Recap of City Issues - May 7, 2010

Scott Kriston reports that the TXDOT FM 2499 section 4 project contractor is pouring the concrete coping walls, cut outs, side walks, added storm water inlets and driveway connections on the north bound outside lane as weather permits.  Most of the work is taking place on the Corinth side of the project now.

PUBLIC SAFETY (POLICE AND FIRE)

Fire:

Fire Department Personnel attended Tarrant County College (TCC) Fire training held at the Fire Station on Thursday, Friday and Saturday of this week.

Fire Calls for Service

Fire Department personnel responded to 21 Calls for Service the week of April 30 - May 6

• Medical Emergencies - 11
• Commercial Fire Alarm - 1
• Public Assist - 1
• Odor Investigation - 1
• CPR - 1
• Station Tour - 1
• Commercial Plan Reviews - 3
• Commercial Fire Inspection - 1
• Residential Fire Inspection - 1

Fire Department Personnel conducted a Station Tour for Local Daisy Troop 3185 on Sunday afternoon.

Police:

This week, the police department responded to 143 calls for service, made 151 traffic contacts, made 3 arrests, responded to 3 traffic accidents and performed 327 community policing activities.

Corporal April Roppolo conducted a two hour presentation at the Police Storefront to some home school students from Corinth. They have asked if she could do a program in the summer for a large group of Home School Students in the area. They really loved what was covered in the LETS program.

The Police Department recently recognized several of our civilian Police Auxiliary members with Presidential Awards for their volunteer service hours.  The District Director with Congressman Burgess's Office was on hand to present the awards at our last Council meeting.  For the first time, one of our citizen volunteers, Mike MacLean, received the "Gold" Award for volunteering 591 hours.  Steven Jones, Paul Scholz, Dick Williams, Jim Conrad, Don Guzzardo, and Mike McCoy all received a "Bronze" Award for their volunteer service.  

Corporal April Roppolo assisted with the recent medication disposal that was conducted at the area schools and other locations.  There were 110 vehicles that came through to drop off medication from 9am until 2pm.

The Highland Village Police Department will be holding a Safety Event and Bike Rodeo on Saturday, May 8th, from 4pm to 6pm, in the Highland Village Elementary School Parking lot, located at Brazos and Sellmeyer.  Come out and meet AOR 10 Officer Diaz and AOR 9 Officer Carver.  We will be having Police Car, Fire Engine and Ambulance tours. Officer Diaz will be conducting a Bike Rodeo to promote bicycle safety.  Officer Carver will have free safety and fingerprinting information along with refreshments.

Corporal April Roppolo conducted a station tour to nine girl scouts and was assisted by Sergeant Bobby Doyle. 

Corporal April Roppolo gave a lecture to a Girl Scout group from McAuliffe Elementary about bullying.  Corporal Roppolo also gave a safety lecture to 50 kindergarden children at DKH.

Senior Animal Care Officer Michelle Burke attended the event for the opening of the new dog park in Denton on Saturday.  Before attending the event, Michelle conducted a tour for a local Brownie Troop.

STREET / UTILITY DIVISIONS PROJECTS

Utilities:

Scott Kriston reports that the MSC project contractor defined the drainage along Highland Village Road.  The fuel pumps will be closed until the paving is completed in that area.  The mason started bricking the PWB this week. The window contractor is installing the store front windows on the REC & PWB buildings.  The flooring contractor is installing the tile floors in the REC building.  The dry wall & painting contractors are working inside the PWB & Rec buildings.  The electrical & duct work rough is being installed in the PWB.  The equipment building and the storage building steel is currently being installed as weather permits.

Scott Kriston met with BW2 Engineering , Inc. & discussed the status of all open Public Works projects.

Scott Kriston met with BWR Engineers, TX DOT and franchise utilities on the FM 407 widening project to discuss gas and communications lines relocations.  Construction of the road project is anticipated to begin late May / early June.  Traffic should expect delays and detours during the duration of the project.

Utility Crews:

• Responded to one after hour call out and one resident concern.
• Excavated and repaired a sewer service on Woodside.
• Excavated and repaired a water service on St. James.
• Excavated and repaired a water service on Castlewood.
• Excavated and repaired a sewer service on Idlewild Ct.
• Retrieved a clean out cap from the sewer line on Villa Park.
• Located three areas of utility infrastructure.
• Raised two manholes up to grade.
• Pulled 225' of new electric wire and relocated well control components to accept the new larger well motor installation that was approved by council on April 13th.
• TV inspected one sewer line for areas in need of repair.
• Replaced two old style curb stops in preparation for a future AMR installation.
• 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:

• Repaired broken concrete on the curb inlet box in the 1900 block of Sellmeyer.
• Cleaned trash and debris from various Inlet Boxes throughout the City to insure proper drainage flows.
• Redefined a backyard drainage easement swale to prevent flooding in the 3000 block of Falken Ct.
• Watered the sod in the 100 block of Brookdale after work was done on the bar ditch restoring proper drainage flows.
• Redefined the bar ditch in the 2700 block of Highland Shores to eliminate standing water.

Streets:

The Street Division made repairs to curb and street flume on Village Estates at Medina Drive due to the deterioration of the concrete.

The Street Division is repairing a utility water leak repair at Saint James and Castlewood Boulevard forming and rebar the area to pour next week.

The Street Division crew painted all the stop bars throughout the city and started painting the bike lanes on Highland Shores Boulevard.

PARKS DEPARTMENT

Park staff is installing new Parks Rules and entry fee signs at Pilot Knoll and Copperas Parks.

The Boat Dock at Copperas Park has been repaired and is open.

Tony Palesano has been making repairs to irrigation systems in Parks and medians.

Wes Neinhuser has been making applications for weed control in the Parks.

Staff cut down and cleared a large tree limb blocking the Highland Village Road trail section.

Parks' south crew has been preparing the baseball fields at Unity Park for games this week.  The GLASA season ended last weekend at Unity Park.

The Inland Trail crew has been performing regular trail maintenance but with the addition of Marcos Mejorado.  We are excited to have hired our first trail crew technician, he will be assisting crew leader Pedro Miranda in performing all of the maintenance related tasks.

Parks staff met with representatives from the Highland Village Lion's Club to discuss this year's Highland Village Balloon Festival scheduled for August 20th, 21st and 22nd.  Parks staff is in the process of working out all of the details with the Lion's Club in order to have a great community event.

Fince Espinoza and the special events group met regarding a large event scheduled at Pilot Knoll Park for Memorial Day

Last Saturday Park's staff, with the assistance of Maintenance, Drainage and Streets staff, hosted our spring clean-up at Copperas Branch Park.  There were three hundred and ninety one (391) vehicles that were admitted to the park.

The Highland Village Road Sidewalk / Lake Vista Trail Connection project has been extended by fifteen days as of Thursday May 6th.  Axis Contracting, Inc. is going to make the connections from Village Park to Market Trail that crosses FM 2499.  With this connection, citizens will be able to north of Regency will be able to access Opus and vise versa.

Senior All Stars

The Highland Village Senior All Stars met on Monday (21 attendees) and Thursday (37 attendees) for game day.  Thursday was also Meals on Wheels.

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

On Wednesday, 17 Highland Village Senior All Stars met at Barnes and Noble for Book Club.

HUMAN RESOURCES / STAFF TRAINING

Human Resources:

• Martha Butz attended a TMHRA board meeting and conference this week in Dallas.  Sessions focused on leadership, stress management, TMRS changes, social media and FMLA.
• The Employee Activity Committee hosted a picnic lunch at Doubletree for the employees on Wednesday.  Hamburgers and hot dogs were served and drawings were held for door prizes.  Thank you committee members for all your hard work!  A special thanks to Barbara Osborne who did all the shopping for the great door prizes and Gary Cowley and Rudy Lopez who picked up all the food and drinks.  Thanks also to the departments that helped with the tables and chairs and getting the pavilion area ready for the event.  We could not make this happen without you all!
•  Jana Onstead and Jane Ponder held orientation for our newest employees on Thursday.  Jason LaFortune is our new police officer and Marcos Mejorado is our new Park Tech.

CITY MANAGER / CITY COUNCIL

Council Member Meek attended Leadership Lewisville SIMSOC on Tuesday.

Council Members Davis, Meek and Wilcox joined Mayor Costa and members of city staff at the Annual Mayors Prayer Breakfast at Lakeland Baptist Church in Lewisville on Wednesday morning. 

Council Member Meek attended the National Day of Prayer "Prayer for Such a Time as This" Event held at the Denton Courthouse on the Square at noon on Thursday.  Denton Mayor Mark Burroughs gave the Mayor's Proclamation of Prayer Day.  This was followed by many prayers, the U. S. Flag raising ceremony, three rifle volleys and blowing of TAPS.