The Lake Sarasota Community Blog

Just wanted to let everyone know that our signs announcing our upcoming meetings are done and ready to display for our meeting in October. If you are interested in placing one in your yard let me know so I can either be here to give it to you or leave it on my front porch for you to pick up. I think we discussed at the last meeting displaying them the Sunday before the meeting so it would give everyone interested a couple of days notice. Just email me .   See Ya!!!   Your Neighbor, Jud y

We hope to have 10 or more residents who can commit to CERT training . If you are thinking of doing this, drop a line to this email, so we can get an accurate sense of who's aboard. Also, we'd like to have a short meeting of Lake Sarasotans who want to take the CERT course so we can coordinate schedules. Let us know.

Hello Neighbors:   Please try and make our next meeting on  Tuesday, October  14, 2008 .  It will be the next-to-last meeting of this year (Sarasota Baptist will be using all of their rooms during the month of December).  We need to have good attendance at this meeting so that we can discuss the new year and plans for Lake Sarasota. We promise that the meeting will start promptly at 7:00 PM and will be over at 8:30 PM.   We are still in desperate need of volunteers for the Citizens Patrol. Please contact Ted Cover at TCover6161@aol.com  or phone him at 379-0758.  If more people would just volunteer for a couple of hours a month, it would make the Citizens Patrol Program a big success.   YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD NEEDS YOU!   The next Sarasota County CERT class will be held in November.  The maximum class size is 40 students, with preference given to neighborhood "teams" who can commit 5 or more members to the class.  Seats for individuals (those not part of a 5 person team) will be r...

SCOPE stands for Sarasota County Openly Plans for Excellence Invest in your community.  Read more about the  Selby Challenge .    See Pictures  from SCOPE's Annual Celebration   Read about the latest from the  Summit for Environmental Action . Learn more about the  2009 Winter Forum on Aging .   Visit the  ROLE Summit website  to nominate someone to attend. September is  Sustainability Month  at Sarasota County Libraries and SCOPE is a part of it.   See all SCOPE Events ... check  the calendar.

Fall is here as of today, and October is just around the corner.  And, we need to staff the Citizens Patrol for next month.  Here are the days and dates.        Fri.   Oct. 3                Sat.   Oct. 4      Fri. Oct. 10                Sat.  Oct. 11      Fri. Oct. 17                Sat. Oct. 18      Fri. Oct. 24                Sat. Oct. 25      Fri. Oct. 31                Sat.   Nov. 1   Note that Halloween is a patrol night!   Please respond by return E-mail advising the night or nights that you can make the patrol.   We need more patrol volunteers.  In you know of anyone interested, please have them contact me so I can arrange training.   Here is the August crime report.                       Vandalism:   8/27   7150 Lago St.                                        8/30   4213 Middlesex Dr.                                        8/30   7061 Brentford Rd.                         Burglary      8/16    4051 Westminster Dr.                                       8/23    6566 Mauna Loa Bv...

A note about an upcoming training session from Ted: Sgt. Neal Scully of the Sarasota County Sheriff's Dept. will be at my house (4102 Parry Drive) at 7 p.m. on Wednesday,  Sept. 24  to provide the training required to participate in the Citizens Patrol. Anyone who would like to take the training, contact me by return email or call me at 379-0758. Ted Cover Citizens Patrol Lake Sarasota Community Group

We take our lakes for granted, but the more we understand about their ecologies, the better we'll be able to ensure that we don't cause irretrievable damage by over-fertilizing, over spraying, or other harmful practices. Here are a few culprits that arise when homeowners who live by the lakes ignore basic precautions: "Spatterdock": Grass sprayed: "Bag worm:" By the way, he county has two brochures of interest to anyone living near bodies of water: Living on the Water's Edge : A Homeowners Guide to Low Maintenance Landscaping Along Seawalls, Bayfronts and Canals Sarasota County Fertilizer and Landscape Management Code We are forming a Group that will address lake and waterway issues in Lake Sarasota. Please join us whether you live on a lake or just care about them. Start by dropping us a line - tell us about you and your concern. Both brochures and other info can be downloaded from the  county's website, here . We have also made them available on t...

A note from our new point person Bill Pitts: Hello!   This is my first attempt at this, so I hope it is informative!   Recap of Tuesday's meeting:   Ellie Hines reported that we have a balance of $672.68 in our account.   The citizens patrol is in urgent need of volunteers.  Please contact Ted Cover and volunteer your services for a couple of hours if you possibly can.  Ted will be scheduling a training class later in the month.  We will notify you of the date and time.   Our front entrance landscaping project will begin on September 29th.   I will be leading the monthly meetings if Dan Johnson is not available to do so. I will also be handling email communications.   We made a decision to buy signs to put up in the neighborhood to notify our neighbors about the upcoming meetings.  Please try and attend the meetings.  Everything works better with more participants.   We talked about the construction of the Pocket Park at Hina and Palau.  The decision was made to name it the "...

Laura has been LSCG's official president, unofficial leader and behind the scenes go-to person for a full two years. We are deeply grateful for all she's done, and are pleased that she'll stay on as a valued contributor even as some very talented new people are stepping up to help out. Here's Laura's note: Hello neighbors,   For those of you who couldn't make it, the meeting last night was really good ~ despite the rain!   We had 4 new people there and many great ideas & projects happening.  Recap is forthcoming.   Bill Pitts, who also led our meeting last night (Thanks Bill!) has stepped up to handle the email.   So, for at least the immediate future, if you have email inquiries; please send them to:   JPitts9710@aol.com  or   lakesarasota@gmail.com Also, be thinking about…. Who would be a good President to lead and motivate our group.   Maybe it's You!  We'll be doing elections for our group in November.  What timing! Thank You :)   Laura Mathis  

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Dear Citizens Patrol Members, Could you help me update our address and phone lists by providing your current? Also, Please advise if you have moved from or are in the process of moving from Lake Sarasota. Email Ted at TCover6161@aol.com We still need volunteers to patrol the nights of Friday Sept. 5, Saturday Sept. 6, Saturday Sept. 13, Saturday Sept. 20, and Friday and Saturday Sept. 26 and 27. Any who can cover these dates please advise so I can provide you with the magnetic Citizens Patrol signs, logbook, etc. Ted Cover Citizens Patrol Lake Sarasota Community Group

October is Disability Awareness Month and Sarasota County Parks and Recreation has a special event planned to highlight the many agencies and services that provide support for Sarasota County residents with disabilities. The Disability Awareness — Health and Recreation Expo, 9 a.m.-noon, Saturday, Oct. 4 at Arlington Park Gymnasium, 2650 Waldemere St., Sarasota will provide information on tai chi programs, wheelchair tennis, respite care, and much more. For more information, contact the Sarasota County Call Center at 941-861-5000 and ask about the Disability Awareness: Health and Recreation Expo and the Arlington Park Open House.

The Lake Sarasota Community Group holds its next general meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 9, at 7 pm, at Lake Sarasota Baptist Church. A number of important topics are on the agenda, including: Median Tree Plantings update (Laura) (5 mins) Front entrance landscaping update (Tisha) Sidewalks along Lago CERT program Planning future events/meetings (Sandy) Park at Hina (Faith) Lakeview Park Waterways (Ray and Connie) (nothing new) Regular Reports: · Treasurer’s Report (Ellie) (2 minutes) · Yards of the Month (Renee) 5 minutes · Traffic Calming (Judy) – no reply · Citizens’ Patrol (Ted) Group organization (Everybody) Other potentially relevant concerns: · TRIM Notices · Foreclosures

We will do a cleanup along Mauna Loa on Saturday, Sept. 20th, the same day as the Coastal Cleanup. We encourage any lakefront residents to clean up along their property, too. If you'd like to help with the cleanup along Mauna Loa Blvd, please email Kim Davis: KimD@sarasotamagazine.com Thank you, Laura Mathis

SCOPE - Sarasota County Openly Plans for Excellence - has several initiatives - here's a list from their site : Every year, SCOPE engages a diverse group of people in conversations that focus on what we want our future to be as opposed to problem solving the past. In these conversations, or “community studies,” SCOPE frees people to innovate and create new approaches to change. Topics are chosen by local residents and have included race and cultural relations, affordable housing, school dropout, redevelopment and infill, family violence, traffic flow and congestion, mental health and aging. With each completed study, SCOPE volunteers work as partners with public officials, individuals and organizations to put those ideas into action and create meaningful change in the community. > Aging: The Possibilities > Race & Cultural Relations > Neighborhoods Initiative...