Creekwood Picnic Tomorrow!

Last Reminder:
Creekwood Picnic Tomorrow 6-9 pm at the Recreation Area. Open to everyone in Creekwood and food is FREE!!! If you would like to bring a dish to share, it would be appreciated. There will be Music, Kid games, Activities and Prizes!!!

Tuesday's Storm - Strong and Messy

Tuesday night, Creekwood and the rest of Manatee county, was hit with quite a strong Thunderstorm. Unfortunately, it coincided with our trash pickup schedule. This meant many overturned recycling bins and trash cans throughout Creekwood. Please take some time over the next few days to help clean up some of the loose newspapaer, bottles, cans, etc. Its up to us to keep Creekwood looking good.

Here is an article regarding the storm and quoting a Creekwood resident from The Bradenton Herald:

"Mother Nature smacks Manatee with high winds, scores of lightning strikes"

Creekwood MB Meeting Cancelled

Due to a lack of quorem, yesterday's regularly scheduled Creekwood Master Board monthly meeting was cancelled. We will keep you posted if it is rescheduled prior to July's monthly meeting.

Happy Father's Day

A very happy Father's Day to all the dads & grandpas in Creekside.

A 25 Acre Park in Creekwood

"Creekwood has 25-acre park envisioned"

Click above to read the Wednesday, June 17th article from the Bradenton Herald. Apparently this has been in the county's plans for quite some time. Creekside News will keep you posted if anything new develops.

Creekwood Community Picnic June 27th

A Creekwood Community Picnic is set for Saturday, June 27th from 6-9 pm. Please click on the image to gather further details. All Creekwood residents have been invited to attend. This event is being coordinated by volunteers and funded by donations from some of the individual sub associations.

Westbrook Meeting on 6-16-09

Wrong date in yesterday's heading. The meeting is next Tuesday, June 16th.

Westbrook I Meeting 6-16-09

Posted per the request of multiple residents in Westbrook I

Thank you

Thank you to those of you who paid your 2009 assessment fees for Creekside at Creekwood.

In March I sent out assessment notices and a letter explaining that we understood that there may have been poor communication in the past and we wanted to rectify that and if necessary negotiate prior year assessments, late fees and postage notices.

Out of the 99 home owners 86 homeowners opted to pay the $20 year annual assessment. Thank you!!!

We are investigating a method of notification/collection similar to the notification/coupons received annually from Creekwood Master Association. That would clear up a lot of problems. As I stated before the $20 fee is nominal. We are required by law to have a sub association. Volunteer directors have legal exposure so one of the major expenses is Director & Officer insurance.

On June 4th the Creekside at Creekwood Board voted to place liens on thirteen (13) homes in Creekside. We have over $1200 in outstanding assessments, late fees and postage notification that will be considered bad debt on our balance sheet as a result of these thirteen homes electing to not pay their legally required $20 a year assessment and in some cases failure to pay 2007 and/or 2008 assessments plus the late fees authorized by law.

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Creekside Board Quarterly Meeting

Creekside at Creekwood Board of Directors will have their regularly scheduled Quarterly meeting this Thursday, June 4, at 7 pm. As always, this meeting is open to all Creekside members. Click on the image to see the full agenda.

Creekwood Clean Up

At the May 25th Creekwood Master Board Meeting, the Board approved the following items to clean up our community and fulfill requirements for maintenance of common area amenities:

• The Pool House will be cleaned and painted by Pro Clean for aprox. $300
• The light pools at the recreation area will be painted by Adams Paint for approximately $95 per pole.
  
• An application will be filed with Manatee County to obtain a matching Grant for approximately $2,500 to provide improvements in the community. Suggested improvements included a Veteran's Monument at the Recreation area, benches along Creekwood Blvd., a new light for the Basketball Court, some general landscaping improvements
  

Creekwood Master Board Meeting tonight.

Regular Scheduled monthly meeting of the Creekwood Master Board is tonight, May 26th, at 5:30 pm at the AMI offices, 9031 Town Center Pkwy, Bradenton, FL. As always, this is open to all Creekwood homeowners.

Summer Storm Predictions are in!

The predictions for the 2009 Summer Storms came out today form NOAA. In short, there is a 50% chance of an average year. Gotta love the precision on that estimate. Here is the meat and potatoes quote from the NOAA website:

"Forecasters say there is a 70 percent chance of having nine to 14 named storms, of which four to seven could become hurricanes, including one to three major hurricanes (Category 3, 4 or 5)."

Below are links to the NOAA news release and corresponding reports.

NOAA.org - "NOAA Issues Atlantic Hurricane Season Outlook, Encourages Preparedness"

CNN.com - "NOAA predicts 'near-normal' Atlantic hurricane season"

Reuters via Yahoo.com - "NOAA sees average 2009 Atlantic hurricane season"

Here is the forecast for the nation from AccuWeather.com
"AccuWeather.com 2009 Summer Forecast"

Creekwood Master Board Response to Westbrook I Secessation Petition

This past weekend homeowners in Creekwood received in the mail a response by the Creekwood Master Association President, Michael Walley, to the signature gathering efforts of Westbrook I residents interested in secession from the Master Association. The letter disputes many of the statements made in a Question & Answer info sheet distributed to Westbrook I homeowners by the secessionists. Both Mr. Walley's response and the initial petition flyer are available here on the Creekside at Creekwood website. Please read all 4 pages and share your thoughts on the Creekside message board.

Creekwood Town Hall Summary

Last Saturday, May 9th, the Creekwood Town Hall was held at Braden River Library. It was quite an event. Clearly the 2 main issues were 1. AMI as the management company for Creekwood and 2. Efforts of Westbrook I to secede from Creekwood. These 2 issues comprised the majority of the discussions at the meeting, with it becoming quite heated.

1. Many homeowner's expressed their discontent with AMI as the CMA management company, specifically focusing on lack of communication from AMI. The Creekwood Master Board (CMB) assured those present that the bidding process for the property management contract would begin in earnest this summer. Previously at the March 24th Creekwood Master Association (CMA) meeting, Creekside submitted a written letter of complaint regarding AMI to the CMB. If you would like to share your thoughts on this please visit the Creekside Message Board.

2. There is a group of residents in Westbrook I seeking to break away from Creekwood based on their disapproval of recent actions of the CMB. Clearly a major issue for these homeowners is the maintenance of the Community Pool with some of the attendees from Westbrook I calling for its removal. As expected the CMB was highly resistant to such secession discussion as this would be quite a large change in expenses for all homeowners throughout Creekwood. This would increase the cost for the remaining homes in the CMA for all expenses as they are spread among fewer homes. Michael Walley, president of the CMB, pointed out that as the sub associations do not have any claim to any common property such as the monument walls, stormwater drainage system (lakes), recreation area, open grass areas, lighting, etc., there would be extensive costs to the sub association purchaser of any of these items were they to be divested by the Master Association. There was little discussion of the legal expenses that may be incurred to handle this issue. If you would like to share your thoughts on this please visit the Creekside Message Board.

Fossils found in Creekwood Lake

From the Bradenton Herald a few weeks ago:

Fossil-rich Creekwood lake offers teachable moments
Friday, Apr. 24, 2009
By RICHARD DYMOND

Click the title for the full article.

Since the article, some of the fossils have been identified by a local museum official as being from ancient Dugongs, a relative of the manatee, dating back even further than the 10,000 years discussed in the article and ancient sharks. Click here for some more info about ancient Dugongs in Florida and here for info on fossil hunting in Florida.

If you haven't noticed the signs already...

Creekwood Town Hall Meeting to be held this Saturday, May 9th, at the Braden River Public Library at 10:00 AM. This is open to all Creekwood Homeowners to attend. Hope to see you there.

Creekwood Clean Up

At the July 28th Creekwood Master Board Meeting, the Board approved the following items to clean up our community and fulfill requirements for maintenance of common area amenities:

• The Creekwood Boulevard Fence will be cleaned by Pro Wash Cleaning for aprox. $1,530
• The Monument Walls, both stucco and brick, will be cleaned by Pro Wash Cleaning for an amount not to exceed $500.
• The Pool area decking will be cleaned, painted and cracks repaired by Pro Clean for aprox. $2,500
• The Pool will be updated with Pool Filtration Covers as required by recent Federal, State and local rulings by G & S Pools.
  

Also as required by SWFMD, the lakes throughout Creekwood will receive their annual Inspection and Certification as our Stormwater management system.

Lighting for Creekside Monument Sign

At the April 28th Creekwood Master Board Meeting, the Board accepted the bid from Moonlighting to install solar powered lighting at the Creekside Monument Sign. For details on the light and the expected cost please click on the image to the left.

Crime Watch meeting Tuesday at Trinity United Methodist

From the Bradenton Herald.com website-

Crime Watch meetings at Trinity United Methodist
By VIN MANNIX - vmannix@bradenton.com

BRADENTON — The first of two Neighborhood Crime Watch meetings will be held Tuesday from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Trinity United Methodist Church, 3200 Manatee Ave. W.
The topics are residential security and how Crime Watch works.
The second meeting is May 12 and the topics are personal safety, identity theft and scams.
It is presented by the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.
The target area is 20th Street West to 51st Street West, north of Manatee Avenue, but all citizens are welcome.
For details, call (941) 747-3011, ext. 2500 or 2587.
Or call Trinity at (941) 747-3704