Recap of City Issues - May 16, 2008

On Monday Mayor Costa and I attended the Mayor’s Round Table held at the City of Corinth.  Mayor’s and City Managers through out Denton County attended; the featured speaker was State Rep. Myra Crownover in which she presented H.B. No. 9 “The Elimination of Smoking in All Workplaces and Public Places.” Accompanying Rep. Crownover was a representative with the American Heart Association to present the current status of nationwide Legislation and what is proposed for the 81st Legislative Session for the State of Texas.  Rep. Crownover stated that “The Elimination of Smoking in All Workplaces and Public Places”, bill we be introduced this session and is requesting support for this statewide control.

On Monday May 12, 2008, Captain Corry Blount of the Highland Village Police Department made a presentation to the City of Corinth Acting City Manager, Finance Director as well as Acting Police Chief of the Corinth Police Department and Assistant Chief of the Lake Cities Fire Department. Also in attendance was Chief Ed O’Bara and myself representing Highland Village. The City of Highland Village proposed two options for providing public safety communications services to the City of Corinth. 

On Tuesday morning Mayor Costa and I attended the Metroplex Mayors meeting held in Dallas, the featured speaker was State Rep. Linda Harper-Brown.  Her message “Get Ready”, this 81st Legislative Session is going to be exciting with all the transportation issues and with Sunset provision for TXDOT.  Rep. Brown requested that cities need to be very active this session with your Legislators at home and in Austin, be prepared and find out all the facts concerning issues facing municipalities this upcoming session. 

On Thursday Dottie Palumbo and I had the opportunity to meet with the President/CEO and Vice President of CoServ Electric.  They were following up on our request to discuss the placement of our overhead power lines underground. They felt the best option at this time is for CoServ to start a process of sharing our system improvement and other plans with City officials in an effort to identify, wherever possible, opportunities where we can partner with Highland Village to convert overhead distribution owned by CoServ into underground at the least cost possible. From this meeting we are in the process of developing an action plan between CoServ and the City of Highland Village.  The first item will be for them to attend the Highland Village City Council meeting on Tuesday, May 27, and present information on UG conversion, load curtailment, and other topics.  CoServ will also begin to study and work on the load curtailment rate options for the City, and help us on our current energy audit process, to see if CoServ could possibly assist us in anyway.  This was a very good and informative meeting for both CoServ and the City of Highland Village.

This week Audrey Gedminas has been working on an NCTCOG grant application which could provide funds that would allow the city to double the scope and size of our current community clean-up program, from two 3-hour events to two 6-hour events.  Results of grants awarded will be available in June. 

On Monday, the Senior All-Stars met at the Highland Shores Community Center for snacks and game day.  (17 Residents and 9 Nonresidents attended.) 

On Monday, the Senior All-Stars board met to discuss up-coming senior events.

On Thursday, the Senior All-Stars met at the Highland Shores Community Center for game day and potluck lunch.  (24 Residents and 12 Nonresidents attended.)   

On Friday, the seniors went to Choctaw.

On Wednesday, Charles Mitchell, Ron Knox, Lonnie Tatum, Jason Collier, Mark Stewart, Karl Schlichter, Tommy White, Rhoda Savage and Fince Espinoza reviewed five special event applications and discussed the logistics of the 2008 Red, White & Blue Festival.  Most importantly staff working the event will eat between the hours of 2 p.m. - 4 p.m. on the day of.

Parks North Crew is painting and making repairs to Copperas Branch Park preparing for the upcoming Red, White and Blue Festival.

Tony Palesano is adjusting and repairing irrigation systems in medians and municipal areas in the City.

Wes Neinhuser is involved in weed control in all Parks and City Maintained area.

The Pilot Knoll Crew has been making repairs to the restrooms in the overnight camping area in Pilot Knoll Park.  

On Tuesday, the contractor poured another section of the Inland Trail between Summit Trail Court and Saddlebrook Drive.

The spring weather has brought on plant growth and wet conditions that cause our pavement to have failures. The Street Division is making concrete street repairs on Woodhaven Street due to issues brought on by the wet conditions.

The growth on lower tree limbs and foliage is obstructing signs. Street Division has been removing tree limbs and foliage that are obstructing the signs in the Clearwater Subdivision.

Street Division installed new signs for the new Central Fire Station located at 1200 Highland Village Road.

Assistant Chief Jason Collier attended the Center for Safety and Emergency Preparedness meeting in Oklahoma City on Thursday.  The program is a new program that will be distributed nationally under the direction of Oklahoma State University.  Chief Collier has been asked to serve on the advisor committee for the program along with others from both private and public sector from across the United States.

The Highland Village Fire Department had 29 calls for service the week of May 8th-15th which included; 10 public assists, 2 public service calls, 1 vehicle lock out, 11 medical emergency calls, 1 grass fire, 1 residential fire alarm, 2 structure fires, 1 commercial fire alarm  and 1 motor vehicle accident.

This week, the Police Department responded to 186 calls for service, made 5 arrests, 67 traffic contacts, responded to 4 accidents and performed 612 community policing activities.

On Tuesday, Heather and Fince graduated from Leadership Lewisville. 

Barbara Osborne attended the required court training in South Padre May 6-8. The training provides education and updates for Judges and clerks. Each school has a Course Director and Barbara was asked to be the Course Director for the training again this year.

Tom Rollins, Justin Praesel, Vince Jones, and Tim Moehlman started the Supervisory Series Training in Keller this week.  This first class of the series was entitled “Now that I’m a Supervisor.”

On Tuesday Martha Butz attended a monthly meeting hosted by the Dallas Chapter of SHRM.  She also attended a Health Care Symposium in Dallas on Wednesday.

Jana Onstead met with Denice Thom of Higginbotham and Associates and Sheri Barragree of United Health Care on Thursday to discuss current utilization.

Officer David Harney and Officer Joey Hasten completed Crime Scene Search training this week.  Cpl David Pittinger completed Arrest, Search and Seizure training.

Officer Delana Jones and Cpl April Roppolo attended the Mayor's Prayer Breakfast Meeting.

Highland Village Fire Chief Tatum and Assistant Chief Collier attended the Mayors Breakfast this week.  With over 400 in attendance, it was the largest turnout in the gatherings history.  Guest speaker Priscilla Shirer presented a powerful program on the importance of prayer in our daily lives. 

Fire Department personnel presented a fire and life program for over 100 kindergarten through 5th grade students at the McAuliffe Elementary School.  Firefighter Chip Willis conducted a classroom presentation on fire safety while Firefighters Randy McCurley and Jon Jackson held a show and tell session on Engine 481.  Firefighter/Paramedics Matt McCormick and Matt Luttrell presented a program on Emergency Medical Services as well as a show and tell on the Ambulance.  

Mayor Costa and Council Members Combs, Robichaux and McDearmont were all re-elected for additional two-year terms as a result of the Municipal Election held on Saturday, May 10th.  A Special Council meeting was held on Tuesday, May 13th to canvass the results of the election and make the results official.  Congratulations to all!

Monday, May 12th Mayor Costa and City Manager Leavitt attended the Mayors' Roundtable sponsored by the Town of Flower Mound.  This meeting was held at the Corinth City Hall and allowed the mayors of area cities to discuss items of mutual interest and concern.

Mayor Costa and members of Council and Staff attended a HVBA Ribbon Cutting for the Granite & Tile Outlet located next to McAlister's Deli at the Marketplace of Highland Village on Tuesday morning, May 13th.

Early Wednesday morning, May 14th the Annual Mayors' Prayer Breakfast was held at Lakeland Baptist Church in Lewisville.  Mayor Costa was joined by the Mayors from Lewisville and Flower Mound, several members of Council, and members of city staff including the police and fire departments at the event.  Attendees enjoyed listening to guest speaker Priscilla Evans Shirer before going off to work.

Mayor Costa attended the Opening Ceremonies for the Relay for Life Event on Friday evening, May 16th.  She read a proclamation declaring May 16th as "Relay for Life Day" in Highland Village.  At the overnight event, teams walked the track at Lewisville North High School to raise awareness and funds in support of the American Cancer Society in honor of victims and survivors of cancer.

Friday evening, May 16th Council Member Fiorenza attended the annual Marcus High School ROTC Awards Night and assisted in the presentation of awards.

Michael Leavitt, City Manager
05/16/08