Sweetwater Homes Newsletter

I hope that the first half of 2014 has treated everyone well! Our goal is to produce a quarterly newsletter. If you have any articles or information you would like to contribute, please email Ashley Christie at: [email protected]. Have a happy and safe Summer!

Sweetwater News Summer 2014

Happy Summer

Hopefully, by now everyone has received their copy of the 2014 neighborhood directory. If something needs to be corrected, or if your contact information

changes, please email [email protected]. Future newsletters will contain updates, which can be added on the last page of your directory so that it is

always current!

Independence Day

Friday, July 4th

2014 Neighborhood Directory

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Issue #: [Date] Dolor Sit Amet

President’s Report By: Craig Lee

As you recall, at the last annual membership meeting in November, we voted to proceed with the revitalization of our community governing documents as required by Florida statute. This reassertion of our Articles of Incorporation, Deed Restrictions, and By-Laws is required every thirty years.

I’m happy to be able to report to you that the state finally, almost three months after their deadline to respond, notified us that the request for revitalization is approved.

This is great news for us, yet after thirty years it’s just a first step. We have several initiatives getting off the ground that will contribute towards making sure the specialness of our community is preserved. As you will see in the following articles, these include a Beautification Committee, an opportunity to join a private neighborhood social network, and security improvements.

And we are trying to start up a committee to help in updating our community deed restrictions to be consistent with how the community lives today. A lot has changed over the last ten years, let alone the past thirty years.

In an email to me recently, our neighbor Doug Rothschild summarized perfectly what it means to live in Sweetwater. He said, “Our community has something many don’t … a sense of community. This fact is obvious to visitors who immediately recognize this when seeing residents in the streets visiting, talking and helping each other. In addition, people are awed (and a little jealous) when they hear about our community happy hours, holiday parties, and other special events.”

Over the past few months I’ve had the opportunity to meet and speak with many of our new neighbors. I believe we are very lucky that they chose to join our community because it is clear they saw something special and already are becoming part of and contributing to that specialness that is Sweetwater.

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Planes, Trains & Automobiles…or … Streets, Sidewalks and Front Gates… With all the children, neighbors and walkers in Sweetwater, we need to be sure our walkways, streets and gates all remain operable and safe at all times. I am happy to report that as a neighborhood when I asked for communications with regards to these areas, there were many neighbors to thank who led the charge, spotting several areas that needed a little TLC. Our job within the board is to annually, or as necessary, look not only at repair items but to assess the longevity of those items; and not just what you see but many times, what you don’t; for example storm sewers, to be sure they are not only operating as usual but will continue to function long term.

In late March/ early April we engaged the assistance of 4 road paving/ repair operations in assessing the short and long-‐term potential problems on some of our streets. We ultimately repaired 7 locations on each of Saltwater, Crosswater and Deepwater. In the end, we engaged the help of Superior Seal and Paving, and within a 24 hour period not only had they quarantined those areas, but surgically cut out the problem areas and completely re-‐filled and sealed them; again making them safe. I think that Superior did a great job and I am completely satisfied that there was little to no inconvenience to our neighbors; Hats off to Superior and their fine staff!

BEAUTIFICATION: As for a few other items of interest; We have a few neighbors that have volunteered for a Beautification Committee with regards to assisting the board with suggestions and outlining a budget for the outside of the gates/entrance/ signage/ walls into our neighborhood. This committee has gotten off to a slow start with schedule conflicts, but will hopefully be meeting in July. Once they have assessed the needs, and come to a consensus, they will report back to our board in hopes of possible resolutions; they are looking at potential “adoption” of the outside medians on Memorial, potential for new wall short/ long term “look” as well as new updated neighborhood Sweetwater signage. Should you like to get involved and be on this committee, contact Rick Noll at 813-‐477-‐4517 and we’ll update you as to meetings and needed tasks to perform.

DEED RESTRICTIONS: This quarters’ DID YOU KNOW: “air conditioners and air compressors shall be screened with shrubbery so as to be wholly or substantially not visible from a street or any other plot.” When walking, driving or whatnot thru the neighborhood, there are several homes that do not comply. Our President and Vice President have advised us they will be sending out notices, so if you are one of these homes, please take care of these before they do.

Our Deed Restrictions outline many different rules that may not be commonly known; from filling out an approval request before you plant a tree that may hinder someone’s views, to updating paint colors, working on a dock, or even changing out doors and windows. Also, if you see a violation such as Air Conditioner Visible, or work being done that you think might need an approval, please let our President Craig ([email protected]) or Vice President Robin ([email protected]) know. Did you know where to find our deed restrictions? They can be viewed on www.sweetwaterhomes.org, under deed restrictions.

Architectural Report By: Rick Noll

Yard of the Month from January

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Upcoming Holidays and Events

Happy Hours will resume in September!

Please email Leslie Haywood to volunteer as hosts for happy hour and holiday parties. We need

volunteers! [email protected]

Have you heard about Nextdoor.com? It’s an electronic bulletin board specifically designed for neighborhoods like ours. It’s free, easy to use, and a great way to communicate with your neighbors. With Nextdoor, you can post an ad to sell the exercise bike that you no longer use; ask for a recommendation on a good house painter; notify your neighbors that your dog has escaped and ask them to keep an eye out for him. In order to join the Sweetwater neighborhood on Nextdoor, you must be a resident of our community. This keeps it private, and means that your posts are shared only with your neighbors. And you can choose how often you want to receive notifications of posts that have been added by other neighbors: immediately, or in a daily summary.

Nextdoor is NOT a place to post pictures of your grandkids or videos of your pets. It is also NOT a forum for venting your frustration with your in-‐laws, the government, or tourists. Any inappropriate posts will be taken down by the site administrator. However, if a neighbor asks for a recommendation on a type of service, and you’ve recently had a negative experience with a company, it’s perfectly okay to say so, as long as you do so without using offensive language.

In other words, Nextdoor carries the same type of messages that you would give to your neighbor over the back fence. Only now, you can reach 129 backyards, not just the ones on either side of you.

The Sweetwater neighborhood site has already been set up. If you’d like to participate, go to www.Nextdoor.com and follow the steps to sign up. You must use your real address so that the site can verify that you are a Sweetwater resident. After that, it’s up to you how much or how little you wish to share in your personal profile.

The neighborhood that I recently moved from uses Nextdoor with great success. Many of us found house sitters, window washers, or a tutor for a child through this site, and quite a few missing pets were returned to their owners thanks to Nextdoor. It’s only effective if people sign up and use it, so I hope that Sweetwater residents will give it a try.

The Girl Next Door By: Jan Darmody


A lot has been going on with security over the last 6 months. We have had 7 major security incidents involving law enforcement and a bunch of minor ones. As you all know, there have been a couple of break-‐ins in the neighborhood involving homes and cars. None of the perpetrators have been caught so it should be assumed that they will come back. Now would be a good time to check your locks,

alarms and cameras, if you have them, to make sure they are working. In both the home burglaries, an individual went through the back slider and went directly to the jewelry box and stole jewelry only. There were other valuables around the house that were not stolen. In addition, we have vandals going around the neighborhood scratching cars. There have been 6 victims from all over the neighborhood. It appears to happening at night so if anyone sees anything suspicious please call the police.

With all the security incidents this year, the board decided to form a security committee to address these issues. This committee has come up with 4 recommendations for the board.

1) We have asked the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Department to send more patrols through our neighborhood.

2) Set up a neighborhood watch. Mike McElroy has volunteered to lead the neighborhood watch. We are currently looking for volunteers who would be willing to drive or walk the neighborhood at certain times of the day and report anything suspicious to law enforcement and the neighborhood watch group. Please email me at [email protected] if you are interested in helping out.

3) Sweetwater vehicle stickers. This would work in conjunction with the neighborhood watch and help identify cars that should not be in the neighborhood.

4) Replacing 2 cameras with license plate cameras. Currently only the resident gate has a license plate camera. We are recommending that the exit gate camera and visitors’ gate camera also be license plate cameras.

In addition, we are investigating ways to prevent or limit tailgaters from following an authorized vehicle through the gates.

On a positive note, we have made a number of changes to the gate. The time for which the resident gate stays open was decreased to deter unauthorized vehicles from following cars in. All the cameras are working now, and we replaced the gate crushing warning sign with new ones that make the gate look a little better. The hinge on the resident gate was also replaced, since it had worn through and was contacting the other gate.

Security Update By: James Hanlon

Are you interested in joining the Neighborhood Watch? Contact [email protected]


LANDSCAPING

Welcome to summer, neighbors! Many neighbors have made great landscape improvements this spring and early summer, both landside and waterside. These changes have improved our already beautiful neighborhood and serve as a great reminder that the beauty has to be nurtured.

We all value courteous and responsible neighbors who keep their property appropriately maintained. Minimal maintenance includes timely mowing, edging, mulching and trimming of trees and shrubs. Please do your part. If you are unable to maintain your property to the community standards, please let me know so we can work together to identify a solution.

Watering Schedule

• Irrigation must be accomplished prior to 8:00 AM or after 6:00 PM. • Any one zone of a property may only be watered once during the allowable day, and

not both in the morning and evening.

Addresses ending in the number 0, 1, 2 or 3: Monday and/or Thursday Addresses ending in the number 4, 5 or 6: Tuesday and/or Friday Addresses ending in the number 7, 8, or 9: Wednesday and/or Saturday Pet Waste

A reminder to please pick up pet waste. We have many active residents and playful children with many things to watch out for. Have you seen how fast those little kids go on those scooters? Amazing! Let’s keep it easy for kids to be kids.

Landscape Reminders By: Susan Pearsall

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