Weekly Activities in Duncanville 20May2016

ICMA International Fellows – the International City and County Management Association (ICMA) sponsors an International Fellows program to promote learning and knowledge exchange among key local government professionals from participating countries. The City of Cedar Hill is currently hosting two young professional women, one from Cambodia and one from Vietnam, on a program that is aimed at sustainable technologies. They contacted Duncanville to see if we would like to host them for a day and familiarize them with our city. Assistant City Manager Charles Smith, Parks and Recreation Director Bart Stevenson, and Public Works Director Mike Hasler put together a presentation and tour to show them our solar cell project, SCADA system, and pond irrigation system at Waterview Park/Harrington Park. They will be spending most of today, Friday, May 20 with us and we are excited to show off Duncanville to them!

Brush pick-up — Republic is currently running about a week behind for brush pick up due to the extra volume in Duncanville. They are running multiple boom trucks to try to keep up. Republic will continue running section by section to avoid getting further behind. Normally there is a two week turn-around time to get through all the sections in the City and start again, but right now it is taking them about three weeks. This is fairly normal this time of year due to “spring cleaning,” tree trimming, storm damage to trees, etc.

Town Hall Meeting – Reminder that we will have the rescheduled Town Hall meeting, hosted by District 5, on Thursday, May 26 at 6:00p. The meeting will be held at Fairmeadows Elementary School cafeteria, 101 E. Fairmeadows Drive. The topics of discussion will be Code Enforcement and Public Works capital projects and pavement management study.

Police Department – the 7th Annual Fire Truck Pull, hosted by the Police Department to benefit Special Olympics Texas, will be this Saturday, May 21 at 10:00a at Armstrong Park. Teams can still register beginning at 9:00a. The public is invited.

Fire Department – The Department did not have any major EMS events in Duncanville this week. EMS crews have been celebrating EMS Week at the local hospitals, who have provided the crews with lunch.

The Department responded to a structure fire at 714 Granada on May 17, 2016, with the time of alarm of 18:22. Severe damage occurred in the kitchen, breakfast nook, living room, and entryway. The structure had severe smoke and heat damage throughout the house. The structure is not habitable and all utilities have been disconnected. Cause of the fire appears to have been a pan of grease that was left on the stove unattended for about 15 minutes.

This past weekend, firefighters again went door-to-door in neighborhoods to distribute smoke detectors and batteries and check for working detectors. They installed 64 smoke alarms and changed 6 smoke alarm batteries in the Fairmeadows neighborhood. Of the 22 homes department personnel went to, only 2 of the homes had at least 2 working smoke detectors, and only 1 home had more than 2 working detectors. Many of the homes did not have a single working smoke detector!

To date, we have installed more than 100 smoke detectors throughout the community since we began this program back in March. This certainly demonstrates the positive impact the smoke detector program, thanks to the grant from Home Depot, is having in promoting fire safety in our community. Kudos to the department for their outreach!

Public Works – Water usage was 26.779 MG last week, down slightly from 27.010 MG the prior week. The weekly peak water demand occurred on Friday, May 13, when 4.285 MG was pumped from ground and elevated storage.

There were no positive mosquito traps reported by Dallas County this week. Dallas County continues to forward updates to us regarding the Zika virus. There have been no reported cases in Duncanville.

Construction Updates:

 The certificate of occupancy was issued for Building A of the Good Life Senior Living Center located at 302 W. Wheatland Road. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on May 12 to celebrate the completion of the facility. Both buildings now have their COs and are awaiting state certification.

 Barson Utilities is transferring service lines to the northwest water main for the residents along the Roma Drive Water and Sewer Improvements Project. This transfer includes installation of new water meters.

 Excel 4 Construction completed work on the fourth line that is a part of the change order for the current pipe bursting project. Several service laterals will be replaced next week.

The FY2016 Sidewalk Improvements Project was awarded to Ken-Do Construction at Tuesday night’s Council Meeting. Their paperwork is being processed. Projected start date is June 13.

 Bids for the Lions Park Erosion Control project are scheduled to be opened next Thursday, May 26.

Parks and Recreation – Construction continues on the new playground at Willow Run Park. The installers were originally targeting Friday for completion but due to the wet weather, that has been pushed back. Once complete, they will move to Lakeside Park for the installation of that playground.

Recreation — Movies in the Park for Friday, May 20, has been moved indoors due to the weather. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will be shown in the gym at the Recreation Center starting at 8:00 pm.

Fieldhouse — the first week of the transition from Jus’ Balls to our new General Manager, Craig Brasfield, has been smooth and quite beneficial for the seamless changeover to in-house management.

Community — American Legion Post 81 will host a bridge gathering on Duncanville Road and I-20 on Sunday morning from 7:00a – 9:00a to honor our nation’s veterans in the annual Run for the Wall event. Two lanes of southbound Duncanville Road will be closed to traffic to accommodate the event. Fire Department personnel and equipment will also participate, call load permitting. For more information on the Run for the Wall event, please go to http://www.rftw.org.

Economic Development — ED staff is providing assistance on the following potential projects:

 Pitched Duncanville to Capstone Commercial Real Estate Group, Inc. They are a private real estate firm headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The firm specializes in land, industrial, office, retail and investment properties in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. They have relationships with private investors as well as retail site selectors. Prior to the meeting, Capstone had not ever considered finding properties in Duncanville for their investors. However, after our lunch meeting and city driving tour, they are now very excited about the investment opportunities in Duncanville.

ED staff also attended a DFW BisNow Mixed Use Forum in Addison on “How Millenial Growth is Influencing Mixed Use Developments.”

Certificate of Occupancy (CO) Permits Issued:

 Good Life Assisted Living Facility — as mentioned previously.

Permits Applied For:

 Main Street Pickers; 406 N Main St (antiques, vintage furniture, home décor)

 Verizon Wireless Retailer; 111 S Cedar Ridge Dr

Main Intell Rx, Inc.; 623 Mercury (medical consulting