The Community of Elk Forest

Hello Neighbors! We hope you are enjoying Spring on the days that it is showing its face!

Your Elk Forest Civic Association held a board meeting on March 23th at the Silverman Residence. One of our newer neighbors attended and it was nice to hear from them. Remember that anyone can attend a board meeting or bring a concern to a board member. The EFCA is not a typical homeowners association but a place for neighbors to connect on mutually concerning issues and we would love to hear from you.

We have received the bill for the 2023 mosquito spraying and wanted to let you know that the board unanimously agreed that the Association will absorb the 8% price increase rather than passing it on to residents. We will have further discussion on this topic at the annual meeting on August 12 (Rain date: August 13).

Our annual Spring Cleanup will be April 22nd. (Rain date: April 23rd) Elk Forest Road appears to be a magnet for debris and every year we are amazed at the amount of garbage we collect. Please plan to meet at 9am on the corner of South Forest and Elk Forest Roads for coffee and donuts before setting out on our assignments. Bags are provided and the association will dispose of the garbage that is collected. It is suggested you bring gloves and wear appropriate shoes for the boggy sides of the road. This is a great time to connect with your neighbors while doing a little something for Earth Day, and if you have a student looking for some community service hours we would be only too happy to sign their log sheet!

We’ve become aware of a possible alternate service provider for internet/TV/phone for our area, likely late in 2024. Talkie is currently laying fiber optic lines to homes without high speed internet access and will come west on Elk Forest Road as far as Sinking Springs this year. The owner tells us that once that work is complete they will be looking for additional customers and that clusters of homes where people have expressed interest will be their first priority. If you are curious about an alternative to Breezeline you may contact Talkie to be added to their database and they will contact you when they reach the next stage of construction their network. Just go to Talkiefiber.com, click on the “hamburger” in the upper right corner, choose “Residential Internet”, pick a plan and hit the “Customize” button (no, you are NOT actually choosing a plan right now, but this is how they are tracking interest), and fill out the contact info, etc. No payment information is requested and there is no obligation – nor are we pushing this in any way – we just want you to be aware that there may be a choice heading our way.

We would like to thank a few of our members for their above and beyond contributions to our association. Tom Melnick for his maintenance on our beautiful sign welcoming all into Elk Forest, David Silverman for his enthusiasm in keeping everyone informed with our wonderful new sign boards, (don’t you just love these larger sign boards?) and Christine and Christian LaPense for hosting our holiday party in their lovely rental home. Last but not least, Dave Mitchell, webmaster extraordinaire, for being “johnny on the spot” posting EFCA news to our website.

One final request, neighbors: please be mindful of your speed while driving through our beautiful neighborhood. We are a community of families, walkers and runners, and with no shoulders on our roads we need to be ever cautious of each other.
Thank you and we hope to see you at the Spring Clean Up!

Sherri Mitchell and Joanne Silverman
Co-Presidents

March 23rd, 2023
6:30 PM
Please RSVP either Joanne Silverman (724-273-8993) or Sherri Mitchell (610-255-1414) for details.

All are welcome.

It has been several years since we have been able to hold our winter gathering. In past years it was held just before the Holidays in early December. In more recent years, we changed it to be more around the New Year as it seemed more residents were able to attend with the major holidays behind theml

What a perfect evening and venue we had last night for the return of the EFCA New Year Gathering. Many thanks to the LaPense’s for offering their beautiful property for the event. We met some new residents, had great conversation and played with our youngest attendee, Eva, who seemed to have the best time of all!

Looking forward to a great New Year. Hoping to see everyone in the spring for the cleanup.

Joanne Silverman and Sherri Mitchell
Co-Presidents

The Elk Forest Civic Association

2023 New Year Gathering

Come on out and chat with your neighbors while celebrating the New Year

Meet us at 188 South Shore Road
Saturday, January 7, 2023
4:00pm thru 7:00pm

The Board will provide the main dishes. The Association will cover wine, beer and soft drinks. Tradition is for members to bring a covered side dish or dessert. Please let us know what you are bringing when you RSVP

RSVP to Christian LaPense (christian@lapense.net) or at (302) 274-8368 (New Number)

November historically represents the beginning of the holiday season. We all look forward to family time, connection and celebration. As co-presidents of the Elk Forest Civic Association we welcomed new board members this fall and had our first board meeting on October 27th. We are looking forward to this coming year with some events and new goals we would like to share with our neighbors.

First, we would like to remind you that this is your neighborhood association. Your involvement can be as much or as little as you would like. We, as a board, have made it one of our goals to encourage and make involvement more accessible to our community. We have new message boards where we will let you know if there is new information to view on the website. A very big thank you to David Silverman who manages these boards with finesse! We want to encourage you to use our website which has been updated to be even faster and is meticulously managed by our webmaster extraordinaire, Dave Mitchell. (yes, we know they are our husbands, but they still willingly do the job!) You are free to contact the webmaster if you have information you would like to see on the website to be shared with the other residents of Elk Forest.

If you are new to our community, the website has all the information you need to learn about Elk Forest, its history and how to become a member. You can contact a board member for the password to the residents list. Membership includes invitation to our two annual gatherings and the community mosquito spraying. Living in an area surrounded by water and woods is a gifted lifestyle. Nature abounds, as does those pesky insects. Over the years we have banded together to do the best we can to keep somewhat of a control over the mosquitos and maintain affordability for all. It is not perfect and you can feel free to explore individual services but our experience has shown us that banding together has been our best defense.

We hope you enjoyed the Halloween event that was sponsored by the Palko Family. The children and the longtime neighbors look forward to the parade every year. The Association will be hosting the Annual Holiday Event this year. We have learned it is best to plan this in January as we all have so much going on in December. This year it will be on January 7, 2023. Save the date. It always proves to be great fun. So grateful to the LaPenz’s who have volunteered to host. Details will be posted on the website as we get closer. The message boards will remind you when to look!

Other events to look forward to are the Spring Cleanup and the Annual Picnic. Dates for our board meetings and these events are already posted on the website.

In closing, we are grateful to our neighbors who have volunteered to serve on the board. The board meetings are posted and will be displayed on the message board. All are welcome and we just ask that you let the host know you plan to attend. Always feel free to contact any board member with you concerns or information you feel should be shared with our community. We wish everyone a very happy and healthy holiday season! See you around the neighborhood!

Joanne Silverman and Sherri Mitchell
Co-Presidents

Come join your neighbors and try out the fun, new game- Pickleball! This is a no pressure opportunity to try it out or to just come take a look! We are meeting at the Glasgow park Pickleball courts 11/16 at 1pm. Come join in on the fun! Hope to see you there!

The latest board meeting was held and the minutes posted (Civic Association/Meeting Minutes 2021-): Link Remember, all are welcome to attend and volunteers to serve as an officer or on the board are always welcome.

A new menu item was created to hold any activities of interest (Community/Calendar of Events): Link

A new picture of Welsh Point in the fall has been posted (Community/photos): Link

Our next neighborhood board meeting is scheduled for Thursday, October 27th at 6:30 pm. All are welcome. Please contact Sherri Mitchell at 610-255-1414 or Joanne Silverman at 724-272-8993 for details. The agenda is below:

Elk Forest Civic Association Board Meeting
October 27, 2022

Verify Quorum
Call to Order
Welcome New Board Members
Review minutes from last meeting with
Vote to accept minutes
Financial Report
Vote to accept Financial Report
Old Business
o Mosquito spraying, neighborhood events (sign board)
New Business
o Setting standard meeting dates, establishing nominating committee
Open discussion
Adjourn

The Palko family will be hosting a Halloween event this year on October 29th. Goblins should meet on the circle at the end of Elk Forest Road at 4pm for a hay ride and trick-or-treating. (If you’re giving out candy, plan to meet the parade at the end of your driveway). A party with games, costume contest and bonfire to follow at 1634 Elk Forest – please bring a dish to share.

Contact Andy at (443) 553-3798 with questions.

As reviewed at the annual meeting, there was a vote to confirm the new board. All dues paying members of the neighborhood should have received a ballot. The new board is now:

Co Presidents – Sherri Mitchell & Joanne Silverman
Vice President – Laurie Leone
Secretary – Lule Megahed
Treasurer – Patty Truitt
Webmaster – Dave Mitchell

Board Members:
Tom Melnick
Mike Leshner
Ralph DeMartino
Christian LaPense
Past President – Christine LaPense