Recap of City Issues - July 18, 2008

Sue Thompson reports the second annual "Unity in the Community" luncheon was held hosted by the Highland Village Business Association, Lewisville Area and Flower Mound Chambers of Commerce and sponsored by United Community Bank.  The purpose of the luncheon is to honor the non-profit organizations that serve Denton County, and specifically, southern Denton County. The Mayors of Highland Village and Lewisville and a Council member from Flower Mound gave brief explanations of the participating non-profits. There were approximately 250 in attendance.  PediPlace was named non-profit of the year for 2007.  Congratulations!         

Sue Thompson attended the monthly Governmental Affairs meeting at the Lewisville Chamber of Commerce on July 17th and Lewisville Councilman Greg Tierney was the speaker.  Mr. Tierney provided updates on projects within the City of Lewisville, including the expansion of I-35, and stated that 360 businesses in Lewisville will be effected by those improvements, as well as some residential neighborhoods.  DCTA gave an update on the rail stations and working with the member cities on design of the stations.  Sue provided an update on Highland Village happenings.  This group is putting together a draft list of upcoming legislative issues to take to Austin on Denton County Day in February, 2009.

On Tuesday, Bill Aycock, Fince Espinoza, and Rhoda Savage met to discuss the preparation for the unveiling of the new logo scheduled at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, July 22, 2008.

On Wednesday, Fince Espinoza held a special event meeting with Lion's Club representatives regarding the 2008 Balloon Festival.

On Thursday, Fince Espinoza, Rhoda L. Savage and BW2 met with representatives from the USACE to discuss rules and regulations related to construction of the city trails through the Wichita Forest area.

On Thursday, Fince Espinoza met with representatives from the HVABSA at Unity Park to discuss their request for field improvements.

On Thursday, Rhoda L. Savage and Fince Espinoza conducted a progress meeting with representatives from BW2 Engineers and Pipeworks Construction.  The trails in the Rolling Hills and Chapel Hills subdivisions are scheduled for completion this month.  There are currently some revisions to the landscaped beds at the trail to road intersections that are being considered.  This may cause a minor delay in completion of the planted beds, but all other improvements in these two subdivisions should proceed as planned.

On Thursday, Rhoda L. Savage, Fince Espinoza, Scott Kriston and representatives from BW2 Engineers and TXDOT met to discuss the F.M. 2499 pedestrian tunnel design, schedule for construction, and change order process.

On Monday, the Senior All- Stars enjoyed Game day at the Highland Shores Community Center.  (13 Residents and 5 Non-Residents)

On Monday, Shelly Clark treated the Senior Board Members to lunch at Carmelita's.  Six Board Members attended.  They discussed upcoming events and the pros and cons of the past events.

On Wednesday, The Senior-All Stars went to Choctaw.  They enjoyed a day of fun at the Casino and the bus had them home by 6:00 p.m.  We had 49 Senior- All Stars attend that trip!

On Thursday, the Senior All-Stars met at the Highland Shores Community Center for game day.  They all brought a dish for a potluck lunch.

Our Kids Kamp had an awesome week of events for Safety Week.  Their field trips this week included the Police Station, Fire Station, Fire Fighters Museum, and swimming at the College Street Pool in Lewisville!  Next week will be Explorer Week!

On Wednesday, Kids Kamp attendees and their staff had a tour of the fire station and apparatus.  They were excited to see where the firemen sleep.

Corporal April Roppolo and PSO Dick Williams conducted a station tour to thirty-nine Kid Camp students.

The Police Department, assisted by the Police Auxiliary, helped with the Verfurth Benefit Run.

The Police Department conducted our quarterly scooter training which was attended by one child.

The Street crews finished the concrete street repairs on Briarhill Boulevard in front of Briarhill Middle School and the maintenance to the asphalt street by cracksealing the street.

The Street Division completed the signs and painted all the school crosswalks and lane  markings for Briarhill Boulevard.

On Monday, Ron Knox and Charles Mitchell were assisted by the Traffic Department from the City of Lewisville in doing some testing of a pre-emption system for the Fire Department.  This was done to see what would be the best location  to place the opticon to receive the emergency signal to trip the traffic light to allow the signal light to change for an emergency vehicle. 

All park crews worked on regular Maintenance this week.

This week, the police department responded to 165 calls for service, made 61 traffic contacts, made 8 arrests, responded to 3 traffic accidents and performed 768 community policing activities.

The Highland Village Fire Department had 13 calls this past week.  This included 1 injured person, 2 fire alarms, 9 medical emergencies and 1 mutual aid.

Jana Onstead, Martha Butz and Jane Ponder held orientation for three new employees on Wednesday.  New employees Robert Wachal, GIS Administrator, Jose Guevara, Utilities Tech III, and Tim Henderson, Police Officer, have recently joined our staff.  We are glad to have them on board and welcome them to our staff. 

Laurie Mullens met with department administrative assistants to provide an overview of the new web site. Staff will be reviewing the site and testing internally for the next week with launch of the site scheduled for Monday, July 28.

On Thursday, City Secretary Alicia Richardson, Deputy City Secretary Diane Callahan, Police Administrative Sergeant Sheri Morrison and Police Records Clerk Patty Hamilton attended a Records Management Work Session conducted by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.  This training was held in Plano and was sponsored by the Lone Star Chapter of the Texas Municipal Clerks Association.

Captain Travis Nokes and Firefighter/Paramedic Jared Middleton attended a course entitled, "How to Read Smoke"

Assistant Fire Chief Jason Collier attended Fire Officer 1 training in Garland this week.

Cpl David Harney has been selected as the first Highland Village PD School Resource Officer assigned to Marcus High School.  Cpl Harney will serve the Highland Village student population attending Marcus.  Students are encouraged to stop by and welcome him when school starts.

Cpl Harney will also have additional responsibilities as a Business Liaison Officer to the retail community and will split his time between Marcus HS and the Police Storefront.  

 Applicant Tim Henderson has accepted a police officer position with our department and is scheduled to start Monday, July 14, 2008.  Tim is a recent police academy graduate from the Weatherford College Police Academy and has previous experience in the private sector.  We welcome him to our team and look forward to working with him.  Henderson will be assigned Badge #513.

On Tuesday, Mayor Costa and Mayor Pro Tem McDearmont were part of the panel committee, which interviewed candidates for the Marcus High School Police Resource Officer.

Also on Tuesday, Mayor Costa, Mayor Pro Tem McDearmont and Council Member Adams attended the "Unity in the Community" luncheon sponsored by the HVBA and the Lewisville and Flower Mound Chambers.

On Tuesday afternoon, Mayor Costa and Staff met with representatives from IHOP to discuss a possible Highland Village location.

On July 17th and 18th, Mayor Costa and City Attorney/Assistant City Manger Palumbo attended the National Transportation Steering Committee meeting held in Kansas City, Missouri.