Babcock Bulletin 1/21/23

— Saturday, January 21, 2023 —

COMMUNITY NEWS

New Staff Members Join BRRA

If you've stopped by the Babcock Ranch Residential Association office recently, you may have noticed a few new faces. If you haven't met them already, we'd like to introduce them to you now. All three are employees of CCMC, which manages the community on behalf of the developer, Kitson & Partners.

Our growing staff now includes:

Marlo Nosal — Operations Manager

Marlo recently relocated to Punta Gorda from Pennsylvania, where she spent many years working in community management. Marlo has an extensive background in project management and capital improvements. She and her husband enjoy boating, fishing and NFL football. They recently adopted two kittens named Pepe and Paco.

Email Marlo

Aleida Johnson-Sennella — Community Standards

Aleida relocated to the area about 18 months ago from New Jersey, where she spent most of her career as a business owner. She has a background in records management and compliance in the public and private sectors. Aleida and her spouse have a daughter and two cats.

Email Aleida

Laura Gauthier — Resident Services Associate

The friendly face you see upon entering our office belongs to Laura, who staffs the front desk. Laura was born and raised in Fort Myers and worked in customer service at Publix for the last nine years. She has a little girl who is the light of her life. Laura is an animal lover — especially cats.

Email Laura

Lake Babcock Drive Closed Next Saturday

With a large audience expected for next weekend's Ben Allen Concert at Founder's Square, Lake Babcock Drive will be closed to traffic from Curry Preserve Drive to Telegraph Park from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m. Saturday. The closure includes golf carts.

We will be opening the grassy area next to Lee Health for parking during the event.

Nature Walk Next Friday

EXPLORING THE COMMUNITY: Babcock Ranch Wildlife Mitigation Manager Christina Kontos leads residents on a nature walk earlier this summer. Photo by Matthew Shapton.

Exploring the World of Nature

Babcock Ranch Environmental Mitigation Manager Christina Kontos offers a quarterly nature walk on our trails and other wildlife-rich areas of the community, and you're invited!

The next one is scheduled for 9 a.m. Friday, Jan. 27, at Sunset Park. Registration is not required; just be at the Park at the appointed time, and bring your camera!

Wildlife Photo of the Week: Turkey Vultures

CLEANUP CREW: By taking care of the carrion, vultures provide an essential service as a carcass clean-up crew for the health of our ecosystems, which also helps in keeping diseases from spreading. Photo by Tamra VandenBerg.

Epicurean Opportunists

This week’s Wildlife Photo of the Week was submitted by resident Tamra VandenBerg. "My husband and I were walking the trails and noticed some large birds gathering around on the ground fighting over something," she explained. "As we got closer, we realized it was turkey vultures. They were fighting over a large green iguana." (That's a story for another day!)

As usual, we turned to Babcock Ranch Environmental Mitigation Manager Christina Kontos for her observations:

The turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) is a large dark bird with long tails, and broad wings with long "fingers" at their wingtips. Turkey vultures are a protected migratory species with designations as such at the state and federal levels. To distinguish them from black vultures, turkey vultures have a red featherless head and a pale bill. As a scavenger, the turkey vulture uses its powerful sense of smell to locate carrion or dead animals, and they have extremely acidic stomach acid so they can digest just about anything.

By taking care of the carrion, vultures provide an essential service as a carcass clean-up crew for the health of our ecosystems, which also helps in keeping diseases from spreading. Did you know that as a defense mechanism, turkey vultures will sometimes vomit on a bird, animal, or human if they get too close? This can be a powerful and stinky weapon, considering the food that they consume!

Submit a Photo

Learn More

COMMUNITY PATROL

ALWAYS ON DUTY: Members of the Babcock Ranch Community Patrol, such as Patrol Supervisor Bob Echeverria (above), are available to assist residents 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Community Patrol Always Available

Hours: On patrol and available 24/7
Phone: 239.652.8000
Office: 42911 Lake Babcock Dr.

Community Feedback

Thanks to your team, who has done a great job helping The Community Church make their transition into the Field House on Sunday mornings. In the past month, Shannon (Treece) has been so mindful of reaching out to me to be sure I knew the facility was open. We are also fortunate to have Bob (Echeverria) open the building for us and be sure we have everything we need.

Thank You!

— Pastor Matt Shapton, The Community Church Babcock Ranch

EVENTS & ACTIVITIES

January

1/21: Babcock Ranch Gala, Saturday, Jan. 21, 5 – 9 p.m., Babcock Ranch Field House.
1/21: Parents' Night Out childcare session, 4:30 – 9:30 p.m., Babcock Neighborhood School. $25/$20. See details.
1/26: Whiskey & Cigar Night, Thursday, Jan. 26, 5 – 7 p.m., Cypress Lodge.
1/28: Ben Allen Concert, Saturday, Jan. 28, 6 – 9 p.m., Founder’s Square; VIP Registration Seating (until 1/15): General Admission (free).

February

Sangria at Sunset, Friday, Feb. 3, 5 – 7 p.m., Cypress Lodge.
Star Gazing Event, Saturday, Feb. 4, 7 – 8 p.m., location TBD. Registration is not yet open.

Babcock Bandstand: 2023 Series

View Season Schedule

FOOD

Food Trucks

Fridays & Saturdays

5 – 9 p.m.

Founder's Square

Farmers Market

Every Sunday

9 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Founder's Square

Food Truck Schedule

HEALTH & WELLNESS

Free Healthy Life Classes

Babcock Ranch Residential Association offers a schedule of fitness classes in partnership with the Lee Health Healthy Life Center. These classes are FREE to all residents. (Membership in HLC is NOT required.) Please see the updated schedule and program format for 2022.

Every Wednesday: Aqua Class, 10:30 – 11:30 a.m.

Please email a member of the lifestyle team or a team member of the Lee Health Healthy Life Center for additional information. All classes are at Cypress Lodge unless otherwise specified.

For more information on any of Lee Health's programs and events, click here.