Recap of City Issues - July 11, 2008

The Police Department (including the Police Auxiliary) assisted with the Castlewood Children's Parade during the July 4th weekend.

The Police Department (assisted by the Police Auxiliary) deployed at Copperas Branch Park for the July 4th holiday weekend.

This past week was a tremendous example of the area Fire Departments working hand-in-hand resolving large incidents that a city by itself wouldn't be able to handle:

During the 4th of July Holiday weekend, Highland Village Fire Department responded to a drowning at Copperas Branch Park. Although this was a tragic ending, our mutual aid support from Lewisville Fire Department and the Texas Parks and Wildlife (Game Warden) was exemplary. LFD provided Dive Team, Rescue Boat, Rehab Team and a staff of fifteen personnel. The game warden provided two boats and a staff of six personnel. The Highland Village Fire Department would also like to thank our own Police Department for their support throughout this rescue operation. Thanks also to Laurie Mullens for handling all of the media needs.

Highland Village Fire along with other area fire departments responded to Lake Cities on Tuesday to assist with a four-alarm apartment fire.

The Highland Village Fire Department has trained 149 residents and employees in CPR, Healthcare Provider and First Aid classes since January of this year. One of our instructors, Firefighter Mel Harper had assisted Wal-Mart with one of their personnel programs and provided CPR classes for their employees as well.

On Saturday, the Senior All-Stars met at the Highland Shores Community Center for a 4th of July celebration with Barbeque from Fullhouse Smoke House and game night. (32 Residents and 15 Nonresidents attended.)

On Monday, the Senior All-Stars met at the Highland Shores Community Center for game day. (17 Residents and 3 Nonresidents attended.)

On Thursday, the Senior All-Stars met in the Council Chambers here at City Hall for game day. (19 Residents and 10 Nonresidents attended.)

On Thursday night the Senior All-Stars had a night on the town. They attended the play "Oklahoma" at the Lewisville Community Theater. (32 All-Stars attended)

We have had a great turn out so far for the Choctaw Casino trip coming up on Wednesday, July 16, 2008. As of yesterday July 10, 2008 we have 47 seniors registered.

McAuliffe Elementary gym was full of Kids Kamp campers this week. Their field trips and activities this week included Cabelas, Owens Farm, Game Day, Botanical Gardens and swimming. The camp will be underway until August 15, 2008.

All Industrial Services demolished the 300k gallon elevated water tower located at the Municipal Service Center this week. The landmark water tower, located at 948 Highland Village Road, had been in that location for many years.

The Remington Point Erosion Project is built. The City performed a final walk through last week. The contractor is working on a small punch list.

The drainage crew is working on replacing a culvert that failed on Hickory Ridge Drive.

The drainage crew also working on replacing a grate inlet with a "Y" inlet located on Craig Circle.

Utility staff repaired three water main breaks this week - two on Highland Village Road at Horseshoe and one on Desiree.

The Utility crews are locating sanitary sewer manholes and logging their locations with GPS on the 27-inch sanitary sewer trunk main located along the lake edge. Scott Kriston, David Clark and BW2 Engineers are inspecting the condition of the manholes for the development of the 2008 Wastewater Manhole Renovation Project.

Scott Kriston held a pre-construction meeting for the Chicken Express development last week.

Scott Kriston & Tim Bruedigam held a pre-construction meeting for the Majestic Fine Wine & Spirits development this week.

Scott Kriston and BW2 Engineers met with Wilson Contracting, the contractor who is building the FM2499 Utility Relocation Project, to discuss finishing & closing out the project.

All park crews worked on regular Maintenance this week.

This week, the police department responded to 180 calls for service, made 64 traffic contacts, made 6 arrests, responded to 3 traffic accidents and performed 822 community policing activities.

The Highland Village Fire Department had 28 calls this past week. This included 1 smoke investigation, 2 injured persons, 1 structure fire Lake Cities, 14 medical emergencies, 1 lake rescue, 2 motor vehicle accidents, 1 odor investigation, 2 fire alarms, 3 public assists, and 1 downed power line call.

Scott Kriston and David Clark attended a training class in Lewisville. The topic was Dealing with Negaholics.

On Thursday Vanesa Childers, Karen Bradley, Lori Wright, Shelly Clark, Diane Callahan and Sandy McCoy attended the eighth series of the customer service training, "Celebrating Differences: Inclusion in the Workplace."

Martha Butz attended the monthly NTMA meeting on Thursday held in Haltom City.

The Police Department announced the following promotions and assignments that were effective on July 7th. Corporal David Pittinger was promoted to Police Sergeant and assigned to Patrol. Officer Christie Perry has been given the assignment of Patrol Corporal. We congratulate the above personnel on their new assignments and look forward to working with them in their new capacity.

Shaun Chelf, who previously worked at the Southern Methodist University Police Department, was given a conditional offer of employment as police officer.

Barb Osborne attended a new Judge/Clerk educational seminar in Austin from July 7-July 9. The educational training is provided by Texas Municipal Education Center. She was attending as a Membership Committee member for Texas Municipal Courts Association. Barb enrolled new members and provided a hospitality time for the Judges and Clerks. Barb is appointed to the Committee by the TMCA board president. TMCA is the State Association for Judges and Clerks.

Captain Travis Nokes has received his Fire Officer II certification through Tarrant County College.

Congratulations to John Harper for obtaining a "C" Ground Water license issued by the TCEQ.

John Harper is promoted to Utilities Crew Leader effective July 14th. Congratulations!!!!

Bobby Salmon is promoted to Drainage Supervisor effective July 14th. Congratulations!!!

Please welcome Jose Guevara to the City. He started as a Utilities Tech 3 on July 7th. Jose has 13 years experience in the Municipal Utilities field. He holds a "C" Water Distribution, "C" Ground Water and Class 3 Wastewater Collections licenses issued through the TCEQ. We are proud to have him here.

Michael Leavitt, City Manager
07/11/08