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Health & Fitness

Gathering Signatures, The Next Round

On Sunday April 13th, the Stetson community came together for a BBQ Potluck and Easter Egg Hunt. We had about a hundred people turn out, the weather was perfect, the food was good and the kids had a great time hunting for eggs. A surprise visit by the Easter Bunny was a big hit with the kids. Everyone wanted to know when we are going to get together again. Many were suggesting a Fourth-of-July picnic. I think this is a great idea we will start planning soon.

This event evolved from our efforts working with the City of Beaumont to renegotiate our Mello-Roos agreement. Out first petition submitted to the City generated a letter from the City Council outlining the city’s financing strategy using our Mello-Roos taxes. The Council’s letter addressed some of our concerns but in a meeting of interested members of our community where we discussed how we should respond, we decided to continue to move forward with our original request and amend the package of powers granted to the Beaumont Finance Authority by Stetson's developer, Corman-Leigh.

We decided to submit a second, more focused petition to the city. Gathering the 100 signatures on the first petition was quite an undertaking for me and a friend. The group discussed how best to organize the community to work together to gather the required signatures.

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Since Stetson doesn’t have a Home Owners Association, we decided the best way to move forward was by coming together and getting to know our neighbors. We beneift by being such a small development, coming together for us is not as challenging as it might be for larger communities. Someone suggested the BBQ Potluck Easter Egg Hunt as a good start, they were right.

Now my neighbors and I will be taking the next step, gathering the signatures. When we met last month, we decided the best way to get the signatures was to do it together. We decided a Sunday afternoon walk with our families through Stetson would be the best way to do this. It will further unite us as a community and it will show our City Council that we are serious about the future of our families, our community and our City. It will also be a lot of fun. My kids had a blast following on their bikes, helping us gathering signatures on the first petition and distributing fliers, they can’t wait to do it again.

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The next Beaumont Council Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday May 6th. We hope to submit the second petition then.

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