FOUND and Meeting

This very sweet, loving female cat walked up to someone's front door in our community. If you have lost her, you can contact Jessica at 813-468-8077.

This serves as another reminder that no pets are allowed outside without their owner's supervision. I saw a raccoon feeding on cat food someone left on their front porch. The food people leave outside for their pets often disappears thanks to other animals they did not intend to feed, and invites nuisance animals to the community.

Also, a reminder that our last scheduled HOA meeting of 2014 happens THURSDAY (not the usual day of the week) at 7 p.m. at the dining area of the Target store on Bloomingdale Ave. (also not the usual meeting location).

We'll talk tree replacement, and anything else that concerns residents of St. Charles Place. As always you can bring issues to the HOA board's attention by emailing board@stcharlesplace.us.

Street Lights Out? Tell TECO.

Tampa Electric maintains our street lights. If you ever notice one not working correctly, just make a note of the number on the pole (it's two sets of five digits), and fill out a simple form on the TECO website.

Here's the link: https://secure.tampaelectric.com/tampaelectricsecure/forms/residential/streetlightout/.

Next Meeting & Tree Replacement

Our next meeting, and the last one planned for 2014, will happen Thursday, November 20. We cannot get our regular meeting room, so we will meet at the dining area in the Super Target store on Bloomingdale Avenue. Start time is the usual 7 p.m.

A longtime discussion topic at board meetings is the long-term need to get some of the large oak trees away from our buildings. As they continue to grow, they will encroach ever more on our buildings, and eventually endanger their slab foundations.

That would be bad.

With an arborist and our landscape company, the board has begun a scheduled plan to remove the troublesome trees and replace them with ones better suited to live near buildings. We have narrowed the list of replacement trees to three kinds that stood out for their combination of attractiveness, heartiness in our climate, and ability to thrive close to structures and paving.

They are Dahoon Holly, Crepe Myrtle, Southern Red Cedar and Ligustrum Patio. Scroll down to see photos of each.

We’d like owners’ feedback on which you prefer. You can email board@stcharlesplace or show up in person. We would entertain others not among those three, but those are the ones that our landscaper and arborist recommend. Click on the images to see larger versions.

Crepe Myrtle:

Dahoon Holly:

Ligustrum Patio:

Cedar:

I might not have the correct cedar tree here, because I don't think we'd want them that large, but it's an evergreen and the photo should give you a decent idea.

We would not go exclusively with one kind throughout the community, but rather a mix to give our landscaping variety while having trees that work better close to buildings. This will be a long-term project with the oaks causing the most risk getting priority for removal.

The trees will likely be much smaller than the ones they replace, but in a few years, they will grow and mature into ones that give our community its distinctive look, without the danger of harming the integrity of our buildings.

Again, send thoughts to board@stcharlesplace.us.

New Board of Directors - 2015 Fees Unchanged

Sorry I did not get to this earlier. You'd think I would have reported sooner on the new HOA Board of Directors since it decided to make me its president. But we did reach a quorum for our annual meeting and we elected a new board, with two new members and three holdovers from last year.

So here you go, the St. Charles Place HOA Board of Directors for the next year:

John McQuiston, President
Lauren Brusa, Vice President
Denise Taraschi, Treasurer
Randall Boston, Secretary
Rachel Modrow, At-Large Member

As always, you can reach the entire board by emailing board@stcharlesplace.us.

Also, as always, and it's even more important that I mention it now, but I created this blog myself as a resource for residents and owners and it represents my own opinions, and not necessarily those of the St. Charles Place HOA. I will try to make clear when something is a board of directors decision, and just my own opinion.

Also, the outgoing board passed the budget for 2015. Fees will remain the same. We might still have some catching up to do to get our reserves as full as we should have them, but it looks like we can make progress on that even without raising dues for now.

Let's hope!