At this time this year's Garden Tour has been cancelled due to a number of factors - mainly the lack of availabilty by the homes of top notch gardens.

The Flamingo Park Garden Tour has been set for Sunday, April 17. If you would like your garden to be featured, please contact any of the FPNA Board Members (listed on the back of the newsletter). We also need volunteers to assist with refreshments, the brochure, tickets, sponsorships, advertising and more! It is a fun event that we are excited to bring back this year. Let us know how you would like to be involved!

Our inaugural FPNA Neighborhood-wide Yard Sale was such a success, we’re planning an encore event for Saturday, April 2. 

As with the first sale, this event is organized by FPNA, but all residents participating retain all of the proceeds from their sales.

Thirty homes participated in the Nov. 13 event, and a post-sale survey of those residents gave us some direction for the next one.  Respondents to the survey were split on whether to have more than one sale annually. Some already sold all they had to sell; however, some sellers with vintage and collectible goods were enthusiastic about twice-a-year sales. 

As is usual at events (like the Home Tour) that draw many guests to our neighborhood, many comments were heard about the appeal of Flamingo Park, its homes and events. And some visitors were eager for the prospect of more frequent sales in our neighborhood!

FPNA paid for a print ad in the Palm Beach Post, which ran for three days. A story went on our website and a couple of ads went on Craigslist. All sellers were encouraged to use their own social networks to help the neighborhood publicize the sale.

On sale day, signs were posted on the streets that feed into the neighborhood, some by FPNA volunteers and some by sale participants.

A popular feature of the sale was a map that showed the addresses on one side and listed the main goods at each home on the back. In that way, buyers could zero in on the kids’ toys or power tools or vintage dishes they were looking for.

Maps were given to each participant for distribution, and available on the web beforehand for visitors to print and bring.

The Goodwill pickup of unsold items was appreciated by many sellers, and we’ll look to have a repeat of this service in the spring.

Miranda Beadles of the city’s Engineering Department reports that the contract has been awarded to perform the Parker Avenue improvements project.

She said work should begin in February.

 We will stay in close touch with the city to alert residents to any road closures resulting from the work.

The renovations, a response to concerns related to safety and speeding, will convert Parker Avenue from four lanes to three.

North- and south-moving vehicles will occupy the two outer lanes, while the middle lane is set up for making turns without holding up traffic. The center turn lane incorporates median islands that can be landscaped. 

The section of Parker that most affects us will be narrowed from Belvedere Road north to the basketball courts at Howard Park.

For more information and updates, visit the city’s website at www.wpb.org/neighborhoods.

The Flamingo Park Garden Tour has been set for Sunday, April 17. If you would like your garden to be featured, please contact any of the FPNA Board Members (listed on the back of the newsletter). We also need volunteers to assist with refreshments, the brochure, tickets, sponsorships, advertising and more! It is a fun event that we are excited to bring back this year. Let us know how you would like to be involved!

FPNA is bringing to the attention of city policy makers our concerns about making property owners who live adjacent to alleyways (on Avon Road in Flamingo Park) responsible for the upkeep of the alley even though most of our residents have fences and landscaping which block their view of and access to the alley.

To demonstrate good faith while we work to change this policy, FPNA is organizing an alley clean up on Saturday, Feb. 12 at 8:30 a.m. The city will provide a dumpster for us to dispose of the debris.

We are inviting residents to roll up their sleeves and help in this effort, along with adjacent commercial property owners.

Call Environmental Chair Jeff Yansura to volunteer.

House of the Month winners, receiving the traveling ‘bird’ and a Hall Hardware gift certificate
for $25, are:

January:
        719 Avon,  Warren Reuther
February:
        810 Kanuga, Jessica and Ken Walters
March:
        610 Claremore, Nancy and John Kennedy
April:
        626 Biscayne, David Hennessee

        Congratulations to all!

If you have a neighbor whom you would like to nominate, e-mail  committee chair  Andrea Davis

People, prepare to frolic!

This year’s Block Party is going to have a couple of exciting twists.

We will start the Feb. 19 event with a Flamingo Frolic — or for those dignified folks who don’t “frolic,” you can call it a stroll.

On that Saturday afternoon, we will meet at 1 p.m. in the parking lot just north of the Armory Art Center and adjacent to the Howard Park picnic pavilion.

We are inviting everyone to dress in “Flamingo Park pink,” decorate your baby carriage or dog stroller in pink. Kids can ride their flamingo-decorated bikes and scooters, and we will all set off together to frolic (or stroll) the length of the new pathway, part of the beautiful new improvements to Howard Park.

After the Flamingo Frolic, we will gather at the Howard Park Picnic Pavilion at 2 p.m. for a feast! Details of the menu will follow.

 The event is free to all FPNA members (yet another reason to pay your dues now — see membership form on Page 8). A donation of $5 is requested for all non-member residents and guests.

Please join us for this fun annual event. It won’t be as much fun without you!