Recap of City Issues - April 17, 2009

Scott Kriston attended the TXDOT FM 2499 phase 4 weekly project meeting this week. The TXDOT FM 2499 project status is as follows: The project is 35% complete as of March 31st.  The contractor is finishing the installation of the pillar cross members for the proposed bridge at the Hickory Creek Branch of Lake Lewisville. Bridge beams are delivered and installed on the southern end of the Poindexter branch bridge.  The bridge beams for the northern part of the Poindexter bridge will be delivered starting April 20th through April 24th.  Bridge decking will start to be constructed on the Poindexter bridge next week.  The contractor is installing retaining walls along the entire project.  Traffic was be detoured over to the new pavement April 14th, Harlington Drive and Saddlebrook Drive access will be closed to traffic for a 3 month period so they can construct the south bound lanes of FM 2499.   The contractor has started to mill the old asphalt roadway and cut to the new grade of FM 2499.  KCS Railroad has delivered the materials for the new railroad crossing on FM 2499.  The railroad contractor will have TXDOT close FM 2499 on May 5th & 6th to install the new crossing.  The TXDOT contractor has installed the asphalt base for the northbound and southbound lanes from Highland Shores Boulevard north to approximately 1000 feet south of the Northwood / Castlewood intersection.  Steel has been laid out & tied in the southbound lanes, concrete pavement will be poured within the next few weeks. 

Sue Thompson reports the April Highland Village Business Association luncheon was held this week.  Ms. Thelma Wells, author and motivational speaker, was the guest speaker for the spring luncheon.  Mayor Dianne Costa welcomed everyone and introduced Ms. Wells.  Ms. Wells provided a crowd pleasing talk about customer service and knowing who your customers are.  There were approximately 70 in attendance.  Another great HVBA luncheon.

Sue Thompson attended the monthly Lewisville Area Chamber of Commerce Governmental Affairs Committee meeting.  Gary Henderson with Communities in Schools of North Texas (CISNT) was the speaker.  Mr. Henderson gave an overview of how the CISNT interacts and provides assistance to the LISD.  He stated that 50 languages are spoken in the LISD schools.  DCTA gave an update on the rail station sites and stated the contractor is ready to go.  Sue provided updates from Highland Village.

PUBLIC SAFETY (POLICE AND FIRE)

Police:

• An article about the Police Department's "Lock, Take, and Hide" program was included in the Flower Mound Messenger.
• The Police Department conducted annual firearms training at the Denton County SO Firearms Range.
• This week the Police Department responded to 144 calls for service, made 54 traffic contacts, made 6 arrests, responded to 5 traffic accidents and performed 518 community policing activities.

Fire:

• The Highland Village Fire Department, in conjunction with the Denton County Fire Marshal's Office, hosted a Texas Commission on Fire Protection approved Fire Investigation Class. Denton County Arson Task Force Officer, Kenneth Wilkins is serving as the Lead Instructor, along with several other Investigators from the Agency. Fire Personnel from Lake Cities, Double Oak, Highland Village, Port Arthur, and Little Elm Fire Departments are receiving 150 hours of advanced training in Investigative Techniques. Instructors are teaching this class free of charge resulting in no additional expense to the participating Departments.
• The Highland Village Fire Department responded to 27 calls for service the week of April 10-16th. This included; 3 residential fire alarms, 2 commercial fire alarms, 18 medical emergencies, 3 motor vehicle accidents and 1 public assist.

STREET / UTILITY DIVISIONS PROJECTS

Street Division:

• The Street Division continued to make asphalt street repairs to La Mesa Drive this week. They will continue to make repairs through next week where the heavy vehicles are breaking down the edges of the street
• The street crew are re-marking bike lanes and street crossings on Highland Shores Boulevard and will continue through next week until the markings are completed. The painting crew completed the bike lanes on Highland Shore Boulevard and started painting the crosswalks.

Utility:

• Matthew Kite, Scott Kriston & Charles Mitchell held a project status meeting this week with BW2 Engineers. All Public Works projects were discussed.

Drainage Crews:

• Drainage crews are extending the 48" pipe culvert at Lower Sellmeyer Park for the Parks Department trail project.
• Drainage crews completed the final dress up and seeding on the Highland Hills gabion project.

 Utility Crews:

• Responded to three emergency after hour calls.
• Repaired two water leaks.
• Flushed and TV inspected eight sewer lines to locate buried infrastructure and check for possible bad spots.
• Performed maintenance on well lots, lift stations, fire hydrants and the water distribution and wastewater collection system.
• Flushed 8,700 feet of sewer main in the Silverthorne Park Lift Station basin.
• Raised a sanitary manhole 5-feet to get it out of a drainage flow line.

PARKS DEPARTMENT

Parks Staff is in the process of planting seasonal flowers in all shrub beds in parks, municipal grounds and City entry sign areas.

Tony Palesano has been busy making repairs and adjustments to irrigation systems at Village Park, Unity Park and the Fire Station turf area.

Wes Nienhuser has been making applications of weed control in all Parks.

New gate attendants Stephen Richardson and Dennis Inman started weekend shifts at Copperas Branch Park last week.

All crews have added seasonal contract labor for the peak mowing maintenance period through September 2009.

Staff at Copperas painted all soccer goals this week.

Staff at Unity removed graffiti at Kids Kastle.

Mowing contractor VMC started right of way mowing cycles last week.

On Saturday, the Senior All Stars will attend pizza and game night at the Highland Shores Community Center from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

5 Senior All Stars met on Monday and 45 on Thursday for game day.

Five Senior All Stars met on Tuesday for bridge class, exercise class, and crafts. 

The Senior All Stars met at Zone Action Center for the Senior Putt-Putt golf league on Friday to play against the YMCA and Flower Mound senior groups.

Fourteen Senior All Stars met on Wednesday  to attend The Club at the Gateway Center on the UNT campus.

HUMAN RESOURCES / STAFF TRAINING

Human Resources:

• An Employee meeting was held on Wednesday. Employees received updates from all departments and Eunice Brogdon of ICMA Retirement Solutions presented details of a new voluntary benefit offered to employees; a Roth IRA that can be funded through payroll deduction.
• On Thursday Jana Onstead met with Mike Shaw, Loss Prevention Representative for the TML Intergovernmental Risk Pool regarding free loss prevention training services.
• The next TMRS Pre-Retirement Conference will be held in Arlington. City employees who are currently eligible for retirement or are within 5 years of being eligible are encouraged to attend the free conference on May 12th or 13th. Interested employees should contact Jana Onstead in Human Resources for more information before April 30th.

Police:

• Alicia Bautista "AJ" returned to her duties in Patrol and is back full time. She and the new baby are both doing great!

Fire:

• Chief Tatum, Assistant Chief Collier, Nancy Sharp and Chip Willis along with Police Department personnel and Lake Cities Personnel attended a Crimes Training on the new CAD system.
• Assistant Chief Collier and Vince Jones attended Strategies & Tactics training in Farmers Branch on Thursday and Friday.

Utilities:

• Will Norris, Charles Ciampi and Tatum Bivins tested for their Wastewater Collections One license at the NCTCOG in Arlington this week.

CITY MANAGER / CITY COUNCIL

Mayor Costa and Staff attended the Highland Village Business Association Luncheon held at Celebrations on Tuesday.

On Friday City Attorney Palumbo attended the Legislative Status Report held in Austin.