Recap of City Issues - December 11, 2009

Scott Kriston reports that the TXDOT FM 2499 project contractor is installing the Pedestrian tunnel north of the KCS Railroad, excavating the south bound lanes at FM 2499 & Castlewood and is excavating the FM 2499 connection at FM 407.

The annual Employee Holiday Luncheon sponsored by the Highland Village Lion's Club was held on Friday.  Music was provided by the choral group Vocal Magic.The following employees are recipients of service awards this year:

• Judge Ron Hurst - 30 yrs
• Mark Stewart, Police - 20 yrs
• Fince Espinoza, Parks - 10 yrs
• Jon Richardson, Parks - 10 yrs
• Barbara Osborne, Court - 10 yrs
• Jimmy Brown, Utilities - 10 yrs
• Bill Aycock, Parks - 10 yrs
• Richard Skipworth, Utilities - 10 yrs
• Gay Durden, Utilities - 5 yrs
• Mark Rudder, Streets - 5 yrs
• Bobby Salmon, Drainage - 5 yrs
• David Pittinger, Police - 5 yrs
• David Harney, Police - 5 yrs
• Jered Cameron, Police - 5 yrs
• Nancy Sharp, Fire - 5 yrs
• David Clark, Utilities - 5 yrs
• Darrell Richardson, Streets - 5 yrs

At the Council meeting held on Tuesday, a proclamation was read recognizing council members from the past ten years for completing the goal of reaching full staffing level in the Fire Department. This marks the achievement of a goal that began nearly 9 years ago. The Highland Village Fire Department initiated a plan to move from a combination paid and volunteer staff to a full paid staff to meet the Emergency Medical Service and Fire Protection needs of our community. Over the last nine years the Fire Department has added 16 new positions with no impact to the city's existing tax structure. Many of those who filled these positions have been dedicated volunteers who chose to make a career with Highland Village.

PUBLIC SAFETY (POLICE AND FIRE)

This week, the police department responded to 155 calls for service, made 83 traffic contacts, made 6 arrests, responded to 5 traffic accidents and performed 285 community policing activities.

The Police Department put together a little "going away" party for Sandra Tatum's last day.  We'll miss her and wish her all the best!

Fire Department personnel responded to 21 calls for service the week of Dec 4 - 10.

• 7 Medical Emergencies
• 2 Public Service Calls
• 2 Structure Fire Mutual Aids
• 1 Fill-In Mutual Aid
• 3 Residential Fire Alarms
• 1 Commercial Fire Alarm
• 1 Public Assist
• 3 Motor Vehicle Accidents
• 1 Odor Investigation

STREET / UTILITY DIVISIONS PROJECTS

The Street Division assisted in the preparation for the new service building at 948 Highland Village Road by chipping the trees and shrubs along the fence line.

he Street Division crew installed the new larger and high reflectivity street signs on Northwood as mandated by Federal Highway Administration.

The Street Division is involved in preparation for the barricading of streets for the Santa parade on Saturday December 12.

Utility:

Scott Kriston reports that the Highland Shores Paving project contractor has installed all of the new asphalt pavement.  Clean up and pavement striping will begin next week.  Two-way traffic has been established from Highland Village Road through the Briarhill intersection.   

Scott Kriston reports that the MSC contractor has started the demolition & dirt work of the MSC site (tree removal, old fire station demo & asphalt removal).  The contractor is installing the drainage & sanitary lines. 

Scott Kriston, David Clark & Justin Praesel held a pre-construction meeting with Key Construction this week.  They will be installing the Metro PCS infrastructure on the Idlewild water tower starting next week.  This project is anticipated to take approximately 3 weeks.

Matthew Kite & Scott Kriston met with Freese & Nichol's & TXDOT regarding the proposed traffice signal to be located at the intersection of FM 2499 & Highland Shores / Castlewood.  Plans are being designed for submittal.

Scott Kriston & Gay Durden met with Corporate Source, Ltd to discuss new furniture for the MSC buildings.

Scott Kriston met with BW2 Engineers to discuss water & wastewater projects currently under design.

Utility Crews:

• Charles Ciampi, Darren Dodd, Gabe Doria, Larry Jeurink, Tatom Bivins, and Will Norris attended a 20 hour TCEQ course on Ground Water Production in Arlington this week.
• Responded to three after hour call outs and one resident concern.
• Flushed 3,200 feet of sewer lines.
• Tested one water meter and found it to be within TCEQ specifications.
• Winterized all water and wastewater stations & all fire hydrant meters currently being used in the field.
• Excavated a raised one sewer line cleanout and located three other sewer line cleanouts that were covered up by previous street overlays.
• Excavated and repaired a fire hydrant that was hit by a car.
• Cleared two sewer backups and repaired a water line leak.
• Performed meter rereads, water turn on/turn offs, and leak checks.
• Performed maintenance on well lots, lift stations, fire hydrants and the water distribution and wastewater collection system.

Drainage Crews:

• Removed debris a beaver was building for a lodge from a grate inlet box at Saddle brook & FM 2499.
• Backfilled pool at 310 highland Village Road as weather allows.
• Cleaning inlet boxes City wide to prevent storm drain line backups.

PARKS DEPARTMENT

Staff installed Christmas lights around City Hall the last couple of weeks.

Tony Palesano worked with contractors on the Calsense irrigation control system.

Wes Neinhuser was involved in some construction and remodeling on inside areas at Doubletree Ranch.

Pedro Miranda, Bill Aycock, Robert Wise, Frank Furche and Joey Hardin attended an advanced Arbor Master tree climbing safety and tree removal procedures class at Fritz Park in Irving TX.

South crew made repairs to Kids Kastle play ground at Unity Park this week

On Monday, Medical Center of Lewisville and Park's staff solicited sponsors for our Resolution Run coming up on January 16, 2010.

On Thursday, Sue Thompson, Rhoda Savage, Tommy White, Terry Golden, Andra Boxberger and Fince Espinoza hosted Leadership Lewisville's "City Day".  We toured the Inland Trail from Double Tree Ranch to The Shops at Highland Village in freezing weather in golf carts.   It was a tour that they'll never forget, the Lewisville Chamber of Commerce and the entire Leadership class were very appreciative and complimentary of what we've accomplished for our citizens.

American Landscape Systems is in the process of finalizing their change order work for the Brazos Landscape project which included the installation of the centralized Calsense irrigation system of the Brazos practice field, City Hall, the fire station and the rest of the Brazos median.

The entire city staff will be in full force this Saturday for the Santa Parade.  Hope everyone will be in attendance, start time is 10:00 a.m

The Highland Village Senior All Stars met on Monday (22 attendees) and Thursday (29 attendees) for game day.

Ten Senior All Stars met on Tuesday for open game time.

On Wednesday, 25 Highland Village Senior All Stars toured the Gaylord Texan Resort holiday decorations and enjoyed lunch in downtown Grapevine.

Five Senior All Stars went shopping on Friday at the Allen Outlet Mall.

HUMAN RESOURCES / STAFF TRAINING

Human Resources:

• On Monday Martha Butz attended a TMRS Legislative Update luncheon in Grand Prairie.
• Martha Butz attended an InsideOut Coaching session held at the DFW Airport Westin Hotel Tuesday, December 8th.  Over 40 people attended from 23 different companies. Jerry Johnson was the presenter for the session.
• Martha Butz, Jane Ponder and Vanesa Childers held orientation on Wednesday for our three newest employees in the fire department; Mel Harper, Scott Taylor and Rhett Rimmer were hired in November.

Fire Department:

• Nancy Sharp attended Leadership Lewisville for CITY DAY. The class enjoyed a tour of the Inland Trail system, an overview of the City of Highland Village, a tour of Lewisville' City Hall and enjoyed a mock council meeting.
• The Fire Department, along with personnel from Police, Parks, and Streets departments have been preparing for the 1st Annual Santa Parade and Santa Day at the Station to be held this Saturday, December 12th.

CITY MANAGER / CITY COUNCIL

Councilmember Wilcox attended Flower Mound Leadership Class - Community Service.

Councilmember Meek attended Leadership Lewisville City Day.

Mayor Costa, Councilmember Meek and Wilcox attended the Employee Holiday Luncheon.