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Hello, Houston citizens! Summer is slowly coming to an end and school is back in session. With that comes a lot of work getting ready for the cooler weather here in the city. Over the last several weeks, and for several weeks to come, you will be seeing our crews out working a lot.
The Houston City Pool will be gearing up to close down for the season ending on Labor Day weekend. Currently, it will only be open on Saturdays since school has now started and many of our lifeguards are in high school and also involved in fall sports.
The Houston Fire Department flushed hydrants and ensured the hydrants are working properly. While doing so, they also worked on clearing out culverts that were nearby to help allow water to flow through them more freely. This will help alleviate some of the backlog we get in the city ditches that go over the roads.
The public grounds crew has been busy mowing with the recent rains, painting the pedestrian crossings, clearing out bumpers downtown, upkeeping sidewalks and patching roads. We will be looking at painting and patching Grand Avenue on a Sunday morning (to be determined) and we’ll keep you all informed on the road closure for that. The city’s asphalt program will be starting and we are asking citizens that if you are on the roads they are asphalting to please keep your vehicles off the sides of the roads.
The finance committee also met and worked hard on looking at the best options for the city’s certificates of deposit. After several meetings and then talking with the local banks, the committee brought forth a proposal to secure higher rates than what we previously had. The finance committee also met and discussed different funding options for the purchase of land for the potential site of the quadplex from the Safe Community, Active Community tax. This is an exciting process where we have looked now at potential engineers and have been in communication with potential land sellers.
The search continues for a city administrator and we are excited about some potential candidates. We have also put out for a deputy clerk position and will be looking to fill the community planning and development role. You will also see some more faces downstairs when you walk into city hall as we add the deputy clerk and our city clerk back downstairs to help better serve the citizens of Houston. The city has also hired a full-time golf course groundskeeper to help keep the golf course greens looking great.
As the city keeps progressing forward, we are excited to see the teamwork between organizations, the community and the city. Coming up are some great events from color runs, Fall Fest, downtown trick or treating, parades, homecoming reunions and 5k’s. Another great item we have added to the city’s Facebook page is “Thankful Thursdays” where we get to showcase one of the many great businesses in town and get the word out about all the great places we have here in Houston. For more information on our business spotlights, email me at vnarancich@houstonmo.org. It has been another great month in the city with many projects getting finished.
VIKI NARANCICH,
MAYOR,
CITY OF HOUSTON