shoot on the other
side of the clubhouse that was setting of heat sensors in
the ceiling.
Crime Coordinator Dennis Coley opened
the meeting by introducing Kendra O’Connor; she and her
husband were the victims of a series of 4 eggings on their
house and car and Sgt. Hordge, head of our Community Service
Officers team, was there to explain why the vandalism was
handled the way it was, why the responding officers could
have done a better job, and what does and does not
constitute vandalism. The bottom line is that if the
product can be washed away, as egg can, and there is no
damage, it is not vandalism; but when it comes to eggs,
damage can occur. It was obvious that neither Kendra
nor some other residents were entirely happy with the PD’s
explanation.
Dennis then urged everyone to start
calling the police whenever they see anything at all that
arouses suspicion. Do not wait, call immediately, and do not
call Judy Ellis – the police want this information
first-hand, not filtered. These sentiments were echoed by
Sgt. Hordge.
Ken DeMott, manager of the St.
Petersburg Country Club, then explained how the golf course
protects itself, what it can and cannot do to discourage
illegal or improper behavior, and asked for Lakewood’s
citizens to continue to call the police or the pro shop when
they see people on the course, either in the wrong place, or
during active play, or using the course as a park. An
individual walking a dog when no one is on the greens or a
few kids sitting on the easement are not a problem, but if
there is play and golfers are on the course, they are
entitled to feel free to whack the ball and not have to
worry about beaning someone.
Judy Ellis then made a few
announcements:
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Karl Nurse has donated his tickets to the Rays game
on 9/3 to residents in his District; sign up with name,
address and phone, and number wanted; first come, first
served.
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The city’s trash task force is working to identify
badly littered areas and to find ways to educate young
children about not using car windows to throw stuff out of.
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Solamo, an affiliation of 8 south-side neighborhoods
SOuth of LAke MaggiOre, is sponsoring a candidate forum on
September 23rd at Lakewood Hi. 7 p.m.
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Suggestions were sought for Home of the Year.
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Community gardens are hot right now and if anyone
wants to get one started in Lakewood, let the board know.
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Discarded cell phones – get them to Judy and she will
get them to seniors who use them for 911.
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The St. Petersburg Museum of History has a Founding
Families project in which people whose families came to
Florida many years ago are interviewed to form an oral
history of the settling of this area.
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Forfeiture grant: It was agreed that we should
explore the possibility of getting new, larger Neighborhood
Watch signs putting people on notice that this neighborhood
is patrolled; the original city-provided signs have been
around so long no one notices them any more.
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You can go online to the city’s web site and fill out
a survey on what you think should be done with the Pier.
There were a few tongue-in-cheek suggestions at the
meeting.
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The city will no longer conduct annual neighborhood
clean-ups so we are going to ask for a dumpster to come out
October 17, the day we have already set aside for a visit
from the County’s Haz-Mat dumpster.
There followed a serious discussion
about bringing the old “Crime Watch” back into action. No
one volunteered to take Dennis’ place as coordinator; he has
hung on since January in a pro tem way but he needs to
“retire.” Candidates are being sought. Meanwhile, many
people did indicate by a show of hands that they would be
willing to take part in the Neighborhood Watch, consider
being a block captain, and attend an occasional meeting to
organize systematic patrols the way other neighborhoods in
St Pete have risen to the problem of increasing crime.
The 50/50 was won by Charlie Gerath,
who graciously returned his share of the $40 pot back to the
Association’s treasury.
The meeting adjourned about 9:00 and
the attendees were less than thrilled to discover that the
evening’s downpour was still very much alive.
LAKEWOOD ESTATES CIVIC ASSOCIATION
AND NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH
MINUTES OF MEETING - JANUARY 27, 2009
Scott Wagman, a candidate for mayor,
was introduced and stayed to see what’s on our minds. He
met with interested members after the meeting.
Also present was Councilman Karl Nurse,
who spoke briefly about the city’s financial situation, and
plans and programs coming up in 2009.
Dennis Coley and Officer Books of the
Community Service team spoke about the rash of car break-ins
we’ve endured, along with the rest of the city, and gave out
advice on how to avoid becoming a victim.
Mike Frederick from Neighborhood
Traffic presented the City’s plan to change the 900 block of
Alcazar to a one-way street, improve and reconfigure the
traffic circle where that block meets Alhambra, and
completely redesign the Alhambra/Aragon intersection to
improve visibility and prevent a shift of speeders from one
street to another. Mike passed around an aerial view of
the proposed changes and the membership unanimously endorsed
these changes. The speed humps originally promised for the
block will be going in very soon.
Karl Nurse was thanked for his
assistance in securing funding for the Alcazar project.
Patsy Wedding presented the financial
report, showing our current balance of just over $1165,
which did not include over 80 payments for dues in the last
few days, including 22 people who paid their dues at the
meeting-- we are pleased to see a lot of new faces.
Membership as of 1/27/09 is 134.
Roy Hunt was elected from director to
vice president; Dennis Coley will remain as a director and
Crime Coordinator pro tem while a replacement is sought.
Patsy was re-elected secretary.
The group was informed that the
automatic approval of the Country Club’s request for a
lot-line variance has been moved to a hearing before the
Development Review Commission because one resident of Lakewood is
opposed. The membership reaffirmed the Board’s decision not
to oppose this variance. A member of the Board will
represent Lakewood at the March 4th hearing.
A discussion was held about what
Lakewood would like to present to the City as its needs in
the coming month; Karl Nurse emphasized that the sooner we
can get our wish list into the budgeting process, the better
chance we have getting funded. Judy Ellis expressed a need
for a city-wide anti-litter campaign that would ultimately
benefit Lakewood by cleaning up some of the disgraceful
conditions around the ramps on 275 – at both 22nd
A/S and 54th A/S -- as well as the trash that
always litters the western easement of 31st
Street. Linda Hubner felt we should be looking for a
facility to give kids somewhere to go after school. Both of
these will be explored with the City.
Linda also felt the Country Club could do more to prevent
vandalism by involving the kids of Lakewood. Judy Ellis
pointed out that the Club gives free golf lessons to the
kids but agreed that this program needed wider advertising;
she will speak to the Club and also get statistics for Linda
on how many Lakewoodians take part in both that program and
the very popular summer camp. (Postscript: A conversation
with the Club on Wednesday morning revealed that the lessons
were very poorly attended and were being moved from Tuesdays
to Saturdays in an effort to encourage attendance. Lakewood
kids make up the majority of the students. The LECA offered
to do its part by newsletter and email to make sure the word
gets out. The summer camp is open only to the children of
members.)
It was announced that the City had
granted a permit to the Baypoint Little League to solicit
funds by offering residents a chance to have their house
number painted at the foot of their driveway in exchange for
a $5.00 contribution. The Board has endorsed this worthy
cause.
There was a discussion about the
problem of the ever-growing number of bank-owned houses.
While the city will take responsibility for mowing those
lawns, they are already overburdened and we foresee more and
more eyesores around Lakewood. The Board will explore
forming a committee to deal with this problem, which is
compounded by the issues of entry onto private property,
liability insurance, etc.
There was no objection to the dropping
of our rather expensive but little visited web site in favor
of a return to the free Neighborhood Link. Judy Ellis will
work with our webmaster to get this accomplished once we
have taken advantage of our current annual subscription.
The meeting adjourned over
ice cream about 8:30. | 
