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Spring 2002 |
Ref#: a_015 |
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President’s
Message
from Lindsey Lee
Smokey, our Pekinese, died last month. He was 13-1/2 years
old. Smokey was the runt of his litter and not always in
the best of health. Despite his frailties, Smokey outlived
all of his littermates, especially his best friend and running
buddy, Bandit.
Smokey's final resting place was his favorite place in the
whole world, his backyard. When Deb and I moved into our
house, Smokey and Bandit claimed the backyard as their own.
That was the place where they chased squirrels, barked at
other dogs, and marked blades of grass. Most afternoons,
coming home from work, we would find them lying in the grass
basking in the sun. They loved their yard, and it made us
feel good to see them there.
Besides providing unlimited support, love and friendship,
Smokey and Bandit helped us meet our neighbors in Oak Forest.
Smokey and Bandit had a wandering gene. About twice a year,
they would find a way through our fence and roam the neighborhood.
Sooner or later a neighbor would see them, bring them in
and find us from the tags on their collars to let us know
that the two were safe and sound. While waiting for us to
pick the dogs up, the neighbors would give Smokey and Bandit
a treat or two, or many. These acts of kindness inspired
the dogs to get out of the yard. We always appreciated our
Oak Forest neighbors looking out for Smokey and Bandit and
taking care of them. Kind neighbors looking out for others
is what makes Oak Forest a special place.
Deb and I scattered Smokey and Bandit's ashes in our backyard
and planted a small shrub to memorialize them. I ask each
of you to plant something in your yard as well, not as a
remembrance of our dogs, but to keep Oak Forest green. Help
us maintain Oak Forest as the "Urban Woods" by
planting a tree or a shrub in your front or back yard.
When you're driving down Antoine and you think you see one
white and one brown Pekinese roaming along the sidewalk,
it probably is Smokey and Bandit searching for one more
blade of grass to mark and one more slice of Bologna from
an Oak Forest resident.
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Monthly Meetings
All meetings of the OFNA are held the second Monday of each
month at the Kroger grocery store on West 43rd at Ella Blvd,
beginning promptly at 7:00 p.m.
Our speaker on Monday, April 8, will be Adrian Garcia, Director
of the Mayor's Anti-Gang Task Force. The mission of the
Mayor's Anti-Gang Office is to reduce gang crime through
increased coordination of public and private agencies working
to prevent and eliminate gang violence in Houston.
Our speaker on Monday, May 13, will be Chris Connealy, Chief
of the Houston Fire Department. Chief Connealy will discuss
fire safety. Firefighters from Station 13, located at T.C.
Jester and 43rd will be present also.
On Monday, June 10, our speaker will be Dr. Paul Nester,
Extension Agent with the Harris County office of the Texas
Cooperative Extension Service. Dr. Nester will be discussing
winning the war against fire ants through treatment and
control. Treatment for fire ants should begin April. A brief
article from the Texas Cooperative Extension Service on
fire ant prevention can be found on page 3.
Kudos to Luby's Cafeteria at W.34th and U.S. 290 for contributing
the door prize at our March meeting.
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| Special thanks to Ben
St. Cyr, Unit Manager for the Kroger Grocery store
at 1352 W. 43rd for allowing the Oak Forest Homeowners
Association to meet there each month. |
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Beautification Committee
The Beautification Committee is planning to plant trees
on the esplanades along W. 43rd in front of Oak Forest Elementary
and Black Middle School. Contact Ruth Metzger at (713) 686-0405
for more information.
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Deed Restrictions
– Signs
On February 13, 2002, Visiting District Judge P.K. Reiter
ruled for the Oak Forest Homeowners Association in our efforts
to enforce the deed restrictions regarding the display of
public signs.
As described by Judge Reiter, the deed restriction for Oak
Forest Section 16 that prohibits the display of public signs
does permit the following:
- a. one sign no larger than 5 square
feet in area advertising the property for sale or rent;
- b. one sign, temporary, no larger than
3 square feet in area, and continuously displayed no longer
than two months twice each year, including signs such
as political, patriotic, religious, holiday, garage and
yard sales, etc; and
- c. two signs, permanent, no larger than
1 _ square feet in area, including signs noting the resident's
name, home security provider, dangerous animal warning,
and any of the foregoing "b." temporary signs,
but no larger than 1-1/2 square feet in area.
The Deed Restriction Committee will be
actively monitoring the posting of all forms of signs in
the subdivision.
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Deed Restrictions
Mortgage lenders are reviewing loan applications
to insure that properties do not violate deed restrictions,
and refusing to provide loans on houses that do not comply
with the deed restrictions Deed Restrictions
For those of you seeking copies of the deed restrictions,
you should have received a copy with the closing documents
you received when you purchased your house. A copy of each
section's deed restrictions is available for copying at
the Oak Forest Branch Library at 1349 W. 43rd. You can purchase
certified copies of the deed restrictions from the Harris
County Clerk's office for $1.00 per page.
Recently, the Oak Forest Homeowners Association purchased
certified copies of each section's deed restrictions. Copies
of these certified copies are being made and donated to
the Oak Forest Branch Library. A copy of a section's deed
restrictions is available directly from the Oak Forest Homeowners
Association for $5.00. Please call the OFNA hotline at 713-688-6342
or email the President at ldlee_1@yahoo.com.
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YAHOO
Newsgroup
Do you have email? Do you want a reminder by email of upcoming
Oak Forest Homeowners Association meetings and activities?
Do you want to be the first on your block to get a copy
of the quarterly newsletter?
Then join the Oak Forest Homeowners Association newsgroup.
Over 40 residents have joined the newsgroup, and you should
too. Membership is restricted to residents and property
owners only, and the group will be moderated by the President
of the homeowners association. These steps should insure
that our members do not receive any spam as a result of
joining the group. The address is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OFNA/.
If you have any questions, you can email me at LDLee_1@yahoo.com.
To subscribe, send an email to OFNA-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
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| Do
you shop at Randalls? OFNA is now a participant
in the Randalls Good Neighbor Program. What can
you do to help? Make sure you have a Randalls
Remarkable card. Before you check out, tell the
clerk you want to sign up with a new organization.
Then give the clerk our organization number, which
is 9719. Make sure your spouse and neighbors are
also signed up. |
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OFNA
Hotline
Several callers to the hotline have asked why they can only
reach voice mail instead of a real person. The OFNA has
limited resources. Voluntary dues are the main source of
our operating funds. We cannot afford an office with a staff
to answer the calls. To do so would require dues to be mandatory
and significantly increased. None of us want that.
Volunteers retrieve the voice mail daily. During January
and February, our volunteers fielded 82 calls to the voice
mail. In many cases, the volunteer can answer the question,
and tries to return the call that day. Other times, the
volunteer forwards the message to the person who is best
suited to answer the request or question. In order for us
to respond to your question or request, we need your name
and phone number. Thank you for using the voice mail. Please
bear with us – we are trying to be as helpful as possible.
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| The
Oak Forest Homeowners Association relies
solely on volunteers to perform its duties.
There are many opportunities available for
you to help improve your community. Volunteering
is an excellent way to meet your neighbors,
make new friends, and learn about the going
ons in our community. For more information
call the OFNA hotline at 713-688-6342 and
leave your name and number or send an email
to LDLee_1@yahoo.com. |
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Fire Ants:
Getting Two Steps Ahead
Spring is upon us, and with the warmer weather comes red
imported fire ants. Last year many people didn't treat for
fire ants in the spring because the dry weather kept the
ants deep and unnoticeable. If this year's weather is a
repeat of last year’s dry spring, don't get caught
untreated, because it could result in an even bigger fire
ant problem later.
Fire ants love to nest in home lawns, parks, and ornamental
turfgrass areas. At certain times of the year, especially
spring and fall after rainy periods, freshly worked mounds
are noticeable and can be unsightly.
Like other ants, the fire ant is a social insect. Colonies
live in mounds of dirt that may be more than 18 inches high.
There may be hundreds of thousands of worker ants in a mature
colony. In many areas, each mound contains several queen
ants, each producing eggs. In areas infested with this form
of the ant, they can build 200 to 800 or more mounds per
acre in untreated areas. Worker ants from multiple queen
colonies are not territorial and do not attack neighboring
ant colonies, but instead move freely from mound to mound.
Fire ants disperse naturally through mating flights and
mass migrations of colony members. When land is flooded,
colonies form a mass of floating ants and float to new locations
in flood water.
Since fire ants travel from yard to yard, a coordinated
attack is the most effective way to reduce the fire ant
population. Controlling the fire ant problem in urban areas
will be more successful if tackled on a neighborhood-wide
scale. Many communities and neighborhoods across Texas are
beginning to successfully manage fire ants through these
coordinated treatment programs, by using the “Two-Step
Method.” For heavily infested areas, broadcasting
a bait (Step 1) can be done for less than $10 for a _ acre
yard that provides 80-90% control for up to a year! The
second step is treating only undesirable or nuisance mounds
on an individual basis between broadcast applications of
ant baits once or twice per year. By letting the bait treatments
eliminate most of the ant colonies, few mounds will need
to be treated. This information is available in your County
Extension office, request “The Texas Two-Step Method”
(L-5070), or can be found on the web.
Reprinted from Texas Agricultural
Extension Service.
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Houston Independent
School District News
The Houston Independent School District has approved the
expenditure of up to $13.0 million to rebuild the Oak Forest
Elementary School at 1401 W. 43rd. The school will remain
open to students during the period it is being rebuilt.
The school board has formed a committee to oversee development
of the new design. Current plans are for a presentation
to be made on the new design at an Oak Forest Parent-Teachers
Association meeting. When a date for the meeting is set,
an announcement will be made at the monthly OFNA meeting
and will be sent through the Yahoo newsgroup to all subscribers.
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Crime Watch
The policemen who patrol our area want you to know that
there has been an increase in burglary of motor vehicles.
Be sure that you do not leave anything inside your car that
can be seen by a burglar. If he wants it he will get it.
Also, lots of scams are going on. Most seem to be someone
appearing at your door, without your knowledge beforehand,
wanting to do something in your house, outside your house
or around the house. The officers recommend you close the
door immediately and call 911 to have the police come and
check them out.
Lastly, if you need new checks from your bank, tell the
bank you will pick them up at the bank. Thieves are stealing
boxes of new checks from unattended mailboxes. Be very watchful
for strangers going up to your neighbor's home. If they
look suspicious call 911.
The Houston Police Department believes that an active neighborhood
watch program can significantly reduce the incidence of
crime in a neighborhood. We call our neighborhood watch
group the OFNA Citizens on Patrol. If you want to help make
our neighborhood safer become involved in the OFNA Citizens
on Patrol. The group meets the second Thursday of each month
at St. Stephens U.M.C. located at 4301 Donna Bell Lane.
For more information, call Richard Rabe at 713-681-1133.
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