Luminaria!

Stop by today (Saturday) and buy your luminary kits. We're selling them up by the arches on Bayview from 10 am until 2 pm. $5 for 6 bag/sand/candle kits. Then join us tomorrow night from 6 to 9 for the party!

Get 'em while they're ...

... well, not hot, because the candles aren't lit yet. But our Lake Shore elves are busy assembling luminary kits for next week's celebration. The kits are $5 each and we take cash or checks. They'll be on sale TODAY (Saturday) until 2 pm up on Bayview near the arches. If you can't stop by today, we'll have them on sale next Saturday and Sunday also but the supply is limited so don't wait too long!

Calling for Volunteers!

Our Lights of Lake Shore party is a community event and it's going to take some help from the community to make it the best one ever. We can use volunteers for everything from assembling, selling and delivering luminary kits, decorating the medians, setting up before and cleaning up after the event. E-mail us at website@lapsjax.org if you can lend a hand. And we look forward to seeing everybody there on Sunday the 12th between 6 and 9 p.m. A good time is sure to be had by all!

November Meeting Tonight!

Don't forget tonight's general LAPS meeting. 6:30 p.m. at the Lakeshore Woman's Club. We still need some volunteers to help with our Luminaria Celebration on December 12th and signup sheets will be available at the meeting. See you there!

Monthly LAPS General Meeting THIS Monday

The LAPS General Meeting is being held THIS Monday, October 25th, 6:30 p.m.at the Lakeshore Woman's Club. We sure hope to see you there. The address is 2352 Lakeshore Blvd. 

Lake Shore Woman's Club Fund Raiser

Spaghetti Dinner  Fundraiser Thursday night, October 21st at the LAKESHORE WOMAN'S CLUB 2352 Lakeshore Blvd. (between San Juan Avenue and Blanding Blvd.) 

Menu : Spaghetti with meat sauce or meatless sauce or with meatballs
Salad, Rolls, Sweeet tea or Unsweet tea and
choice of Desserts. 

Served from 4:30 p.m to 7:00 p.m. DINE IN OR TAKE OUT
Tickets: $6.00 and will be sold at the door. 

Please come by and support the LAKESHORE WOMAN'S CLUB. All proceeds and donations will be for the LSWC Building Fund.


The Woman's Club generously hosts our monthly LAPS meeting so let's all be sure to support them on this, neighbors. 

Crime Alert

Crime Alert: We got word that a vacant house on Dundee was stripped of metal including the carport and even the siding! Thieves have been stealing copper and such from AC units and now apparently they're after all kinds of scrap metal to sell. Let's keep an eye open for suspicious activity, especially around the vacant houses in our community. You can report a crime online here or call 630-0500. And always call 911 if you or anyone else is in immediate danger. 

LAPS Rally Day!

Don't forget to come down to the park/pavillion area by Bayview School for the LAPS Rally Day tomorrow (Sunday, October 3). Have a hot dog, chat with your neighbors and find out what's happening in your community in the coming months. Invite a neighbor to come with you so we can spread the word about our group and the things that we do to improve the community for all of us. See you there at 1:00!

We will also be doing our highway cleanup down at the half bridge on the river at this time. It's looking pretty good still from the last cleanup day so it shouldn't take much time or effort to knock that out. Let Carla or Paul know that you're willing to help when you're at the park. 

Great News!

 

This came in our e-mail today:

 

 

The Broken Window Theory At Work:

 

If you think your beautification efforts at the park have gone unnoticed, they have not.  The best result is that it has inspired others in the community to expand on what we started.  I was contacted by Officer Juanita Edwards who used to be the Resource Officer at Lake Shore Middle School and is now attached to the security division of Parks and Recreation.  She also mentors/sponsors a Girls Club at Lake Shore which is now an IB school and they are very excited about doing a service project.  We met with Officer Edwards at the park today and she wanted our input as to what further improvements we wanted done at the park.  We are going to work in conjunction with her and the Girls Club to do atleast these following improvements:  She will get possibly 20 Crepe Myrtle trees to be planted, more mulch for the playground and around the trees, paint to cover the graffitti on the pavilions, and she will see about getting the school to work with us on dragging the ball fields.  Officer Edwards also wants to build a lasting relationship with our group for future projects.  Aaron is going to have some drawings and we would like your input at the next meeting as to where you want the trees planted. We are hoping to do this work in early November.  Good job LAPS members.

Way to Neighborhood Watch!

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/topstories/news-article.aspx?storyid=169425&catid=3

I think this criminal's number is up thanks to the neighbor who took his picture on his cell phone. Way to look out for your neighbors, good job!

LAPS Rally Day!

Want to know more about LAPS - who we are, what we do, how you can join? Come see us at the LAPS Rally Day up at the Bayview Park this Sunday, October 3rd at 1:00. There will be free hot dogs and lots of great information available, we would love to see you there! We will also be doing our quarterly cleanup of our adopted highway during this time.

LAPS Board Elections

We are electing officers for the LAPS Board this month and every vote counts! Put Monday, September 27th on your calendar for the next LAPS General Meeting. 6:30 p.m. at the Lake Shore Women's Club. 

LAPS Monthly Meeting this Monday

Be sure to put Monday's meeting on your calendar, it's going to be a good one. Our business sponsor this month is Hoggwild Fabrications, they are located on the corner of LakeShore and Blanding and they build all manner of things metal including trailers and smokers. They'll be bringing us some tasty samples of smoked pork that they're going to cook up in one of their smokers. We also have lots of planning to do for the remainder of the year and we need your input so we hope to see you at the Lake Shore Women's Club at 6:30 on Monday the 27th.

Another Quality Project...

...brought to you by LAPS! We finished up the park project! Of course, there is alway stuff left that can be done but the dirt and mulch are spread, the fence line is clean and ALL of the posts have been primed and painted and it looks fantastic.

Looks pretty good, huh? Thanks to Carla Bathurst for going over and above the call of duty and to Paul Grant, Aaron Ricker, Kathy Stark, Betsy Clark and Winston for getting it done today. Great job everyone! More pictures are over on our facebook page. 

Don't Let it Win!!!

This is the remainder of the giant dirt pile that we have battled all morning. It's stubborn and determined but we are more so! Come help us finish it off tomorrow evening at 5:00 (Sunday). 

We had a great time this morning and got a whole lot done up at Bayview Park. All of the posts are primed, some are painted in their new bright yellow, the fence perimeter has been cleaned and the trash cans are emptied. We still have to defeat that dirt pile and get it spread so we can spread the mulch in the jungle gym area and we need to finish painting the rest of the posts from the park area down to the corner at Hamilton. If you weren't able to stop by and lend a hand this morning you're still MORE than welcome to come up tomorrow evening. The more hands on deck, the faster we will get it done! Plus it won't be as hot so there's that. 

Kudos to everyone who came this morning and worked so very hard. We got a great start on this project. Thanks to Carla Bathurst, Melanie Homer, Paul Grant, Lee Webster, Jacob & Katie O'Brian, Cynthia Segraves, Betsy Clark  Susanne Ward and Kathy Stark. Great job everyone! You can see more photos on our facebook page. 

Cleanup Reminder!

Just a reminder that we'll be cleaning up and painting at the Bayview Park tomorrow morning (Saturday) at 9 am and we need lots of help to get the job done well. Hope we can count on you to lend a hand even for a little while. We can do amazing things when we work as a community together!

Silver Alert Cancelled

Apparently the report I heard was true and our neighbor has been found and is safe. http://wokv.com/localnews/2010/03/silver-alert-issued-for-missin.html

Neighborhood News

We got these in our e-mail today. Let's keep looking out for each other folks.:

Just thought you might want to let the rest of the neighborhood know that the 4600 block of Colonial was the victim of a couple of attempted car break-ins last night.  Don't know if they got anything out of the other vehicle, but they didn't get anything out of mine.  Yes, we both were guilty of leaving the cars unlocked (totally out of the norm for both of us) but that just means that someone is going around trying door handles to see what they can find.  


Also (I have an unconfirmed report that this gentleman has been found) - 


Hey there, I just saw this article on the Times-Union's website. Apparently there is a silver alert for an elderly man who lives on Riverdale. Please pass this information along, so everyone can be on the lookout.  Thanks!Rachel
 
   The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office has issued a Silver Alert for a West Jacksonville man who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.
Carroll Farrell Padgett of the 4600 block of Riverdale Road was reported missing by his caretaker. Police said the 89-year-old thinks he lives in Clay County and may be in that area.

Padgett is 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighs about 170 pounds.

He was last seen northbound on Blanding Boulevard from Clay County driving a brown Buick LeSabre with a Florida tag of G113AV.

Jacksonville police ask anyone with information to call them at (904) 630-0500 or (904) 630-2627.

Bayview Park Cleanup

We're headed up to the park area up by Bayview Elementary (on Lakeshore Blvd at Hamilton Street) to spruce it up this Saturday morning. We'll be cleaning up the fence area, edging around the sidewalks, painting the concrete poles (using Bayview School colors!) mulching the jungle gym area, dragging the baseball fields... you get the idea. And we need YOU!!! Help us make our neighborhood a better place for all of us. We'll meet at 9 am, bring your rakes, shovels and such. Drinks will be provided. It shouldn't take too long to knock it out if everyone who is able can come and pitch in. 

Meeting Matters

Thanks to everyone who rowed, skied or swam to get to the LAPS meeting tonight. It was a pretty good turnout despite the weather. And it was worth it to find out that LAPS members get 30% off at The Cedar River Club (formerly the Duck Pond). Sweet!

Some of the upcoming events to put on your calendar are:

• Spruce up Bayview Park September 18th 10 am to 2 pm
• Neighborhood/LAPS Rally October 3 3pm (our highway cleanup at the half bridge will be earlier that day)
• Yearly planning meeting at Cedar River Club November 7th 3 pm

Stay tuned for more info on the great things that are happening in your community!

Great Wikipedia Entry

I don't know who is responsible for it but I came across a really good wikipedia article on our community while looking for Lake Shore history on the internet. It even mentions lapsjax.org so it's pretty current. You can read it yourself by going here.

A Good Time...

... was had by all who attended our last Outdoor Movie Night of the summer. We thought we might get rained out at first but our luck held out once again. It was a great swashbuckler of a movie and it was so nice to be out with the neighbors. Thanks so much to Carla and Paul for all their hard work in putting these movie nights together.

Don't forget about Monday night's meeting. We are planning lots of good stuff through the end of the year and we need everyone's ideas and input to help make our community the best in the Westside!

Friday Night Movie THIS Week!

Since the public voting for the movie of choice has been less than decisive, some of the Board members have gone completely off script and have chosen an entirely different movie to be shown this Friday. We have chosen Leonardo DiCaprio's "Man in the Iron Mask" We feel since this movie is PG13 it will have greater appeal for everyone.

We sure hope to see you up at the gates this Friday evening. Bring a chair, a snack and a neighbor for a fun (and free!) night out! What could be better?

Here's Your Sign...

Our sign for our adopted bit of highway (the old half bridge off of Lakeshore Blvd that runs down to the river next to the railroad tracks) that is.

Thanks for the pictures Melanie!

More Pictures and Thank Yous!

Thanks again to the great crew who showed up to clean up our adopted mile. Thanks to:

Alissa Wooded

Aaron Ricker

Melanie Homer

Pal Grant

Betsy Clark

Tim Kern

Jan Kern

Carla Bathurst

Mike Ricker

Gail Ricker

Naim Halili

And here are some more pictures: 

Cleanup day

Wow! What a great turnout we had this morning and what an awesome bunch of workers. Thanks to everyone who showed up to help, you guys just rock!

Happy Workers!

Refreshment Station

Working hard

Tidying up the entrance

Yummy stuff!

We even had a hand-washing station

Some Announcements

1. Remember that THIS Saturday, July 24th we will be cleaning up our stretch of adopted "highway" at the old half bridge off of Lake Shore (under the Ortega Bridge) 9:00 a.m. - bring your sunscreen, gloves and can-do attitude!
2. Don't forget to vote in the comments or contact Carla with your pick for our final movie night of the summer.
3. Reminder - there will be NO July LAPS meeting, put the 4th Monday in August on your calendar now for the next one! 6:30 p.m. at the Lake Shore Women's Club - be there!
4. Stray dog needs placement: If the word could be put out I have a schnauzer dachshund puppy (not certain of age) that needs a good home.  I cannot keep this dog and will have to take him to the shelter next week if I cannot find him a home.  House trained. Will bark if someone comes to your door.  Does not get along well with cats (this is why I must find him a home fast). The dog tries to play and the cats don't want any part of this. Please call 384-2554 if you can give this dog a home.
    
   I know nothing about the dog because it showed up here and no one has claimed the animal. Friendly and loves to play.  Likes kids or at least my 10 year old grandchildren. 

Last Movie Night for the Summer!

Our summer nights have been quite the success for a first venture. We have had lots of great comments about what a nice time it is to come out on a summer evening and enjoy a movie with friends and neighbors. For those of you who are wondering, it's NOT too hot or too buggy and those who have attended have loved it. Here are the suggestions for our last movie night on Friday, August 20th:
1. Maltese Falcon
2. How to Train Your Dog
3. Napolean Dynamite
4. Little Miss Sunshine
5. Monty Python
You can vote for your favorite in the comments section. Then come out and join us for our final show for this summer. 

I've got good news and I've got bad news...

...which do you want first? Okay, let's get the bad news out of the way. There are, once again, thieves afoot in our neighborhood. There was a motorized bicycle stolen out of a yard, not sure of the exact location. There was also a trailer stolen with some household items on it in the 4500 block of Birkenhead Road. Keep your eyes open folks for ANY kind of suspicious activity. People get away with this type of thing because they think no one is paying attention and all too often no one is.

Now for the good news - I was in Lake Shore Produce this afternoon and found out that they are going to start selling Barbeque! Yay! I have sooo missed the smell of Barbeque cooking since Black Jack's closed. I hear it's going to be delicious!

Hanging Chads??????

Okay, so the poll had quite the snafu... don't know why it wouldn't let people vote. It let me vote but then wouldn't record it. Grrrrr. But it's hard to complain too much about Blogger since it's free. So, in order to avoid having an extended kerfuffle and/or recount we will post the choices for Friday's movie night here and people can vote in the comments section.

Here is the slate of nominations for Friday's Outdoor Movie Night:

1. National Treasure
2. The Maltese Falcon
3. The Blues Brothers

Cast your vote in the comments section! 

Oops....

The second movie in the poll is supposed to be the Maltese Falcon... can't edit it because people have already voted. Sorry for the typo folks!

Thanks JEA!

Big thanks to JEA for getting their workers out to restore our electricity this afternoon. There were 52 homes without power for 3 1/2 hours on a hot July afternoon. I for one was ecstatic to see those big trucks roll in!

Time to pick July's Movie!

We need some suggestions for movie night this month. Our first summer movie night in June was terrific and everyone who came had a great time. So far someone has suggested National Treasure and perhaps a black and white from back in the day. Put your suggestions in the comments section or e-mail them to website@lapsjax.com and we'll put them up to a vote.

Summer Move Night is Coming!

Come join us on the 3rd Friday evening every month this summer when we will be showing movies up on Bayview Road on the back of the tire store. We will close off the block so bring your chairs and a snack when the sun goes down and enjoy a movie with your neighbors. You can vote for your pick in the poll above.

What's Happening?

Lots of things are happening in Lake Shore! We were recognized with an award ceremony for the restoration of our gates. Pictures are here, go take a look.

 We are also planning to have a movie night once a month during the summer. E-mail us at website@lapsjax.org (or put them in the comments section below) with your suggestions for movies you'd like to see with your neighbors on a warm summer night and we will put up a poll here on the blog with the most popular titles so everyone can vote. 

We're Award Winning!

Here's an exciting message from our president, Carla:

Hello Neighbors,

I received a nice bit of good news recognizing all of your efforts.  Joel McEachin of the Jacksonville Historic Preservation Commission emailed me the following:

"I am pleased to inform you that the Jacksonville Historic Preservation Commission will be presenting the "Great Save Award" to the Lake Shore Area Preservation Society for your commitment and accomplishments in stabilizing and restoring the Lake Shore subdivision gates.  The award will be presented as part of the Commission's Annual Preservation Award Program scheduled for Thursday, May 6th."

You should all take pride in this acknowledgement.  It is especially appropriate to receive this award on this date since the original Open House/Dedication of the neighborhood was on Mother's Day weekend, May 10th, 1925.  Almost 85 years ago to the date!

Thanks to all of you for your commitment and involvement.

Carla

What wonderful news! We'll post more details as we get them. 

Present Day Good Stuff

We have had lots of fun and interesting comments while walking down Lake Shore's memory lane... the old bakery, shoe repair shop, 2 drugstores with soda fountains, a few fun and respectable neighborhood drinking establishments (as opposed to the current stripper pole dancing places), the old post office, the Golden Arch (no, not McDonald's), Denny Moran's, the original Burger King, swans at Roosevelt Mall and lots more.

Here's my next question(s)... what do you think are the best places to go in Lake Shore today? What makes us unique and a great place to live? I think Chamblin's Bookmine is on my list of favorites and I'm so glad they are part of the neighborhood. There's no excuse for being bored when there's so much to read, watch and listen to available right down the street. I recently discovered that they rent books on CD which I listen to in my car all the time. If you see me sitting in my driveway not getting out of my car it's because I'm trying to finish the chapter!

Joining In

I have gotten a few questions about joining in on our neighborhood conversation. It can be confusing for some folks who have not spent much time in the blog world so here's a tip or two for you. At the bottom of each post is a link that says a number and then "comments" - if you click there it will take you to a comment box where you  can type in your contribution and click the "post comment" button. You have the option of remaining anonymous if you don't have a google or other "ID" but anonymous posts are scrutinized more closely for rule breakers (i.e. be nice or get deleted). Another easy way is to click on one of the comments in the "recent comments" link just to the right at the top of the blog. This is good for joining in on a current conversation. If you have something to say about a post that has not been yet commented on you have to use the comment box on the post itself to start a new conversation apropos to that particular post. There, are you confused enough yet? Don't hesitate to try it, the worst that can happen is that you learn what doesn't work!

.

Stupid Criminal Report

Carla told us that a man robbed the Hess Station recently. He filled his trunk up with beer and cigarettes and when he slammed the trunk his license tag fell off and he apparently was too busy to notice. The police ran the tag number and went to his house but his wife told them he wasn't home. Don't know if they've caught up with him yet but I would suspect it won't be long...

This information and a whole lot more is what you miss out on when you don't attend the LAPS meetings. Don't be left wondering what is going on in your neighborhood - come to the next meeting on Monday April 26th, 6:30 p.m. at the Lake Shore Women's Club. We will have a guest speaker from Metro Crime Prevention.

Police Activity in the Neighborhood

We've had a spurt of activity in the neighborhood since last night. There was a shooting on Cassatt and Shirley, the news report is here.

Carla sent out the following via e-mail on 2 other incidents near her house last night:

Crazy night on Cedarwood and Pinewood tonight!
At about 10:30/11:00 Wednesday might there was a house fire at the corner of Cerdarwood and Lake Shore. Evidently, the lady who lives alone there set the fire in her kitchen (this is unconfirmed) but they did take her away in a police car. She is known in the neighborhood as a little ex-centric.
At about 2:00/2:30, I look out my window on Pinewood and the house across the street from me is taped off and 4 police cars are sitting out there and an elderly lady is being detained. I know she is the mother of the person who lives in the house and when I asked the officer why the street was cordoned off he just said it was a crime scene! I have no idea what happened there. I will not get any sleep tonight.
This is not an April Fool's joke!
Weird night, watch out for your neighbors.

Carla

Hopefully that spurt of activity is over and things will calm down again but we all should always watch out for ourselves and our neighbors. The more people who stay involved in the community the safer it we be for us all.

A Message to the Goobers racing down Jersey Street

You there, in the pickup trucks squealing and peeling rubber down Jersey Street the other evening. You are SUCH a goober. I suppose you think you look cool and all that but most of us think you're morons. Seriously. We just want to take our kids and pets out for a nice stroll in the evening and you come flying down the road (and having to slow down for the road humps we put there just for you which makes you look extra goofy) and now we have to worry about you running over somebody. Just stop it. Really. Just stop.

I'm trying to get this message across in the kindest way possible. But neighbors, what do you think? How can we best address this issue - fast, reckless drivers on our streets endangering people, tearing up the medians on Bayview and on and on... Should we take down tag numbers and call the police? Attend the SHADCO meetings and bring it up there? Point and laugh at the morons who think they're "all that and a bag of chips"? Find out where they live and hope their mommies will ground them? We're open for suggestions but keep it legal, please.

Lake Shore Historical Trivia

As someone who was born and raised in Lake Shore I remember a lot about this neighborhood over the last 50 years but I'd love to know more. Tell us if you remember any of these things or if there are other tidbits of history and trivia that you can add:

• Lake Shore Middle School used to include the elementary grades.
• Roosevelt Mall used to have a pond with black and white swans swimming in it.
• Easterlings Drug Store was on the southwest corner of Blanding and Palmer. They had penny candy and a soda fountain. 
• There was another drugstore with a fountain on San Juan where Alpha School of Massage is now. Anyone remember the name? I want to say Ligget's but that may be wrong.
• There used to be houses at the end of Birkenhead on Urban. They were moved to open the road out to Roosevelt Blvd. 
• There used to be a Burger King near or where Chamblin's Bookmine is now.
• We used to have our very own post office on Jersey Street and Lexington. 

That's enough to get us started I think. 

Welcome to our Neighborhood Conversation

Welcome to our new blog Lake Shore Chatter! This is a space for our neighborhood conversation, announcements, concerns and comments. You can join in by commenting on any blog post and if you have a new comment or question on another topic you can e-mail it to website@lapsjax.org. There is also a comment form on the LAPS website you can use for questions or comments and we will address those here as well. Our goal is to make our community a better place for all of us to live through the sharing of our ideas and information. We hope it will be a fun and interesting place and that you'll stop by often. Don't forget to become a fan of our facebook page as well.

A few ground rules as we get started please:

• Please always be courteous and kind. We are all neighbors in the most literal sense.
• NO cursing or abusive language please. 
• Please stay on topic. E-mail the website to start a new one. 
• Local politics only if you absolutely must go there. There are plenty of other outlets for political expression. This is a place for neighborly conversation. 

Thanks for you cooperation. We look forward to hearing from you!