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For Immediate Release February 16, 2009 |
Contact: Don Ewing, President (727) 560-5586 |
CNCN, a nonprofit corporation organized to provide a common voice for neighborhoods in the unincorporated area of East Lake and Palm Harbor, has begun an initiative to inhibit surrounding contiguous cities from annexing portions of the unique East Lake area. CNCN believes that if the cornerstone of the entire East Lake area is allowed to be annexed then Tarpon Springs and other neighboring cities will follow suit. The tax base represented by our demographics makes any of our communities an attractive annexation candidate. We are exploring all options to protect the entire district; Option 1 is to change the East Lake Fire Control District charter to protect the area from annexation as the Palm Harbor Fire Control District was created; Option 2, working with the County Planning department to create a land use overlay in the county Comprehensive Plan like the Tierra Verde community did to deflect the City of St Petersburg annexation attempt.
CNCN Board of Directors are working to build a stronger community by engaging with the East Lake community associations, the Board of County Commissioners and Senator Fasano & Representative Nehr on this initiative. Together CNCN membership will have a stronger voice to provide protection of the entire East Lake Tarpon area from annexation.
CNCN’s membership has been growing significantly during the past year as more and more neighborhood associations see the value in involvement in a larger group with a proven track record of working with county and state officials on a regular basis. Join CNCN at the public information session sponsored by the Board of County Commissioners on Monday February 16th at 7 pm at the East Lake High School theater to discuss the value of keeping the East Lake communities part of a proud East Lake Tarpon area.
The mission of the Council is to bring together the North County's neighborhoods to promote communication and cooperation between member organizations of Northern Pinellas County, to foster a sense of community, to provide a forum for member organizations, and most important is to act as a neighborhood advocate for the benefit of our member organizations and to bring a common voice to county government including and not limited to the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners.
As a Florida non for profit organization we have a board of directors that govern our group. For more information please contact:
Don Ewing, Jr.
President
Council of North County Neighborhoods, Inc.
Cell Phone 727-560-5586
mailto:done@cncnpc.org website: http://www.cncnpc.org
Council of CNCN, www.cncnpc.org (under construction)
The mission of the Council of North County Neighborhoods (CNCN) is to bring together residents of northern
Our purpose it to:
1. To promote communication and cooperation between member organizations, Home Owners Associations and individuals that don’t live within a community governed by a Home Owners Association located within
2. To foster a sense of community
3. To provide a forum for member organizations
4. To act as a neighborhood advocate for the benefit of our member organizations and to bring a larger voice to County and/or State government including but not limited to the Pinellas County Board of
Jim McDonald and John Miolla the founding Charter Members of CNCN have worked for years, along with many Crescent Oaks residents, with the County government on several Crescent Oaks and County related issues with good success.
Our group worked on and got the speed limited reduced on
Crescent Oaks HOA Board and residents worked successfully to gain approval to have a traffic signal placed at the intersection of East Lake and Crescent Oaks Blvd alleviating treacherous circumstances relating to ingress and egress to East Lake Road to/from those communities
When the surprise blending facility in the Brooker Creek Preserve off of
The ELYSA ball fields were slated to be expanded into 38 additional acres within the Brooker Creek Preserve. This plan was challenged by many groups, including Crescent Oaks. One Commissioner commented that it was just a small group of people that were fighting this plan. Hence; the idea to form CNCN and to combine all the individual voices into a much larger voice. With a larger voice political pressure was applied to find a suitable solution. It was announced on June 19, 2007 that the School Board and The County had gotten together and worked out a plan to locate the fields on School Board Property at the corner of
The real impetuous and the sheer numbers of people that began showing up at Board Of County Commissioners meetings, work sessions, and Public Hearings clearly demonstrated the interest our neighbors had in what County government is or isn’t doing fostering the County to begin listening to these large groups of people on various issues. It’s all in the numbers; when fifty or a hundred people show up the Commission needs to listen. If you really want to get their attention as Crescent Oaks did, show up in bus loads of residents.
CNCN is currently working with Tarpon Woods Action Committee. By joining forces, we have substantially increase the total number of residents applying pressure to local government to adequately and thoroughly investigate all options to solve the flooding issue while maintaining the existence of the Tarpon Woods Golf Course. CNCN has attended and helped facilitate meetings with Senator Fasano, Representative Nehr and Commissioner Susan Latvala on this issue. Representatives from CNCN are on the newly formed Tarpon Woods Action Committee.
Commissioner Duncan commented to CNCN that the "Council of North County Neighborhoods is a novel organization – one which is new, “coming afresh”, and one which is welcomed as a breath of fresh air."
Jim McDonald
Charter Member
An additional note: We meet with Commission Chairman Ronnie Duncan on a regular basis and he wanted to express his appreciation for the formation of the Council of North County Neighborhoods; he is a resident of the