January 7, 2024
UHCA Dues are now due
March 27, 2023
Dear University Hills Neighbors,
With Mardi Gras season behind us and the end of the first quarter of 2023 approaching, we are reaching out to remind you of that time of year again – the appeal for your generous support and payment of our University Hills Civic Association annual dues.
U-Hills saw good things happen in 2022. We closed out the year with a successful, if cold, Fall Festival. Begun in 2017, the Fall Festival brings together neighbors young and old for fun, food, merriment, and music. Thanks to all who attended and contributed a dish. Special thanks to Social Committee chair Sarah Meyers and her merry gang of volunteers for helping to organize the event, and to Board member Cletus Robinson and his Sunshine Classic Rock band for providing the groovy vibes.
Our most visible productive activities in 2022 – and expenses – of course had to do with keeping the entry to our neighborhood maintained and beautiful. Following 2021’s replacement of an antique front street lamp destroyed in a wind storm, our Board president Bob Skapura has exerted considerable effort trying to coordinate with Entergy and the city-parish to make sure both lights are functioning properly.
In addition to annual recurring UHCA expenses for front median flower bed maintenance by a landscape gardener, by far our most important, and expensive, outlay of funds, at about $3,200, went toward trimming our centuries-old median legacy oaks – a much-needed trimming that the neighborhood was able to accomplish, with your help, for the first time in decades. With your continued help, we hope to be able to tackle similar maintenance of our crape myrtle trees in 2023.
And to continue this great work, it’s to your shared passion and pride for U-Hills that we appeal now. Thanks to your contributions in 2022, U-Hills saw a 20 percent increase in dues payments over the previous year, from 38 percent to 58 percent of households. While a significant improvement, for context, our adjacent neighborhood, College Town, annually enjoys a dues payment rate of around 75% among their residents, despite having a dues level ($150) three times the amount in U-Hills. Y’all, we can do better! 😊
With that in mind, please act today: Send in your $50 dues by mailing your check, payable to UHCA, either to 515 Delgado Dr. or 548 Polytech Dr., or making an easy online payment by visiting uhca70808.net and clicking “Join Us.” We greatly appreciate your support and mutual love of our great neighborhood!
Sincerely,
The U-Hills Board
UHCA Dues are now due
January 27, 2022
Dear U-Hills Neighbor:
We hope 2022 finds you well! We are reaching out to remind you of that time of year again – the appeal for your generous support and payment of our University Hills annual dues. But with special urgency this time.
Coming upon the 2nd anniversary of COVID, we extend our fondest hope for the continued health and happiness of you and yours. Like many homeowners during COVID, whether during lockdowns or quarantines, to overcome the pangs of isolation by following the old adage that “everyone’s home is their castle” – planting new gardens, making home improvements – UHCA has also undertaken improvement projects to make our neighborhood a better oasis for our consolation and enjoyment. It has not come without cost, of course.
Just a sample of recent large-expenditure improvement projects undertaken by UHCA include:
⦁ More than $2,000 to replace our 75-year-old bus stop between our front medians
⦁ More than $2,500 for a replacement of an antique front street lamp destroyed in a windstorm
⦁ About $3,200 for trimming and fertilization of our two fabulous 200+-year-old median legacy oaks
That’s on top of annual recurring UHCA expenses of $2,200 for front median flower bed maintenance by a landscape gardener, not to mention expenses for the neighborhood get-acquainted picnic and Easter egg hunt; citywide civic association federation dues; UHCA web hosting costs; and additional median gardening and irrigation fixed costs (weed and fire ant killer, fertilizer, replacement spray nozzles).
Remember, for other needs as they occur, our median maintenance volunteers are not paid for their work. They volunteer because they have passion and pride for our neighborhood and desire to keep it beautiful.
And it’s to your shared passion and pride for U-Hills that we appeal now. First, given the recent outlays outlined above, it’s fair to say that the cupboard of our neighborhood bank account has grown bare. Second, we know through outreach and research that in our adjacent neighborhood, College Town, they enjoy a dues payment rate of almost 75% among their residents, despite having a dues level ($150) three times the amount in U-Hills. By comparison, at $50 in dues, U-Hills last year saw payment from only about 40% of residents.
For the Parks and Recreation fans out there, we’re like Pawnee suffering in the shadow of the more perfect Eagleton! But it doesn’t have to be that way. Think of the good we could do if only we eclipsed their dues-collection rate!
With that in mind, please act today: Send in your $50 dues by mailing your check, payable to UHCA, to 515 Delgado Dr. , or making an easy online payment by visiting uhca70808.net and clicking “join.” We greatly appreciate your support and mutual love of our great neighborhood!
Sincerely,
The University Hills Civic Association Board
Check Out Our New Facebook Page
On January 2, 2018, we launched our official Facebook page. Check us out!
Fall Festival 2017
Happy Autumn, everyone! The date has been set for this year's fall festival. Please mark your calendars for November 5th (it's a Sunday this year to avoid any conflicts with LSU games). Plan to come to the front of the neighborhood from 11 to 2. Last year was a great success, and we hope it's even bigger this year!
Some information:
First: Please RSVP through this site's Contact Form (if you did not receive your email announcement). Tell us the number of people coming, so I can keep track and plan the refreshments.
Second: Plan to have fun! We'll have games available for family fun and a LIVE BAND playing during the party.
Third: We will have some jambalaya, but there was way too much of that last year. We will scale that back a bit, but would love for everyone to bring something again. It worked great.
If your last name starts with A-H, please bring a starter, appetizer, dips, chips; I-N: veggies, fuits, salad; O-S: casseroles, meatballs, cheesy things, meaty things; T-Z: brownies, cookies, pies, cakes.
Just suggestions, but you get the idea.
Lastly: Tell your neighbors. Let's get everyone out there to have a great time and meet new neighbors!
See you there!
P.S. Don't forget to bring a chair.
Security Cameras for University Hills?
Every year or so, especially after an episode of vandalism or theft, some residents urge the Association to invest in security cameras for the neighborhood. The issue has surfaced again, as of this week; so we will be addressing the pros and cons at our next board meeting (to which you are all invited), April 25 at 7 p.m. at the home of Bob Skapura, 548 Polytech Dr. Meanwhile I reproduce here the assessment by Bob Benedict, a long-time expert in the field to get the discussion going. See you at the meeting.
CAMERAS FOR NEIGHBORHOODS.
BOB BENEDICT June 29, 2015
This is a list of the main reasons NOT to try to cover neighborhood entrances with cameras, but rather to concentrate on individual homes or areas. I make these comments with confidence because, as the only Certified Protection Professional in Louisiana in the 60’s, I pioneered the design and installation for security purposes in banks, retail outlets, plants, homes, etc in Louisiana and beyond. Along with others, I learned a lot of lessons the hard way, but experience added to common sense was a great teacher. There are a great number of specific factors and reasons involved, but most of them could be considered as details of the following:
The initial cost of a system sufficient to come even close to providing adequate coverage of our entrance/exit area is prohibitive. So are the replacement and maintenance costs after some of the initial equipment has been vandalized, stolen, or simply foiled.
The money, time and nerves required to monitor the system, respond to neighbor’s enquiries, communicate effectively with agencies and other neighbors, explaining why you can’t really provide them with satisfactory help, is equally prohibitive.
Should the neighborhood vote to have the board take a special collection to procure such as system, you can believe there will be an increasing number of residents who will want to hold the board (that means officers and members) responsible for their individual security.
You can be certain that, if such systems were cost effective, they would be all over town by now.
Points regarding a system for your property:
A system protecting your premises is much easier to design and a very small fraction of a neighborhood system.
It will be much more effective, both for you and your neighbors, as it stands a greater chance of actually getting a crook off the street.
Shop carefully. Get a demonstration and references.
Think TRAP the crook. Use a mix of obvious and hidden cameras. Keep them as low as possible. Cover a key traffic point INSIDE your house or other protected area. RECORD or don’t waste your money.
Fake cameras and signs have very limited levels of effectiveness against crooks.
Robert C. Benedict
Certified Protection Professional, Retired
628 Polytech Dr.
Baton Rouge, LA 70808