Hello Double Oak Citizens. On Sept. 25th, at the Town Council special meeting to approve the 2023-24 Double Oak Budget, Assistant Chief Gaines shared with citizens and council that the Double Oak Police Department is now fully staffed.
Congratulations to Chief Rivas and Assistant Chief Gaines for building back the department over the past year or so. It is a challenging task in this competitive world of recruiting officers.
Double Oak is protected 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, by a full-time law enforcement team. It is the mission of the Double Oak Police Department to maintain a safe and peaceful community environment by providing adequate and efficient law enforcement services through community partnerships, public education, and quality service.
Chief Ruben Rivas leads the DOPD with Cassandra Gaines as Assistant Chief. The department consists of a detective/sergeant, a corporal, six officers, and one reserve officer.
Being at full staff will enable the Chief to adjust schedules and take some burden off those officers who have stepped up and taken extra shifts to ensure Double Oak has full 24-hour coverage.
Congratulations to the Double Oak Police Department for the fantastic work that they do to protect our citizens.
2023-2024 Budget Approved
On Sept. 21st, the Double Oak Town Council approved its 2023-24 budget and met its no-new-revenue rate target for property tax.
The new rate of 17.8 cents per $100 of value will produce the same amount of tax revenue for the town as the current rate of 19.8 cents due to rising property values.
The more than three-hour meeting was highlighted by debate between citizens and the town council regarding merit pay for the town’s employees, including the Double Oak police officers. Throughout the budget process, all parties gave and took; ultimately, merit pay was approved for all town employees.
There was excellent debate during the meeting between citizens, town administration, and town council. Not everyone got exactly what they wanted from the budget, but the town council did approve an increase in merit pay for the town officers which was more than what was included in the first pass at the budget.
Double Oak’s roads were also a winner in the budget process, as the town council funded new mill and, overlay, and crack seal projects, all included in next year’s budget.
Council also approved an interlocal agreement for services with Span Transportation, a nonprofit that provides meals and transportation to seniors, people with disabilities, and veterans, with funds from the 2023-24 budget.
Hazardous Waste Day
Double Oak hosted a Hazardous Waste Day on Sept. 16th at Town Hall. The event was a tremendous success. Trucks and cars were lined up onto Waketon, waiting to be unloaded. We saw many citizens who made multiple trips to rid themselves of household hazardous waste, e-waste, and document shredding. We will plan to host the same event in September 2024. For those citizens who missed out this year, please mark your calendars.
New Speed Tracker Trailer
On Aug. 21st, council unanimously approved 5-0 to purchase a SAM Radar Speed Trailer and 10 new speed limit signs to post around town. The trailer arrived early, and Chief Rivas put it to work. Once DOPD has enough data on the specific streets and traffic, the Chief will begin to adjust the scheduling of our officers to ensure we have the right coverage and the correct times to slow this pass-through traffic down to posted speed limits.
Citizens may also notice yellow signs that say “City Wide” have been added to many Double Oak speed limit signage. This ensures the message gets out that Double Oak only has one speed limit. Unless you travel in our posted school zone during certain hours, the speed limit in Double Oak is 30 mph.
What is next for the Double Oak Town Council? Ordinances and Drainage
Double Oak will be 50 years old next May. The town has had significant growth throughout these years. As the town was built out, many ordinances were created to put limits and control how the town would operate. Over the years, some of these ordinances have become obsolete and still exist in Double Oak. Over the next several months, the Town Council will evaluate and adjust our ordinances to reflect more of today vs. the past.
As they evaluate the ordinances, the town council and mayor will share in Friday updates, emails, and council agenda items the ordinances that need discussions to make necessary changes.
In October, the town council expects to get the first pass on the drainage study that our engineering partner Halff and Associates has been compiling. The town council and mayor will do a thorough review and hold up to four public meetings to present the findings to the town’s citizens.
This will be a work in process and will take some time to evaluate the results adequately.
More to follow on this topic.
Thank you for taking the time to read this update and, more importantly, being involved citizens in this Great Town called Double Oak!
Any opinions expressed in this update are my thoughts and not officially those of the Town of Double Oak or the Town Council. I welcome all comments and suggestions. Be sure to catch all exciting news or updates; please visit the Double Oak Town website at www.doubleoak.texas.gov. In addition to contacting Town Hall at 972-539-9464, Double Oak citizens may reach me at [email protected].
