Eagle Eyes (Forest Hills Grid 18)

August, 2012

We had a good interactive meeting on Thursday the 26^th. Lorena Hardwick (from Councilman Mike Suarez’s office) joined us, as did Lisa Timmer from TPD.  A lot of good territory was covered. We will be holding joint meetings with Grid 10 for a while, since they are without a leader and haven’t had a meeting for over 2 years. Lisa reported 3 burglaries for Grid 10 so far this year, and 15 for Grid 18. She says this is about normal for us. Remember, the activities at Chamberlain are also included in these statistics, since CHS is a part of our grid.

We’re looking for some ideas for city-organized community festivals/gatherings to institute in North Tampa. Some have suggested a market day on the order of the market day in downtown Tampa, some have asked about a food truck rally, etc. Email your thoughts/suggestions to: EagleEyeGrid18@YAHOO.com. We’ll pass them on to the powers that be . . . you’ll get full credit for it.

We’re also looking for more inclusion of churches, schools, and businesses in our Neighborhood Watch group. If you belong to one of these types of organizations within either Grid 18 or Grid 10, please speak to your contacts there about taking part in the revitalization of our community. We would love to know who to contact in some of these organizations to help facilitate interaction, so please put them in touch with us.

There is a new principal at Forest Hills Elementary this fall. Her name is Krystal Carson; she comes to Forest Hills after serving  for 8 years as principal at Dunbar Elementary in Old West Tampa.  Sandra Thrower is retiring in September after spending the past 15 years as principal at Forest Hills – that’s the longest tenure of any principal in the history of our school!

School starts back on August 21^st. Please watch for pedestrians travelling our neighborhood sidewalks and side streets to and from school. Also remember to allow a little extra time due to the increased traffic. And this year, there’ll be new sidewalks on the east side of Ola in time for the new academic year . . . across the street from the school! They are almost completed at this time.

Still no word from the city about installing some flashing lights for drop-down speed in school zones. Please contact the city (via email is best) and make this request . . ESPECIALLY for installation on Ola in front of the school and on Linebaugh   -- but we really need them on Bougainvillea as well. If enough people make this request, we might be able to have them installed in time for the first day of school.

Along with the beginning of school comes the beginning of fall . . . and once again, we start with the vibrant colored fall decorations in the landscape! From team flags to celebrate football season to scarecrows and pumpkins to celebrate the harvest season to spider webs and ghosts for Halloweeen . . . the neighborhood comes alive with seasonal change.  This year Chamberlain has a new football coach, and the season promises to be exciting.

    How ‘bout those Mighty Chiefs?????

See you on the sidewalk . . . maybe catching some of the home games from the end zone . . . . . .