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Village Elections
 Convenience voting is now open. More details...

This year we have opposition in two areas for candidates representing the village of Sterling Ridge; as well as RDRC and the Board positions for Sterling Ridge. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE vote. Early convince voting is at the Community Center starting February 5th until the 16th. Voting day is February 17th at the Fire House on Branch Crossing.

Following is the ballot along with position statements from the two candidates running for the open TWA position. Please take a moment to read the statements and familiarize yourself with the ballot and most importantly VOTE. Although Sterling Ridge is the largest village in the Woodlands, our voting turnout was less than 40 in the last election. Your vote is meaningful. This year’s goal is to increase the voting turnout to over 100. Thanks for your support.

Board Positions

The Woodlands Association (TWA) Board of Directors

Class A Director: College Park
Theodore A. Stanley
Stanley Fowler

Class A Director: Sterling Ridge
Anthony Fasone (see candidate's statement below)
C.L. Biff Picone (see candidate's statement below)

All Village Association Positions

Vice President Robert Furano

Treasurer Jim Chiles

Events Chair Sue Young (see candidate's statement below)

Area Representative (x6) (1 year term)
John Nanninga
Cindy Haynes

RDRC - Sterling Ridge
Janet Cobb
Doris Wootton
Annette Haut
John Nanninga (i)
Doug Stiles

Candidate Information

Sue Young - Events Chair

My background is the following:
Education: B.S. Health Science - Cal. State Hayward, California
Business: Hewlett Packard, FedEx, DynEd Int'l., Texas Twirlers

I have held many various leadership and training roles with each of my employers. The most prominent would be my 11+ years at FedEx where I lead many teams and organized many events while managing large teams of drivers, tractor trailer drivers, and customer service agents.

My 9 years at DynEd also included the organization of many company events on and off site. I organized various fun off site events such as luncheons with sporting events in the park, "crazy" bowl at the bowling alley's, Dinner shows, and various events for each holiday.

I am very active with sports and have a drive to just have fun. My athletics's/hobbies over the years have included; softball, tennis, golf, volleyball, skiing, baton twirling, and camping. All of which I am still active in.

In my current neighborhood (Degas Park), my husband and I have organized some very fun activities this past year and some that I think would be great for the village. Crawfish Boil, Halloween Fest, group camping, Texas Hold'em Co-Ed tourney, and not to mention I gathered up the the little girls in our area to twirl behind the float for the 4th of July parade. Our neighbors are already wanting to plan for this years parade! I know there are many activities available that the village would enjoy and look forward to being involved in!

Anthony Fasone - TWA Director position

I have represented the residents of Sterling Ridge as a volunteer director on The Woodlands Association (TWA) Board of Directors since March 2004, and I am up for re-election this month. For the first time I face a challenger, and I would appreciate your support. My participation on this Board is my first experience with public service; I have enjoyed it immensely and would like to continue.

Early voting is February 5 through February 16 at the Community Associations Building, 2201 Lake Woodlands. Hours are Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM; Tuesday and Thursday, 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM. Election Day is Saturday, February 17, and voting on that day for Sterling Ridge is at Fire Station Number 5, located at 10100 Branch Crossing Drive. Polls are open on Election Day from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM.

As a bit of background, the TWA is your homeowners’ association, which provides or contracts to provide municipal services such as fire protection, enhanced law enforcement, parks and recreation, street lighting, solid waste disposal, maintenance of the medians and neighborhood entries, covenant administration, and neighborhood services. In this unincorporated area of Montgomery County, we are the closest thing there is to a city council. We can’t pass ordinances, but we can make things happen through our budget, which is funded by the assessments you pay each year.

Perhaps the biggest impact you’ve seen as a result of my service has been monthly e-mail messages in which I attempt to keep you informed of important issues. I think it is important for residents to be kept informed, and those messages also provide residents a convenient way to reply back to me with questions, requests, and comments.

The Woodlands, with its numerous service providers (community associations, MUD districts, county agencies, The Woodlands Development Company) can be a confusing place, and I have helped a number of you with issues ranging from traffic control devices to development of areas near your homes, even though those issues do not always lie within the responsibility of the TWA. One of my first accomplishments three years ago was working with the County Commissioner’s Office and The Woodlands Development Company to get a four-way stop sign placed at the intersection of Woodlands Parkway, Stoneyhurst, and Ashlane Way. A lot has changed since then and that intersection has of course now been upgraded to a traffic light. I also pushed for the stoplight at Woodlands Parkway and Lake Woodlands Drive, an intersection that has seen many accidents. I would have liked that to have been done sooner, but I’ve learned that things like traffic light installations don’t happen overnight. It is not always possible to satisfy all resident requests, especially those that The Woodlands Association does not have control over, but I have worked hard to represent your interests through contacts I’ve established with the County Commissioner’s Office, the Sheriff’s Office, and The Woodlands Development Company.

One of the biggest concerns I have heard from you is the desire for additional law enforcement visibility. My initial reaction was that the County should provide law enforcement because we live in an unincorporated area. After an education as to the level of law enforcement services commonly provided by counties in Texas, however, I learned that it is necessary for areas like ours to contract for enhanced service. I then championed the engagement of a professional law enforcement consultant to review our needs, make recommendations, and work with the county agencies on a plan for community policing in The Woodlands. This is something else that has taken longer than I would have liked, but very soon we should see the results of this plan, with patrol officers assigned to zones 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Hopefully, we will get to know the officers that patrol Sterling Ridge and they will get to know us, resulting in a cooperative effort to keep us safe.

I believe the residents of The Woodlands expect and deserve a high level of service and amenities, and my goal is for the Community Associations to provide those services and amenities in a cost-effective manner. The TWA board has been able to reduce its assessment rate every year since I’ve been on the board, including a $0.035 cent reduction per $100 of valuation for 2007. I can’t take much credit for that, though. The staff at the Community Associations does a great job of helping us control costs, and growth in our area provides a larger assessment base every year. The Board provides staff with policies and direction to be cost conscious and responsible with the residents’ assessments, then reviews the budgets proposed by the staff.

Finally, a word about future governance; many of you have asked about this over the last three years, and I have attempted to keep you informed of activities of the Governance Steering Committee, and more recently the proposed agreement that Senator Williams worked out with the City of Houston. If passed and approved, this will result in many changes over the next few years. In addition to protection from annexation, we look forward to expansion of what is now the Town Center Improvement District to provide services to most of The Woodlands. That will allow the use of sales tax dollars to fund services and should result in decreases in the fees presently paid to the Associations.

A concern I hear a number of residents voice, however, is the structure of the new District in terms of representation on its board. Residents have made it clear in all of the governance forums that their main concern is avoidance of annexation, but representative governance is also very important. This new District, if put into place, will have taxing authority and we must make sure that it is responsive to the needs and desires of the residents of The Woodlands. I will work hard to ensure that the quality of services is not diminished, and that the taxes that the District may collect are utilized for the benefit of the residents and the community. I will do this in concert with the entire TWA Board, which will in turn endeavor to join with its fellow associations the Woodlands Community Association (that serves the older villages) and The Woodlands Commercial Owners Association. By acting with a unified voice we can best represent the interests of the residents of The Woodlands.

Again, I would appreciate your vote on February 17, 2006 at the Fire Station, or between February 5 and February 16 at the Community Associations Building.

Biff Picone - TWA Director position

As a resident of The Woodlands since 1983 I have long been active in the community as village association President in Panther Creek & Cochran’s Crossing. I have served on the Woodlands Community Association with 1 year as President. I have also been on the board of MUD #47 where we have reduced the assessments nearly 70%. I have also been involved in leading successful school board elections and other positions which helped to promote The Woodlands into the community we all enjoy.

I decided to run for this seat because of my ongoing commitment to end the threat of annexation by the city of Houston. I worked on and was a signatory of the moratorium agreement which allowed us the opportunity to obtain the agreement announced a couple of months ago by Sen. Williams. The real work now starts because it takes legislation in Austin to change the law which will allow us to move forward. I have already had some discussions with the people writing the legislation and feel the residents of Sterling Ridge need a representative who will have an active voice into the process.

I have also been encouraged to run for this position by residents who want a more active and involved director from Sterling Ridge. In the past few weeks since deciding to run, many people have seen the announcement in the newspaper and online and have come into my business expressing their support. They are excited about the opportunity to have a representative who is experienced and has a proven track record of providing leadership for residents.

To contrast my style with the current director, I am concerned as a resident that our current representative voted in favor on a budget last year (without comment) when 2% of the budget was earmarked for security. That is less than what was allocated to landscape maintenance. The current director touts a new agreement with the county Sheriff to provide additional deputies. However there are many unanswered questions. A major one is that there is no agreement that the Sheriff would not shift some of the current deputies to other areas of the county, the net result would be less deputies than we need. This was a problem a few years back and was the reason we decided to shift funds to the Constable. As your director, I would make sure all agreements are in place prior to any financial commitment.

I am trying to be brief in this email, however, I want to invite you to or stop by my store, Natural Pawz in the Sterling Ridge Center. I would be glad to discuss any matter that is of concern to you. I hope I can have your support so I can ensure as we move forward it is to the benefit of the residents of Sterling Ridge. Above all I encourage you to vote. In this election you have a choice and I ask for your vote and support.

Next Meeting:
- The next meeting is Monday, February 26th at 7:00 pm at Branch Crossing Library in Sterling Ridge. This meeting's agenda and a map to the meeting location can be found on our website.

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