Recap of City Issues - June 13, 2008

On June 12th Mayor Costa, Councilmember Adams, Sue Thompson and I were invited to the monthly merchant meeting at the Shops at Highland Village sponsored by Regency and held at Texas Roast.  This meeting is an opportunity for Regency to hear from their merchants and address any questions or issues they may have.  In recent weeks, members of the HV Police Department attended the meeting as well.  Regency staff introduced us and the Mayor opened with a few comments about the Shops, I touched on the City's financial partnership with Regency, and Sue invited the businesses to participate in the annual Highland Village Business Directory at no cost to them and explained the HVBA events.  We plan to have a presence at most of the their monthly meetings in the future. Sue also reports that with the help of Opus and Regency, we are getting many more businesses interested in being included in the directory, which will be available in August.

Corporal April Roppolo collected donations for the Children's Advocacy Center of Denton County at several locations this week including Peter Piper Pizza, LA Fitness, Walmart, and Walgreens.  These funds will be added to the funds already collected and donated to the Center at the conclusion of our Police Bike Race on Saturday.

Monday was the first day of the 2008 Highland Village Summer Kids Kamp.  Kids Kamp is being held at McAuliffe Elementary this summer.  The camp will be underway until August 15, 2008.  The kids enrolled in the camp enjoyed field trips to Interskate, bowling, swimming and a movie this week.

On Monday, the Senior All-Stars met at the Highland Shores Community Center for game day.

On Monday, Rhoda Savage and Fince Espinoza attended the senior board meeting at Highland Shores Community Center.

On Wednesday, twelve (12) seniors attended the book club at Barnes and Noble in Highland Village.

On Thursday, the Senior All-Stars met at City Hall in the council chambers for game day.  (Residents and Nonresidents attended.) 

On Thursday, following game day, the seniors went to lunch at Café 407.  (17 seniors attend lunch together.)

Fince Espinoza hired two more camp employees. 

Thank you to everyone for your assistance with the Red, White and Blue Festival.  The RW&B Festival was a great success!

All the Parks Crew spent most of the week cleaning up from the Red, White and Blue Festival at Copperas Branch Park.

Parks crews will be back on a normal schedule next week.

This week, the police department responded to 188 calls for service, made 51 traffic contacts, made 4 arrests, responded to 5 traffic accidents and performed 742 community policing activities.

The Highland Village Fire Department had 20 calls for service the week of June 6th -12th.  This includes: 3 mutual aid medical emergencies, 2 residential fire alarms, 1 vehicle fire, 7 medical emergencies, 1 public service, 1 mutual aid air fill, 3 public assists, 1 vehicle lock out and 1 motor vehicle accident.

Marikka Williams, the current GIS Administrator, has been offered and accepted a position with a consulting firm in Australia.  Her last day with the city will be July 2. Last week she and Matthew Kite conducted interviews for a new GIS Administrator.  Rob Wachal, soon to be retired from the Coast Guard and currently a Graduate Student from the University of North Texas, will be the new GIS Administrator.  He will bring a valuable skillset to the table that will be of great benefit to city staff and Highland Village citizens.  Between now and July 2, Marikka will be orienting Rob with the GIS that has been built for the city and training him on the administration of the new WebQA Work Order Management System and Citizen Action Center.  The Work Order Management system has been in production for the past 6 weeks and is proving to be a very useful management tool.  The 'Citizen Action Center' portion of this system where citizens are enabled to search for information and submit requests will be released to the public when the new city website is complete.

The Police Department participated in a budget meeting on Wednesday for the FY 2008-2009 budget.  In attendance were City Manager Mike Leavitt, Finance Director Ken Heerman, Chief O'Bara, Captain Stewart, Captain Blount, Lt. Schlichter and Sergeant Morrison.

Captain Tim Moehlman and Captain Vince Jones attended the customer service series this week held in Keller.

Nancy Sharp attended the monthly IAAP meeting in Las Colinas on Monday.

Captain Travis Nokes met with DFW Communications, Thomas Technologies and the electrician to discuss some concerns with the fire station speaker system and radio controls.

On Thursday Karen Bradley, Lori Wright, Sandy McCoy, Nancy Sharp and Diane Callahan attended the sixth series of the Customer Service Training in Corinth called “Customer Service Made Easy.”

On Wednesday Vince Jones and Tim Moehlman attended the third series of the Supervisory Training in Keller called “Employment Law”. 

On Thursday an employee meeting was held.  Each department reported recent activities and several employees were recognized for going above and beyond their regular duties in their jobs.  Gary Cowley was recognized for lending his extensive collection of NASCAR items for use at the recent Benefit Fair, and was presented with a certificate for a “Ride of a Lifetime” at the Texas Motor Speedway, which was donated by Waste Management. 

Martha Butz attended the monthly meeting of the North Texas Municipal Alliance Board on Thursday in Westlake.

Mayor Costa read an Arbor Day Proclamation at Unity Park on Saturday, June 7th as part of the Family Fish Out activities held for Highland Village Days.  Later that evening Mayor Costa and members of Council were in attendance at the Red, White, and Blue Festival at Copperas Branch Park.  Everyone enjoyed great music and fantastic fireworks with the record crowd in attendance this year.

Tuesday afternoon Mayor Costa and members of Council gathered to have individual and group photos taken before the start of the regular council meeting.

Council Member Combs attended the NCTCOG Annual Mayors & Council members Workshop & General Assembly Meeting Luncheon held at the Hilton Arlington on Friday.

Michael Leavitt, City Manager                                                
06/13/08