City Hosts Roundtable Discussion for Woodlands Representatives

On Tuesday evening, representatives around the Woodlands were invited to a neighborhood roundtable given by the City of Tamarac.

Representatives with the City of Tamarac, Woodlands Homeowners Association (WHOA) which included Section Presidents, members of the Woodlands Neighborhood Improvement District (WNID) and representatives from the Woodlands Country Club all attended.

Representing the city were Mayor Beth Talabisco, Commissioner Michelle Gomez, City Manager Michael Cernech and Community Development Director Jennifer Bramley.

The city brought with them David Harrawood, President of the Baldrige Group. The Baldrige group is a strategic planning company hired by businesses to help them to achieve better productivity with organizational direction.

Not only does our community need organizational direction, but lack of solidarity are just a few of the issues that are preventing our community from moving forward in making much needed upgrades to safety and aesthetic improvements.

Harrawood was the “Mediator” our community needed to help all sides agree on what our goals were without interruptions or other altercations within.

So with four different groups representing the Woodlands, each one spoke about what their goals or “wish list” were for improving the Woodlands.

Goals included making Woodlands property values increase, safety, traffic calming, and stricter code enforcement.

John Finlaysan, Director of ClubLink mentioned he wanted to create a community center in the Woodlands that would unify our residents.

Section 2 Resident Lenny Hixon felt that no one in the city was really listening to the residents and wanted communication to be improved.

Safety and physical improvements were important to Section 2 President Marilyn Beyer. Beyer, who has been a resident of the Woodlands for 40 years and rarely speaks up at meetings, shared how she is concerned with how the Woodlands has deteriorated and how crime has increased over the years. She mentioned how in the past few weeks, there had been two robberies near her home.

Section 8 Resident Ed Brown, representing the WNID, thought that the meeting was the greatest thing that’s happened since the WNID came into existence.

“The four entities involved in the final decision making for the community were all there, all participating, and all offered concrete suggestions for the probable success of the Woodlands,” said Brown.

David Harrawood said there was more work to do.  The city will be scheduling additional roundtable discussions so that the groups can work again to find the components that everyone agrees with, and move forward from there.

“Zero investment equals a declining neighborhood,” said Section 8 Resident Doug Long after the meeting.

With our resident’s strong commitment, devotion of time, and willingness to work together, it’s likely that the Woodlands will regain the beauty and glory of its heyday.