Business Updates
One Stop Nutrition is now open in The Marketplace at 3196 Justin Road, Suite 203. One Stop Nutrition offers low cost health food products and nutritional supplements. They have all natural fruit nutritional shakes and gourmet coffee in a fun and relaxed environment.

Assistant Chief Stewart, Assistant Chief Collier and Laurie Mullens have been working with CivicPlus to launch the CivicReady solution for emergency preparedness and mass notification services for our residents. The new tool, highlandvillage-tx.regroup.com, integrates with our current website and we have streamlined our notification categories into the solution making it simpler for residents to sign up.  This mass communication tool allows the us to communicate with residents quickly and efficiently before, during and after an emergency. In addition, it can be used for routine events and community updates. Citizens can be reached through email, SMS, voice calls and social media platforms depending on preference. 

On Thursday I attended a symposium on Policies to Promote Inclusive Urban Growth, the event was hosted by the George W. Bush Institute. The theme of the symposium was, what can American cities do to better promote upward mobility among people who feel left behind by economic growth in their city and nationwide? How can American cities successfully stabilize neighborhoods, revive the urban middle class, and address the growing attainable housing crisis? The five key principles that I took away; Poor, underserved communities should serve as focal points for urban growth. Economic development needs to be aimed at creating middle skill, good paying jobs, including those provided by local entrepreneurs. Urban redevelopment should be guided from the grassroots level. Step up infrastructure investments, citywide. Focus on education, particularly job training in practical skills. A very good conference!