Newsletter Spring 2023
If we missed you in our door-to-door newsletter distribution, or maybe it accidentally got into the recycle bin, you can read a copy of our spring newsletter online. To read, print, or download: click here.
Either way, don’t miss the lead article:
FREE TACOS AT THE ANNUAL NEIGHBORHOOD MEETING MAY 2
Our partners at Sustainable Southern Gables starting to revive their events, classes, seed exchanges, and other activities after having slowed down for the last few years. They are marking that turn with a celebration featuring a taco bar provided by El Fogon, the taco truck that operates from a corner of Southern Gables. Incidental to the tacos, we will also hold the annual business meeting to inform neighbors about what the Association has done over the past year, what is planned, and the election of officers.
Annual Neighborhood Meeting
Tuesday May 2, 7:00 PM
at Green Gables Elementary School
All Southern Gables neighbors are invited.
Back to the subject of the newsletter, thanks are due to our contributors: Christy Cerrone, Marci DeMott, Marcel Guajardo, Judy Whitten, Jenn Withee, Joe Woelkers, Carolyn Wolfrum, Robert Young, and me. The coverage of our 9 miles of streets, delivering to over a thousand homes, was handled by Marnie Crowe, Marci DeMott, Marcel Guajardo, Roger Hanson, Liza Patty, Michelle Tovrea, Elizabeth Wilson, Carolyn Wolfrum, and Dave Wood. The weather was nice, the neighbors were friendly, and it was a good experience all around.
Since Frank Bontrager moved, one of our areas is in need of an Area Representative for Southern Gables Area 8. You can see a map with the area description here. The Area Representatives serve as points of contact for their part of the neighborhood, notice when new neighbors move in and greet them on behalf of the Association. It involves a nice little walk once in a while for passing out our semiannual newsletters and an event flyer once a year or so, and a chance to get to know people. Can you do it? Contact us.
Photo by Spencer Davis on Unsplash
We hope to see you at the annual neighborhood meeting: Tuesday May 2, 7:00 PM at Green Gables Elementary. And did we mention FREE TACOS?
We have a correction to something we published in the newsletter. In thanking Frank Bontrager for his ten years on the Board, we wrote, “After an extensive process, which included getting needed approvals from the Agricultural Ditch Company which owns the property, and then going through a number of steps to make certain the sign looked beautiful and was easy to maintain, Frank and his committee created a beautiful, truly welcoming sign… ”
Well, as several of the old-timers told us, we were a little exuberant in crediting Frank for being the “spearhead” of the project. Frank himself told us, in an article back in 2020, “The project began with a lengthy series of negotiations by former SGNA president Stanton La Breche with the Ag Ditch Co., which owns the site. Dealing with the bureaucracy of a big company was an exercise in patience; in the end we actually had to pay for, and insure our interest in, reclaiming and improving their weed-choked, neglected lot. We had to pay the City for the cost of a curb cut on Jewell Avenue to give Ag Ditch maintenance equipment access to the east side of the ditch, since their trucks used to go through where our sign is now…. The volunteers whose labor helped make the project possible were Frank Bontrager, Stanton La Breche, Sam Sotiros, Dave Rulli, Doug Whitten, Bruce Lieb, Bob Ellis, Jim Palincks, and Ken Fischer.”
We might add here that Frank has been the “spearhead” in organizing volunteers to maintain the landscaping during the growing season. We certainly do thank him for that, and for his many other contributions.