Recap of City Issues - February 13, 2009

Sue Thompson and Laurie Mullens attended the Shops at Highland Village monthly merchant meeting, held at Barnes and Noble, with representatives from Regency Centers and Very Special Events (VSE).  VSE is the new PR/marketing firm for the Shops for 2009.  VSE presented their ideas for special events for the coming year to the merchants in attendance.  Several of their events will be in conjunction with City events, such as the Red, White and Blue Festival, the Balloonfest and Our Village Glows.  They have some great ideas to promote the Shops.  Sue and Laurie also touched on roadway issues and asked for feedback on the recent "holiday pass" program the City initiated in December throughout the City in an effort to make everyone aware that Highland Village does "have it all".  Along with the holiday pass program, the Mayor made calls to residents utilizing Connect CTY, to let them know of the shopping opportunities in Highland Village.  Staff received feedback from several businesses about the program, and specifically about the Mayor's message bringing customers into their business and they felt it was beneficial.  One business located at the Shops stated that they had a 30% increase in customers from Highland Village.  Great news!

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Sue Thompson attended a meeting with Very Special Events (VSE) and representatives from the Highland Village Women's Club to discuss the 2008 Our Village Glows event and to begin very preliminary planning for the 2009 event and how it can be bigger and better.  It is never to early to begin planning!                              

PUBLIC SAFETY (POLICE AND FIRE)

Chief Tatum attended the Denton County Fire Chief's meeting.  A presentation was given by Care Flight on the services provided in the North Texas area.

Corporal Patrick Finley and Officer Luis Flores recently conducted a Police Department tour for some of our local Scouts.

The Police Department visited with the residents of Rambling Oaks during their Valentine's Lunch on February 13th.

Corporal Christie Perry and Corporal April Roppolo had two hundred and thirty seventh graders go through the LETS program at BHMS.

The Highland Village Fire Department responded to 22 calls for service the week of Feb 6th - 12th.  This included 11 medical emergencies, 2 structure fires, 1 fire alarm call, 3 mutual aids, 3 public assists, and 2 public service calls. The Fire Department also conducted 2 fire inspections for new businesses.

This week the Police Department responded to 134 calls for service, made 98 traffic contacts, made 6 arrests, responded to 11 traffic accidents and performed 611 community policing activities.  

STREET / UTILITY DIVISIONS PROJECTS

The Street Division made concrete street repairs on Lake Cove due to a electrical trench failure which caused the area to fail and crack the street.

Street Division marked off an area for a bike lane on Sellmeyer from Brazos Blvd. to Meadowcrest St. this was done by using a bike and rider logo to indicate for the bike area.

The TXDOT FM 2499 phase 4 weekly project meeting was cancelled this week.  The TXDOT FM 2499 project status  is as follows:  The contractor is installing the pillar cross members for the proposed bridges at Poindexter Branch & Hickory Creek Branch of Lake Lewisville.  The contractor is installing stormwater pipe along the right of way at various locations.  The contractor is installing retaining walls along the entire project.  The contractor is laying down asphalt on the north bound lanes from the KCS Railroad to FM 407.  They are setting up to start installing the steel, concrete pavement will start within the next several weeks.  As of January 12, their are 405 construction workers working on the jobsite. 

Matthew Kite, Scott Kriston & Charles Mitchell held a PSR meeting with BW2 Engineers to discuss the status of the Public Works projects.

Utility crews:

Finished ceramic coating one of the water pumps at the FM 407 well lot pump station.

Responded to two after hours call outs. 

Performed two excavations to repair a water line and a clogged sump pump drain.

Performed maintenance on well lots, lift stations, fire hydrants, the water distribution and wastewater collection system.

Drainage crews:

Cleaned creek crossings after the storm event. 

Removed leaves and debris from a pipe culvert at Rosedale & Briarhill.

Flushed drainage culverts at the following locations:

      1) Creek Haven & Highland Shores

      2) In the 3000 Block of Buckingham

      3) In the 200 block of Oak Forest

      4) In the 2000 block of Briarhill

Shot grade in 100 block of Highland Village Road bar ditch for future work.

Removed silt from drainage culverts at Lanier & Longfellow.

Started regrading the bar ditch in the 3000 block of Overlook.

PARKS DEPARTMENT

Crews are trimming and pruning shrubs and trees, cleaning out flower beds, prepping athletic fields and performing various upgrades and general maintenance in City Parks, medians and municipal grounds. 

Wes Neinhuser is preparing to apply pre-emergent to turf areas for weed prevention.

Tony Palesano has been adjusting irrigation systems in the Parks. 

On Tuesday, Karl Schlichter, Lonnie Tatum and Fince Espinoza held a special event meeting to discuss the Father / Daughter Dance, the HVABSA Parade and also met with a representative from McAuliffe Elementary to discuss their chili cook-off next Thursday night.

On Wednesday, Rhoda Savage, Lonnie Tatum, Karl Schlichter, David Harney and Fince Espinoza met with representatives from Medical Center of Lewisville, YMCA and Regency Center to discuss a special event that Regency Center is planning for on March 28th.

On Thursday, Rhoda Savage, Tim Bruedigam and Fince Espinoza met with representatives from TDLR and Pipeworks to ensure the current trail construction project will comply with ADA standards.

On Friday, Park's staff decorated Celebrations Ballroom in preparation for the Father / Daughter dance

All Star Senior Highlights

On Thursday the seniors went to watch the Dress Rehearsal of the Greater Lewisville Theatre's performance of Pride & Prejudice. They had 32 at dinner and 30 for the show.

Seniors met for game day on Monday (23 attendees) and Thursday (29).  On Tuesday 13 of them met for Texas Hold'em.

HUMAN RESOURCES / STAFF TRAINING

Human Resources:

• On Tuesday Martha Butz, Jana Onstead and Lonnie Tatum attended a webinar hosted by NPELRA regarding Collective Bargaining for Public Safety.
• Martha Butz attended the monthly NTMA board meeting in Bedford on Thursday.
• An employee meeting was held on Wednesday at City Hall. Employees that participated in the City video were recognized and department updates were provided.
• The Employee Activity Committee hosted a bake sale on Thursday. Many thanks to all the bakers who brought goodies.
• Police Department:
• Officer Jessie Peterson and Officer Jose Diaz attended mandatory training for Cultural Diversity training.

Fire Department:

• Highland Village Fire personnel attended live fire training at Tarrant County College last Saturday. This training provides hands-on fire suppression and forcible entry scenarios including the opportunity to actually extinguish fires in multiple types of occupancies.
• Jason Collier attended Lewisville Leadership Classes involving a trip to Austin to observe Senate and House of Representative legislation included in the Denton County Days activities at the State Capital.

Parks:

• Tommy White attended Lewisville Leadership Classes involving a trip to Austin to observe Senate and House of Representative legislation included in the Denton County Days activities at the State Capital.

Utilities:

• Justin Praesel, UT Supervisor and Jimmy Brown, UT Crew Leader applied for and were approved to take a B level Groundwater license test at the TCEQ testing site in Arlington on Wednesday. Results will take approximately 45 days to receive.

CITY MANAGER / CITY COUNCIL

On Saturday, February 7th, Mayor Costa spoke to the Lion's Club at their monthly meeting regarding ways to strengthen community support and involvement.

Also on Saturday, Mayor Costa participated in a panel discussion at the Lewisville ISD Council of PTAs 1st Annual Emerging Minority Leadership Conference held at Central Elementary School.  The conference was designed to create an opportunity for diverse minority leaders to connect, share and join efforts to bring homes, schools and communities together to achieve the greatest impact for children, which is vital to the mission of PTA.

Mayor Costa and City Attorney Palumbo attended the TML Legislative Briefing in Austin on Monday before joining Council Member Adams, City Manager Leavitt and Community Development Manager Thompson for Denton County Days at the Capital Monday evening and Tuesday.