Friday is the deadline to submit your ballot for or against the proposed $100 assessment to raise funds for street repairs and definitive improvements to the Lakewood swimming pool.
Votes will be counted at the Monday, Dec. 2 meeting of the Lakewood HOA board.
The total estimate for the pool and street work is $100,000. Streets scheduled for resurfacing next year are Winecup Hollow, Turkey Hollow, Gardenridge Hollow, Firewheel Hollow and Dogwood Hollow. No decision has been made on street work beyond 2025.
The pool has shown signs of deterioration, with large amounts of black algae at times.
Homeowners recently were mailed a letter and directed proxy (or absentee ballot) form to vote for or against the proposed assessment. Please take your completed directed proxy to the Lakewood Office, email it to hoa@lakewoodhoa.com or send it by regular mail to be received no later than this Friday, Nov. 29.
You also are invited to a special meeting at 6 p.m. Dec. 2 at the Lakewood Clubhouse at 7317 Lakewood Drive, where votes will be tallied. Ballots will be available at the meeting, but homeowners are encouraged to vote beforehand through the directed proxy.
Do you know everyone on your cul-de-sac or block? Does everyone else? Consider becoming a cul-de-sac or block captain.
These new volunteers, one for each block or cul-de-sac, will help build a stronger sense of community among Lakewood residents.
The captain is the person who makes an effort to know everyone and to share contact information among their neighbors. They are the point person for when neighbors go on vacation, so others can look out for suspicious activity while they’re away (and seeing that someone is picking up their mail or moving their trash cans out of sight after pickup, for instance). Learn more about it here.
So far, Lakewood has captains for Big Cat Cove, Cave Hollow, Deer Hollow, Dogwood, Firewheel, Flamingsworth, Gardenridge and a section of Wallace Cove. If your street isn’t one of these, Lakewood needs you! Contact the HOA office at hoa@lakewoodhoa.com or call 512-345-8367.
Like you, I saw the devastating news and pictures of Asheville’s disastrous floods, accompanied by the plea for Red Cross volunteers. Since I love Asheville and have friends there, this call to action struck a chord.
I immediately called the Austin Red Cross chapter and volunteered. It was Friday, Oct. 4. On Sunday, the National Red Cross asked if I would deploy to Florida instead. Hurricane Milton was looking bad, and Helene had just hit. They asked if I could travel immediately. They said I could complete the mandatory training online in just two days. I cleared my schedule and got to work. I was on a fast track!
I learned that volunteers must commit to a 14-day deployment. I was sent a packing list (including towels, sheets and a pillow). They explained I could be sleeping in a tent on a cot.
They also told me they pay for my airfare and for a hotel if needed. They suggested I take the online training for “Sheltering” and “Feeding”, the areas that needed the most volunteers.
Thursday saw a call to their travel agency and I was booked for a Friday morning flight to Miami as all the other airports were closed. Hurricane Milton hit late that afternoon.
After arrival, I got registered and met several other volunteers (many first timers like me) in the hotel lobby. They answered a lot of my questions and shared their deployment stories.
We were notified that the headquarters was moving from Orlando to Tampa the next day, so we were directed to remain in Miami until that was completed. We heard they needed volunteers for logistics/fulfillment, so I signed up, went online and took the required training for that. Ready to go!
After driving to Tampa, I was assigned to a small fulfillment center. The large warehouse with tons of supplies (blankets, ready-to-eat meals, garbage bags, pallets of water, diapers, portable air conditioners, etc.) was in Dade City about an hour away. All these supplies were going to the shelters that were set up by volunteers. We were the delivery system.
My “team” of nine volunteers was in Tampa, using the Science Museum parking lot. We had a pop-up tent as our “office” as well as three semi-trucks full of supplies, four vans and trucks, and five cars.
So, for the rest of my deployment, instead of working and sleeping in a shelter or providing food via a mobile van, I delivered supplies to the seven shelters in our region, which included Tampa, Clearwater, Sarasota, Bradenton and Punta Gorda. Each day, we got requests from the shelters about what they needed. We loaded up the trucks and vans, shopped for things that we did not have and drove to the shelters. The farthest one was Punta Gorda, about a 2 ½-hour drive away.
This was all new to me. I learned a lot (how to use a pallet lifter!), and met amazing volunteers from all over the US who deploy locally and nationally several times a year. It was hot and physically tiring, but at the end of the day I felt like I had made a difference. Each role has different skills sets, so there is an opportunity for a lot of people to help.
Selfishly, I had 14 days of no news, no TV, and I got to see a small section of the U.S. that I had not visited. The base camp where we ate and slept ended up with 400 volunteers. With varying shifts, there were always people around, day and night.
Everyone I met had a big heart and their main desire was to help people in any way they could. I liked it a lot, am in awe of the Red Cross and their mission, and I am ready to deploy again.
DID YOU KNOW? VOLUNTEERS DO 90% OF ALL RED CROSS DISASTER WORK
Many volunteers are retirees, but a lot of young people have taken vacation, are between jobs or their employer gives them two weeks of community work PTO. One of the men I met was 83 years old. And most of the retirees had done MANY state and national deployments. (One had done over 400 over a 47-year span). Many couples deploy together.
The shifts are 12 hours. Some volunteer roles have night shifts (like in a shelter). Red Cross pays for your airfare.
There are volunteer opportunities for everyone – mechanics, nurses, counselors, cooks, chefs, truck drivers, people that can drive heavy equipment, work in a shelter, laundry, admin/registration, etc. You can work disasters in your own area (think Bastrop fires, apartment fires and floods) or volunteer for a national U.S. disaster (fire in Maui, California wildfires, or floods, hurricanes or tornados all around the country).
All Lakewood homeowners are invited to a town hall meeting at 6 p.m. this Tuesday, Nov. 12 at the clubhouse to hear about a 5 percent increase in annual dues for 2025 and a proposed $100 assessment to fund pool and street improvements.
Homeowners would need to approve the assessment ($75 for the pool work and $25 for street resurfacing per owner).
The pool repairs, estimated to cost $80,000, are designed to reduce annual expenditures that continue to affect the HOA budget. A representative from Lakewood’s pool maintenance company is scheduled to present on the need for a comprehensive resurfacing of the pool.
At least four streets are set for resurfacing at a cost of $20,000.
Dues for Lakewood HOA membership remain among the lowest in the Austin area.
Austin Lakewood HOA 