In what can only be described as a perfect day for a parade, it would appear that the big Weatherman in the sky gave the residents of The Great Northwest Community Improvement Association (GNWCIA) a pass, just long enough to hold a spectacular parade.
You might recall last year, the annual 4th of July Parade had to be canceled at the last minute due to approaching thunderstorms. This year, we simply could not have asked for a better breeze to keep everyone cool and sunny skies to remind us that it is in fact, July!
This year, my wife and I joined several neighbors to ride our scooters in the parade. As The T-Post Posse, we earned suntans and sore butts putting along the parade route that started at Zachry Middle School, along Timber Path and up to the Lodge of the Great Northwest on Timberwilde.
This year, the Grand Marshall was none other than Miss Olivia Theriot. You may recall that not only is she a well known retired veteran of the Air Force, Miss Olivia is also the very first homeowner in Silver Creek. Robert Rodkey is seen telling Miss Olivia about some of the finer points of his Corvette, the lead car in the parade she rode in as Grand Marshall, driven by Chairman of the Board of Directors, Richard Garcia.
We had numerous participants including this incredible float saluting military members, and thanking them for their service!
There was a float with players and coaches from the NW Vikings youth football team...
Both Boy and Girl Scouts,
members of the GNW Sounds musical group,
and even the GNW Garden Club.
In addition to these organizations, the parade included several sharp looking older vehicles like Ole Betsy, a 1970 Chevy Truck driven by the Garza family and a few hitchhikers along the route...
and Chairman Garcia's '69 Mustang driven by Director Ida Rodkey and husband Robert.
The parade included numerous bike riders, walkers, people with baby strollers, and other vehicles including the several of the GNW Staff, like Fred Murphy, Director of Maintenance on his pristine condition motorcycle.
Recreation Director Stephanie Larrabie was in the parade,
while DRACO, Jose Morlette drove ahead to take pictures of the spectacle.
Chief of Security, Roger Burton showed off the new Patrol truck.
Speaking of security, we had officers from Precinct 2 Constables office out as well as friends from SAPD making sure the parade which lasted about 45 minutes from start to finish could safely make it down the 1 1/2 mile stretch of Timber Path and across Tezel Road to Timberwilde.
As a group, our little Scooter Patrol were really surprised at the number of people who lined the street along Timber Path. We were certainly pleased with the number of parade participants, but having never been in the parade before, we simply didn't realize that along the way, so many wonderful residents would be out in lawn chairs, under the shade of umbrellas and canopy. It was really nice to toot our horns and greet the crowds along the way.
I only wish that I could have taken pictures along the way - but being on a scooter is not conducive to busting out the camera every few seconds. But my son did get a few shots (featured in this report) from his position at the end of the parade. Either way, it was really nice to see so many people waving and cheering for us. We will definitely do it again next year - I hope you join us for the fun.
Okay, not really. More like my inner Bob Vila. And even Bob Vila would be offended at my sloppy workmanship. But life goes on, right? It would probably help if I told you what I was talking about.
This past Friday morning, I drove to work and noticed that not only had some inconsiderate bastards tagged the Oscar Perez Memorial Park, they scribbled the entire length of the wall that makes up the side of a church. I called 311 on my way to work and alerted the city of the park situation but really, with the Final Four in town, don't expect any clean-up before Tuesday or Wednesday.
I suppose a picture is worth a thousand words - or at least a handful of vulgarities if you can make them out.
If you are wondering wear I'm talking about, this building is on the corner of Timber Path and Grissom and was at one time an HEB. When HEB relocated to the corner of Grissom/Culebra/Tezel, this building turned into a hugely popular nightclub called Coyotes. Later, it became Tejano Texas and pretty much died out. Now, it has opened as a church called Living Waters (I think).
I'm sure most people who drove by this afternoon and saw GNWCIA Director Richard Garcia and I painting over the profanity just assumed that we were from the church. That's fine. It doesn't matter who does it, but someone needs to clean up the mess, so we did.
I hear people complaining that the patches of paint not matching the original color look just as bad as the taggers' work. I'll agree it isn't perfect by Bob Vila or any stretch, but it is better for sure.
I hope this won't sound a little too much like a public relations pitch, but I wrote up a quick article for our neighborhood newspaper called, Passages. Our local paper is distributed on a monthly basis to the 5,000 homes that make up our association, and honestly, they do a wonderful job in providing news and information to residents. My only complaint is that, like any monthly publication, often articles that would be relevant for a particular month don't make the deadline for publication. But, I enjoy my copy and appreciate the fact that the people who put it together use some of the pictures I take and the words I write for them. Instead of waiting for the hardcopy version, I thought I'd adapt my story for the web.
So as it turns out, this morning, about 20 members of the Great Northwest A-Team got together for some painting, clean-up and fun. Members of all ages took paint brushes in hand and covered over the much detested graffiti that seems to dot the privacy fences and utility boxes throughout the main thoroughfares around the association neighborhoods.
As one group of volunteers made quick work of common areas along Timberwilde Drive, others fanned out along Timber Path to seek out offending marks on the privacy fences that line the road. Several A-Team members commented on how with the enjoyable weather and many people helping out, the job was more fun than work. As each new spot needing a little touch up was identified, several members would join in to clean it up.
Between painting and using heavy duty graffiti remover, numerous utility boxes, signs and fences were cleaned up by the group in less than two hours. Great Northwest Community Improvement Association Board Director and A-Team member Richard Garcia commented that small events like this one don’t take an entire day from volunteers limited weekends, yet the allow people to get out and help make the community a nicer place to live. And from the many friendly waves and honks from cars and trucks passing by, it was evident that the residents appreciate the work the A-Team is doing to battle the graffiti and efforts to keep the common areas clean.
Future A-Team projects may include the cleaning up of greenbelts, helping residents in need with minor repairs of fences and such, and of course, we’ll continue to keep the graffiti at bay.
How can you become a member of the A-Team? It is as simple is contacting A-Team coordinator, Mike Yager or stopping in at the Lodge of the Great Northwest office to learn more. You will find that there is no commitment to how much or how little time you participate, and if you can’t do a lot of heavy lifting, we can always use supervisors and cheerleaders!
My wife and I made the short trip down the street to the Lodge of the Great Northwest to attend the executive session of the board of directors for the Great Northwest Community Improvement Association.
In a somewhat subdued version of meetings, we started about 15 minutes late and were finished fairly early. Incredible how quickly things can go when you don't have someone constantly wanting to consult the lawyer... (did I type that out loud?) 
Kudos to the staff for posting multiple signs reminding the peanut gallery that this was an executive session, and comments were not accepted from observers in the audience. I think it helped immensely.
A few things you should know:
Community Manager Darin Laracuente gave us the word on the latest graffiti situation. He reports that in addition to volunteers like Director Richard Garcia getting out and painting over the taggers mess, the Security staff has been helping out where they can. The City of SA won't provide matching colors for free, but as Director Garcia pointed out, the association should be able to afford the desired matching colors from Wal-Mart for 97 cents a can (just where he and the taggers get it).
Jose Morlett, the DRACO tells us that he went to court and the city is going to demolish the half-completed house in Silver Creek, much to the delight of neighbors, and bill the owner.
Fred Murphy, our director of maintenance reports that the people who live along the drainage easement from on Tezel Road all the way to the Lodge Timberwilde are a bunch of inconsiderate A-Holes. Okay, he didn't say that at all; that is my take.
As I had previously written, many of these folks simply toss tree limbs and other assorted junk over their fences into the dry creek bed hoping that floods will carry their garbage away. Seriously, how ghetto is this? Oh, and while cars get washed away in floods at low water crossings everytime it rains, I doubt very seriously that the car engine block you tossed behind your fence is going to move itself out of our neighborhood after a short afternoon shower. This kind of behavior is more than ridiculous. Frankly, if I'm one of the volunteers who will gather to clean the area, I plan to start chucking stuff right back over the fence. (I might need a little help with engine blocks and refrigerators).
Chief Burton updated the board on the new security patrol vehicle. It has been freshly wrapped with logos and soon, the older trucks will get the fresh new design.
Director Guy Pucci questioned Chief Burton about the liability incurred by GNW Security directing traffic if they come upon an accident scene. His point being that if they direct traffic in a way that causes another accident, the board could be liable. Chief Burton pointed out that if his staff simply drives by an accident scene and fails to do anything, it creates an ugly situation. Community Manager Laracuente intervened and stated that he would get a reading from the insurance company, and policy would be set based upon that ruling.
My opinion is this: Our security guys have light bars on their vehicles. When they park the vehicle at an intersection where a wreck has occurred, it helps slow the traffic much the same way a police cruiser does. Though not the ideal situation, this is far safer than having just an ordinary citizen with no light bar and no training (as most of our security staff undoubtedly have had) standing in the road trying to direct traffic. I don't want to have the association come under any undue lawsuits - we generate enough of those from within the association, but just seems to me that if an accident occurs and there is a need to direct traffic, having a huge logo on the side of an association vehicle that says "Security" drive right on by an accident for fear of a lawsuit will only generate more disdain. And, I'm no lawyer but there must be some protection under the Texas Good Samaritan Act to help us out. Just my opinion.
Two other quick things: The board changed the wording on one or two bylaws to be votred on at the annual meeting and they will be sent off to the lawyer (of course) to be reviewed. Also, they are thinking of having a raffle at the annual meeting to make sure they get a quorum. Apparently, some of the associations in our general area had to hold multiple meetings to generate enough interest to get the numbers necessary to have a quorum at their annual meetings. We don't want that.
Then it was off to the closed session of the meeting where bloggers and reporters are not allowed! We were out by 8:30PM!
A quick note: Sorry to be delinquent with the posts this week - I have been overwhelmed with watching TV now that many of my must see shows are on (Lost!) and I have also been doing some work which causes me to have a little less time to fritter away my life banging away notes into the computer and posting pictures of people being goofy. But, I will try to do better and provide those of you who make this Blog a daily visit on your Internet journey, a rewarding experience each day. No, I'm not running for any elected office.
So, then. My wife and I made the short trip down the street to the Lodge of the Great Northwest so we could attend at least the first hour and a half of the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Great Northwest Community Improvement Association. The audience was , dare I say, packed, with residents compared to normal meetings we attend. I don't have an exact head count, but it was easily triple or quadruple the normal crowd we see. Thank you residents; we need more people to show interest, and mark my words; you will enjoy the show, especially if you are a closet Springer Fan.
But I digress.
Following the fully participated in moment of silence and pledging to the flag, the meeting was called to order and such, then we heard from residents to complain:
Up first, Former Board Chair, Mrs. Kathleen Callahan and a few comments about the the content of letters from Board Chair Besing and Vice Chair Doherty in last months paper. Read it here. I'll save you some time and tell you that she was upset that two sitting Directors made comments in the official paper regarding intentions to run for the board. Multiple theories as to how this was a disadvantage to other potential candidates, and potentially, caused some candidates not to run knowing that they have to run against incumbents.
I don't know how I feel about the first part - is it an advantage? Who knows? Will it keep other people from running? In my estimation, if some potential board candidate made the decision to run based on whether or not an incumbent was running, I'll tell you right now, that person would not get my vote. Either do it because you intend to win and do a good job for the community, or don't run. If announcing their (Doherty and Besing) candidacy via Passages weeded out any crappy candidates, then I'm all for it.
Former (even before Mrs. Callahan) Chairman of the Board of Directors, Joe Martinez gave his concerns about a new GNW Group called The Happenings, not getting fair use of the GNW Lodge. I didn't quite get the full story, so I'd appreciate if someone from the Happenings group could fill me in, but the gist of it was that the Lodge people made the group meet at a smaller venue (Emerald Valley Lodge), which is not fair. That facility is not conducive to meetings, and I can testify. My understanding was that the reasoning was that it costs more money to open the GNW Lodge, so it needs to be for a group large enough to show that it is serving the interests of the community as a whole. I'm gonna have to side with Mr. Martinez on this one (at least the parts I understand). If a group is an officially sanctioned group of the association, let 'em have the good room. I recall my wife and I being the only attendees of a Board of Directors meeting, and our last GNW watch meeting only had about 5 or 6 folks in the audience.
Okay. You may recall the folks in Emerald Valley who had some drunk guy plow his car into their house. The residents spoke before the board to address their concerns and seek assistance from the board and security to help with the problem. This family has already made contact with the city and other agencies to try to address the problem, but you could see the look on the collective faces of the directors and most audience members; this is not an issue that the association can address in any substantive way. The resident made many informative and helpful points, explaining the problems with the street, the fact that vehicles speed and such. But, unfortunately, her suggestions of having the GNW Security basically sit on her street after hours and write down plate numbers of speeders is obviously a no go.
I was extremely proud of how Director Sigrid Long handled the matter in addressing the residents concerns. She made several suggestions on how to proceed and of course, mentioned the fact that the GNWatch group might be a place to start. (I later gave the family my e-mail address and number, and hope they will join the watch soon).
Have you had enough yet? There is more.
We had a surprise guest speaker, Judge Marcia S. Weiner who is the Justice of the Peace for Precinct Two, Place One. If you get in trouble, you will find her over in Leon Valley. It just so happens that my son is doing his Criminal Justice internship in her office, so, needless to say, I have nothing but glowing comments about Judge Weiner and her thirty or more minutes of informative material.
Seriously though, Judge Weiner has an informative pitch involving the the problems associated with truancy and the escalating troubles youth get into. She gave us ideas of the ways she deals with the little criminals to get them back on the right track. Turns out, she often gives the screw-ups community service and that if they live among us, they could perform said service here in the GNW! Sign them up! We need some fences painted.
Anyway, I believe the Passages will soon be running an article written by Judge Weiner, and if you'd like, she left some informative handouts with the office staff.
Okay. On to Committee reports.
Chairman of the Scholarship Committee, Mrs. Callahan gave a stirring report on the status of the committee and the resulting happy kids. Then the questions from Directors Garcia and Pucci started. There seem to be two concerns from the board members: Are there any conflicts of interest, and how is the money accounted for?
You should know that I have been sighted by two of the three factions of the GNW community for not giving a crap about all the details of every little thing in our community. But in the GNW, there are actually three factions.
One faction is made up of people who align themselves with former board chairman Martinez. A second faction is made up of people who align themselves with former board chair Callahan. The other 95 percent of the people in the GNW fall into my faction. We are the people who just want to pay our assessments, live in the community and not be inundated with this petty, petty, petty crap.
In this case, if some residents want to donate money to a scholarship fund and they want to take the proceeds of the vending machines at the pool to add to that fund, go for it. Keep it all legal and open, but go for it.
I have a better idea.
Do it, but do it as a private thing and don't even involve the association with it. They got a whopping $35 from the vending machines last year. My son is in college. $35 doesn't cover half the cost of his parking permit for one semester. The association (as far as I understand) doesn't provide any of the funds to the scholarship, right? So just do it on your own, and be done with it.
But, in the mean time, the deadline for this years scholarship is early April, so contact your high school and do whatever it takes to get the scholarship money.
I don't want to sound like I'm in a hurry, but it should not take 20 minutes of my life to hear about some stupid (Stupid is such a harsh and opinionated word - please don't let it taint the meaning of this report) scholarships at an HOA board meeting. What impact does that private group of well meaning neighbors (and I do applaud them) have to do with the running of the association? I'd like equal time for the Line Dancing committee and the Bunco team, please.
I was unexpectedly asked to give a few words about the GNWatch meeting coming up next Wednesday. I didn't expect to be peppered with questions from the board, but I was.
I have mentioned it before. I have a great deal of respect for Director Pucci. He asks everyone who speaks before the board questions that are intended to provide information he needs to make a decision. I'd like to think I had my shit together, but who knows? Bottom line, come out to the meeting next Wednesday, the 27th of February. I'll write more about it next week.
Our community Manager, Mr. Darrin Laraquente broke down a series of complaints he has received from residents and addressed each. I'm going to tell you right up front; Mr. Laraquente has hit the ground running and is doing a fantastic job for this association. He is still getting to know the community and trying to put people's complaints and concerns into perspective. Kudos to him and to how he is motivating the staff to get things done.
What he is facing is a series of things that are happening in neighborhoods all around San Antonio. First, people are tagging and vandalizing The Five Oh (78250 - get it?) daily. If that isn't bad enough, we have otherwise upstanding residents who are doing ridiculous things.
On a recent tour of the greenbelts in our area (also known as drainage ditches and dry creek beds), he got to see first hand how some residents simply dump garbage over their fences into the open area. Imagine this. You cut your tree limbs and you toss them right over the fence. Someone looks at them and can see exactly where the tree in your back yard has been cut, and exactly where the branch that matches the cut limb is laying on the other side of the fence. Hello? This isn't CSI people. You don't need a sperm sample to figure out who the donor is.
Okay. If you are still reading this, this is where it ends. My wife and I had another, more important meeting to attend, so we left promptly at 9PM.
On the way out, one resident stopped me to suggest that I stay for the next round of action. I'm sorry, but I'll wait for the official minutes.
Oh, I did hear from several people who stayed that there was an attempt to censure a few directors, but in keeping with my new policy of not reporting anything that I don't witness first hand, I'll have to read about it in the official minutes, and so will you.
Help me out people. We need more eyes and ears at these meetings. Why don't you come on down on the first and third Thursday of the month and sit in with us. You can pick any faction you want to sit with - there are no assigned seats.
As always, I tend to get things wrong. Don't file a lawsuit, just send me an e-mail or make a comment and tell me how bad I screwed things up. If you were at the meeting, I'll be happy to print your take on events, unedited, with or without attribution. My goal is to get the information out to my neighbors.
In what can only be described as a perfect day for a parade, it would appear that the big Weatherman in the sky gave the residents of The Great Northwest Community Improvement Association (GNWCIA) a pass, just long enough to hold a spectacular parade.
You might recall last year, the annual 4th of July Parade had to be canceled at the last minute due to approaching thunderstorms. This year, we simply could not have asked for a better breeze to keep everyone cool and sunny skies to remind us that it is in fact, July!
This year, my wife and I joined several neighbors to ride our scooters in the parade. As The T-Post Posse, we earned suntans and sore butts putting along the parade route that started at Zachry Middle School, along Timber Path and up to the Lodge of the Great Northwest on Timberwilde.
This year, the Grand Marshall was none other than Miss Olivia Theriot. You may recall that not only is she a well known retired veteran of the Air Force, Miss Olivia is also the very first homeowner in Silver Creek. Robert Rodkey is seen telling Miss Olivia about some of the finer points of his Corvette, the lead car in the parade she rode in as Grand Marshall, driven by Chairman of the Board of Directors, Richard Garcia.
We had numerous participants including this incredible float saluting military members, and thanking them for their service!
There was a float with players and coaches from the NW Vikings youth football team...
Both Boy and Girl Scouts,
members of the GNW Sounds musical group,
and even the GNW Garden Club.
In addition to these organizations, the parade included several sharp looking older vehicles like Ole Betsy, a 1970 Chevy Truck driven by the Garza family and a few hitchhikers along the route...
and Chairman Garcia's '69 Mustang driven by Director Ida Rodkey and husband Robert.
The parade included numerous bike riders, walkers, people with baby strollers, and other vehicles including the several of the GNW Staff, like Fred Murphy, Director of Maintenance on his pristine condition motorcycle.
Recreation Director Stephanie Larrabie was in the parade,
while DRACO, Jose Morlette drove ahead to take pictures of the spectacle.
Chief of Security, Roger Burton showed off the new Patrol truck.
Speaking of security, we had officers from Precinct 2 Constables office out as well as friends from SAPD making sure the parade which lasted about 45 minutes from start to finish could safely make it down the 1 1/2 mile stretch of Timber Path and across Tezel Road to Timberwilde.
As a group, our little Scooter Patrol were really surprised at the number of people who lined the street along Timber Path. We were certainly pleased with the number of parade participants, but having never been in the parade before, we simply didn't realize that along the way, so many wonderful residents would be out in lawn chairs, under the shade of umbrellas and canopy. It was really nice to toot our horns and greet the crowds along the way.
I only wish that I could have taken pictures along the way - but being on a scooter is not conducive to busting out the camera every few seconds. But my son did get a few shots (featured in this report) from his position at the end of the parade. Either way, it was really nice to see so many people waving and cheering for us. We will definitely do it again next year - I hope you join us for the fun.
