Minutes from the April 10th Meeting and Cookout

 Friday April 10, 2026

Cookout and Meeting

Sunset Park

Topics:

* Will be voting on new board members in the fall

* Scott Cooner about bridge construction

* Neighborhood voted to seek allowing non-powered watercraft lake access during lake closures

* Neighborhood voted to add a fifth board position, to manage the blog and Facebook page

* Casino Beach Update

* use iNaturist for reporting alligator sightings (a page here on blog will be made to give instructions)

* Watercress update

* The old Bingo Hall property has a new owner interested in running his landscaping business there

* The leak at Rankin and Watercress is resolved

Attendance:

Scott Cooner - Texas A&M Transportation

Deanne Kearney - SSNA President

Brian Keller - SSNA Vice President

Tom Mast - SSNA Treasurer

Adrienne Taylor - SSNA Secretary

Over 30 in attendance, adults and kids

Special Thanks to Volunteers:

Mike Statler - grill master

Deb Ballard - set up, cashier, tear down

Justin Taylor - providing speaker and microphone

Ted Burgess - tables

5:30 pm Dinner

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

5:58 pm President Deanne

President Deanne called the meeting to order.

* Oct meeting minutes approved

* Request for volunteers to help with meetings

* Thanks to Mike Statler and Debbie Ballard for volunteering in advance

* the 2024 Lighted Boat Parade watching party was submitted to the city for an award. We did not win, but received an honorable mention at the awards ceremony.

* Thanks to Tom Mast and family, and the Kearneys for 18 bags of trash and several large items removed from Goat Island.

* Reminder that the 2 year terms for each of the four board members expires at the end of this year, we need to be ready to nominate and vote on new members this fall.

6:02 pm Scott Cooner

Scott has been with the 199 bridge project since its beginning and is an expert in traffic bottlenecks. He spoke of having opened our neighborhood's access points recently (Rankin and Surfside) for which we all gave thanks.

The contract stipulates that all construction must be completed by August. The last parts to finish are the tie in ramps for Conferdrate Parkway. Scott spoke highly of the construction company, SEMA, and that once unnamed issues were resolved SEMA worked efficiently to get everything completed.

Dan Matheus asked about the years long closure of the far right lane in Lake Worth, leading up to the bridge, will it ever be opened again? Scott explained it is not likely to be reopened because it will lead to drivers frantically changing too many lanes at the last minute to get onto the bridge, which results in accidents.

Tom asked about long term plans have 199 bypass Lake Worth to connect seamlessly into 820. Scott read an official statement and said we should put pressure on Lake Worth and TX Dot to have it achieved.

Brian interrupted and explained that the reason for the stall in completing this long term design falls with the city of Lake Worth's elected representatives, who's compensation is impacted by tax revenue accrued at all the businesses on Lake Worth Blvd. By having so much traffic bypass those stop lights, the businesses will lose patronage and income.

Deanne asked about the curiously long solid white lane stripe on the bridge going into Lake Worth, noting that those who chose not to violate it find that once the stripe ends, there is almost no way to get several lanes to the right in order to avoid being in left turn only lanes. Scott considered revisement of the length of the solid white stripe.

Claire asked about the rip rap under the bridges (which deters people from camping under the bridges), and Scott said more will be installed as funds allow.

Tobin asked about the mud flowing into the lake from the construction site. Scott answered that more grass is planned to be installed in order to finish preventing run off into the lake.

6:20 Voting on 3 Topics

Topic 1 By Dave Bodden, Seeking Dock ordinace changes to allow for those with properties with narrowing lines in the water have easier variances to build docks.

This vote was withdrawn by issuer.

Topic 2 By Dave Bodden, Seeking a change to lake closure rules to allow for non powered watercraft out on the lake during lake closures.

This vote passed by 10 households in agreement to 5 households against. The next step is to discuss with the other lake NA's to see if they are in agreement to seek a change to the lake closures.

Topic 3 By Adrienne Taylor, Seeking the addition of a fifth SSNA board position, effective after the fall neighborhood meeting, to maintain the blog and facebook page, while the meeting minutes and email distribution list remains under the position of Secretary.

This vote passed with 15 households in agreement and 0 against.

6:30 Casino Beach

Deanne explained what has happened in the last few months with getting attention drawn to development of Casino Beach.

The city posted an SOI, Statement of Interested to a site called Bonfire in February, and almost mentioned it on Facebook (which garnered many comments which will have no bearing on the development). The SOI only seeks out broad ideas for development and interest in working with the city for development. It does not include help from the city like a budget or even city involvement in helping with infrastructure. This SOI was set to expire after a month and a half. However, the posting of the SOI has since been extended to be active for 7 months. There is no interest so far and the board will be meeting with Macy Hill this week to get better guidance on the matter.

Deanne spoke with the Parks department about the bond budget outcome (many of you participated in the bond allotment tool in order to try to earmark bond money for Casino Beach). Parks said they will eventually seek out funding for Casino Beach once there is someone interested in developing it.

6:40 iNaturist

Per our last meeting in October, Jared Wood had talked about setting up a way for us to better report alligator sightings. He would like us to use a website called iNaturist, where we can submit a photo of an alligator and pinpoint on a map the sighting. Adrienne will make up a page on the blog to explain how to use the website for reporting.

6:47 Watercress Traffic Woes

We followed the city’s instructions to have Watercress evaluated for having a center line painted in order to keep drivers to their side of the road. The city determined our traffic volume was not high enough and that for the most part people are following the speed limit so we do not qualify (speeding is different than driving in the middle of the road, we know). However, they have listened to our suggestions for fixing road signs and possibly adding better signage on our more severe curves on Watercress. The intend to have new signage installed by July 2026.

6:52 Bingo Hall

A landscaping business owner is interested in buying the Bingo Hall property and using it as a place to sell paving stones, bagged mulch and other landscape products. While he does process his own mulch, no processing will be done on this site, which will be strictly for commercial and residential retail. He is very interested in making sure our neighborhood is not bothered by his business as he must buy the land on a 3. year CUP. If after the 3 years the business has not been a good fit for the area, he must close the business. Thus he is very interersted in making us happy, including making the enhancing the entrance to help lead the way in making future businesses along our section of 199 look nicer. He will have cameras around the property and is aligned with us in making the area safer and nicer.

7:00 Leak at Rankin and Watercress

There had been an ongoing leak at Rankin and Watercress. The resolution was rather comedic. Lakeside thought it was their pipe leaking. Upon investigation, they determined it was Fort Worth’s. Fort Worth came out, dug into it and determined it was not their pipe. It was Lakeside. Lakeside came back out, dug into it, fixed it, but can’t fix the road. The road belongs to Fort Worth. Fort Worth will fix the road.

7:04 Tom Mast’s Treasury Report

We have a balance of $670. He said more, but I couldn’t hear and can come back and add it later.

7:05 Adjourned