Tax Hike - Have Your Voice Heard!

Please refer to the posting on the WCID89 blog maintained by Dr. Root for more information about the recent decision to raise the tax rate. The public hearing for the 2010 tax rate will be held at the beginning of the next District meeting at 11:30AM on Tuesday, October 19, 2010. The new meeting place is the Frost Bank Bldg. located at 6750 West Loop South, Suite 250, Bellaire, TX. Free parking is available.

AMI & HOA Enforcing the Deed Restrictions

Perhaps you received a post card from AMI in the mail like I did. Just in case you tossed it, thinking it was junk mail, let me reproduce it here for you.

AMI and your Homeowners Association would like to maintain the aesthetics of your community but can only do so with your help. Below are some friendly tips and reminders on how to help keep your community beautiful.

• Basketball goals are not allowed.
• Trash containers must be kept from public view (except on trash days)
• Please remember that garden hoses should be on garden caddies and/or placed out of view.
• For the safety of our residents and your visitors, overnight street parking is prohibited. In order to alleviate cluttered streets, your Association is currently in the process of contacting the local municipality to ticket and tow these individuals who violate this parking restriction. (My comment on this one: we are not within any local municipality so I presume that they are contacting the Sheriff to ticket and tow. Considering the Sheriff's response times to our emergency calls, I would think that the HOA might have difficulty getting this enforced!)
• Now is the time to fertilize both your front and rear lawns. Fertilizer can be purchased at any feed, hardware, or lawn store and is vital in minimizing weed growth during the spring germination period.

No street parking is allowed over night. Please try your best to use your driveway, your neighbor will appreciate it. (My comment again: Seems that they really want the cars off the streets. It is a definite safety hazard. Pets or children can dart out into the street and a driver would not be able to see them as quickly due to the parked cars. And, if a fire truck tried to get to a burning house it would have to plow it's way through these parked cars.)

Please keep in mind that during the winter season management will be reviewing the above mentioned items each visit and reminding owners of their maintenance responsibilities -- for the benefit of all.

Sincerely,
Dave King
Community Manager

AMI Resource Center New Phone Number

713-932-1122 or 800-932-9449

Recap of HOA Annual Meeting on 5/18/2010

Compared to previous HOA meetings, I thought this one was much more civilized. Only near the end did things start to fall apart. Here's the highlights:

Javier of Friendswood Development announced that Keith Schoonover would be taking over as President of the HOA and go-to-guy for all Developer related issues. He will be assisted by Shamar O'Bryant and Nat Heston.

One week ago our old management company, ACMI, was fired. A new contract has been given to AMI to take over management and will officially be in effect on June 1st. Dave King of AMI will be the manager for Brunswick Meadows. AMI services over 260 neighborhoods and has been in business for 30 years. Let's face it...they couldn't possibly be worse than ACMI :--) and hopefully will live up to all they promised tonight. AMI office is located at 12230 Shadowcreek Parkway, behind the Sherwin Williams. Twin Villas residents should start sending their monthly dues to AMI starting in 30 days.

You can send your problems to Dave via e-mail at dking@amitx.com and he will respond within 24 hours. AMI also has a Resource Center that handles 14,000-15,000 calls per month and 80% of those calls were addressed within 2 minutes. Call 713-332-4675 to reach the Resource Center - but you'll have to wait until the middle of June for it to be up and running. For immediate needs, e-mail Dave. Dave says he has already been cruising the neighborhood and sees many violations of the deed restrictions. He wants a few weeks to read over all the rules and will be visiting violators 3 days a week. He also said a monthly newsletter will be created with assistance of a committee of residents and a website will be provided with all the bells and whistles. Until we see evidence of that, I will continue to post on this blog and the yahoo group will continue.

The sidewalk to nowhere along Sandstone Bend was adorned with bushes along the fences of each side of the street. 'Nowhere' is actually the last part of the development that will be starting in December. This sidewalk was part of the master plan. No other sidewalks - the ones we've been wanting along Brunswick Meadows and the detention ponds - were ever planned. Javier said that it was possible to build the sidewalks - there is no problem with the right of way - but there was no budget available to build them.

Streets needing completion to outlet on Furman is a responsibility of the Developer, but no timeframe was mentioned as to when they would be done. Once the roads are built, they are turned over to Harris County for maintenance. So if there are problems with the roads in the future, you should address Commissioner Pct. 1 El Franco Lee. Someone mentioned the need for speed bumps and asked who had jurisdiction over that. It was unclear who was responsible for them. Supposedly it is Harris County, but El Franco Lee said that it was not within their power. The city of Houston does build speed bumps, but as you know, we are not within the city of Houston limits so that leaves us back in the 'black hole' of no one taking responsibility.

For the continuing debate on bus stops, it is necessary that you take it up with the appropriate school administration. Some have had more success than others in addressing this issue.

There was a new twist on the 'water vs no water' in the detention ponds debate. Seems that while the water was sitting in the ponds, unscrupulous sales reps for the home builders attached a premium to lots that abutted the 'lakefront' property. The developer said that it was never the intention to have water in those detention ponds. They are to remain dry in order to deal with flooding when it rains. The reason the water was in the ponds for so long was because the developer felt that WCID89 should be responsible for paying for the pump after it was installed. But WCID89 refused to do so. The developer paid and the ponds were drained and will remain in their dry state forever.

Those are the main points. Please feel free to comment on others that I may have missed.

Tuesday May 18th Annual HOA Meeting

7:00 to 8:30 p.m. Jones Memorial Methodist Church which is at 2504 Almeda Genoa Road (very near 288) and here's a few of the concerns that residents intend to address at this meeting:
Sidewalks along Brunswick Meadows Dr (Public Safety Issue)
Retention Ponds (Water or Not?)
Security Contract Issues
Water Quality
Improvement to Furman Rd
Completion of the thoroughfare near Sutton Glen Lane and Furman (relieve some of the through traffic in other sections)
Recycling options
Level of occupancy for the community
Trucks parking overnight
Constant advertisement left on doors - might be a way for thieves to see if anyone is at home
Community amenities (playgrounds, picnic area, etc.)
Street signs (children at play, no outlet, etc) throughout the entire neighborhood
More street lights
Scott Street landscaping & signage (should be more attractive & inviting)

Come and join the discussion on these and other matters affecting our neighborhood!

Come to Golden Corral on 3/23 at 6PM

I'm hoping you will be able to join AK Babers and me at the Golden Corral on 518 (9115 Broadway St, Pearland, TX 77584 if you want to mapquest it, or you cancall them at 281-412-4546) at 6PM Tuesday, March 23, 2010 for a little strategy session on how we can get us elected to the Water District Board. I've reserved the meeting room for us so we can have a quiet place to talk and eat. The buffet is $9.99 and you can just ask where the meeting room is and they'll point it out to you.

So far, here's what we know. The election will be held on Saturday, May 8, 2010 from 7AM-7PM at the home of Cynthia Woolridge, who lives in Morningside - the neighborhood adjacent to Tom Bass Park off Cullen - at 14719 Teck Ct. Early voting is from 9AM-5PM April 26-30 and May 3-4 and election day is Saturday, May 8 from 7AM-7PM.

We will be using voting machines rented from the County. You have to be registered with the address in the neighborhood showing on your registration card. In other words, you can't just be registered to vote in Harris County and still qualify to vote in this particular election. If you need to get registered with your Brunswick address, please let me know. I have the registration form.

The best news? I, Jeraine Root, will appear first on the ballot and AK Babers will be 2nd. We drew for places on the ballot at the lawyer's office where the MUD meetings are held. And everyone will be allowed to vote for two candidates, so we won't run the risk of splitting the vote. So come help us strategize and win some Brunswick representation on the Board!!!

History of WCID#89

This is the first in a series of postings that I will devote to understanding more about our MUD or Water District and some of the complaints that the "Wick" neighborhoods have expressed regarding their services to our communities. The Wick are the relatively new developments built on the north side of Beltway 8 between Furman St and Cullen Blvd. Brunwick Lakes, Brunswick Meadows, and Brunswick Place make up the Wick. The other two major neighborhoods served by WCID #89 are Morningside Place I and Morningside Place II which are on the south side of Beltway 8, bounded by Cullen Blvd and Fellows Road which runs along Tom Bass Park.

Harris County Water Control & Improvement District #89 (WCID #89) was created March 6, 1964 and was converted to a municipal utility district (MUD) on April 11, 1984 and according to chapters 49 and 54 of the Texas Water Code, WCID #89, is empowered to purchase, operate & maintain all facilities necessary to provide water, sanitary sewer service, storm sewer drainage, irrigation, solid waste collection & disposal, including recycling, parks and recreational facilities for the residents of the District. In addition, WCID#89 can contract for or employ its own peace officers with power to make arrests and to establish, operate and maintain a fire department to perform all fire-fighting activities within the District. On April 4, 2000 WCID #89 entered into a water supply agreement with the City of Houston, which has supplemented the District's water supply from wells.

WCID #89 is governed by 5 Board members who serve 4 year terms of office. Until April 2009 these positions were held by Sharyn Smalls (President) Arthur G. Washington (VP) Victoria Lastee (Secretary) Danny Perkins (Director) and Claudell Bradby (Director). It was discovered that Claudell Bradby was not qualified to sit on the Board because she had not maintained a residence within the District since 2007. She was replaced by Byron Keith Watson, Sr. - appointed to office by the Board.

Interesting isn't it that there was no attempt by the current Board to include a representative from the Wick when given the opportunity to appoint a new Board member? Especially since many Wick residents had attended meetings and voiced their concerns with various issues related to the District. AK Babers, who resides in Brunswick Meadows, had a personal meeting with Sharyn Smalls back in 2008. During that meeting, he expressed an interest in serving on the Board. He was told at that time by President Smalls that there was no need for him to serve because she was content with the current makeup of the Board, including the unqualified Director presumably.

Elections are held whenever an incumbent has a challenger petition to be on the ballot. No elections have been held for any Board position since the Wick neighborhoods came into existence; therefore, all Board members are from Morningside. That has now changed. There will be an election held (exact date, time, and place to be determined and will be announced on this blog) for 2 of the 5 positions because AK Babers and I (Dr. Jeraine Root) have requested to be on the ballot. We will be vying for the 2 positions currently held by Victoria Lastee and Danny Perkins. The candidates who receive the most votes will win the positions - there is no runoff.

Next posting will be about finances of the District.