A Nearly Accurate History of Sunrise Beach
By Dick Hart (deceased)
Written for the 25th Anniversary Celebration of the City in November of 1998
recovered and updated in 2005 and continued by others (I hope, hjs)
Page 7 of 19
decided not only to rebuild the center but to enlarge it. It had taken
seven years to get as far as they had and here, all was nearly wiped
out by a lousy snow storm. The city sure didn't have the money as
they have to budget for everything a year in advance. The only ones
around with any money in the bank was the Benefit Association. They
borrowed $15000 from them (see; I told you there was an advantage
to having the Benefit Association), restarted the $100 club and raised
another $10000 for what was to be a $25000 project. That coupled
with the insurance money and you see what we have today. There
have been some improvements, upgrading, and maintenance since
then but the building is as it was rebuilt. Big enough and of a sufficient
size that it has pretty well met the needs of a growing community.
For several years I, as a commissioner, had wanted to get a
neighborhood watch program going. I just couldn't find anyone to run
with the project. In 1992, Sy Schiffman, Bill Philips and Ray Fleming
among others, got together and approached the community and the
CCAA about organizing a neighborhood watch program. My dream had
come true. They wanted to take it even further. They also wanted to
have an on-going neighborhood patrol, complete with highly visible
signs for the vehicles and a radio to use in case they saw something
going on. This was more than I had hoped for. It didn't take the CCAA
any time at all to approve being the sponsor of this effort and once
again the volunteers showed up. That particular program has done as
much to reduce crimes against property as anything I know. No
schedule, do it whenever you feel like it, you can never tell when eyes
are watching. I well recall when our policeman was taking a prisoner to
Llano when the conversation turned to theft. This particular prisoner
was being transported as a favor to the sheriff, but he said that there
were simply easier "pickins"
than Sunrise Beach 'cause nobody knew
how to get in or out and didn't know who was watching!!! Once when I
was out patrolling; down on Glen Oaks, a part time resident stopped
me and asked about how this all got started. I spent a few minutes
with him and explained it was all strictly volunteers. Well, he wrote me
a donation check to the CCAA for $100 and simply said thanks for
looking out for my property. This is the Citizen for Community Action
Association, this is you, there is no membership, as every person on
Sunrise Beach is a member. And that means without YOU there is no
Association, no civic projects, no un-budgeted city improvements, no
beautification projects, nothing. Keep it up folks, you're only helping
yourselves.
Now, back in 1973 when the concerned citizens of this fair community
were organizing and plotting against the developer, they were also
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