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Iraq vet regains post as group's president

Missing three community association meetings for war-related problems got Daryl Manning ousted as its leader.

By STEPHANIE HAYES
Published October 30, 2005

WESTCHASE - A month of red tape, and Daryl Manning is right back where he started - as president of the Westchase Community Association.

Manning, who was elected community association president in September, was booted from the position weeks later in the name of following rules.

Manning, an Iraq war veteran, missed three board meetings in a row this summer, a no-no in Westchase. He was having surgeries for health problems related to his overseas deployment.

At a community meeting Thursday night, the board unanimously agreed to give him the job back, but not before former president Jim Mills asked Manning if he'd be around for the long haul.

Manning said he was ready to commit, but added, still, you never know.

"How do we know that anyone is not going to be transferred by their job?" Manning said. "How do we know that their family members are not going to take ill?"

While the presidential issue was settled, the hubbub surrounding mailbox flags left some homeowners unsettled.

Scouring the neighborhood for blemishes, property manager Nicole Michael noticed that many mailbox flags didn't match. The property manager's office mistakenly sent out letters to several hundred homeowners saying all black and gold flags should be red.

Michael later realized that red was the wrong color and that black and gold were the right colors after all.

Hue aside, some equated the flag issue to petty squabbling.

"You paid 30-something (cents) a stamp for something that small?" asked Billy Kimberlin of Keswick Forest. "We're alienating a lot of our residents with things like this."

Chelmsford's Bill Dennis has 60 signatures on a petition in his 100-home neighborhood. Dennis says most of Chelmsford's homes have red flags, and he wants it to be the official color. And he wants to let people with gold or black flags off the hook until they need a new mailbox.

"I've been out here 10 years and I have never had a problem with whatever color you have," he said. "Why all of a sudden?"

The board decided to let the issue rest until deed restrictions are revised, which should be done in January. The board asked Michael to send out correction letters to those told to get a red flag.

"The board has been criticized, fairly or unfairly in the past, for not clearly communicating with the residents," Mills said. "We ought to be taking the high road in communicating the correction."

-- Stephanie Hayes can be reached at 813 269-5303 or shayes@sptimes.com

[Last modified October 29, 2005, 09:48:04]