This is true for two reasons. First, the TownSquare app makes it quick and easy to seek HOA approval of your plans for painting your house or adding a fence or a new roof. Have you signed up for it? Please fill out this form. After you’re registered, open the app, click on “Submit for ARC” and follow the prompts to propose your project. Expect a reply in usually a few days.

Second, you can improve the look of your home and the neighborhood by rolling those garbage, recycling and compost bins out of sight after the city picks them up. We all agreed not to leave them at the curb or store them in the driveway when we bought our homes and signed the HOA agreements. AC/heating units should be hidden as much as possible too. Our governing documents, which we all signed off on when we bought our homes, require all this. 

Lakewood’s Michelle Polasek and John Harris received signs designating Lakewood a Firewise community. Fire prevention and evacuation routes in wooded neighborhoods get renewed focus around Austin.

Neighborhood volunteers from across the area met Nov. 20 at the Lakewood Clubhouse to hear updates from Fire Department wildfire experts and others. The Fire Department’s wildfire division reported completing more than 500 property safety reviews out of 833 requests this year, all of them in Northwest Austin.

Fire Department wildlife personnel at the meeting recognized Lakewood as a participating site in Firewise USA, a nationwide designation for communities working to reduce wildfire risks. Firewise USA earlier this year conducted a community risk assessment of Lakewood. Travis County now has 27 active Firewise communities.

The Austin American-Statesman on Nov. 18 reported on the challenges of one-way-in, one-way out neighborhoods.

Polls are open from 7 am to 7 pm today at the Lakewood clubhouse for the election on Austin’s Proposition Q and the 17 proposed amendments to the Texas constitution. The Lakewood HOA Board of Directors meeting normally held at the clubhouse on the first Monday of the month has been rescheduled to 6 pm Nov 17.

A forum on the upcoming tax rate election is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday on Zoom. Register today by copying the link in this image.

Here are the addresses for the Saturday, October 4 garage sales in Lakewood. This is a great time to get out and meet some neighbors — and shop for a few bargains.