Dear Citizens,
The long lazy days of summer have disappeared into the sunset and the very busy days of fall are upon us. The elections are over and the TV shows have returned without political interruptions. We now need to respect our new president and move on to our community events.
We celebrate our new Insurance Services Office upgrade for our Fire Department. This initiative took some time and work to accomplish and we congratulate our staff members who worked on this project. This will mean lower home insurance rates for our citizens.
Along with the new ISO rating we welcome our new Fire Chief Robert Isbell. Robert served as the Assistant Fire Chief during Chief Koontz's tenure and is familiar to many of our citizens.
The Library renovations are complete with new carpeting, new upholstered chairs and a wonderful new historical/genealogy room. There are also additional study rooms and some large enough for group studies. The conference room has been updated as well and is used for library programs as well as city events.
The Texas Star Conference Centre is coming along. Renovations will be completed by early 2009 and the entire Centre will be open at that time. There will be a larger conference room, smaller conference rooms, a larger kitchen and many other wonderful amenities.
The City Council has approved the tax rate for the 2008-09 year and it remains.47 cents per $100. This will allow staff to provide the many activities at the recreation center and the library. We will continue renovating city facilities and our infrastructure and will follow the five-year plan that is updated each year. We are very fortunate to be able to furnish the necessary services as well as the extraordinary services.
The City Council has completed the appointments for the Boards and Commission members. We thank all our citizens who have served in the past and those who will serve this next year. We appreciate the commitment of citizens who choose to serve.
There are several new businesses in our city and we urge you to visit those businesses and shop in our city. The Shops at Vineyard Village is filling up nicely and there are a couple of new restaurants going in as well as a Sears Appliance store. Glade Parks across the highway is completing its infrastructure and we will see new buildings going up very soon.
The holidays are here and we wish you all a healthy, happy season.
Mary Lib Saleh
Mayor
