The Wedgewood Owners’ Association, Inc. held its annual meeting on December 2. Many thanks to Cindy Vellante for serving on the board for two years. At this meeting, Peter Pullen was re-elected and Angelika Hamilton was elected to her first two-year term. The board met following the annual meeting and voted on the officers for 2022, who will take office on January 1. The slate of officers is:

Becky Scaringe        President
Laurie Stevenson    Vice President
Ken Buckel.                Secretary
Peter Pullen.              Treasurer
Angelika Hamilton  Director

Lawrence Robert MacAlister was born in Worcester, Mass., in 1935, and grew up to be a Renaissance man, tuning his skills in a variety of careers. An engineer who graduated from MIT, he also raced cars (including an early Carroll Shelby Cobra) and motorcycles, earning trophies that he discarded along the way. For a while he worked for the Atomic Energy Commission, delving into the properties of heavy water, a field that influenced his entrepreneurial efforts in later life. He spent many years as a general contractor, building communities, shopping centers, and commercial buildings in Massachusetts, Florida and North Carolina. And in the middle of that career, he took several years off to be a charter boat captain in Cape Cod.

When he moved with his wife Carol to Sun City Center, he didn’t quite retire, reactivating his general contractor’s license and lending his expertise to a variety of projects. He also returned to painting, one of his early loves, and earned Best of Show in the very first art show he entered locally. And he became a Pelican Player, serving as vice president and acting in the mainstage production of “Angel Street,” as well as in Reader’s Theatre and variety shows.

Lawrence passed away September 23, 2020. In addition to his wife, he leaves three children, seven grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

Photo and tribute courtesy of Carol MacAlister 11-29-2020

Our association is fortunate to have residents who have volunteered and added so much to the Sun City Center community over the years. Not mentioned in the article is that in the early years of Wedgewood, Norma served on the board as a director and secretary, and also serve on the ACC. Thank you to Norma and Dallas for all they have given to our community.

If you missed the article in the paper, click on the image below to enlarge it for readability.

There you are calmly getting your mail when, SLAM, you are surprised with a letter from the ACC.

Take a deep breath and relax. The letters are part of the procedure to let residents know of issues that need to be addressed. In many cases the weeds or overgrown bushes have been resolved before the letter arrives. It is a polite way to let you know that something needs to be fixed. We are all busy and it is possible that you did not notice the maintenance issue, or forgot to let the ACC know you were getting a new roof or repainting your house, so a friendly reminder is always nice.

Just let the ACC know that you intend to fix the problem. They just want to know that you are doing something. Many times things have to be scheduled with a work crew and that can take time. Just let the ACC know that you have scheduled your roof to be cleaned, the bushes to be trimmed, the screen repaired, etc. Then they know that you are addressing the issue and they are very happy.

If you forget to let them know what you are doing they will send you a follow up letter so please take the time to respond to the first letter. Saves us postage and saves you getting upset. We are all neighbors and so we try to keep this as friendly as possible. Even Board members, myself included, have received these letters. It is nicer than an ACC member knocking on doors, probably safer, too, and makes it possible to document that problems have been resolved or followed up when needed.

Our governing HOA documents, which are deed restrictions on our properties, require us to have an ACC and spell out our exterior maintenance responsibilities. That’s why this system is in place. Sometimes, you may not have noticed a maintenance need, or maybe you were away when it occurred. A “Reminder” letter from the ACC is a part of how an HOA works.

So, be a good neighbor and help out the ACC. These volunteers take their own time to take care of this. If we have to go back to a management company we can expect our HOA fees to increase. I, for one, really appreciate the value these volunteers bring to our community.

One of our neighbors, Ron Cascioli, administrates the website “Nextdoor” for our area. Some of you are subscribers. Ron notified me that the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s office plans to use the site to communicate with people in our area. The graphic is the message the sheriff’s office sent to him about their plans.