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

Starlight Express

The Starlight Express
September 10, 2006
Editor – Pat Ifft
Email: eifft@tampabay.rr.com

Tempus fugits…….and I am finally feeling enough guilt to sit down and write our newsletter. This has been an extraordinarily quiet summer. So far, no major storms to plague us. Let’s hope it continues until all our snowbirds are safely back from their northern nests.

Hurricane Season
Alberto (remember him?) in June didn’t have a great impact on our beach, although we did lose some sand. The big yellow groin right out front did a good job of protecting our property, especially the north end. The wind kicked up for about 24 hours, and Christy and Tim put up the furniture in the lobby and removed all pool deck chairs. There was never a question of having to leave……we never lost power, and there was no flooding anywhere on our property or out on Beach Plaza. Ernesto in August brought some rain and thunderstorms, but no problems. Now we are watching Florence……hopefully she will remain out in the Atlantic and not bother anyone, but it looks as though Bermuda might feel her wrath.

The Beach
The beach re-nourishment crews are back, extending the existing beach out further, and covering all the groins with sand. They began on Treasure Island, and then came to Upham. Right now they are at the south end of Caprice and are working their way up to Starlight and Envoy Point. The birds love it……because the newly pumped sand is filled with all kinds of goodies to please the avian palate. There was some red tide reported south of us, and it is working its way up here also. Lots of coughing and sneezing. Hopefully it won’t last too long.

Building Rehab
At this point, I have no further information regarding our upcoming planned building rehab. I can report on a get-together we had a few weeks ago. We invited 2 couples to visit with us from Pointe Pass-a-Grille (the southernmost building on St. Pete Beach). Their building had gone through an extensive rehab last year and these folks very graciously spent all one Saturday morning with 19 Starlight shareholders in our lobby, telling us their experiences. Their building is quite different from ours……only 50 units, 4 stories, and open balconies. The balconies were in very bad condition. They used Karins Engineering and Wilson Kehoe Building Contractors and were pleased with their work. Their assessment was for $1.4 million, of which $100,000 was returned to unit owners at the end of the project. The project took from May 1 well into December, and most owners left the building for all or part of the work being done. The people who visited us were some of the few who remained in the building throughout, and they said it is very noisy and very dirty, although the workers were all efficient and pleasant to be around. Let’s hope that when our time comes, regardless of what is done to our building, we can keep our cool and remember that we are all neighbors.

Pool Reminders
A couple of reminders: Do not take the pool chairs out to the beach. They are meant to be used on the pool deck only. Our pool closes at dusk….a state law. Swimming later than that is at your own risk.

Congratulations….

Joe and Maryann Piplica, (Apartment 906) have two very gifted youngsters. Son Anthony, graduated last year as Valedictorian of his Tampa Jesuit High School senior class. He is in his second year at Georgia Tech. Daughter Andrea graduated this past spring as Valedictorian at Tampa Catholic High School. She is a freshman at Wellesley in Boston. Congratulations to all the Piplicas.

We have a new resident in apartment 203 – Marvene Blair. Welcome, Marvene.

Al Stucko will be returning in October after a long absence for health reasons. It will be great to see Al again.

The other night at a Devil Rays game, we ran into our former maintenance gal, Brooke Kovalska. She graduated in the spring as a pharmacy tech, and when I asked her where she was working, she said that she wasn’t working as a tech yet. The company that had employed her part-time at the Tropicana Field (Carvel) offered her a job as assistant manager, and she took it. She looks wonderful and asked to be remembered to everyone back at Starlight. Her little boy is now 6 years old, in first grade.

Some people who were here this summer: Mo and Laryn Finder; Donnie and Elsie Tarrell and W. A. and Nelda Smith; Doug Joy; John and Sheila Somogyi (Sheila divided her time between the pool and the St. Pete Beach library); Evangelos and Louisa Simos; Gerlinde Eaves and her family, all the way from London. And of course, some of us had children and grandchildren visiting…..all enjoying our warm Gulf and warmer pool. I am sure there were others, and if I missed you, I apologize.

We ran into Marge Whittey the other evening, and she says “Hello” to all Starlighters. She misses the people here, but loves her house and garden.

The next regular board meeting is scheduled for Thursday, October 19th at 7 p.m.

There were a lot of birthdays over the summer. We hope you all had good ones, with a very happy, healthy year ahead.