Recap of City Issues - September 12, 2008

Mayor Dianne Costa, Assistant Chief Collier and the firefighters attended the Heritage Elementary School 9-1-1 memorial ceremony to honor the fallen men and women of September 11, 2001.

HVFD personnel Chief Tatum, Chief Collier, and Nancy Sharp attended the Heroes of Denton County Banquet on Thursday evening that was held at Texas Motor Speedway.

Chief Tatum attended the quarterly Board meeting of the Denco 911 District.  Flower Mound. City Manager Harlan Jefferson and Bill Lawrence were elected to serve another term as Board Members.  Other Board Members include Chief Tatum, Former Denton City Manager Jack Miller, and Shady Shores Mayor Olive Stevens. 

Fire and Police Department Staff attended a meeting at the Denton County Office of Emergency Management regarding any potential weather related hazards due to Hurricane Ike.  All Fire, Police, and Public Works staff will be on call and at a state of readiness should the need arise.                                       

Contractors Cole Construction and Environs Group started construction of the Veterans Monument at City Hall this week.  Completion is anticipated for the first of November.

Registration for our Family Disco Dance began this week.

On Saturday, the Senior All-Stars hosted their annual Luau at the Highland Shores Community Center.  37 All-Stars attend the event full of great music, fun and food. 

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

On Thursday, the Senior All-Stars met at City Hall, Council Chambers for game day and snacks.  Following game day the seniors went to lunch out at Applebee's.

The Street Division cracksealed the cracks that were exposed on Horseshoe Drive.

The Street Crew started making repairs to a concrete base failure located at 3408 Huddersfield Crest. They poured half of the street this week and will continue to make the repairs next week.

Monday, September 15, 2008 Jagoe-Public Co. contractor will start the 2008 Asphalt Street Overlay. The streets that are going  to be overlay include Sellmeyer Lane from Brazos to Highland Village Road, 906 Highland Village Road at Horseshoe Drive and Post Oak Street from 423 Post Oak Street to Pecan Street. The contractor will begin on Sellmeyer Lane on Monday morning September 15th.

All Parks Crews are involved in routine mowing maintenance and ball field preparation.

Parks South Crew began power washing Kids Kastle in preparation for sealant application. 

Wes Neinhuser has been applying seasonal fertilizer to all Parks and Municipal grounds.

The Police Department shared information about our Financial Crimes self-reporting system with the Lancaster Police Department at their request.

This week, the police department responded to 130 calls for service, made 83 traffic contacts, made 4 arrests, responded to 5 traffic accidents and performed 464 community policing activities.

The Highland Village Fire Department had 19 calls for service the week of September 9-11.  This included: 8 medical emergencies, 6 public service calls, 2 motor vehicle accidents, 2 structure fires and 1 odor investigation. 

Each year in September Human Resources focuses on preparing the benefit and salary changes for the upcoming fiscal year starting October 1^st.  On Tuesday representatives from our health, vision, dental and life insurance carriers were here to answer questions and provide information of the services available to our employees.  Employees received information guides detailing their existing benefit deductions that were prepared by Jana Onstead.  Next week Human Resources will meet with each employee individually during open enrollment to make any changes for the next year.

On Wednesday Jana Onstead and Jane Ponder held orientation for three of our newest employees, Terry Golden in Parks, and Charles Ciampi and Will Norris in Utilities.

Martha Butz attended a TMHRA Conference in League City, Texas this week that was cut short on Thursday due to mandatory evacuation from the approaching hurricane.

Sue Thompson recently celebrated her 20 year anniversary with the City.  Staff helped her celebrate on Wednesday with some light-hearted "roasting" and sharing of memories throughout the years.  Congratulations Sue!!                  

Public Works employees Mark Rudder, Lupe Hernandez, John Harper, Jimmy Brown, Benny Barragan and Richard Skipworth are attending a Lead Worker Series in Corinth.  This week the classes were Transitioning from Peer to Supervisor and Leading by Example.

Nancy Sharp from the Fire Department attended a Customer Service make up class, Celebrating Differences, in Corinth.

Justin Praesel in Utilities and Vince Jones and Tim Moehlman in Fire attended the ninth series of the Supervisory Classes in Keller.  The class topic was "Organizing and Delegating."

Sergeant Dennis Oliver attended Firearms Instructor Training.

Officer Timothy Henderson completed CPR Training with the assistance of the Fire Department.

Early Monday morning Mayor Costa joined Mayor Carey of Lewisville in greeting passengers at the Texas Twister on FM 407 to celebrate the Grand Opening of this new Park and Ride location of the DCTA Commuter Express.   

Wednesday evening Mayor Costa took part in the Marcus High School Homecoming Parade. 

Mayor Costa attended events at Heritage Elementary on Thursday in remembrance of 9/11 as part of Patriot Day activities.