jessica – Page 11

Yard of the Month – June 2011

The June award for the yard of the month is the home of Marc and Melissa Cougle of 2110 Millwood. The Cougle’s bought their home in October 2009 and spent the better part of a year remodeling the house. During some of their slow periods of construction work, they began to work on their yard. They started with their back yard to get as early a start a possible with their palms trees anticipating many years to maturity. Their improvements has also included some significant work to their front and side yard.

They expanded the existing flower beds, added a flower bed into the front circle portion of their yard, relocated their rose garden and added several trees. Some of recently planted trees include a large magnolia, live oak, dawn redwood Leland cypress and corkscrew willow. Their expanded and newly planted beds include shrubs that were pre-existing such as wax leaf lugustrums and azaleas and they have added new planting such as African lilies, lily of the valley, blanket flowers, dianthus, flowering thyme, mums, giant canna, holly, forsythia, and juniper. They also created a patch for native Texas wildflowers to grow and flourish.

On their side yard, the Cougle’s have also added a “mini-orchard” with a large fruit and vegetable garden. Their orchard includes a nectarine, pomegranate, Anna apple, peach, keiffer pear, apricot, cherry and Melissa’s favorite, an Asian pear. The garden was recently built by Marc in February and includes raised beds and is surrounded by a small iron fence. It has fruits such as yellow watermelon, strawberries and blackberries as well as southern standards such as cucumbers, yellow, acorn and spaghetti squash, purple and mix green leaf lettuce, “chocolate”, orange, yellow, red and green bell peppers, jalapenos, yellow, orange pear, cherry and big boy tomatoes, eggplant, purple okra, yellow and red carrots, Easter egg radishes and potatoes.

They wish the weather this season had been kinder, but are happy to have made the progress in their yard over the past couple of years and look forward to many continued years of yard work in Lazybrook.

Citizens on Patrol Training

Events, Security

It is time to re-train/re-certify all of our neighborhood patrollers and train anyone wanting to join. We are having a class on Thursday June 16, 2011 at 6:00 PM at Lazybrook Baptist Church. Please spread the word to anyone that you think might be interested. I need to get a rough head count so please RSVP to Lazybrook.security@gmail.com or call me at 713-864-2823.

Everyone is welcome, no experience necessary, this is a great way to help insure the continued safety of our wonderful neighborhood.

Thank you for your continued support!
Matt Herring

Letter from the President

Letters from the President

Hello Neighbors! The March 2011 Lazybrook Civic Club meeting was well attended. Thank you all for showing up and participating. Your attendance is encouraging to our volunteers. I really enjoyed the 290 Hwy expansion discussions.

This is my first year to take on mail pick up duties at our PO box in Oak Forest. WOW – March and April was a busy month at the LCC PO Box due to the Membership Drive our Membership Chair, Janell Bryans, and our Block Captain Chair’s, Ilya Martinalbo, team of Block Captains organized. Thank you very much for your hard work and dedication to our club. If you have not sent in your dues, please consider paying to allow your Block Captain to attain 100% participation for their block and receive recognition for their hard work. The 1St Lady, Richard Cade, is still missing a few from our block and it is really hard to believe.

I want to say THANK YOU to David Long for 3+ years of service to our community as your Yard of the Month Chairperson. He is relocating and will be missed. Jim and Mary Gorab of the 2000 block of Millwood have graciously stepped up to fill his position. So another Thank You for the prompt reply to my EBlast requesting help. You can reach Jim at yard@lazybrook.org or (281) 881-4800.

We have a new “Around the Neighborhood” reporter for the newsletter. Please call or send your information to Julie Kleine jkleine@stewart.com (832) 971-4731 or drop a note to her address @ 1703 Tannehill.

Thank you to Melissa and Mark Cougle for taking on 5th Friday Social while RC and I were in Europe for a few weeks!

Best wishes to all, Shane Davis

Recycling Update

Recycling

You have asked me so many times when we will be getting the automated recycling with the rolling bin, like our trash containers. I spoke to Marilyn Leday, who has been the right hand of Ed Chin for many years. They are the ones at the city that we worked with when recycling started. She told me that the neighborhoods are chosen because they can be added with the greatest efficiency – either because they are next to another neighborhood that is receiving automated recycling or because it’s the right size to be added to a route, or some other circumstance really out of our hands. However, it is my belief that if we had a greater percentage of people recycling regularly, we would be in a better position to ask the city to consider us. Think about it, if we have more recycling and more households participating, we would be a more efficient neighborhood to add to the list.

Please, also, fold, cut up or in some way flatten your cardboard when you put it out. It’s really hard for those guys to deal with whole boxes – especially when there is stuff inside. Also, remember that if you need another green bin, you may call 311 and request one. And, if you need any info, I will be glad to do research if I don’t know the answer.

Also, you might watch out at HEB and at Lowe’s for “Houston Mulch” which is processed at Living Earth and comes from our tree waste here in Houston!! Let me know if you buy some – give me a report to put in the next article!

May Security Update

Security

Citizens on Patrol Hours Logged

February 2011 – 48.75
March 2011 – 56

I appreciate the continued support of our patrollers.We are looking for more volunteers to join our Citizens on Patrol program to help do our part to protect ourselves and our neighbors. If you are interested please send an email to security@lazybrook.org to learn more.

Crime in the Neighborhood

3/14 – Robbery, 1800 block of Willowmoss, mid morning
3/20 – Theft, 2400 block of Lazybrook, from driveway early morning
3/31 – Burglary, 1800 Tattenhall, home break-in mid afternoon
4/6 – Burglary, 1800 Seaspray, home break-in mid afternoon
4/18 – Burglary, 1800 Millcreek, home break-in mid afternoon
4/19 – Theft, 2100 Lazybrook, vehicle break-in overnight
4/19 – Theft, 1800 Nauts, vehicle break-in overnight
4/24 – Vandalism, 1800 Millwood, car window broken overnight

Lazybrook has had several home break-ins that are occurring during the middle of the day, HPD has been notified on all of these cases and reports have filed. I have heard that an arrest has been made in relation to some of these cases but I know that HPD is still looking for more suspects in the other cases. HPD is working to increase Officer presence and patrol in our area, but they are facing budget shortfalls, along with the rest of the government agencies. I encourage all of our neighbors to join the Citizens of Patrol and help keep an eye out for each other.

Please call HPD to report all crimes and get a case number, this is how we are assigned manpower from HPD. HPD Dispatch 713-884-3131.

Crime Statistics
The latest crime statistics are posted on the web at: http://mycity.houstontx.gov/crime/ or spotcrime.com.

Citizens on Patrol
I am proud to announce that our neighborhood has a new Citizens on Patrol Coordinator, HPD Officer, Steve Duffy. Officer Duffy has served for several years at the Heights Storefront and has been a great asset to our community. He is reviewing the current Citizens on Patrol records and has plans to coordinate a new patroller training class as well as a recertification for current patrollers. I will send an email to notify you of the training class once a time and date has been set.

The COP training class is normally about an hour-long class that covers the basic rules and safety regulations for Citizens on Patrol certification. Since we are experiencing a rise in criminal activity, we are in need of more neighbors actively patrolling our streets to help curb this trend. Just a few minutes a week can really make a big difference in keeping Lazybrook safe.

Patrolling is as easy as driving a car or riding a bike through the neighborhood with a cell phone and calling in any suspicious persons or activities. We will train you, the hours are flexible to fit any schedule, and you are reimbursed for the cost of gas. Please email security@lazybrook.org to let me know if you are interested.

Lazybrook Email Network
We have over 370 neighbors signed up to receive email updates. If you are not currently receiving the email you can join by emailing: security@lazybrook.org
If you change your email address please drop me a line so I can make the change and keep the list current.

March PIP Meeting – Recap
Houston Police Department holds several meetings every year through their Positive Interaction Program. The March meeting had guest speaker Marc Decatur, with Texas Alcohol Beverage Commission, explain the history and basic duties of TACB. He gave a speech that included interesting and humorous stories of prohibition era “speak speakeasies,” current enforcement, and future legislation that is currently up for legislative debate. I encourage everyone to attend these meetings for a great chance to speak with HPD officers that work in our area and hear speakers from across the state.

Clean Up After Your Pets
I have received email over the past month with complaints that people are walking their dogs and either not picking up their poop or they are bagging it up and leaving it somebody else’s driveway. Please be respectful of your neighbor’s property and kindly pick up after your pets and dispose of it properly.

Yard of the Month – May 2011

Yard of the Month

Congratulations go to Jim and Mary Gorab at 2102 Millwood for receiving May Yard of the month. Jim stated he spends many afternoons working on the yard to keep it beautiful for our main road through Lazybrook on Millwood. I spent some time in his yard last evening and was amazed at the volume of blooming annuals. Jim planted white petunias, red geraniums, pink and white begonias. The front pole light is covered in blooming star jasmine which stands out with the gardenias across the yard at the front door. His tropicals off to the right side of the yard in the shade are doing wonderfully as well. Jim has finished off his bed edges with stone and added new mulched for that professional look. Great Job Jim and Mary. Your love of gardening shows well for our neighborhood!

May 2011 – by Shane Davis