Minutes from the Oct 3 Neighborhood Meeting and Cookout

 

Friday Oct 3, 2025

Cookout and Meeting

Sunset Park

Topics:

* Litter Stomp Saturday Oct 11

* Lighted Boat Parade Social

* Casino Beach Update

* TxDOT update

* Alligators

* Financial Report

* Watercress Lane Striping

* Peninsula Club Trash Pile

Attendance:

Deputy Morgan - Lake Worth Marshals

Janira Mejias Medina - FW Community Liasion

Jared Wood - Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge Director

Julia Brandt - LW Sailing Club Commodore

Deanne Kearney - SSNA President

Brian Keller - SSNA Vice President

Tom Mast - SSNA Treasurer

Adrienne Taylor - SSNA Secretary

Over 40 in attendance, adults and kids

Special Thanks to Volunteers:

Jim Kearney - grill master

Judy Mast - t-shirts and signs maker

Deb Ballard - set up, food cashier, note taker, tear down

Kris Matheus - set up, t-shirt sales

Pat Normand - food table management

Barbara Wooten Meece - food table management

Carol and Stacy Visciarelli - tear down

Justin Taylor - providing speaker and microphone

Ted Burgess - tables

5:30 pm Dinner

Brats, hotdogs and sides were served.  Neigbhors brought their own chairs, drinks and sides to share while socializing.

5:55 pm Deputy Morgan

President Deanne called the meeting to order and introduced Deputy Morgan from the FW Lake Marshals.  He talked about Marshals organization changes.

• Patrol is on winter hours now, 8 am - 6 pm

• Use 817-392-4222 for FW’s non-emergency number is the best way to get to Marshals

• Use 817-392-3551 for directly contacting Marshals’ office, but line rarely answered

• Courtesy towing for stalled boats is still available through marshals, which Deputy Morgan says is an unusual activity for Texas Marshals.

A neighbor talked about a dead deer floating in lake, which washed up on someone’s shoreline.  Deputy Morgan said the marshals can’t do anything about it once on private property.  

6:05 pm President Deanne Kearney

Deanne set the expectation for the evening’s meeting, that it would be an “info dump”, so there would likely not be enough time for neighbors to share their thoughts at the meeting as the topics are covered.  In order to allow for further discussion, pages will be constructed on the SSNA blog for further discussion on the topics.

As per Robert’s Rule, Deanne asked if anyone had any edits to be made to the previous meeting’s minutes.  None were brought up, so the previous minutes were passed.

Litter Stomp

Deanne spoke of the upcoming City of Fort Worth Litter Stomp.  Friday Oct 10 6-7 pm get supplies at Island View Drive Park.  Saturday morning, Oct 11, grab a buddy and fill your bags, and dispose of in your own trash cans.  Becky Marion is looking for a buddy.

Lighted Boat Parade and Dock Decorating Contest 2025

Commadore Julia Brandt said the LW Sailing Club will be doing their lighted boat parade on Friday Dec 5th.  Like last year’s Christmas social, we neighbors are encouraged to decorate our docks for the sailing club to judge as they process by our neighborhood. The Taylor family on Peninsula Club have offered their dock for the neighbors to gather on for parade watching.

6:11 pm Neighbor Kaiden Lenners

President Deanne invited neighbor Kaiden Lenners, from the SSNA Casino Beach committee, to update on the status of development.  He lamented that the city moves very slowly, and it is still in the planning stages.  President Deanne interjected that the proposal may go out in the following week. Once we know more links and information will be posted to the blog.  4-5 people (including reps from us) will be on the city’s review committee.

6:15 pm Vice President Brian Keller

Brian gave us an update on TxDOT’s projection for construction completion.  TxDOT says the underpasses for Rankin and Surfside will be completed before the end of the year.  The west bound side of the bridge could be put in use as early as the following week.  The lower bridge will be resurfaced for future use.  The u-turns under the bridges should also be open by the end of the year.  TxDOT plans to tackle the intersection at 199 and 820 in year 2030.

6:19 pm Fort Worth Nature Center Director Jared Wood

Brian introduced and invited Jared Wood, the director of the Fort Worth Nature Center and Refuge, to speak about the growing alligator sighting concerns.  

The Nature Center’s Initiatives

First Jared spoke of the three pillars of the Nature Center 1) conservation 2) education and 3) recreation.  He invited us to contact him with ideas we would like to see the nature center to do for community engagement.  There will be a newly built interpretive center, they are introducing kids’ canoeing, and on October 18th there is a Trails & Treats event for a fun family event.

Alligators!

Key takeaways:

• Since the year 1600, only 4 recorded deaths in Texas by alligators

• Texas’ alligator population is about 600,000

• The Nature Center only recently began counting the alligator population in Lake Worth

• Currently, they’ve surveyed 74 alligators

• There is no previous baseline, so center cannot confirm whether population is growing

• Do not feed or bait the alligators, it causes them to hang around in unusual places

• Nature Center is bringing in local universities to help with population surveying
  
  

6:45 pm Treasurer Tom Mast

Tom shared the contents of our SSNA bank account.  We had $600 in donations from neighbors since our last meeting.  We spent $150 on renting the church’s meeting space for the last meeting and $80 on signs for the meeting. The balance will be different after t-shirt and food sales at today’s meeting.

6:47 pm Neighbor Dave Bodden

Dave Bodden has ideas for making changes to the dock ordinances in ways he feels will make dock building easier again.  He also would like to see the lake open to paddle operated watercraft (kayaks, canoes, paddleboards and such).  These items need to be further discussed online by the neighborhood in the following blog locations:

7:02 pm Secretary Adrienne Taylor

Adrienne contended with the honking geese as she suggested having the city paint a yellow dashed center line on Watercress to help drivers slow down a little and stay on their side of the road.  She noticed how across the lake at Heron Dr and 820 (where a 17 year old driver drove into the lake and died last winter) the city has since added a yellow dashed line along Heron which seems to be effective. Those in attendance quickly agreed with idea.  Deanne had already spoken with Sami Roop and learned we would need to make a petition. Those in attendance were ready to move forward with a petition.

Next, Adrienne talked about the continuous trash pile on Peninsula Club.  She complained that it’s added to all month long instead of only the week of bulk pick up, and read the city’s rules about bulk pick up along with files for out of cycle dumping.  Tom interjected that Lupine also has a perpetual trash pile.  He suggested calling the city and to call it “illegal dumping” to get it further cleaned up.

Read bulk pick up rules and fines here:

https://www.fortworthtexas.gov/departments/environmental-services/solidwaste/bulk

7:13 pm President Deanne Kearney

Summarizes discussion and adjourns meeting.