General

Meet Fred Weary

As a passionate and concerned resident, Fred Weary was motivated to do more for his community by getting involved with MUD 26. With the intense desire to ensure the Shadow Creek Ranch community is the best it can be for the next generation of leaders, who are now youth, Fred dedicates considerable time and effort through all of his initiatives to continue to better his community.

As assistant secretary on MUD 26, Fred’s responsibilities include overseeing any monthly business of the MUD, ensuring the MUD works to quickly pay down all debts, as well as coordinating work with the City of Pearland related to projects such as the building of the Shadow Creek Sports Park, and the temporary ball fields.

Fred Weary has the perspective that can resonate with almost any resident. He is self-employed, a former teacher and coach, retired NFL player, husband and son. His passion for mentoring youth is unmatched, and just one of those efforts is shown through his Mad Lineman Foundation, which provides sports training for youth in the community. He also started an organization called the Shadow Creek Titan Football League. With his former time as both a teacher and coach, he still has deep ties to the school district. Fred enjoys being a hearing ear to both youth, as well as any parents that enjoy getting involved and out in the community with their own kids. He sees it as a personal responsibility of his to help provide the next generation with whatever resources they can receive that will help them to be successful, and to, therefore, pour that goodwill back into the Shadow Creek community.

Fred has three young people that are particularly important in his life, and those are his own children: Trey, 13 years old; Madison, 11 years old and Samuel, 8 years old. In his free time, he spends it watching his daughter participate in dance competitions, as well as watching his sons play football and basketball. When they can steal a moment together, he and his wife, Casey, of 14 years, enjoy going to a movie or going out to eat.

Fred is motivated to continue his work with the MUD by his belief in the power of what the board can achieve for the community, both for the youth and for the increased overall safety of the residents.

Meet Caralynn Prade

In her career of over 35 years, Caralynn Prade has been very active on projects that she’s been involved with. In her current role, she is Legal Secretary & Administrative Assistant. Those responsibilities include:

  • Helping to create many types of utility districts;
  • Drafting minutes, agendas, certified agendas, resolutions, election documents;
  • Preparation of contracts, briefs, correspondence, maintenance of files;
  • Calendar coordination;
  • General correspondence; and
  • Research and preparation of various reports and presentations.

Previous to this role, she has always worked as either legal secretary/administrative assistant at another law firm that handles municipal utility districts, engineering logging company and in the law department of a large rubber/adhesives company.

As an assistant to the partner of a municipal bond finance law firm that specializes in general law, public finance, elections, contracts, development and real estate, Caralynn has a background that is well-suited to serving on and advising for issues of MUD 26.

In her every day work, Caralynn works with a firm that handles many municipal utility district clients and is familiar with the consultants that serve these clients. In these interactions, she has learned about the problems that districts face, which include security and safety of residents, daily operational issues, as well as exemptions for the elderly and disabled. As a homeowner herself, she takes into account the encounters that any resident of Shadow Creek would experience, both good and bad. She utilizes the knowledge she has of any challenges that Shadow Creek faces as a community, and applies them to make positive changes through her work on MUD 26.

Some of the responsibilities that Caralynn has in her role on the MUD include adopting a budget, overseeing expenditures and investments, employment of consultants, adopting rules and regulations for safety, setting tax and maintenance rates, overseeing debt and bond monies as well as drainage and flood control.

Caralynn primarily views her living experience in Shadow Creek as one that is ideal and overwhelmingly positive. She compares it to living at a vacation resort year-round, due to its beautiful, clean and well-maintained property/amenities. Those features include spacious pools, a tennis court, a basketball court, meeting facilities, and jogging trails, being close to the freeway, restaurants and many stores.

In her free time, Caralynn enjoys writing, sewing, reading and finding new ways to teach and inspire her 3-year-old great grandchild and his friends. For personal interests, she has 5 grandchildren and their friends that bring a bevy of situations that young people face daily and need guidance, reassurance and direction.

Caralynn’s knowledge has proven to be of great value to the MUD since her time with the board, and she looks forward to continuing to serve the community in whatever way she can be of assistance.

Safety in the Community

There are a number of benefits that come with living in any city, including increased access to restaurants, transportation, and entertainment options, which residents of a more rural or isolated community would not experience. With such a high number of people concentrated into a city’s boundaries (population density), one challenge that its residents may experience is a higher rate of criminal activity than might be experienced in smaller areas with low population density. The City of Pearland and MUD 26 have installed and continued to work on improving a security system that has proven to be very effective in combating this issue, specifically for Shadow Creek Ranch.

With the help of MUD 26, legal authorities, and the City of Pearland police department, the community of Shadow Creek Ranch experienced a huge boost in safety with the design and installation of a new security camera system. Aside from the fact that this system has helped law enforcement officers to catch murder and theft suspects, it has had a direct impact on a significant reduction in crime within the past year alone.

Overall, in the year 2017, residents of MUD 26 saw a decrease of 4 percent in Part 1 crimes that were committed. Part 1 criminal offenses include criminal homicide, aggravated assault, sexual assault, arson, burglary, and motor vehicle theft.

Statistics below provide an overview of the progress that has been made in increasing safety within the community. These numbers reflect the difference between the years 2016 and 2017.

● Aggravated assaults decreased by 25 percent
● Robberies decreased by 56 percent
● Theft decreased by 17 percent
● Burglary of vehicles decreased by 5 percent
● Burglaries (business and residential) decreased by 33 percent

Another contributor to the decreased criminal activity is the additional security patrols that are hired during times of the year when the City of Pearland sees higher than normal traffic, such as the holidays.

The aforementioned security cameras have also aided in the apprehension and prosectution of criminals. However, getting the idea implemented required some creativity as legally the MUD could not have the security cameras installed. By offering to work with nearby community HOAs and fund work that they needed to have performed (work the MUD is able to legaly assist with), these neighboring HOAs were allowed to use their newly available funds to assist the MUD with installing security cameras in the Shadow Creek Ranch community.

Not only is it important to the MUD to enhance the community through recreational facilities or basic services, but it also aims to ensure that all residents of Shadow Creek Ranch MUD 26 have peace of mind about residing in a community that is quickly realizing its potential. The MUD will continue, throughout 2018, to work with local law enforcement officers to use the technological benefits of this new security camera system to find new ways to benefit the community.