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Article Courtesy of The
Tampa Beacon
By Mike Camunas
Published March 27, 2024
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CARROLLWOOD — Dick Woltmann will be at the tennis courts.
Or with his grandkids in St. Petersburg.
Or riding a bike in Portugal this summer.
But his heart will always be in Carrollwood Village.
Woltmann, who will turn 80 this year, is ready to enjoy retirement — from the
two jobs to which he’s dedicated the past 40 years.
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First, as president
and chief executive of Bay Area Legal Services — a nonprofit
law firm that provides free civil legal services to
low-income Tampa Bay area residents. And secondly, as
president of the Carrollwood Village Homeowners Association
Board of Directors — which he was for the past 35 years.
“I don’t know if I’ll miss it,” Woltmann said, “but I have
three grandkids, I’m going to play tennis, I’m going on a
bike ride in Portugal in the summer, so I want to do some
things I haven’t done, so I’m freeing my time up with the
HOA and my job.
“The job of the president of the homeowner’s association is
to lead the board and get a decision made on a topic or an
issue or opportunity — the object is to get the discussion
going and they make the decision.
“All you can do is identify the opportunities and options,
get to a consensus of the board that suits the majority of
the community, but do it in a civil, cordial way.
“I tried to help make the best decisions and I thoroughly
enjoyed it.”
Carrollwood Village has three phases of the large community,
each with thousands of houses encompassing different aspects
of the neighborhood. Woltmann spent 37 years on the Phase I
board after moving to Carrollwood Village in 1985. |
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Dick Woltman, who served on the Carrollwood Village
Homeowners Association Board of Directors for 37 years, is stepping
down as the association’s president after 35 years. He’s looking to
enjoy retirement now that he turned 80 this year.
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In that time, he has overseen a multitude of changes and improvements to
Carrollwood Village, some under Phase I’s purview and others in the nearby
adjoining phases.
For Woltmann and Phase I, with its approximately 1,300 homes, some of the
things they have undertaken is installing pickleball courts at Dan
Ruskiewicz Field or working on aesthetics of Carrollwood Village Drive by
planting oak trees that will eventually give the road a canopy effect.
He tackled issues such as safety along the streets and sidewalks, including
overseeing the initiative of the community raising money to connect all the
sidewalks and fill in the gaps. While on the board, they worked to get the
Florida Highway Patrol to monitor the roads and get speedy drivers to slow
down, as well as get cameras installed to help with incidents along the
roads.
In that time, he also saw the installment of amenities such as the
Carrollwood Cultural Center, Carrollwood Village Park and VISTA Gardens,
though none of these falls under Phase I.
“Without safety,” he added, “all other aspects of what, I think, a board
should be about fail. Without all the subcommittees, like the Safety
Committee, we wouldn’t have been able to do what was necessary for
Carrollwood Village, to improve the neighborhood, to keep it great so people
want to continue to live here.”
One of the most significant parts to his HOA career was when the now
Carrollwood Village Country Club was going through multiple owners and
disarray through the 2000s and into early 2010s.
The course, which was Carrollwood Village Country Club when built in 1972,
kept seeing owners switch hands quickly, to the point where the course was
very close to being fenced in. However, it was the Phase I board’s work with
the current owner, the California-based Concert Golf Partners, which kept
the course open, running and thriving.
Woltmann, the board, and Concert Golf chief executive Peter Nanula, a Tampa
Jesuit graduate, worked together on the sale, which would need county
commission approval. Those leaders would spearhead making sure all Phase I
residents' concerns and questions were addressed before the purchase was
finalized, with overwhelming approval from both the community and county
commission, in 2013.
“What we have tried to do is improve, continuously, the quality of life of
people who live in the Village,” Woltmann said. “The big job of a leader,
anywhere, is to look for threats and opportunities.
“In the case of (the golf course), it was both a threat and an opportunity
that needed addressing and could improve the Village. The commission had
never seen a community and a company work so well together, but it worked
out to the benefit of all.”
Woltmann, however, will be missed, as other longtime board members and
influential leaders in Carrollwood Village praised his leadership style.
“Dick's style has always been cool, calm, supportive, reflective,” Phase I
VP and president of VISTA Gardens Jennifer Grebenschikoff said. “He
encouraged all of us board members to follow our interests and passions, on
behalf of our homeowners. Carrollwood Village would not be what it is today
without his years of leadership.
“Going forward, newer board members will be able to pick up and continue to
build upon the foundation that Dick has laid for us.”
Woltmann, added Grebenschikoff, leaves a legacy of improvements and
implementing assets such as “area landscaping and lighting, maintaining the
soccer fields and installing pickleball courts,” which gives the community
“the energy to thrive and grow.”
But, in the end, Carrollwood is still where one will find Woltmann.
“I won’t give (the new board) unsolicited advice, but if someone asks me,
I’ll let them know what I think — I’ll still be around, but I just won’t be
someone who is hanging around,” he said with a laugh.
“I’m going to enjoy retirement, but a rocking chair just isn’t part of that
equation.”
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