Suspicious Behavior in Preston Hollow

Late Saturday night, I received a phone call from Carlos Manrique about and incident he observed when he was taking his dog out that night. He saw someone on his cellphone run between my house at 276 Preston Hollow Dr. and my neighbor's who lives on the corner of Clarendon and Preston Hollow. Carlos reported this to the Sheriff's Office. I walked my dog around the neighborhood after receiving the call from Carlos and saw nothing suspicious. Thank You Carlos for being a good neighbor and I hope everyone watches out for their fellow neighbors.

Hernando County Florida-Friendly Landscaping Program

Hernando County Florida-Friendly Landscaping program presents Practical Alternatives to Turf at 10:30 a.m. Thursday 1/30/14 at the West Hernando Library, 6335 Blackbird Ave., Brooksville. This class will provide alternative ideas to replace and beautify problem areas in your lawn. The class is free and no registration is required, however, first come, first seated. For more information call (352) 540-6230 or email sdurell@co.hernando.fl.us.

Preston Hollow Newsletter Jan 2014

We hope that everyone had a safe and joyful holiday time with friends and family, and that 2014 will bring health and blessings.

This is a general newsletter and a report of some of the topics of our PHHOA meeting on January 14th. This should not be taken as minutes of the meeting. Our renewed entry marque looks wonderful! Lisa Groneveld guided the project. The trees were in need of trimming; walls were cleaned, patched, sealed, and painted twice. Thank you Lisa! Bill Thompson attended a meeting with the Sheriff’s Dept. for Crime Watch. Much of Bill’s report was already emailed and posted on the blog with the notice about the crime this past weekend. There are also some “vendors” going door to door. It is noted at the entry that no soliciting in Preston Hollow is permitted. Be alert, they may be casing us for occupancy. Be sure to lock all doors and garages and call 911 if you see anything suspicious.

We had a speaker from Hernando County Appraisers Office which was most informative. Preston Hollow is seeing the expected number of sink hole activity as being seen in the rest of the county. If you have had one, you want to be sure that it gets marked as “ repaired” when work is completed. Some buyers are asking to see only homes that have repaired sink holes, this becomes an asset in selling a home.

Thanks were extended to Board Members that have ended their terms. John Cucinella, Second VP, who supervised the care and repair of our common spaces, and Joe Deller, who served as Treasure. We all will be missing their contributions. Lisa agreed to serve a second term and was elected. Thank you Lisa. To date we are still short two board positions. If unfilled we will have to look at management and accounting services to fill these gaps. That will be additional expense. Currently Joe Deller is helping with the treasurer duties and will through Jan. The board is looking at how some items can be done by others to ease the responsibility of this position. The board would like to continue our approach to be frugal and not raise dues, to continue to grow the savings account to the previous status that will safeguard us in the need to replace the sprinkler system “brain” and the walls at the entry way. Our walls are on county property. Please joining the BOD. We have many talented residents.

Other items that came up at the meeting are the continued misunderstanding of the change in the duties of the ACC, procedures for” failure to maintain”, and the sighting of one property on a violation. Briefly, last early summer three board members met with our attorney after the sighting of homeowners on violations of lawn and landscaping. Procedures set up by the liaison to the ACC at that time, were not followed. The Board members at the meeting with our Attorney were informed, that according to our original documents, the ACC should handle only changes to property and new construction. The board should handle failure to maintain. Policy and procedures were reviewed and found correct with a failure to maintain. 

To let you know this process, it involves receiving a signed concern in writing, two Board members observing the concern and if valid taking a picture dating and signing the copy. These board members will have to appear in court if it is an issue that is carried out to that end. Letters are to be sent by the board following a specific communication guideline: must be specific to the violation and site the exact restriction, reasonable time frame for the repair of the item sited, and request for dialog if hardship might be imposed or interpretation needed. Further communication with additional pictures if no action is taken by the owner, up to three letters, and then the interaction may be turned over to our Attorney for further follow up. The Board at that time took over the handling failure to maintain items.

The Board received a complaint from a home owner on a failure to maintain. The procedure was followed including several pictures to demonstrate the situation. A first letter was sent. An adversarial letter was returned, a second letter was sent. One aspect involved a code violation, the home owner who filed the complaint called this department. The failure to maintain was corrected. During this time frame a member of the ACC was removed from duty by the Board, relative to that persons actions on the failure to follow the previous guidelines when the ACC was handling the failure to maintain issues. The two remaining members ACC members resigned over the change in how the ACC functions, citing a “powerlessness” in the duty to maintain areas which they formerly handled.

As only one current member of the board was present at the meeting with the attorney last spring, (the two others have left the Board of Directors), a motion carried that the current Board will meet with an Attorney and go over our procedures in place, and who should address both ACC and failure to maintain issues according to our documents. Results will be reported on at the next HOA meeting in April.

A community member presented to the Board a contract from a HOA management company and requested that the Board review and consider such a contract to put all of these issues into the hands of a third party. Another home owner gave information on a second company offering such services. The Board will investigate these possibilities. Should we not have someone come forward to assist with accounting duties, the board will need to seek accounting services.

FYI from the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office

The Hernando County Sheriff’s Office Economic Crimes Unit has observed a pattern of activity occurring within Hernando County and would like to warn citizens. There have been several recent fraud crimes committed that directly relate to mail theft. Both incoming and outgoing mail thefts have been reported. Identity theft, check theft and forgery, credit card theft, and fraudulent use of credit cards are a few of the crimes directly related to the mail theft. There have been prior arrests made and additional subjects related to this activity have been identified and are currently under investigation. This is not isolated to one geographic area, so all citizens should be on alert. Similar activity occurred several years ago, and a few subjects from that group are STILL in prison. The faster these subjects can be identified, the quicker similar crimes can be deterred. Tips to help prevent these type crimes:

1) Do not put outgoing mail in the mailbox the night before (especially if checks or personal ID information is in the envelope).
2) Use post office mail boxes or drop locations ,if possible.
3) If you have to use your mailbox ,put the mail in at the latest possible time to limit the availability to thieves. 4) If you will be out of town,put a “hold” on your mail or have someone you trust collect your mail for you. 5) If you believe you have a check/credit card that is overdue, contact your financial institution to make sure it hasn’t been delivered and/or has not been used.
6) If you make a check out to cash and put it in the mail,try to put as much detail as possible in the memo section to hopefully prevent and/or deter someone from attempting to cash it. (i.e. ,for John’s birthday, specific service, etc.).
7) If you observe a suspicious person/vehicle that appears to be driving around your neighborhood,call the HCSO (352-754-6830) with as much detail as possible. www.hernandosheriff.org SHERIFF Al Nienhuis

Information from the Hernando County Sheriff's Office

Below is a notice from the Sheriff's Office about documenting items in your house in case of a burglary or theft. Click here to print out a sheet that will help you. The items listed below are commonly stolen. Please document the items you have. Doing so will aide in the recovery of your belongings should you become the victim of a burglary or theft. List as many items as possible and be descriptive. Taking photographs of unique items such as jewelry can also helpful when attempting to recover stolen property. Firearms and collectables, i.e. Coin collections should be listed. Once you have compiled this list, keep it in a safe place along with the photos in case you become the victim of a crime.

Our deepest condolences

Our deepest condolences to our friend and neighbor Margaret Greco on the passing yesterday of her mother, Mrs. Angelo Mancuso.

 

With Sympathy.

 

Board of Directors and Community of Preston Hollow HOA.

Crime Watch Alert

A home on Hollow Oak Court was broken into for the second time last night.  This time both the screen cage in the rear of the home was cut and the glass on the front door was broken.  The Sheriff's department have been interviewing homeowners in that location for any sites or sounds they may have been aware of last night. We are notifying you so that you may be more vigilant for yourselves and others.

At our meeting last week Bill Thompson reported from the Sheriffs Department that although over all crime is down in Hernando County, there is an increase in break ins from the rear access to homes.  Many have gained entry because the rear doors or sliders have been left unlocked.  Please check rear entries before you leave your home, and before you retire at night.  Keep your screen doors locked as well.

Additionally there has been an increase in garage robberies.  This is done with the garage left unlocked, or opened and has been accomplished even while the owners are at home.  Do not leave your garage unlocked or open.  Trucks with small trailers or flat beds are being used for some of these robberies.  The garage is entered quickly and quietly emptied of valuable items.

We all see the same lawn care companies week after week but if you should see a strange marked or unmarked outfit you can call and report suspicious behavior to the department. We can also stop and ask them where they are going or if they are lost.  They then know that someone has taken note of their presence. Do not get out of your car and do not follow anyone, go home or use a cell phone to report suspicious behavior.

Bill Thompson our liaison to the Sheriff's Department will ask for increased night patrol in light of this second break in.  It might serve us all well if we turn on our outside lights before retiring for the night to keep the front of our houses better lit. It is known that there are fewer occurrences when lights are left on making someone more visible at our front door.  Having lights that are on motion sensors will also be a deterrent.

Should you see or hear anything unusual please call the 911 number at once and report the event. We can not have to many eyes and ears.

Judy Thompson  Member at Large

Crime Watch Update

CRIME ALERT! 2 new crimes

Type Description Case # Location Agency Date Map It BATTERY 2014-01850 300 BLOCK OF SPRING HAVEN LOOP Hernando County Sheriff 1/17/2014 8:33:00 PM Map It BURGLARY COMMERCIAL 2014-01758 11100 BLOCK OF COUNTY LINE RD Hernando County Sheriff 1/17/2014 7:43:00 AM Map It

Martin Luther King Day Information

The Brooksville MLK Parade kicks off at 10 a.m. and Lineup will begin near Hernando High School at the corner of Varsity and Oakwood Drive travels west down Oakwood Drive to Howell Avenue, then go south before turning east onto Fort Dade Ave. and ending at Bell Avenue.
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Hernando County government offices will be closed Monday in observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. City of Brooksville offices will be closed Monday, as will public schools. No mail will be delivered Monday.

Trash collection schedules and landfill hours will not be affected.

Preston Hollow HOA January 14th 2014 Meeting Reminder

The Preston Hollow Homeowners’ Association will hold its January HOA Meeting 1/14/14 at 7:00 PM. at NAMI ,The Beautiful Mind Center at 10554 Spring Hill Drive, Spring Hill, Florida. John Emerson the Hernando County Property Appraiser will be our guest speaker. We Hope to see any many of our Homeowners' there.