Neighborhood News

CRIMEWATCH ALERT- CRIMEWATCH ALERT--CRIMEWATCH ALERT-

6-21-2009 The're Back!!! The car thieves have returned again and stolen another car on Bescott Drive. this is the 3rd car stolen in our neighborhood in the past 4 months. It appears to be the same gang of thieves, returning after 5-6 weeks when the heat is off and stealing another import car from the driveway. All of the thefts have occurred between midnight and 5am. These are "professional car thieves". This time they brought a car jack dolly to un wedge the car from between the garage and another car, push it on to the lawn and hot wire and drive it away. The Travis County Sheriff Dept has NO leads on this gang. If anyone saw anything on Thursday June 18th, early morning in the 14900 Block of Bescott please call immediately at 854-9728 . Also in the coming weeks if anyone sees ANYONE suspicious during the early morning hours, such as guys walking around talking on cell phones(the lookouts) or carrying tools or jacks call 911 immediately.

CRIMEWATCH ALERT- CRIMEWATCH ALERT--CRIMEWATCH ALERT-

6-8-2009 The Wells Branch Library Board meeting was held tonight and was certainly well attended by residents of Stoneridge and other adjoining areas of the WBCL. The two incidents in question were thoroughly discussed and after 20+ speakers, the WBCL Board was quite aware of the concerns of the neighborhood. A Travis County Sheriff Deputy and Travis County Constable also spoke and encouraged positive solutions that involves citizen input. MUD Board member Tom Cheshire was also present and spoke regarding the MUD concerns too, but encouraged neighbors that the proper venue was working with the WBCL Board to enact results The major theme put forward was making amendments to the current meeting room policy that will continue to provide for community gatherings but that also respects the neighborhoods peace and safety. After the citizen input portion the WBCL Board continued the meeting and proceeded with the other items on the agenda. A motion was made during their board session to form a Safety Committee, that along with two Board Members and neighborhood volunteer members will review various safety issues, including the meeting room rental policy structure, and provide a report to the Board. The goal is to have an action plan prior to or at the next Board meeting, that can be hopefully discussed and enact a solution. It was a very active and somewhat emotional meeting at times, but the end result is the hope that a resolution to this dilemma can be found to meet the concerns of the neighborhood, library patrons and WBCL. We will post the WBCL minutes to this meeting as soon as available and also provide any additional information regarding progress of this situation. Thanks to all that attended and volunteered to assist the Library as we move forward. The WBCL will be contacting several folks soon to actively participate on making it all work!

6-7-2009 The POA has received some additional information from the President of the Library Board regarding the incidents on April 18 and May 30th. There are differing accounts of the exact number and extent of the violations although a disturbance was reported both times to the Sheriffs Department. As we look forward to discussing prevention and solutions, complete information is always preferable to base actions upon: The Library's information and account is as follows:
"It takes a few weeks to get the official report from the sheriff so the library could not release the facts until we were in possession of them. county do not match the information you have on the website. The group April 18th was for 75 youth and a constable was retained by the parent to assist with the event—birthday party for teen. The event information was apparently circulated to a much larger number of people electronically than were ever invited. Texting and cell phone use by teens to invite each other contributed to the crowd that began to appear. Party was to be from 7p-1a. It was a Saturday night. The constable called me around 10:30 because she was having difficulty with the a/c unit and it was pretty noisy but teen music to me is loud. She did not say at that time that she was having problems with the event. The constable and the mom conferred and decided around 11p that the number of people were exceeding 100 and called the sheriff's department for assistance in dispersing the crowd. It was indeed a crowd—most reports that night said that night it was 2-300 on the grounds and street including lots of cars. The report says 5-700. There were several scuffles in the parking lot—an ambulance was called although no report of transport of an injured party can be found. Of course a fire truck also was present both in the parking lot with all the kids. The kids decided at one point to race each other down Alpha Collier. This is apparently against the law but I doubt that the kids knew that this was against the law. Because of the large numbers of teens the event was listed as a riot.(more than 3 persons assembled) The sheriff closed Alpha collier and Wells Port dr. and forced the cars down the other streets to disperse them. The party host was not ticketed. No arrests made. No injuries transported. No drugs or alcohol cited.
May 30th
Connelly HS student. There were 8 or so adults present—around 35+ of age. The parents created tickets, fewer tickets than fire code permits, and required people entering to have a ticket. People tried to come without tickets and were refused entry. The father says the invited kids were kept pretty much in the building and the adjacent walks. He says he asked people to leave that were uninvited and had adults stationed at the doors to be sure uninvited persons did not enter. The father contacted the sheriff around 11:30 pm to disperse the uninvited teens. He says it took about ½ hour for the sheriff's deputies to arrive. Our director also was contacted and was present shortly after the sheriff arrived. Officers estimated about 200 persons were outside. No roads were closed and sirens were used to try and disperse the teens. Father says he was told that he was disturbing the peace and threatened with a citation but did not receive one and closed the party early. According to information from one of the deputies several of the teens that were run off went to a convenience store and were reported to be shoplifting but by the time the officers appeared none were present. Another report by an officer was that around 100 cars/people showed up at the IHOP around this same time~12:45 am and officers were sent there as well as the Travis County Sheriff helicopter. These were the uninvited persons run off by the sheriff at the request of the host and not the attendees to best information available. At this time the information we have is: The party host was not ticketed. No arrests made. No injuries transported. No drugs or alcohol cited.
I have been told that there have been quite a number of problems involving teens from Connelly HS and Pflugerville HS of late in addition to problems with teens from north east Austin. There have been no adult parties this year that have had alcohol issues. To our knowledge only the above 2 incidents involved the library property this year."

We appreciate the opportunity to post this additonal information and hope all concerned folks will attend the meeting with their constructive ideas

6-2-2009 Several neighbors have contacted the POA regarding the two recent incidents at the Wells Branch Community Library. It seems that with the current Library Rental Policy only encourages the problem and will repeat this problem again. This past Saturday night a group of over 100( that grew to near 200) rented the Library rooms, served unsupervised alcohol, and that several underage teens were present. When the party got out of control Travis County Sheriff Department was called to clear the party. Three arrests were made, and one deputy was assaulted. Beyond the immediate problems caused by the party, overflow from Saturday's party caused related calls to a disturbances at the IHOP as drunk teenagers displaced from Library found other places to go. The Exxon also requested assistance for shoplifting caused by several partygoers. Several weeks ago, another party unsupervised by the Library allowed several partygoers to run out on to Wellsport Dr. and repeatedly harass traffic . Again the TCSO was called to intervene A neighbor spoke with a Sheriff Deputy and they also do not appreciate the fact that The Wells Branch Library has become such a serious nuisance, with more disturbance calls directed at the library than any nightclub in this area.  They also are completely frustrated by the Library policies and the threat they are causing in the neighborhood and to their officers. The Wells Branch Community Library Board Meeting is being held on Monday June 8th 6:30 p.m. at the Library. If you are concerned about this lax policy you should certainly attend this meeting and let the Board know your concerns. Please bring your constructive solutions to this meeting so we can work with the Library to make a safe, effective policy that benefits everyone!

The current policies are as follows: Meeting Room Policy Or Meeting Room Rental Agreement


Please attend the meeting and ask the Board to amend the policy in orders to address the neighborhood safety concerns. Again, the Library is aware of the problems, so constructive solutions are encouraged!

AND NOW On a very positive note, Sgt. Kevin Ward, Travis County Pct. 2 Constable (and Stoneridge neighbor) has volunteered to serve as the Chairperson of the Stoneridge Crimewatch. He brings forward many years of law enforcement experience to our neighborhood and we look forward to working with him to strengthen our Crimewatch. We will be updating our crimewatch page on the web site to allow better communication to all neighbors regarding how we can make our neighborhood safer. For suggestions or concerns please feel free to
contact Sgt. Ward at stoneridgecrimewatch@yahoo.com

Thanks Kevin for stepping up and making a difference in Stoneridge and Wells Branch!

5-8-2009 Well our neighborhood has been again targeted by car thieves. Another vehicle was stolen from the driveway on Bescott Dr. in the early morning hours of May 7th. Between the hours of 5:30 and 6:00 am, the car was stolen by what appears to be two individuals working in tandem. One person was a lookout while another actually penetrated the cars alarm system. If anyone has any additional information on this crime please contact the Travis County Sheriff Departments immediately at 854-9728 . If any suspicious cars are noted in the neighborhood that seem out of place also call the TCSO at 911.

5-7-2008 The Stoneridge Homeowners Association held their Annual Meeting on Tuesday May 5th at the WBCL. The minutes of the meeting will be available on the web site in the coming weeks. The major items passed by vote was the unanimous election of the current board members for the 2009-2010 term. No additional nominations were received by the membership from the floor and motion to retain the current board passed. The financial state of the Association was discussed and remains very healthy. The 2010 fiscal budget was presented to the membership, discussed and motion to accept passed without dissent. During the homeowners input portion of the meeting, a motion was made to approve a funding for having the Association lawyer to review our current deed restrictions and covenants for possible legal action of remedy for the gaming/entertainment "business" that is being run from a residential property on Parralena Dr. Many homeowners have complained about traffic, health and safety issues regarding this property. The Travis County Sheriff Dept has investigated and reports that it is operating within the "criminal laws" of the County. Since running a business from a residence appears to violate our restrictions a legal opinion was authorized to see whether further action against this property is warranted.The results of this opinion will be presented to the membership as soon as it is available.

4-25-2009 The Stoneridge Homeowner's Association Annual Meeting is Tuesday, May 5 at 6:30 p.m. at the Wells Branch Library. All homeowner's are invited.  Officers will be elected.  If you have an interest in holding an office,either as a board member,officer or committee member or please forward your information to
lyjax@aol.com or to ernst@stoneridgepoa.com This is your opportunity to be directly involved in what makes our neighborhood great!

4-15-2009 The Stoneridge POA Neighborhood Garage Sale was a huge success. There were more than a dozen homes that took advantage of clearing their garages out and making a few bucks in the process. Many thanks to Linda Jackson, Board Member and her neighborhood committee members for making it happen. Thanks again and maybe we can repeat this success in the fall.

5-19-2008 The Stoneridge Multicultural Play group is being reformed to provide a reading and playgroup for children in our neighborhood. Please click on the link to get further information on how you can get your children involved in a great neighborhood activity and meet other parents in a positive story time and other creative activities. Please contact Melissa Ruiz msruiz@austin.rr.com on the following link for further information on this wonderful playgroup. Stoneridge Neighborhood Association Multicultural Read and Play Group. Also click on the this link for an expanded description of this fun activity for the kids and parents too.

5-6-2008 One of the questions in the web site email "lost files" was an inquiry on who to contact regarding a street light outage. Our streetlights in Stoneridge are maintained by TXU Electric and are repaired by ONCOR Corp. Neither the City of Austin or the Wells Branch MUD is responsible for streetlight repairs. You can report a streetlight out by phone to 1-888-313-4747 or click on the link Oncor Streetlight Outage Repair Form and request a repair online. Hopefully this should get the lights on within 15 days of an outage. Regarding the cars/ATVs driving in the retention pond and in the easements, the Travis County Sheriff Department at 911 for emergency or 854-9728 for non-emergency contact. The POA does not have a security team available to respond to these issues

2008 Many of our neighbors have recently received a notice in the mail from the Texas Department of Public Safety, regarding a high risk sex offender living in our neighborhood. Though it is not our intent to alarm the neighborhood, we thought it would be appropriate to be aware and vigilant for our neighborhoods safety. We have provided a link that you may review here at Texas Department of Safety Sex Offender Registry . It may be noted that several sex offenders are living within 1 mile of our Stoneridge neighborhood in nearby areas of Wells Branch. A complete listing may be obtained from the DPS web site link of Sex Offenders in 78728 zip code The Texas Sex Offender Registration Program ( Chapter 62 of the Code of Criminal Procedure ) is a sex offender registration and public notification law designed to protect the public from sex offenders. This law requires adult and juvenile sex offenders to register with the local law enforcement authority of the city they reside in or, if the offender does not reside in a city, with the local law enforcement authority of the county they reside in.

Please visit our Stoneridge Crime watch Link of this web site for information on how we can get crime information out to our neighbors
If you or someone you know have been a victim of crime, please contact this website. Together we can make a difference!

Welcome to our Web Site. We have tried to put together a comprehensive site with links and helpful information that will assist our neighbors. Please feel free to send suggestions to ernst@stoneridgepoa.com.

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The Stoneridge Residential Property Owners Association was created in 1994 as the Wells Branch Residential Property Owners Association by the developer "Wells Branch Joint Venture". The name was changed to Stoneridge POA in 2002. The Association is maintained by a Board of Directors. The members are all property owners that live in the neighborhood. Our goal is to provide for neighborhood improvements to the Association common areas, and enforcement of the deed restrictions and covenants that protect and maintain the property values of our neighborhood.