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News from Town Hall
Mayor Mike Donnelly
July 2010
Girl Scouts perform Flag Presentation at Town Council Meeting
Girl Scout Junior Troop 802 and Girl Scout Brownie Troop 8872 members, at the June 7th council meeting, presented the flags and led the pledges. They did an outstanding job and the town was honored.
Christi Rogers is the leader of Girl Scout Troop 802 and the CoLeader is Mary Johnson. Members of the troop are: Camryn Rogers, Nikki Johnson, Emma Bredenkamp, Kierstin Eaddy, Harley Simpson and Makayla Kockler.
Devonna Eaddy is the Troop 8872 CoLeader. Members of the troop are: Natalie Eaddy, Zoe Mertz and Riley Halford.
Great job Girl Scouts and Thank You!
Town Council elects Mayor Pro Tem and Deputy Mayor Pro Tem
At the June 7th council meeting, the town council elected Tom Pidcock to serve this term as Mayor Pro Tem and Tracy Scott Miller to serve as Deputy Mayor Pro Tem. Tracy also has the responsibility of serving as the Town Treasurer. Both men, as well as the remaining members of your council John Dondrea, Dr. Ara Minassian and Gary Garrett, are doing a terrific job and are excellent representatives and stewards for our town.
Double Oak Public Works Projects
Pepperport Lane
The town has an agreement with Denton County to reconstruct this road. County work crews have scraped up the old road, added new road base and have poured and rolled new asphalt. They have also worked to improve drainage along the road in bar ditches and culverts. The town will contract to have additional work performed to close out this project in the near future. The town thanks all the residents on Pepperport for your patience and we hope you all enjoy the new road in front of your homes. The town thanks Denton County Commissioner Andy Eads for all of his help and Mike Burton, Mike Riley and all Denton County Road and Bridge West Employees.
As I reported last month, the council wisely bid out four town roads for asphalt overlays and most of those bids came in within the estimated range. As most municipalities are discovering when bidding projects, now is a great opportunity to realize some cost savings with bids coming in lower than forecast estimates. Double Oak realized true cost savings when we awarded the bid to Peachtree Company to resurface Creekside, Knob Hill, Oakview and Rancho Vista. The project has started and crews will be in the area working so please drive with caution.
Denton County Trip ’08 Town Bond Projects
The final design plans for Simmons Road continue to be drawn up for bid towards the end of July. Previous columns have talked about aspects of the project such as temporary mailboxes. Once the project is complete, mailboxes will be restored. Simmons will become a concrete road, which will give it a longer life and save the town money with repairs. The project will last approximately one year from start. Driveway culverts will be replaced which means parts of driveways will be torn up and replaced as the project moves along. There will be road detours at times. The final design will have saved as many trees as possible, but some within the right-of-way, for much needed drainage improvements, will have to be removed. The town and those on Simmons will have a nice new road with needed drainage improvements when the project is complete.
The Waketon Road improvement project will be funded in the next calendar year.
The town will do its best to keep residents updated via this column and the town website at www.double-oak.com.
FM 407 Widening Project
This update is only for the section from Chinn Chapel west towards Lantana Trail.
All right-of-way for this section of the FM407 project has been acquired. As reported previously, project modifications have been made which eliminated the need for any additional ROW from the Double Oak side.
The project design is now at 60% completion which will allow the utility providers to start the designs for their relocation plans.
The project contract let date is currently stated for May 2011. It is possible that the let date may be adjusted. The town will pass along new information as it receives updates.
Again, lots of thanks to TxDOT, John Polster of ITS, Chris Hocate of BWR and Denton County and Commissioner Andy Eads for all of their help and for working with the residents and neighborhoods in Double Oak which adjoin FM407.
Simmons Road/Meece Gas Well Site
A representative for Williams Co. spoke at the May 17th council meeting and informed the public that Williams Co. intends to resume natural gas drilling from this site. He said Williams Co. already has town residents under current lease agreements and Williams representatives are speaking with homeowners, gas committee groups and neighborhood HOAs to try and secure additional lease agreements. Their intent is to have all available town residents under a Williams Co. lease agreement. At some point, Williams Co. will submit their plans to request gas drilling permit(s) from the town. There are town processes which will have to be followed.
Update as of June 24th, 2010
The Williams Company submitted gas drilling permit applications with the town today. Today’s filing is for drilling of their first five gas wells, with future plans to drill as many as 22 gas wells. The Williams Company would like to enlarge the current drill site to accommodate their drilling plans. As stated above, there are town processes in place which Williams will have to follow for consideration to increase the property site size, including public hearings and public meetings.
The Williams Company has notified me of a company website devoted to the Town of Double Oak: http://williamsinthebarnett.com/towns/double%20oak/
Town staff will place this link on our town website.
Town Employee Anniversaries and Recognition
The council congratulates Double Oak Police Officer Scot Frenzen on his three year anniversary with the town. Also, congratulations to Double Oak Police Reserve Officer Michael Huffman on his four year anniversary with the town. Thank you both for your service.
Double Oak Volunteer Fire Department 30th annual 4th of July Parade & Picnic
Reminder: All festivities will be held on Saturday, July 3rd
For more info please visit: www.dovfd.org or www.double-oak.com
This annual celebration is just days away and the DOVFD volunteers are working hard to make everything nice for the event. They have already built new horseshoe pits for those who will compete there. There is always great music, food and beverages. It is nice to see and visit with former residents who come back to attend this event. Thanks DOVFD members.
The 2nd annual Declaration Dash will be held prior to the DOVFD parade and picnic. This event is hosted by the North Texas Striders Running Club. For more information please visit the town website www.double-oak.com.
2010-2011 Budget Work Begins
The town fiscal year runs from October 1st thru the end of September. In preparation of the upcoming new fiscal year, council and department heads will begin to draft budget proposals. Town Treasurer Tracy Miller works closely with the department heads and Assistant Town Secretary Eileen Kennedy to assist them during the process. There will be posted agenda items to discuss the budget proposals and the town is also required to hold public hearings before adopting the budget and tax rate. The adoption of the budget and tax rate normally occurs in the month of September. You can find our current fiscal year budget posted on our town website.
Thanks to those who help the town
Double Oak is very fortunate to have such wonderful residents and organizations that volunteer and help out. One such person is Double Oak resident Robert Reeder. Robert lives in town and owns Heads Up Irrigation. Robert also is a volunteer on the Double Oak Volunteer Fire Department. Recently, it was discovered that some irrigation heads and lines at town hall were not operating correctly. We contacted Robert and his crew responded quickly to check out the system. He and his crew made the necessary repairs and checked out the entire sprinkler system for us. The repairs and system check up will help save the town money with a properly operating sprinkler system. Thank you Robert and Heads Up Irrigation.
Double Oak Women’s Club Awards Scholarships
The Double Oak Women’s Club awarded scholarships to two college bound seniors from Double Oak at their May meeting.
Congratulations to Lillian Haynes, daughter of Kevin and Celia Haynes and to Nicole Ramsey, daughter of Mike and Laura Ramsey.
From town hall and the council, we hope all Double Oak residents have a wonderful and safe summer.
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