1. 1st Place - $75 - Don Hawkins, 930 NW 19th
2. 2nd Place - $50 - Henry and Mary Williams, 916 NW 19th
3. 3rd Place - $35 - Lora Lee Laird, 904 NW 18th

If you didn't have a chance to throw on your tire chains and see the holiday lights this year, be sure to check them out next year!

We had results for the Halloween Decorating Contest too, though they didn't make the newsletter deadline. A lot of folks remarked on the large number of trick-or-treaters they had this year, and I'm happy to report that Mesta Park put on a good show with quite a few homes all spooked out for Halloween. The 2009 Halloween Decorating Contest winners are:

1. 1st Place - $70 - Afton and Tina Gille, 1013 NW 18th
2. 2nd Place - $40 - Lora Lee Laird, 904 NW 18th
3. 3rd Place - $30 - Terry Doneti, 610 NW 22nd

Don't forget that Yard of the Month is just around the corner in May!

Full details can now be found here on the Home Tour webpage.

If you are available to volunteer and help with the tour, please email Cassie Niemann at hometour@mestapark.org.

Do you have an alley that is in need of some TLC? Well step right up! The City of OKC is offering to all neighborhood associations an opportunity to rid their common areas of litter and overgrowth free of charge!

The city's Solid Waste Management Division will provide neighborhoods with one 30 cubic yard trash container and will pay the disposal costs for whatever is collected. Neighborhoods must provide volunteers to do the clean-up. The program began the first Saturday in April and runs through the last Saturday of September. Each association may have one Saturday Morning Sweep per calendar year. Regular bulk waste rules apply and no hazardous materials will be collected. If you are interested in coordinating this effort, please e-mail president@mestapark.org!

This is the perfect time to be visiting home centers and nurseries to plan replacements for shrubs that didn't make it through the winter, a new tree for the yard (as in our case) or beautiful new flowers you've been wanting to add to your landscape. Mesta Park is beautiful any time of the year, but Spring and Summer are great opportunities for us to showcase our wonderful homes. GOOD LUCK!

As we ring in the New Year and return to the hustle and bustle of everyday life that the season’s holidays seem to suspend, we must not forget last December’s Holiday Home Tour. I know I certainly haven’t! The 2008 Home Tourreiterated that age-old mantra that says ‘It takes a village’, and certainly it did!

First, Suan Grant and I would like to say thank you so much to each of you who made our home tour such a grand success! There are so many things that so many people do to make this happen each year which really make the tour quite the event to watch unfold. We are grateful to the homeowners, Tim Lyons, Tracey & Andy Zeeck, Mick Shirron & Don Hawkins, Lori Wrotenbery, Jennifer & Steve Ryan, Summer & Don Steele, and Jim Pickens, who put hours, days, weeks, and even years, into making their homes beautiful for the tour. We heard many compliments about each of your homes and hope that each of you feels some gratification for your work. Thank you to the House Captains, Michael Khoury, Mary Jane Southwick, Lisa Escalon, Claudia Conner, Mary Schneeberger, J.B. Schuelein, and Gary Jones, for all of your work in coordinating the volunteers who staffed the houses. You truly did a great job representing the neighborhood and greeting all of our visitors!

Thank you to Al McAffrey, Tiffany Davis, Jackie Johnson, Mary Schneeberger, and Claudia Conner for hosting and coordinating the cocktail party. It was a wonderful evening with great friends, food, and drinks, and it helped turn quite a profit for the home tour!

There is also some behind-the-scenes work that deserves acknowledgement. Paul Wilkes and the staff at Red House redesigned all of the print materials and delivered a newly refreshed home tour logo that perfectly reflects both the modern and traditional nuances of our little village. Thank you to Dana & Mike Templeton for donating the luminaries, and thanks to Dana T. and Dana & Harry Meister for putting them together and setting them up at each of the homes. They added just the right amount of ambiance to the Saturday evening tour. Karen Zimmer spent a lot of time working on our postcard database both before and after the tour, helping to rebuild our list from previous years and making sure we increase our outreach for next year. Dan Connally researched all of the home histories and drafted each story for the program. Gary Jones did a wonderful job of making sure we had a yummy and delightful refreshment stop. Houda Moussa, Janice Menser, and Loralee Laird baked hundreds of cookies that Vinyard Foods donated. Jackie Johnson led poster distribution, and Mary Schneeberger coordinated the ticket outlets. Thank you also to Mike Menser for leading the clean-up efforts and to Michael Khoury for drafting the home renderings. There are so many more of you that donated your time to staff the houses and helped in ways that we may not know. You all have our sincere gratitude.

Lastly, we must thank our media partners who promoted our event: Downtown Monthly, The Oklahoman, Oklahoma Magazine, The Journal Record, and KFOR TV.

We also want to extend our gratitude to our sponsors without whom we could not launch this event: AT&T, American Fidelity, Bank of Oklahoma, Crescent Market, Design Resources, Homeland, St. Anthony Hospital, and Western Lawns. It is so wonderful to have their partnership in the many beautification projects that our neighborhood undertakes. We also had many wonderful advertisers whose donations help drive our revenue. Redbud Floral in Norman, Floral & Hardy, Brandt’s Flowers, New Leaf Floral, Dulaney Flowers, Granada Floral, and OKC Florist each provided beautiful floral decorations to the tour homes. Food donors did a fabulous job by providing delicious food at the cocktail party: Bin 73, Paseo Grill, Prarie Gypsies, Prohibition Room, Tom & Jerry’s, and Vinyard Foods, along with Dick Sias who provided the Joulian wine and Freeman’s Liquor who donated the keg of beer.

If you get the chance, please let these businesses and individuals know how grateful we are for their continued support. And as much as a ‘good neighbor is a great blessing’, so are our community friends and partners who help make this event happen every year!

Thanks to a last minute effort just days before the December 31st grant deadline, Mesta Park’s Endowment Fund at the Oklahoma City Community Foundation (OCCF) has increased by $10,000. Many of our neighbors contributed to the cause, donating a total of $5,000 to the John Kirkpatrick Centennial Endowment Challenge offered by OCCF earlier this year. The Kirkpatrick Family Fund then matched our collections with $5,000, for a total increase of $10,000!

The Oklahoma City Community Foundation and Kirkpatrick Family Fund offered the John Kirkpatrick Centennial Endowment Challenge “in recognition of the 100th anniversary of Mr. Kirkpatrick’s birth. In 1979, Mr. Kirkpatrick organized the first of seven ‘Kirkpatrick Challenges’ through which he would match contributions as a way to increase organizations’ endowments and to attract new donors. These match challenges would become a hallmark of his philanthropy.”

The Mesta Park Endowment Fund was established approximately four years ago in order to provide a permanent source of income for the neighborhood. We receive 5% per year on our endowment fund balance, which now stands at over $60,000, and this will continue in perpetuity! The larger the balance, the more income we generate each year, so it stands to reason that we should donate to the fund whenever we can.

IT’S NOT TOO LATE TO DONATE! Although the matching grant has expired, you can still contribute to the MP Endowment Fund by sending a check to the Oklahoma City Community Foundation, P.O. Box 1146, Oklahoma City, OK 73101-1146. Please specify on the memo line of your check that you are donating to the Mesta Park Endowment Fund. You can also make a donation online with a major credit card by visiting OCCF’s secure website at www.occf.org/donate.

Many thanks to all of you who contributed to this worthy and lasting cause! Generations of future Mesta Parkers will thank us for having the foresight to establish this fund and for ensuring that Mesta Park continues to stand out as a beautiful and thriving community.

As I am sure many of you have noticed, Graffiti has become quite a problem in our area. This is especially true on NW 23rd St. This type of vandalism hurts the beauty of our area, decreases property values, and makesvisitors think we don't care about our neighborhood. We can't control the many run-down businesses on 23rd St, but we don't have to settle for this vandalism that advertises our neighborhood as an easy target for crime.

According to www.graffitihurts.org, studies show that the most effective way to prevent graffiti is to remove it promptly (24-48 hours). This is most likely not possible in all instances, but if you are or know the property owner of a vandalized building, quick removal will help prevent recurrence. According to the Neighborhood Alliance of Central Oklahoma, "Oklahoma City municipal code states that it is the responsibility of the property owner to remove graffiti from their property. The Community Action Agency will provide free paint and supplies to property owners who wish to clean up graffiti. Contact the Community Action Agency at 232-0199 to locate the nearest district office. If the graffiti is not on your property, CAA staff will also help you carry out the steps necessary to get permission from the property owner and will issue a voucher for paint and supplies to a local paint store or equipment rental agency. If the same area is vandalized again, you can use any remaining paint or go through the process again to obtain more materials." For those situations where the property owner is a disinterested out-of-state party the city provides a means for clean-up: "It is important to note that the city will remove graffiti at no charge to the property owner, but the city is required by state law to wait 20 days after the initial notice of code violation to allow the property owner to remove the graffiti themselves. After a property has been served with one notice of code violation for graffiti, no further notice will be issued. The city crew will remove any future incidence of graffiti from the same property as it is reported."

Please report all graffiti to the OKC Action center, by phone 297-2535, by fax 297-2579, or on the web at http://www.okc.gov/action/Complaint.html. If you witnesses graffiti in progress, you should call 911 and report it. Getting caught is also a successful deterrent to vandals. If you are interested in helping with the removal of graffiti, please email graffiti@mestapark.org and link your personal email to it.

Click here to download the February 2009 newsletter in pdf format

Click here to view the minutes from the December 2008 neighborhood meeting.

Click to view / download the November 2008 newsletter

We'd like all our homes to be ready for the many visitors who will attend that weekend, so the deadline for the 2008 contest will be Sunday, November 30th.

Start getting the wreaths fluffed and the lights untangled.... Last year, Mesta Park looked great for Christmas! We will again be offering first ($80), second ($40) and third ($30) prizes, so good luck to everyone!

My understanding of why this has come about is a bit muddled. In the past, commissioners with a perceived conflict of interest have simply recused themselves from the proceedings at hand. Recently, however, it seems that the City’s Municipal Counselor’s Office has issued a new ruling regarding conflicts of interest (fished out of the state statute) that prohibits architects (or others) from serving on our City’s various boards or commissions if the architects own more than 25% of their firms, and if they have (or hope to have) contracts with the City. This eliminates almost all of the qualified architects who have the time and interest in Historic Preservation, as well as many others who want to contract with the City now or in the future. So. . . not only is the HP Commission without architectural expertise, but our other City boards and commissions are, too.

There will evidently be an amendment on the November 4th ballot to City Charter, Article IV, Section 11, that will address this issue. If it passes, the amendment will also have to be signed by the governor. This would solve the problem on the city level. Eventually, the state statute will have to be amended if we hope to eliminate the rule altogether. I’m no attorney, and I’m certainly no expert regarding all the legalese that goes on in City and State government. I do know one thing, though. Without committed and experienced HP architects on the Commission, we will all lose, and I’ll be forever dumbfounded. [Contact me with questions regarding HP issues at hp@mestapark.org]

Click here to view the minutes from the Mesta Park Board Meeting on October 16, 2008

Thanks to everyone who came out to the meeting. Click here to view the meeting minutes.

Click here to download the Newsletter

If you have ever lost your pet you undoubtedly know how hard it is to find it. If you have ever found a pet sometimes it is even harder to find its home. Recently, a friend of mine who lives in Heritage Hills called and asked whether Mesta Park had a pet registry. She had found a dog and was looking for its owner. She told me about the pet registry which had been formed in Heritage Hills — one person to call to help this pet find its owner. What a great idea!

I remember a couple of years ago when my 18 1/2 year old, half blind Shih Tzu found his way out of my yard. I searched frantically for hours, put up over 50 posters, and luckily he was returned 36 hours later. But if I'd had a place to call, to get the word out by email to other pet owners, and if the person who had found him had been able to call a pet registry to find me, 36 hours of worry could have been avoided.

If you lose your pet or if you have found one, I will work in cooperation with the Heritage Hills Pet Registry representative through our combined databases to help reunite pets with their owners.

Thanks to the great group who came out for our first meeting for the fall. Click here to view the minutes from the meeting. Please join us for our next meeting in October.

Click here to download the newsletter.

So when folks around Mesta Park decide to ignore the Historic Preservation guidelines and ordinance, removing windows or building new features without a C.A., it's no surprise that tongues start to wag.  Someone will call me up to ask if I've noticed what's going on over at so-and-so's address.  "Do they have permission to do that?", the caller will ask: or, "I can't believe they got approval for THAT!", they'll exclaim.  Then I have to call the City inspector to determine whether so-and-so has permission to do THAT, and when I determine that they don't have a C.A., the trouble begins:  The inspector has to go out and issue a citation, the home-owner has to complete a C.A. application after the project is underway or complete, and at least half the time the application eventually gets denied.  Of course, the homeowners can appeal the decision to the Board of Adjustment (for a $500 fee), but more often than not, their application is denied again.  If that happens, there's still the potential for an appeal to District Court (fee unknown, but it ain't cheap), which is a lengthy process and involves untold legal fees.  If the homeowners lose the case, they have to return the property to its previous condition.  This scenario isn't pretty.

I have to ask myself why so many people are choosing to ignore the HP Guidelines.  Yes, the Guidelines can be a bit inconvenient; and yes, the C.A. process does add a bit of time to the project.  But more often than not the folks who are violating the Guidelines are doing so because they think they won't get approval for their projects.  They just decide to go forward and hope they're not caught.  The problem (as I've pointed out) is that it's hard to keep a secret around here.  Eventually--and it doesn't have to be this year, or  even next year--people are going to talk, and tongues are going to wag, and the person without a C.A. is going to pay the piper.  This is miserable for everyone:  the homeowner, the neighborhood association, the neighbors, the HP Commissioners, and certainly ME.

My advice is:  don't keep secrets.  Go through the C.A. process (I'll guide you if you need my help!) and get approval BEFORE you begin working on your project.  This is really a promise we should make to one another--to honor the Guidelines and Ordinance as best we can--so that we can keep Mesta Park a true Historic Preservation District.  It's no secret that this is what makes our neighborhood unique and important.  [Contact me with questions regarding Historic Preservation issues at hp@mestapark.org ]

Oh yea. . . could you do this before it rains again?  My garage is leaking.

• 1001 NW 16th, Lam Nguyen and Sara Murphy
• 900 NW 18th, Steve and Jennifer Ryan
• 916 NW 18th, Lori Wrotenbery
• 930 NW 19th, Don Hawkins and Mick Shirron

Also, thank you to Jim Pickens, 801 NW 17th, who will host the refreshment stop for tour-goers.

Many thanks to those neighbors who have volunteered to serve on this year’s committee. We will have our first official committee meeting on Tuesday, August 19th. Please watch the website for location and time as we get closer to the meeting date. If you are interested in learning more about this year’s tour or would like to volunteer, please let us know by e-mailing us at hometour@mestpark.org.

Even if you've never been to a neighborhood meeting before, you'll want to come to this one. We'll lay out our four initiatives and also show you all of the leadership and volunteer needs we have that are currently unfilled. If you're new to the neighborhood or if you are not currently involved in a volunteer role, this is your chance to find the perfect place to get involved. Please join us and get involved in all that happening at Mesta Park!

As always, we will have lots of great food, beer and wine tasting, the Chili Cook-Off and lots and lots of fun children's activities. New this year are a Historic Preservation Booth and a Salsa Chop-Off! For a mere $5.00 fee per entry, you can obtain bragging rights! All entries need to be at the park by 12:00. Please bring at least one quart of salsa and a bag of chips. Chili Cook-Off contestants, please bring your chili in a crock pot with a ladle. Enter one contest or both, as many times as you wish. The prizes in both competitions will be Hottest, Most Unusual, and Best of Show. The entire neighborhood will judge the entries, so invite your family! Tell your friends!

Mesta Festa 2008 is a great way to showcase our incredible neighborhood. Hope to see all of you there!!

“. . . Old windows, of course, aren’t often associated with ‘green’ these days. Quite the opposite. Ancient, paintflecked panes are pulled out every day, with new vinyl windows inserted in their stead by homeowners seduced by newspaper ads promising that you can “Save Energy Now!” for impossibly low prices, including installation. The aesthetic result? A building that had long worn elegant wirerimmed frames suddenly switching to clunky, Clark Kent glasses.

It’s a sacrifice, of course. But it’s for the greater good, because replacement windows make sense for environmental reasons, right? Not so fast. It turns out that windows—even old singlepane windows—are responsible for relatively minor energy loss in most buildings. ‘Only 10 to 12 percent of the total air infiltration in a building is through the windows,’ said [Walter] Sedovic [preservation architect in Irvington, N.Y]. ‘The cold isn’t being transferred through the glass. It’s through openings in and around the sash. The energy loss is mostly through the roof and through the sill.’ He suggested that ‘replacement walls’ or ‘replacement fireplaces’ would make more sense for the energy conscious. So why are we bombarded with ads for replacement windows? ‘It’s because windows are easy to construct, easy to transport, and easy to sell,’ he said. ‘But they’re the wrong idea.’

According to the Whole Building Design Guide, for instance, an older singlepane window has an insulation factor of R1. A modern doubleglazed window offers R3 insulation. Yet if the walls of a historic building have an Rvalue in the teens, ‘taking a window from R1 to R3 will not provide sufficient energy savings to offset the cost of replacement windows and associated waste,’ according to the guide.

What’s more, if your goal is to reduce overall resource consumption, restoring and maintaining old windows make sense in another way. ‘We call them replacement windows because you keep replacing them,’ Sedovic said, invoking the words of his colleague John Seekircher. When modern windows, with their high tech seals, eventually fail—and they will—the result tends to be catastrophic failure. You don’t repair them. You replace them. Anyone who doesn’t see something amiss in replacing centuryold windows with ‘environmentally responsible’ windows that will be junked and replaced every decade or two is suffering from an irony deficiency.”

Contact me with any questions you have about Historic Preservation issues at hp@mestapark.org.

Click here to view the board meeting minutes from July 17th, 2008.