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Fledgling association keeps busy calendar
By ANDREW MEACHAM ST. PETERSBURG -- The Live Oaks Neighborhood Association celebrates its first-anniversary month with a yard sale April 5 and a pet parade April 12. Residents are encouraged to register their pets and have their pictures taken for future reference should they turn up missing. Pets and their owners will walk along Burlington Avenue N from 51st to 55th Street, then be judged for prize eligibility. The budding association has more than 700 homes between Central and Fifth Avenue N, from 49th to 58th streets. The area is getting younger as houses are sold, president Susan Russon said. A mental health technician who started a cleaning business, Russon has been spreading the word -- delivering newsletters, chatting up passers-by, working with the city for traffic calming and codes enforcement. "There isn't a person walking by, if I'm outside working on my house, that I don't stop and say, 'Have you heard about our neighborhood association?' " said Russon, 58. Secretary and treasurer Mariella Stevens said the group is picking up steam and noted a successful Octoberfest and Christmas event, when neighbors decorated a flatbed trailer with lights and hay, and went caroling. "There's a lot of nice people I would not have met," said Stevens, 38. Jungle Terrace president Tom Killian stopped by Live Oaks last year on a sojourn that took him to 60 neighborhood associations and gave the group tips on starting a newsletter. He said the group has active leadership. "She's a very determined person," Killian said of Russon. "She's not afraid to go door-to-door if that's what it takes. When there is no money involved, you have to have somebody leading the way. I wish I had somebody like that in my organization." A development across from Derby Lane on Gandy Boulevard has brought the number of neighborhood associations to 107. The Brighton Bay Master Association encompasses 119 single-family homes in Sterling Manor at Brighton Bay and 150 townhomes in Wyngate at Brighton Bay. Both Sterling Manor and Wyngate have their own homeowners associations as well, which will send representatives to the master association meetings. The Brighton Bay community also has two gated apartment complexes, the Verandahs and the Coves. After a half-dozen masonry contractors declined to return their calls to repair a sign, Euclid-St. Paul neighbors decided to do the job themselves. The sign was destroyed in December when a pickup truck jumped the curb at the southeast corner of 14th Street and 22nd Avenue N. Neighborhood association president Raoul Simon said he negotiated the $1,875 amount with State Farm. By mid-week, residents were buying materials and getting ready to tackle the job. To join anti-drug marchers like those featured in the Feb. 9 Notebook, or to request a march in your area, call Andy Garr of the city's Neighborhood Partnership during business hours at 893-4110. Gathering times and places to start the marches vary. Meetings CAYA COSTA: 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. Rampart Properties, 10033 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. N. CROMWELL HEIGHTS: 6 p.m. Wednesday. Enoch Davis Center, 1111 18th Ave. S. EUCLID HEIGHTS: 7 p.m. Tuesday. First Alliance Church, 5000 10th St. N. Norman Bungard, Habitat for Humanity. GREATER WOODLAWN: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. Woodlawn Presbyterian Church, 2612 12th St. N. LAKEWOOOD ESTATES: 7 p.m. Tuesday. Lakewood United Church of Christ, 2601 54th Ave. S. City Council member Earnest Williams. LAKE MAGGIORE SHORES: 7 p.m. Thursday. Enoch Davis Center, 1111 18th Ave. S. Neighborhood planner Andy Garr. UPTOWN: 7 p.m. Wednesday. The Sunshine Center, 330 Fifth St. N.
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