MEETING MINUTES – Lazybrook Civic Club of Houston

Virtual Meeting – 26 people in attendance 

Call to order: 7:02pm by President Ben Dolan 

Meeting Minutes:

Will review all outstanding meeting minutes at our next in-person meeting

Introduction of new attendees: 

Special Guest From Sally Alcorn’s office , Hannah Cobb : 

– Houston Health Dept 13k new vaccination appointments all went really fast.  

– All Texas adults will be eligible next Monday, March 29th. 

– Coronavirus and recovery report to determine the Health and economic impacts. 

– Houston will receive $615 Million in the American Rescue Act. 

– Sally Alcorn is the chairwoman for regulatory affairs committee 

– Sound ordinance: work with neighborhoods that have bars and restaurants that create sound nuisance as     well as animal welfare right issues. 

– Working with HPD and Mayor for policy change and enforcement issues. New Police Chief Fenner . 

Committee Reports:

Volunteers Needed:

Advertising Chair, Block Captain Chair, Security/Citizen Patrol Chair – reach out to Ben Dolan or any active chair members if interested. 

Membership – Eddie Yarborough

– Down big time due to freeze, only at 6.9% out of our 677 homes. 

– April is membership drive month. 

– Pre Addressed Envelopes to make it easier. 

– Collect dues all year long, 2 membership drives April and October. 

– Funds go to clean up and maintenance of 18th street, mosquito spraying, citizens patrol, and beautification. 

Block Captain Chair – Eddie Yarborough (absent)

Looking for 1 block captain

Treasurer’s Report – Beth Goodner (absent) 

Deed Restrictions – Judy Dyk (absent) 

One person wanted to add a fence but if it is on property line both have to agree because it is co-owned. Person that wants a new fence will have to add it on their side of the existing fence. 

Beautification – Carolyn Lehnert (absent) 

Planted tree in February to honor fallen firefighter. Parks and fire department. Parks donated tree and the fire department is going to water the tree for 2 years. There was a ceremony for planting the tree. 

SNC – 14 Report – Kurt Swafford

Feb 11th was the last meeting, next is April 8th.

Officially 2 slots for delegates, and 1 open  if anyone is interested. Good chance to get contact information and hear about a greater neighborhood. 

Ann Johnson – getting started with the legislative agenda. Deed restriction side, stuff going on with state house and senate, making it easier to change restrictions due to racist language. Easier to remove discriminatory language of any kind. 

Projects in the works for improving sidewalks and overall appearance south of 18th to fix. 

Drag racing – a lot of arrests going on county wide, task force monitoring dispatch, call non emergency HPD #. 

Newsletter/ Communications – Jessica Swafford

• Newsletter issue, all up to contributions, national night out, feature in the next issue in May. 
• Social Media – good feedback, litter pick up a few weeks ago, 30 people showed up and finished early cleaned up all trash they could find. 
• Trash coming from foodarama area towards bayou and homeless population contributing
• 50 people paid their dues in the past day and a half, hoping to see a big uptick in due payment. 
• Added two advertisers, Judy Tuttleworth Salon and mobile company and Our Savior Lutheran School renewed their advertisements. 

Security/COPS – Ben Dolan

Jan/Feb hours were down 20/26 hours respectively. In 2020, we did a total of 322 hours. This year we are going to try to reach 365 hours – 1 patrol a day. 

Crime – string of Breaking and Entering’s 

– Jan 26th – 1800 foxwood, homeless person squatting while homeowner was out of town 

– Jan 30th – 2600 W. TC Jester 

– 2000 block Widdicomb – homeless and squatting in attic of construction house

– Feb 2nd – 2000 block Seamist 

– Feb 5th – 2000 block Lazybrook

– Feb 23rd, theft of vehicle parts on 2300 block of brookmere drive

Architectural Review – Ben Dolan

– Tattenhall (Section 9) – Addition – Approved since last meeting

– Sea Queen (Section 1) – Addition – Received/Approved since last meeting

– Millwood (Section 1) – Patio addition – Received/Approved since last meeting

– Foxwood (Section 4) – Home addition – Received since last meeting – Plans under review

– Guese Road (Section 2) – Solar Panels – Received since last meeting – Plans under review

– 1802 Tattenhall (Section 9) – Sent Cease & Desist Letter – No plans submitted – No COH permit

            – Multiple COH red tags on front door

– Sign just went up in front yard – Notice of Development Plat Variance Request

            – Planning Commission meeting on 4/1/21 at 2:30pm

-1814 Tattenhall (Section 9) – Sent Cease & Desist Letter – No plans submitted – No COH permit

            – Same owner as 1802 Tattenhall

City is adoopting new requirements for detention on residential properties, initial ordinance that they adopted that was going to lower requirement 7500 sq ft lot. 15000 sq feet is going to be held to commercial standards. Residential lot less than 15000 feet impervious area that is less than 65% (anything that is not grass) then they will hold you to commercial standard. Most of lots in lazybrook are less than 65%. 

Capital Improvements – Ben Dolan

New ideas of what we can do for the neighborhood: mix of improvements we can do. Event days for improvement, if you want to join a committee and have ideas to improve the neighborhood let us know! 

New Business:

National Night Out will be on October 5th. Contact Megan Mooney meganmooney@sbcglobal.net

Announcements: 

Moms Club, Easter Egg Hunt : March 28th at 4:30pm, Sinclair Elementary 

Next Civic Club Meeting : May 25th, @ 7pm, Zoom last meeting until September

Adjournment: 7:45pm

Virtual meeting – 20 people in attendance 

Call to order: 7:02pm by President Ben Dolan 

Meeting Minutes:

Will review all outstanding meeting minutes at our next in-person meeting

Introduction of new attendees: No new attendees 

Kate Dentler – Office of Council Member Abbie Kamin

Communications Director, working with the beautification committee memorial tree in the esplanade. Reminder stay safe and wear masks, please up for newsletter for updates 

District C
Phone: 832-393-3004
Email: districtc@houstontx.gov
Newsletter: http://bit.ly/distcnews
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cmabbiekamin


Committee Reports:

Volunteers Needed:

Advertising Chair, Block Captain Chair, Security/Citizen Patrol Chair 

Membership – Eddie Yarborough (absent) 

Block Captain Chair – Eddie Yarborough (absent)

 Looking for 1 block captain 

Treasurer’s Report – Beth Goodner 

Year end 2020 in the black by less than $1,000. Need more involvement in our membership dues. Set aside money for the free already. If there is extra, comes into 2021 business as income. 

Deed Restrictions – Judy Dyk (absent) 

No updates. 

Beautification – Carolyn Lehnert (absent) 

Has been working with the fire department and Abby Kamins office to plant a tree. Tentatively will be planted February 10th at 1pm through Houston Parks Department. Local Fire Department will water the tree, get it cleared through HPD headquarters. Not going to be a public meeting, a few firefighters and civic club members. Will put a plaque and a dedication ceremony once COVID has died down. 

SNC – 14 Report – Kurt Swafford

Went to trash clean up and talked to HPD about racing on 610. Get enough attention to the area with police presence, and get them away from the area since it’s considered a traffic offense. Take diligence on our part : https://www.houstontx.gov/police/alert_slip/ and fill out this link to submit this info. 

Leah Kilgore – Do call 911, and there is a task force that has been created to handle this. Tell them where you can hear it and where you are located. Feb 11th at 6:15pm, Sergeant Rock is a regular fixture at meetings and he will be addressing that. 

Ben Dolan – 2 car race, starting at 610 overpass or 290. 

Newsletter – Jessica Swafford

– Announcement: Lazybrook White Oak Bayou Litter Pick-up Event – Feb 20th 9am-12pm 610 to Ella get it cleaned up for Bluebonnet area the event is on Facebook 

 – link to website post: http://www.lazybrook.org/2021/01/20/lazybrook-litter-clean-up/

 – link to fb page event invitation: https://www.facebook.com/events/758473454776033/

 – Announcement: We have created an official Lazybrook Civic Club FB Page (separate from Lazybrook group as that is a discussion group) Improving conversations from civic club to community. 

 – link to new fb page https://www.facebook.com/lazybrookcivicclub/

Security/COPS – Ben Dolan

Citizen Patrol 20 hours on October 26 in November, 32 in December. Participation was up. Crime was down in the neighborhood 2 were report 200 block of millwood theft of car parts, and then one vandalism at a construction project. Report of homeless man camping in center point easement north of 18th street, homeowner got in contact with center point and they are going to make a formal request to HPD. Citizen patrol magnets fell off the car if it is found please let Ben know. 1802 Foxwood there were a bunch of police cars — the person was out of town and there was someone squatting in the house. They also reported that the car was stolen. 

Architectural Review – Ben Dolan

2 applications in section 9. 1 approved 1 in review. 1 other resident in section 1 sent preliminary sketches in advance and provided them an unofficial review. Settled the issue in section 2 for 1803 and 1807 tannehill. They had started construction without submitting for application and completed multiple other homes in the same fashion. They removed the siding and fully bricked one of the homes agreed variance in the first home to get the brick in second. Lawyer wrote it in a way that it will not affect other projects. 

Capital Improvements – Ben Dolan

We did start — in the research phase and coming up with ideas for improvements will span all different sorts of categories. If you are interested, please volunteer for it and a good thing going forward. 

New Business:

Communications Committee

Proposal by Jessica Swafford: Combine the Website and Newsletter Committees into one “Communications Committee”. Communications committee to manage the functions of the Newsletter, Website, Social Media, and eventually the revival of our email distribution list

Leah Kilgore – Super Neighborhood 14 

Talking about getting speed cushions, 88 neighborhoods for the councils and alliances, letter writing campaigns going in front of senate and house and senate bill 221& 442. Change the speed from 30 miles to 25 mph. Meeting on Feb 11th. 

Announcements: Next Lazybrook Civic Club Meeting is Tuesday March 23rd, 2021

Adjournment: 7:34pm 

December Meeting Minutes – 16 participants 

This meeting was called to order at 7:03 by President Ben Dolan. 

 Location: ZOOM

Committee Reports:

Membership –  Eddie (absent):

Collection of membership dues has not improved since the last meeting.

Treasurer’s Report – Beth (absent) 

We are ahead of last year’s numbers based on the increase in membership dues, but we have additional expenses this year.

Security – Ben 

We have had some break ins and arson incidents. 

Architectural Review – Ben 

Two enforcement cases going. We are trying to resolve the case in Section 2 without an amendment to deed restrictions. 

2 applications since the last meeting that were approved.  

Beautification – Carolyn (absent) 

We are planting a tree at 18th street and Seamist to honor the fire investigator who passed away. Carolyn has been working with the fire department so that we can take care of the tree without adopting an esplanade and installing an irrigation system. Need to get approval from parks to plant trees. 

New Business:

Capital Improvements

Discussed starting a Capital Improvement Committee

A program that we could take advantage of the Neighborhood Matching Grant Program.

Some ideas could be: put in new plants, adopt the esplanade, go towards murals to improve community and improve property values. We will look into projects and see what it would cost and vote to approve a sum of money knowing we will split the cost with the city. 

Open Positions in the Club – Volunteers Needed

Advertising Chair – is vacant

Security/Citizen Patrol Chair – looking for new volunteer

Block Captain Chair Position – Eddie Yarborough is looking for a replacement, but would stay on as captain for her block. 

Guest Speaker – Kaylen from Abbie Kamins office

Update on the Approved Cares Act

Update on Covid in our District – Case are on rise. If you are traveling for Christmas and thanksgiving, mask up and stay cautious free testing sites mouth swab instead of nasal swab 

Encourage us to sign up for our newsletter, district c biweekly have the local fire department involved Sign up for District C Newsletter!https://www.houstontx.gov/council/c/newsletter-signup.html

My email is Kaylen.Sennette@houstontx.gov if you all have further questions!

Guest Speaker – Ms. Joally Canales from Rice University

Community Outreach Coordinator at the Kinder Research Center

Discussed COVID-19 registry and local research project (survey).  This will help measure impacts over time to track response efforts. Real time data and community dashboard can use data to build experience through the pandemic. Take a survey registry.rice.edu/covid19 optional surveys every 2 weeks. Email isjmc35@rice.edu.

Next Meeting is Tuesday Jan 26^th. We will reassess COVID situation before deciding to hold in person meeting can go back to church, otherwise continue with zoom meetings. 

Meeting adjourned at 7:53pm.

September Meeting Minutes 

This meeting was called to order at 7:05 by President Ben Dolan. 

We did not have any meeting minutes to approve for this meeting.

Location: ZOOM

We will see if COVID – 19 numbers improve for the November 24th meeting. If the numbers haven’t improved, we will do a zoom meeting again. 

Super neighborhood meeting – Kurt 

Update: #1 Shepard / Durham Project is set to start. This is federal money that will redo the roads and replace the drainage between 15th and 610. It will add a bike lane, and cut down the road lanes down to three lanes. Eventually 10th to 610 will all redone. It is one of the highest crash rate roads in the area and will become much more pedestrian friendly. 

Membership – Eddie (absent)  

Right now we are at 55% in terms of membership dues collection. Last year our total dues collected was at 51%. Only 4 new additional payments were made from the membership drive. 

Block Captains – Eddie (absent) 

Looking for someone to become block captain for 2 blocks. 

Crime – Ben 

Crime was down. We had one breaking and entering. Do not have info on what the assault was regarding. First 6 months of 2020 we reached 30 – hours for citizens on patrol which is what we need as a minimum for HPD. 

Architectural Review – Ben 

6 home applications currently under review. 

One is a house in Section 2 off of Tannehill. The owner owns two houses next door to each other. This is the same person from last year in Section 7, who wanted 50% hardie siding to be used and got this passed. Person sent plans for 100% brick siding for the house on Tannehill. Within a week of us approving plans he had hardie siding on the side of the house. The ACC has Granted 30 days to either cure the violation or pass amendment. 

Home on TC Jester. The City of Houston has taken on this case and is suing the property owner on multiple counts. This will take a while to go to court and reach final resolution.The homeowner has disregarded all letters from the city and has not allowed for any inspections. LCC has recorded a notice of non compliance with Harris County in the Real property Records.

Beautification – Carolyn

No update except for what is in the newsletter. Trees will be added sometime soon…possibly beginning of October. This is to replace the trees that were on the median on TC Jester that the city of Houston tore up when they were working on the road. They will replant trees in the area that they were taken out. 

We are inquiring about new signs and magnets. 

Treasurer’s Report – Beth (absent) 

55% of members paid their dues.  Broke even on operational costs last year. 

National Night Out — October 6th. Details are in the newspaper. 

Meeting was adjourned at 7:50pm. 

Lazybrook Civic Club – Meeting Minutes – NOT YET APPROVED

Date: January 28, 2020

Location: Lazybrook Baptist Church, 1800 West 18^th Street, Houston, TX 77008

The meeting was called to order by President Judy Dyk at 7:02PM.

There were no Minutes from the December 2019 social meeting to be approved.

Beth Goodner was not in attendance, but Treasurer’s Report was approved without change.

There was one new attendee:  Delores Preston, daughter of Johnny & Rose Kopinitz, now living in their family home on Mill Creek.

Eddie Yarbrough, Block Captain Chair, reports that only the 1600 block of Haverhill is without a block captain.  Request for a resident to assume that position has been unproductive for several years.  During that time volunteers have delivered the newsletter to residents of 1600 block of Haverhill.  Until someone who lives on that block steps up to at least deliver the newsletters none will be delivered.

Heather Fedun, Membership Chair, reports that the final tally for 2019 dues paid was just under 50%.  She will be resigning as Membership Chair and is looking for a volunteer,

Ben Dolan, COP/Security Chair, had good news and bad news.  COP hours are up considerably with all the new patrollers.  Bad news is crime has also been up but was primarily it was Theft from Vehicles and primarily on West T.C. Jester.

Ben Dolan reporting as Architectural Review – it has been busy with 3 applications approved, 2 pending approval and 1 has been sent a cease and desist letter.

Carolyn Lehnert, Beautification Chair, reports a letter has been sent to the TxDot landscaper asking when they will be replacing the trees they destroyed at West T.C. Jester & 610.  Will follow up if she does not have a response in 2-3 weeks.

New Business:  Birgitt Haderlein reported that she had attended the Timbergrove Civic Club meeting.  Timbergrove is dissatisfied with SEAL Patrol and are restarting their Citizens on Patrol program.

There was discussion about the cut through traffic, stop sign runners, gasoline tankers and beer trucks on Lazybrook streets.  Suggestion was made to try again to get speed humps on Watercrest and Lazybrook.  Also suggested that we get small magnetic signs that read PATROL for the rear bumpers of our patrollers.

Door prizes collected by Pat Koteras were won by 12 attendees.

Meeting adjourned at 7:50 PM

Lazybrook Civic Club – Meeting Minutes

Date: January 22, 2019

Location: Lazybrook Baptist Church, 1800 West 18^th Street, Houston, TX 77008

Meeting called to order at 7:06pm.

November 2018 meeting minutes accepted.

New attendees: Molly Slagle on Millwood Drive

Membership: 2018 had 47% members paid, which is about 300 of the 667 houses. There were 2 drives in 2018, one in Feb/Mar and one in Aug/Sept.

Beautification: There will be fertilizing and pruning done in March. If something is growing in the way while driving let Carolyn know.

Architectural Review: Cease and desist letter sent to 1703 Haverhill. Structures needs to be all brick and the garage is not all brick. It might be okay because is separate from the house.

Block Captain Chair: All captains are staying in their positions. Captains promote the National Night Out on the 1^st Tuesday of October.

Treasurer’s Report: 2018 net income $2,296.60. Recovered fully from 2011!

Concerns:

People are driving through stop signs. We can call non-emergency police phone number. We can post on Next door, website, and do a global email push.

Recycling- leave cans out until picked up. The roll out application has been inaccurate.

Advertising chair needed.

National Night Out host needed.

Meeting adjourned at 7:41pm.