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About The Starlight Express
The very First Issue of Starlight Express Newsletter was created
by the Editor and Chief Pat Ifft on
February 29, 1992 and since then is
maintained and produced monthly by her for 17 years!
All Starlighter's owe immense gratitude
to Pat in keeping them informed with all happenings good and bad.
Thank You Pat
September 11, 2008
Pat Ifft, Editor (eifft@tampabay.rr.com)
Webmaster, Louisa Simos
www.starlight-tower.com
Down here we can tell
it’s September just by watching TV…….when we turn on the set, it
automatically flips to the Weather Channel! Well, it’s not
really that bad, but when there is a storm lurking in the
Caribbean, we all watch carefully and go over to the store and
buy a few more bottles of water and make sure the car has plenty
of gas. The Central Florida coast has really been lucky so far,
and usually the Gulf in front of Starlight looks like a giant
spa. However, Gustav and Ike did dump a lot of water over our
seawall, although it didn’t progress beyond the concrete barrier
on the walkway. But Christy and Tim had a lot of extra work
getting rid of the sand and debris that washed over onto the
lawn, plus putting up furniture in the lobby, “just in case.”
Maybe we need to think about installing a few feet of sand beach
on our side of the seawall……..? This picture shows how much
“instant beach” we received. If you’re wondering what the two
poles are…they’re the lollypop lights, their seaward faces
blackened for sea turtle preservation.
The pictures below
give a fair idea of the work being accomplished on the
restoration project. The weather has caused some minor delays,
but all in all, the work is on schedule. Asbestos abatement was
completed several weeks ago. Work on the west side is taking
place in the 01 and 02 stacks, with findings consistent with
expected damage. On the east side, the cathodic process is
currently being installed overhead on the 8th and 9th floors
(9th & 10th floor walkways). A construction progress meeting is
held every Monday with our engineer, the onsite foreman, our
manager (Leora Pidde) and available Board members. Lynn Dopp
presides.
4th floor (overhead) damage
Typical finding |
8th floor beam supports |
North entry damage |
Attention Starlight Owners:
If you should have a problem with water intrusion into your
apartment from a neighbor’s apartment, you must notify
your own insurance company for the claim. This is the
way HO6, the standard Condominium/Coop Policy reads, verified by
a Nationwide Agent. And a reminder, when you leave your
apartment, even just overnight, turn off the water at the main
shut-off valve.
To owners who have jalousie
windows:
Starlight maintenance has a collection of about 40 windows
stored in the north stairwell storage area. (No cranks). If you
would like to have spare windows, or the clips to hold them,
please see Christy or Tim ASAP. They are clearing out the
storage closet and will dispose of the windows no one asks for.
Kevin Hing,
the moving force behind
“Save Our Sand” has attended and addressed the St .Pete Beach City
Commission meetings and has reported that Dr. Nicole Elko will be addressing
the Beach Stewardship Committee on Tuesday, September 18 at 2:00 p.m. in the
Commission Chambers in City Hall. She will talk about our
suggestion/proposal to alter the original County timeline of
2009 (renourishment), 2010 (hire engineer to draw up a permanent solution to
beach erosion), 2012 (installation of the permanent solution.) It seems the
time to hire the engineer is now……before
the renourishment takes place, and that the process of a permanent solution
be speeded up. Our Board President, Marlene Reid emailed County Commissioner
John Morroni asking about the present status and future plans for the Upham
Beach T-groins. In his reply, he agrees that it “may be prudent to hire an
engineer prior to the 2009 renourishment, to propose an alternative
structural design that may be tested with additional geotubes in conjunction
with the 2009 project. Dr. Elko is looking into this possibility.”
Commissioner Morroni further writes: “Finally, installation of permanent
structures prior to 2012 would be possible if an acceptable design is agreed
upon at the local level and then permitted by the Florida Department of
Environmental Protection (FDEP). Recall that it took ten years to obtain the
permit to install the present T-groin project. Permitting the permanent
structures should not be as difficult because the proof-of-concept
experiment has been largely successful; however, FDEP permitting is
certainly the greatest ‘obstacle’ in this case.”
Bottom line: Repair to the T-groin in front of Starlight cannot take place
at this time, because there is no way for the necessary equipment to access
it. (The water is up to our seawall.) Therefore, it would make sense to have
an engineer come up with a plan for a permanent structure and implement that
plan ASAP.
At the picture… Stan Bryk is ready for his daily dip in the salt.
Starlight People News
Our sincere sympathy:
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to Sally
Borland (101) on the death of her mother, who died
on July 10at the age of 103.
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And to Stan
and Sophie Bryk (608) on the death of Stan’s sister
in Poland.
Three Starlight
guys who have had a rough summer:
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Jim Brennan,
(206) who underwent open heart surgery on June 5, was
hospitalized for 5 weeks, and is just now beginning to feel
better. Jim hopes to return to Starlight sometime in
October. Jim says he’s lost 50 pounds! That’s doing it the
hard way.
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Dan Reid
(201) had open heart surgery several weeks ago, and is doing
very well. Marlene says she thinks he’ll be back to running
the vacuum sweeper before long. They thank Starlighters for
the good wishes, prayers and Mass card. Marlene writes: “If
anyone would like to join us for the 5:00 p.m. Mass at St.
John’s on January 17, offered for Dan’s return to good
health, we will “pop” for pizza/hamburgers/grouper
sandwiches (to be determined) afterwards. It will be fun to
join the Starlight family again.”
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Ed Gibson,
(402) was hospitalized in Akron City Hospital for the past
two weeks, and is now home and finally showing improvement
after some serious spinal problems.
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Marlene and
Dan Reid are the proud great-grandparents of twin
(fraternal) baby boys, born to their grandson Patrick and
his wife Natalie. Jude Timothy and Liam Daniel were born
August 31.
When you go down for
your mail, you might run into our new mail person, Felicia.
She is very accommodating and let’s hope we have her for a long
time.
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Starlight Tower - September 2008
Starlight Express Newsletter