Recycling Dumpster Will Go Away

The HOA board last night agreed to get rid of the recycling dumpster in the community. Too often people have put trash into it instead of recyclables. That meant that we paid extra for recycling things that wound up in a landfill anyway. And we had to pay more for regular trash pickup.

Getting rid of the recycling bin, of course, does not help the consistent issue we've had with excessive trash in the other dumpsters. The board directed the community manager to work with Waste Management to see if any place in the community would suit adding another dumpster.

The board will also look for nearby places that take recyclables.

We are on pace to pay nearly $39,000 for garbage pickup this year. Some of the problem comes from people - some who don't live here, and some who do - dumping things like furniture, barbecue grills and bicycles at our trash sites.

If you need to get rid of large items, you have several options.

Put an ad on craigslist. Seriously! I got rid of a couch and a living room chair that way. They were not in pristine condition, but for free, it was worth enough for someone to come with a truck and take them away for me.

I also donated a TV to the Salvation Army that they came and picked up. You have ways of getting rid of things you don't want without trashing your community.

If those don't work, you should to take large items to one of the facilities Hillsborough County has that accepts them. Here's the information from the county's website:

When and where to take appliances and bulky items 

• Days & Hours
  • Monday through Saturday
  • 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. for customers who are hand-unloading
  • 7:30: a.m to 5:30 p.m. for customers with automatic dump trailers

• Locations
  • Alderman’s Ford Solid Waste Facility
    9402 County Road 39
    Plant City, FL 33567
  
  
  • Hillsborough Heights Solid Waste Facility
    6209 County Road 579
    Seffner, FL 33584
  
  
  • Northwest County Solid Waste Facility
    8001 W. Linebaugh Ave.
    Tampa, FL 33625
  
  
  • South County Solid Waste Facility
    13000 U.S. Highway 41
    Gibsonton, FL 33534

What to bring

• Photo ID showing the residential address of the property owner
• One of the following:
  • A printed copy of your annual Hillsborough County Property Tax Bill showing your current solid waste assessments
    • Search and print a copy of your property tax bill
  • Your smartphone or tablet to show the on-site attendant your annual Hillsborough County property tax bill
• If you are not the property owner but are authorized to deliver residential solid waste on behalf of the property owner, please present an acceptable Community Collection Center Access and Use Authorization Form to the on-site CCC Attendant.

HOA Meeting Tonight

I normally try to post these sooner, so my apologies for that, but we have an HOA meeting tonight. It starts at 7 p.m. at the usual location at the office of Excelsior Property Managment, 6554 Krycul Avenue in the Krycul Business Center.

Warning: Hurricane Coming

Disclaimer: a St. Charles Place homeowner writes this blog. Though I currently serve as the HOA board president, the thoughts below are mine alone.

UPDATE: As of 11 a.m. Friday, we are under a hurricane watch, with hurricane warnings just to our south. A hurricane watch means hurricane winds are possible. A warning means they're expected.

The National Weather Service issues a hurricane warning "36 hours in advance of the anticipated onset of tropical-storm-force winds to allow for important preparation," according to its website. It issues a hurricane watch 48 hours of when it anticipates tropical-storm-force winds in an area.

I have posted warnings about this storm on the HOA's Facebook page, which you can see even if you don't follow it at Facebook.com/StCharlesPlaceHOA. I will continue to post updates there as time and cell service allow.

Click the image to enlarge it.

Hurricane Irma has come close enough that forecasters feel confident that we'll get a good smacking from it. Hurricane watches are in effect for Florida's west coast as far north as Manatee County as of 8 a.m. today. Meteorologists don't know for certain exactly where Irma will strike until it makes its turn north sometime Saturday.

We are still within the cone of possibility for a direct hit.

Even if it goes up the center of the peninsula, as the current track suggests, this storm is so massive and so powerful – 150 mph sustained winds as of this morning – that we will get tropical storm if not hurricane winds and torrential rain.

I will evacuate. We've had to sue KB Home, the company that built our homes, because of construction defects. According to the engineer who examined our buildings, we live in structures not only not built to current code standards, they weren't even designed to code. He warned that our buildings would not survive a strong wind event. Like the one we're about to get.

It's getting late, but there's still time to get out. I have collected vital documents, family photos, valuables, clothes, medicine, and toiletries, and will ride out the storm at my parents' house in Pasco County.

Here are some good resources to track the storm:

• Hurricanes.gov
• SpaghettiModels.com
• TropicalTidbits.com

If you still need to make a disaster kit:

• FloridaDisaster.org

If the power goes out, our lift station will stop running. This is the thing that pumps all the community's sewage out to the county's sewage lines. If electricity stays off for any length of time, eventually our toilets won't flush.

Please leave nothing on your front porch or back patio that could become a projectile in a strong storm. Even a doormat could fly away, block a storm drain and cause flooding. We do seem to have a good drainage system. As long as our drains stay clear, we should not have flooding.

The community pool will close today, as the management company prepares it for the storm. It will drain some water from the pool, and any pool furniture that won't fit in the cabana's storage space will go into the pool, where it won't become a hazard.

After the storm, the property manager (whose contact phone number is on the right-hand column of this page) will assess any damage we have. It does have a plan, but you'll need to be patient. Excelsior Community Management is based less than a mile from us, and its employees live locally too. They might might their own crises that occupy them. They also have other communities they must tend to.