April showers bring May flowers, right? We are finally getting the rain we have needed for quite some time. While we’ve had several good downpours and periods of steady rain, we still need to be mindful of our water consumption and conserve where we can. The city has just launched a new water usage monitoring site – Eye on Water – to help our residents gauge their water usage.
The site, found at www.eyeonwater.com, provides our residents with their daily meter read, a visual representation of their water usage by hour, day, month or year and a comparison of weekly and monthly usage. For those of you who are really into water conservation, the site includes the ability to view your water usage in relation to the average daily temperature, the maximum daily temperature and the daily precipitation. It’s all a little too “techie” for me, however I know we have many in our community who will use the tools provided on this site on a regular basis. What I do like most about the new site is the ability to receive a notification if there is a potential leak. I was surprised to learn we typically have 50-70 households per day that have some sort of water leak.
By signing up to receive the leak notification these residents can address the problem, save money on their water bill and conserve water too. And of course the new site has an app available as well so you can monitor your usage on your phone or tablet. I encourage our residents to create an account and at the very least sign up to receive the leak notifications. Detailed instructions are available on the city website. We need to be conscientious and good stewards of this natural resource.
This month is local election time and we should all exercise our democratic right and go vote. We cancelled our election here in Highland Village as all four seats up for election are uncontested, but we are still a polling location for the LISD election. I would like to thank our residents for their vote of confidence in the current leadership of our city. My seat as mayor was up for re-election to fill the last year of this term and my fellow council members Mike Lombardo, Fred Busche and Bill Meek were also up for re-election. We will all be sworn into our next terms at our second meeting in May. I’d like to take this opportunity to tell you a little about your “re-elected” Council members.
Mike Lombardo is our newest member. Mike was appointed to Council to fill my unexpired term. Mike served on Planning & Zoning since 2012 and was Vice Chairman before being appointed to Council. He serves as Director of Business Development Support for SP Plus Corporation which is the largest parking management firm in North America. Mike and his wife have lived in Highland Village since 2001 and have children in the LISD school system.
Fred Busche returned to Council in 2012. Fred previously served on Council, the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and was the city liaison to the Denton County Transportation Authority. Fred serves as our city historian and he’s one of the “water techies” extremely excited about our new water usage monitoring system.
Bill Meek was elected to Council in May 2009 and also served on the Zoning Board of Adjustment. He owns and operates an insurance and financial services business. Bill is a retired Navy Captain and served our country for more than 30 years.
Me, well many of you know me well. My husband, Terry, and I have lived in Highland Village since 1995. I am a realtor with RE/MAX Cross Country and co-owner of Wilcox Pest Control. I served on Planning and Zoning Commission before my election to Council.
I can speak for my other council members and say we appreciate the vote of confidence in allowing us to continue in our leadership role with the City. I do encourage you to consider applying to serve on a board or commission. Service on a board is an excellent way to learn about the city and then run for city council. We do have term limits here in Highland Village, so we need people interested in serving and leading our city to run for public office.
Highland Village is a wonderful community and I invite you to celebrate with us at our annual Celebrate Highland Village event on Saturday, June 6. Celebrate Highland Village will feature the 5K run, the fish out and the celebration of Arbor Day in the morning at Unity Park. That evening we’ll head over to Pilot Knoll Park for live music from Josh Grider and Zane Williams and cap off the evening with the fireworks extravaganza.
This is our third year to hold this event at Pilot Knoll Park and we’ve made some improvements. There is no onsite parking at Pilot Knoll Park so the two ways to get in and out of the event are to park just outside of the Park and shuttle in, or walk along the designated walking path or park at Marcus High School and shuttle to the event. We will have a kids area and food and drink vendors at Pilot Knoll Park. Bring your chairs or blankets and come enjoy an evening of music, food and fireworks. This event is free.
I hope to see you there!