Category: Newsletter

Message from our Patrol – Utopia Association Bulk Pickup Areas

The City of Miami has contacted our Utopia Patrol regarding individuals who are using the association’s bulk pickup areas to dump hazardous materials: construction material, buckets filled with paint, car batteries, chemicals.

The environmental inspector has contacted several General Contractors who are working in the area to ensure they properly dispose materials.

If you notice any illegal dumping activity you can report it to the environmental office by contacting Kurt Gilliland (p): 305-960-2816, kgilliland@miamigov.com.

 

VOTE NOW for the Utopia 2021 Board

Dear Members,

Since we are not having our annual general meeting this year, please vote for our board by sending a response directly to this email.

Please reply by writing:

“YES” to vote for the slate listed or

“NO” to vote against the slate.

Thanks in advance for your participation.

Proposed Board for 2021

Corinne Collins – President

Lucas Azar – Vice President & Membership

Gale Patron – Police Liaison

Maureen Pelham – Secretary & Member Liaison

Glenn Patron – Treasurer

Sean Reichert – Member at Large

Jo-Ann Forster – Member at Large

Sam Dobrow – Website/Tech

Annette La Greco – Member at Large

Matt Dillon – Membership

Matthew Yale – Membership

Stephanie Zielinski – Communications

 

 

Directors’ Reports for the Annual General Meeting – Police & Membership

Police Report (Message from Gale Patron, Police Liaison)

The Utopia Security Police functioned successfully during 2020 and there were no incidents of deep concern.   It is a tight, well managed patrol overseen by Lt. Andres Valdes.

However, Utopia has been significantly impacted by Miami Police salary increases, enforced to meet parity with the county pay structure.

This change has increased our payroll substantially (57% over the last 4 years), with the holiday pay rate (time and a half) ranging from $76-$88 per hour for our patrols.

In order to help offset this cost, the board has focused its efforts on membership growth and neighborhood awareness.

Membership Report (Message from Lucas Azar)

In spite of the challenges we faced in 2020 due to the pandemic, our association welcomed 13 new members, many of whom recently moved into the neighborhood.  These new families continue to be the main source of new membership for Utopia. Our membership committee is constantly monitoring the sales of homes within our boundaries in order to continue introducing them to our association and its benefits.  We currently have 131 members and 1 group membership for homes within the De Garmo Lane community.

This past year, we embarked on an additional marketing initiative that was an outreach mail campaign to non-members living within the Utopia boundary.  Through this outreach program, we were able to obtain additional membership, which is a great addition to our standard forms of promotion.

As always, we thank our existing membership base for their support and ask that they continue our efforts in referring Utopia’s services to their neighbors who have not yet joined as members.