Land of Lakes

April 2004 Newsletter

Apr 14, 2004

Huge Neighborhood Garage Sale
It's time for spring-cleaning!!! Clean out your basement, your closets and your garage and make $$. Join in for our Spring Garage Sale to be held SATURDAY ONLY, April 24th from 8-3 PM. We make it easy for you to sell your stuff and meet your neighbors.

Neighborhood Association
will provide:
* Newspaper and Neighborhood Advertising
* Signs placed in and around neighborhood
* Balloons
* City permits

$5.00 for association members, $10.00 for non-members.
We must have at least five homes in the sale yet anticipate many more!!! Contact Jennifer Alexander @ 770-649-1541 or jennialexander@bellsouth.net.

Summer Picnic - June 19
Mark your calendar--the annual LOL picnic will be Saturday, June 19 at the Roswell Area Park on Woodstock Road. Good food, good fun, and prizes! Details about what to bring, etc will come later. Many thanks to picnic committee volunteers: Colleen Carter, Jackie Rinehart, Jack Walsh, Jennifer Alexander, Sandi Coburn, and Mary Blalock. You can still join this group; just call Nell Fernandez 770-587-3495.

Welcome new neighbors and a very special welcome to our newest little neighbor Jemma.

FREE Movie!
Picture Show cinema has opened in East Cobb on the left side of Roswell Road, just before Johnson Ferry. They show second run movies at discount. The top movie price is $1.75, their matinee shows are $1 and all shows on Tuesday are only 50-cents. They are offering Land of Lakes Residents a free movie night on Wednesday, April 28th. Just tell them you are a Land of Lakes resident and you will get in free! For more information contact John Grimes, johnagrimes@hotmail.com, 404-663-5772.

A few lucky neighbors received coupons to Six Flags Over Georgia amusement park tucked into their newsletter compliments of Southern Sprinklers and Ed & Silvina Klaas.

Do you receive informative emails from the LOL HOA? If not and you wish to, contact Lori Benton at 678.781.2586 or lbenton@rjgriffin.com to get on the list.

Thank you to neighbor Ed Klaas for installing the lights on the flag at the Reeve's memorial on Lake Crest Drive.

The Entrance gardens are beautiful - many thanks to the Beautification Committee.


How I Became an Activist or Community Protest Gets Results! Submitted by Nell Fernandez I first learned about the plan to re-zone the property at the corner of North Coleman and Pine Grove Roads when Lori forwarded an e-mail from Hal Adams, who wanted to talk to neighbors about opposing it. Lori asked if anybody could host a meeting, and I volunteered. On February 4th, Hal and about 12 other people were at my house to talk about it. Hal had copies of the plan, and he was very knowledgeable concerning the process that the city would follow. He explained the differences in zoning a development R-3 and R-2. The builder was asking for R-3, with a plan to build 23 houses and 14 town homes on the 10-acre site. We quickly realized that a subdivision with 37units on that corner would mean a huge increase in traffic congestion, and a jarring contrast to the existing neighborhood. Hundreds of people attended the meeting at City Hall on February 11 to hear what the builder had to say about the plan. The crowd seemed to be totally opposed to the high density, but willing to see the site developed with fewer units. Bob Meyer asked for volunteers to take petitions door to door, and I raised my hand. That part was fun--I spent four hours and gathered about 75 signatures. I met a lot of really nice people! The builder submitted a new plan, without the town houses, in direct response to our protest. There will be a total of 24 single family detached homes and at the March 16th meeting it was clear that it would be approved as amended with several stipulations (mostly about widening road at the intersection, saving some big trees, etc.). Hal and Bob did a great job of presenting the community's concerns.

The City Council meets on April 12 to consider this matter.

Interesting Developments in the Neighborhood
Submitted by John Grimes
A developer has just submitted plans to put seven new homes on the Reeves' property on the corner of North Coleman & Knollwoods. The project would not require any rezoning. Three of the homes would be accessed through an extension of Lake Terrace in LOL, three would front North Coleman and one would be on Knollwoods. It is important to keep tabs on any projects in the area and communicate our wishes with the developers. Gaining the developers cooperation could result in minimizing the disruption their projects may cause, as well as maximizing the benefits that a new development can bring
our community. johnagrimes@hotmail.com

No More Contractors' Book
Well gang, we didn't get a volunteer for this effort so say goodbye to the contractor's book for now. Perhaps next year's Board can resurrect it. Many thanks to Bob Lantz for creating the book in the first place. I know I used it a number of times. That's where we found our plumber, our dog sitter and our lawn maintenance person. It was a great vehicle to find trusted and recommended household help.

Neighborhood Wine Seminar & Tasting
Saturday May 22nd
4:00 - 7:00PM
John Capone, Lori Benton
350 Lake Crest Drive

This is a great excuse to meet new neighbors, learn the basics about wine, taste some wines, eat some food and see John and Lori's new renovation all at the same time! RSVP is mandatory due to space, obviously. First come, first served, limit is 20. No children please. Those who attend we ask you to bring a bottle of wine for tasting and sharing and to also bring a food dish. It can be any wine and any food. A lot of the fun with wine is trying it with different foods. RSVP to 678.352.3596 or lbenton@rjgriffin.com. See you on the 22nd!

Land of Lakes Home Owners' Association
NOMINATION
of New Board Members

Wow! The year went fast! It is now time to submit nominations for the 2004-2005 Board of Directors for the HOA. At this time the current Board will not be running again so we need all new members. Nominations are due to the LOL HOA Mailbox in front of Bob Lantz's house (1215 Land O Lakes
Drive) by MAY 14th. Nominations will then be organized and a ballot will be delivered to each neighbor. Votes must be cast - again by delivering to the LOL HOA mailbox - no later than Friday May 28th. Those elected will be notified in June and be introduced at the picnic (HOA Meeting) June 19th.

Please Nominate a President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer.

From the By Laws
All officers will be elected for a term of one year at the June meeting and shall assume the office on July 1st of the same year. All officers will have the responsibility to serve on the Board. Officers will vote on all internal issues with the goal of consensus. Three out of four officers must be in agreement before going before the Home Owner's Association with any issue. The titles and duties of the officers shall be as follows:

President
The President shall preside at all meetings of the HOA and the Board of Directors. The President shall prepare an agenda for each meeting of the HOA and of the Board and will preside over each meeting, unless an officer delegate is assigned. The president shall represent the HOA in all respects not reserved to other officers, committees or persons. The President of the HOA, or appointed designee, will be the official liaison to Roswell City Hall.

Comments from Lori Benton, outgoing President - We had a great year and I had a blast. Bruce, Mike and Nell are wonderful folks whom I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know. The new president will no doubt feel the same for the 2004-05 Board members. We just have wonderful neighbors in LOL. We turned our quarterly meetings into dinner parties. We first met and had our meeting and then our spouses joined us and we shared dinner together. Certainly this is not a mandatory thing for the new board - it was just something we enjoyed.

The responsibilities as president overall were not time consuming. Pretty basic. I did volunteer to produce the newsletter and the neighborhood directory - and had very helpful volunteers with those projects. This year we created the welcoming committee. The first garage sale was very successful, again due to the volunteers. We created a neighborhood logo. We developed the HOA email list and tried to keep all up to date with stuff. Communication is key.

The job as president was easy because of the fabulous volunteers. If you are one to get involved, I recommend that you run for president. It really takes little time from your schedule; you get a pulse on the neighborhood and meet many of your neighbors.

Vice President
The Vice President shall preside over any meeting of the HOA or the Board in the President's absence, and shall assume the office of the President in the event of a vacancy of the office. The Vice President shall assist the president in the performance of his or her duties, at the direction of the President. The Vice President or delegate will serve as liaison to other Home Owner's Associations. The Vice President will be responsible for coordinating and communicating land use, planning/zoning, safety/traffic as well as all relevant land development related issues that could impact the neighborhood.

From Bruce Coburn, outgoing Vice President - Vice President is the easiest position on the board, especially with a strong president. Quarterly board meetings are as much social as business. Your primary task is to use your common sense and enlist the aide of our many neighbors who want to be involved in our community. You are only required to spend a few hours for the entire year. Of course, you may choose to be more active either in leadership or encouraging other neighbors to follow their ideas and/or interests. All-in-all being on the LOL board is enjoyable and informative, and you get to meet great people.

Secretary
The Secretary will have responsibility for communication within the entire HOA. The Secretary shall keep minutes of all meetings and distribute to the Board and the HOA when applicable. The Secretary shall coordinate/lead the effort to communicate to members of the HOA. The Secretary will lead the effort to represent, maintain and preserve the bylaws of the HOA to ensure that neighborhood objectives are met.

Words from Nell Fernandez, outgoing secretary - Being the secretary of the Homeowners' Association has been a lot of fun and very little work. Here's what I have done: attended the quarterly meetings and voted (as a member of the Board) on budget, dates of garage sales and picnic, etc. I also kept minutes of these meetings, and e-mailed the minutes to David Caudell to put on the web site. And I VOLUNTEERED to deliver the newsletters and to head up the picnic committee. Those things don't have to be done by the secretary. However, I think it is natural to expect that the Board members will take on some tasks.

Treasurer
The Treasurer shall be responsible for keeping and maintaining all financial records of the Association. In addition, the Treasurer shall be prepared to report on the financial status of the HOA at each meeting of the Board and the HOA. The Treasurer shall oversee the development and execution of all fund raising programs for the Association.

Words from Mike Zdrojewski, outgoing treasurer - Its been a great year with membership growing to 83 households. My job as Treasurer was first to prepare an annual budget for Board approval. This was based on previous years expenditures as well as input from the various committees. It was then my job to monitor spending and report to the Board of Directors. I make occasional trips to the bank to deposit checks received and pay out expenses incurred by the various committees.( such as yard of the season awards, garage sale ads, beautification projects, and picnic expenses, etc.) That's all there is to this job...just monitor the approved budget and interact with the bank, the committees, and the Board of Directors. We have truly been blessed with wonderful volunteers who make our job easy and are truly the ones who make things happen.

Please Nominate a President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer. The current Board members are not running for re-election.

FREE Movie!
Picture Show cinema has opened in East Cobb at 4400 Roswell Road. They show second run movies at discount. The top movie price is $1.75, their matinee shows are $1 and all shows on Tuesday are only 50-cents. They are offering Land of Lakes Residents a free movie night on Wednesday, April 28th. Just tell them you are a Land of Lakes resident and you will get in free! Check their web site for shows and times, www.pictureshowent.com or call them at 770-977-2977. For more information contact John Grimes, johnagrimes@hotmail.com, 404-663-5772.

Interesting Developments in the Neighborhood
Submitted by John Grimes
A developer has just submitted plans to put seven new homes on the Reeves' property on the corner of North Coleman & Knollwoods. The project would not require any rezoning. Four of the houses will front a cul-de-sac on Lake Terrace in LOL, one will be on North Coleman and two will be on Knollwoods. Also,since the project is not requiring any variances, it does not go before the Council. It is important to keep tabs on any projects in the area and communicate our wishes with the developers. Gaining the developers cooperation could result in minimizing the disruption their projects may cause, as well as maximizing the benefits that a new development can bring our community. johnagrimes@hotmail.com