NORTHEAST HOUSTON At their Annual Meeting and Workshop last month, the East Aldine District board reviewed accomplishments from the year 2009, and set goals and budgets for the coming 2010 year.
The workshop was led by Executive Director David Hawes and his staff, including Economic Development Director Gretchen Larson, Water and Sewer Director Scott Bean, and Director of Services Richard Cantu.
Scott Bean and Buddy Barnes of Engineering Company Montgomery & Barnes, reviewed water and sewer infrastructure projects. This included in 2009 water and sewer connections to residences in North Houston Heights and Inwood Place, and the engineering design for connections in Sherwood Place and Benton Place, among others. For 2010, other projects were discussed. In North Houston Heights, which is finished, 87 homes out of 103 eligible were connected to the system.
Buddy Barnes and Butch Babineaux of Wilbur Smith Associates discussed mobility and transportation accomplishments, including grant proposals submitted to TxDOT under the Safe Routes to Schools program, preliminary engineering designs for intersection, signage and striping improvements, and a traffic study for Aldine Mail Route. Improvements planned along Aldine-Westfield will include widening at intersections and new signalization, at Lauder, Hopper, and Aldine Bender. Bertrand will be widened but not signalized. A Transit Survey is being circulated in the District, to determine bus needs and destinations. Improvements to Aldine Mail Route were noted as important because the street has three times the state average for accidents.
Future mobility projects being considered are an extension of JFK from Aldine Mail to E. Mt. Houston, construction of a through east-west road, Gulf Bank/Mt. Houston from Hardy Toll Road to US59, rebuilding of Aldine Mail Route from Aldine Westfield to US59, and widening of Aldine Westfield from Little York to Aldine Bender.
Darren Weinheimer of Kudela & Weinheimer, presented a progress report on signage and median improvements. He displayed a sample street sign and a Keep Aldine Green sign.
David Hawes discussed Economic Development and Security and Public Safety programs. He noted the redesign of the District web site, the transit study, completion of marketing brochures, a police appreciation event, and the relocation of our gang unit into the sheriff s control, but then the housing of it in our storefront offices. Our website is: www.aldinedistrict.org.
Public Safety included the bike patrols in Keith Weiss Park, partnership with Greenspoint Mall on an auto theft sheriffs unit, financial support of the public safety center in Greenspoint Mall, and overtime pay for hot spot patrols.
Parks and Green Spaces were discussed with Mr. Joe Turner, head of the City of Houston Parks Department. He informed the board of a number of improvements underway for Keith-Weiss Park. He said that the City of Houston budget had $2 million for Keith-Weiss improvements.
Of the 360 parks in Houston, only 8 are considered signature parks, including Keith-Weiss. He spoke of recently clearing 100 acres of trees in the park, to open recreation areas, and of stocking the ponds with fish. He proposed a joint project for a permanent building in the park to house full-time management of the park, and as a base for sheriffs bike patrols.
Mr. Hawes introduced architects from the PGAL firm, who will undertake a feasibility study of a multi-purpose town center building for the District, and possible sites including a portion of Keith-Weiss park or adjacent to it.
Following the review of 2009 accomplishments, the discussion turned to budgets for the year 2010. Due to economic conditions in the country, it is anticipated that revenues will be reduced this year, perhaps as much as 15 per cent.
Changes from last years budget included the following recommendations: Street light outage survey, $1890; additional Sheriffs patrol overtime, $99,415; IT or computer maintenance, $3600; PGAL study contract, $15,500; facility building in Keith-Weiss park, $393,180; community garden project, $18,000; signage, 556,182; and landscaping and entry monumentation signs, $6577,724. Upon discussion led by director Townsend, the Community Development Fund, which funds grants and programs for local agencies, was increased from $139,241 to $265,000 in anticipation of a rise in requests. Additionally, small increases in fees to Hawes Hill and attorney Tim Austin were approved.
The summary of the budget resulted in an amount for 2010 of $2,864,000, compared with $3,400,000 for the previous year 2009.