Recap of City Issues - February 22, 2008

The Fire Station is coming together! Looking from Cannon Lane the trail is going in.

Sue Thompson and I met with the real estate agent for the property owners of the tract in the Barnett subdivision north of the Capt. D's site to discuss the possibility of bringing the public access through to Barnett Boulevard from the District development to complete the connection between Briarhill Boulevard and Barnett Boulevard.  This tract is the last of the property owned by the Barnett Estate.  Staff is currently working with BW2 Engineers to provide an accurate exhibit of existing conditions, i.e., utilities, pavement and easements on the property. 

Sue Thompson attended the monthly Governmental Affairs meeting sponsored by the Lewisville Area Chamber of Commerce.  Updates were provided on transportation issues (including the DCTA),  Denton County Precinct 3, and Sue spoke about HV economic development (The District), the new fire station, the State of the Cities luncheon held this week with both Chambers and the HVBA, and the upcoming HVBA Mayor's Breakfast and luncheon.

Sue Thompson met with the architect for The District of Highland Village to review and revise the Signage Criteria document for the development.  All of the questions and suggested changes identified by Council were addressed. Exhibits were revised to agree with the text as well.   The new document will be placed in the file as a reference when the sign permits are submitted.  

On Thursday, Sue Thompson, Laurie Mullens and Fince Espinoza met with a marketing representative of The Shops at Highland Village and talked about co-marketing our special events in order to reach a wider audience.

On Thursday, Chief Tatum and Assistant Chief Collier met with FETN representatives regarding training programs available for the firefighters.

On Tuesday several Council and Staff members attended the Flower Mound and Lewisville Chambers State of the Cities Luncheon at the Lewisville Garden Hilton. As in years past, the lunch is the forum for each Mayor to present their State of the City. This year each Mayor's presentation came in the form of a video. One element of the video was a success story from our Fire Department. The family involved and the FF/Paramedics attended the lunch and received a standing ovation. Mayor Costa's State of the City video is available for viewing on the city web site and HVTV.

                        
On Thursday, Laurie Mullens, Sue Thompson and Fince Espinoza met with the PR representative for the Shops at Highland Village. They discussed partnering together on city events, beginning with the Easter Egg Hunt.

On Friday Laurie Mullens and Mayor Costa met with a reporter from The Messenger to discuss potential story ideas for Highland Village.

This is the second week of LETS training at Briarhill Middle School. Upon the completion of the program this year, three hundred and thirty students will have completed the training.  This year, Corporal April Roppolo was assisted by Corporal Nunez.    

Officer Michael Miller recently met with some local Boy Scouts and talked to them about safety procedures. 

On Monday, the Senior All-Stars met at the Highland Shores Community Center for snacks and game day.  (9 Residents and 6 Nonresidents attended.)

On Tuesday, the All-Stars took a tour of the Fire Station at 948. We would like to thank Chief Tatum, Assistant Chief Collier and Mrs. Nancy Sharp for taking time away from their busy schedules to show the All-Stars around and answer all of their questions.  Thank you, Highland Village Fire Department Staff!

On Thursday, the Senior All-Stars met at the Highland Shores Community Center for game day and a potluck lunch.  (24 Residents and 9 Nonresidents attended.)

On Thursday, City Secretary Alicia Richardson conducted a working lunch meeting to discuss future Laserfiche scanning areas for various city departments.  Those attending this meeting were:

        Fire - Jason Collier and Nancy Sharp

        Finance - Ken Heerman, Karen Bradley, Melanie Lewis, and Tom Rollins

        Parks - Rhoda Savage and Audrey Gedminis

        Police - Sheri Morrison

        Human Resources - Jana Onstead

        Permits - Billy Spencer and Autumn Aman                                       

The Street Division has been marking and installing signage on Harlington Drive at Chinn Chapel Road. The markings and signage are about 95% complete at that area.

Staff had made concrete street repairs to Highland Shores at Hillside and will continue to make several repairs on Hillside next week.

Fince Espinoza and Shelly Clark have been speaking with a representative of Greater Lewisville Cares about volunteer opportunities for residents in the community. 

North Crew re-striped parking spaces, in the main parking lot at Copperas Branch Park.

North Crew also repainting various barrier poles and gates around the Copperas Branch Park gate house.

North Crew repainted the inside of the restrooms at Copperas Branch Park.

Pilot Knoll Crew is preparing to put a new roof on the gate house and do some remodeling there as well.

South Crew has been busy preparing soccer fields for games that start this weekend.                  

South Crew caught up with regular, routine maintenance.

Inland Trail Crew did regular maintenance on the City Trail this week.

Thanks to Mike Beattie and his drainage crew for helping us pull the boat dock and bridge out of the lake, (which had broken off due to high winds), with the track hoe in order for us to weld it back together.

The Highland Village Fire Department had 20 calls for service the week of Feb 15 – 21st.  This included: 11 medical emergencies, 1 rescue, 1 public assist, 3 fire alarm calls, 1 public service, 2 motor vehicle accidents and 1 assist police department.

This week, the police department responded to 120 calls for service, made 75 traffic contacts, made 1 arrests, responded to 6 traffic accidents and performed 381 community policing activities.

Next week is the last week for employees to complete the Health Assessment through myuhc.com and receive $50 and a chance to win a flatscreen HVTV.  To be eligible, employees must show they have completed the assessment and sign an acknowledgement form available in Human Resources by 5:00 p.m. February 29th.  The drawing for the television will take place at the employee meeting scheduled for Thursday, March 6th at 2 p.m. in the Council Chambers.  Currently, 60 employees have completed the Health Assessment, which surpassed our goal of 50 - great job guys, and thanks for your participation!

On Tuesday, Cheryl Dudich, Senior Specialist and Nancy Sharp provided a tour of the current Fire Station for the senior citizens that were interested in the layout of the building.

Last week Chief Tatum and Chief Collier attended the Advanced NIMS (National Emergency Management System) 300 and 400 Series Training held at the Lewisville City Hall Annex.  The program, presented by the Texas A&M University TEEX Training Division is designed for senior personnel who are expected to perform in a management capacity in an Area Command or multi-agency coordination system.  Course objectives include special management challenges posed by major incidents, circumstances in which an Area Command is established, and designing a Multi-Agency Command structure.     

Assistant Chief Collier and Captain Vince Jones attended a medical control meeting on Tuesday at Lewisville Medical Center.

Chief Tatum and Assistant Chief Collier attended the construction meeting for the new fire station on Thursday.

Sergeant James Tannahill attended "Excellence in FTO Programs" training at Plano.

The Police Department hosted a meeting to discuss Emergency Management procedures and training.  The meeting was attended by Chief O'Bara, Chief Tatum, Assistant Chief Collier, Captain Stewart, Captain Blount, Lt. Schlichter, and Sergeant Morrison.  Also discussed at the meeting was Connect CTY and accident scene management by both Police and Fire personnel.

Chief O'Bara attended a Children's Advocacy Center Board Retreat meeting in Lantana.

Mayor Costa had a busy day on Tuesday.  Council member McDearmont joined her and members of City Staff at the annual "State of the Cities" luncheon sponsored by the Lewisville Chamber, Flower Mound Chamber and the Highland Village Business Association.  The luncheon was held at the Hilton Garden Inn in Lewisville.  Later that day Mayor Costa and members of City Staff met with Jim Freeman from Kroger .  Late Tuesday afternoon, Mayor Costa met with representatives of the Marcus High School Newspaper to discuss the upcoming city elections.

On Friday morning, Mayor Costa, City Manager Leavitt, City Secretary Alicia Richardson and Finance Director Ken Heerman attended the CCA 35th Appreciation Breakfast held in Lewisville.

The Annual Council Planning Session will be held on Saturday, February 23rd at the Hilton Garden Inn and Convention Center in Lewisville beginning at 8:00 a.m.  Later that evening members of Council and their wives will attend the Lewisville Area Chamber of Commerce Banquet, which will also be held at the Hilton Garden Inn.  

Michael Leavitt, City Manager
02/22/08