Croissant Park Civic Association October 2014 General Meeting

Michelle DiMaria called the meeting to order at 7:10 pm

Board Members Present: Michelle DiMaria, Rhonda Kramer, Heather Cuniff, and Beth Falkenhagen

Fort Lauderdale Police were not available.

Susan Riestra from Parks and Recreation discussed a new program available to 55 and over residents.  Croissant Park Recreation Center is one of 11 locations where the City will offer activities for older persons for a modest fee.  The activities will include fitness classes, including yoga, all inclusive outings, social clubs, and more.  The City will also schedule events so a member can participate in alternate activities at nearby rec centers, such as, Riverland Park and Riverside Park. The kickoff is November 17-19, check with the staff at the Rec Center for exact date.  For more information, visit www.fortlauderdale.gov/parks 

Suzanne Johnston and Shelby Proie provided a presentation on behalf of the South Florida Wildlife Center.  The Wildlife Center is one of the largest rehabilitation centers in the nation treating over 14,000 patients per year.  They treat native and non-natives species.  For exotic species, the Center operates adoption services via Pet Finder.   The native species are returned to local neighborhoods.  

Shelby advised people not to assume a baby is abandoned, sick, or injured.  Often the parent will return.  Placing a baby bird back in its nest is ok because birds have a very poor sense of smell.  Baby squirrels are another species brought to the Center needlessly because baby is neither sick nor injured.  With respect to foxes, our only native species is the grey fox.  Shelby warned people not to feed the foxes because the foxes become habituated to human contact easily making them more vulnerable.  No one should be feeding the wildlife, and no one should be leaving cat food outside.  

Our local owls are the Eastern Screech Owl and the Burrowing Owl, which is on the threatened list.  The Center will provide a homeowner with an owl nesting box if the homeowner is willing to foster owlets.  If a homeowner needs assistance removing a wild animal from their home, they may contact the Wildlife Center and someone will come out to catch the animal and release it. 

Three young students volunteering for the Pantry of Broward announced they will be picking up donated items from doorsteps this Sunday; everyone should leave items outside by 11:00 am.  They have already left notices on homeowner’s doors.

Rhonda Kramer, who attended the public meeting on All Aboard Florida held today at the Convention Center, provided an update.  Rhonda advised that the only rr crossings in our neighborhood, which are being upgraded so trains will not have to blow their horns, are SR 84 and SW 2^nd St.  None of the crossings located in Croissant Park will be upgraded.  Rhonda indicated that the best we can hope for is to have wayside horns installed to mitigate the increase in noise from the additional trains coming through.  Rhonda urged everyone to submit comments, either in writing or online, requesting the wayside horns.

The 50/50 drawing was won by the boys and since they had to leave before the drawing, we put their winnings into a bag of food that they picked up on Sunday.

Meeting adjourned at 8:15 pm. 

Minutes by Beth Falkenhagen