Mow the ditches already!

[The Admin]

Ok, small rant on my part, mow the ditches already!!! Good grief, the weeds in the ditches are taller then some cars! More then likely the city will say that it is up to TXDOT, but we are a city, so why can't the city mow? Some houses/businesses have taken it upon themselves to mow the ditches adjacent to their lot, and some haven't.

[ang126]

If we could only get our neighbors at the end of our neighborhood (Lakeridge Meadows) to mow  ...I would be happy!

[The Admin]

Its a bit embarassing at the moment. I'm not sure why the city can't break down and start mowing instead of waiting on TXDOT and the Army Corp of Engineers. The city at some point will need to start taking responbility for the land within its city limits. This definately woudn't go over in Plano.

[LavonVoice]

I don't think that they even have a push mower to mow anything.  Have you seen the Police Station??  It gets mowed only about once every 2 months and it is just weeds, no grass.

[The Admin]

I was thinking that myself. They made a big deal when they opened the new facility, but now they can't even make it look decent, yet alone mow the weeds or clean things up. I thought we had a full time maintenance person now!?!?!  Maybe I'm wrong, I'll have to see if I have an older newsletter laying around. Even if they don't want to landscape, planting grass is cheap, mowing is cheap.

I don't think that they even have a push mower to mow anything.  Have you seen the Police Station??  It gets mowed only about once every 2 months and it is just weeds, no grass.

[LavonVoice]

They tried to make it a glamorous facility, and it is compared to what we have, but I think that the money could have been spent
a little differently. The Fire Station still is not finished.  Constantly having problems at both buildings.
The PD already has a BIG crack on the side of it from the poor foundation, A/C problem at FD all of the time, ran out of money to finish the FD.  The back of the facility looks like a lake when it rains due to poor drainage and not having any concrete around the building.
Not to mention the big drainage hole right in front of the FD making it more difficult to get the truck in and out of the FD.

[ang126]

Sounds like someone..or a lot of someones...needs to play SimCity. Maybe it would help them manage money a little bit better-like being able to fix Lake Rd along with everything else!

[The Admin]

I saw they bought another police car which I had mixed feelings about. I thought they had just bought the SUV in the past year or two and the car shortly before that. It may have been longer though. I am questioning the spending of the money just a little bit. I had thought that they promised to fix the lake road several years ago which never happened. I guess it is time to start going to the city council meetings again to keep tabs on things. They still haven't done anything about the major flooding last spring that flooded my house. I'll get off my soap box now...

They tried to make it a glamorous facility, and it is compared to what we have, but I think that the money could have been spent
a little differently. The Fire Station still is not finished.  Constantly having problems at both buildings.
The PD already has a BIG crack on the side of it from the poor foundation, A/C problem at FD all of the time, ran out of money to finish the FD.  The back of the facility looks like a lake when it rains due to poor drainage and not having any concrete around the building.
Not to mention the big drainage hole right in front of the FD making it more difficult to get the truck in and out of the FD.

[LavonVoice]

The SUV (Explorer) from what I understand is going to be changed to an unmarked vehicle and will the the Lieutenants vehicle.  For some reason, I am thinking that they bought 2 new cars and are going to replace the Crown Vic next year. I am all for them having reliable vehicles because that is their office while on duty and they have to have reliable transportation.  It's not easy to catch up to speeders in a car that is worn out and unsafe.
I heard the other day that the City purchased an asphalt paving machine from somewhere.  It is out getting repaired right now, but should be back shortly.  Hopefully that is what they will use to repair the roadways and will start using it.
As far as the flooding, I may be wrong, but I thought that I had heard it was because of the Grand Heritage construction that was going on during that time period and that it interfered with the drainage culvert along 78 causing the water to back up.

[The Admin]

I do agree with having reliable vehicles, however I'm just hoping that they budget properly and don't spend all the money at once as things do come up unexpectantly.

Regarding the flooding, there are three main issues that occured, two of which still exist. First, there was a 'little' blockage due to the construction at the time, however I don't think that would have made a difference. The two main problems are that the culvert across 78 is too small, and secondly, there is way, way too much water flowing into the ditch next to Exxon. Just last month, or was it the month before, the neighbor across the street had about 8 inches of water in their back yard up to their house and it started flowing from their backyard to the front yard simply because the ditch couldn't handle all the water. And sadly, this was only with 2.5 inches of rain. Take a look at the untilled area of land next to Exxon that is all dead. This is where all the water comes from that flows into the ditch. I believe much of the water is coming from the fields to your right as you wind your way back to LakeRidge Meadows. They need to divert some of the water to a different area. I'm hoping to start attending the City Council meeting again and be a nag :-)