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February 2016 CITY CONNECTION Volume 12, Issue 2 February 2016 Calendar February 2016 2 - City Council meeting at 6:00 p.m. 3 - Yard Waste Trimming Collection 4 - Planning Commission at 5:30 p.m. 10 - Heavy Trash & Large Yard Waste 16 - City Council meeting at 6:00 p.m. 17 - Yard Waste Trimming Collection 18 - Planning Commission at 5:30 p.m. 24 - Heavy Trash & Large Yard Waste March 2016 1 - City Council Meeting at 6:00 p.m. 2 - Texas Independence Day & Sam Houston’s Birthday celebration events 2 - Yard Waste Trimming Collection 3 - Planning Commission at 12 p.m. 5 - Trash Bash, 8-noon (see page 4) 9 - Heavy Trash & Large Yard Waste 15 - City Council Meeting at 6:00 p.m. 16 - Yard Waste Trimming Collection 17 - HUB Vendor Show (see page 4) 17 - Planning Commission at 5:30 p.m. 23 - Heavy Trash & Large Yard Waste 30 - Yard Waste Trimming Collection Submit requests for Heavy Trash pick-up before noon on Wednesday, the week prior to pick-up, at 294-5796. Learn more about City events at www.huntsvilletx.gov At the January 19 meeting, the City Council adopted an or- dinance calling for a special election to be held on May 7, 2016. The selection of former At-Large Councilmember Position 1 Andy Brauninger as Mayor in December left an open seat on the Council dais. Residents who meet the state and City Charter require- ments may file an application for a place on the ballot in the City Secretary’s office through March 7 at 5 p.m. Any qualified voter of the city of Huntsville may cast a ballot in this election, as At-Large Councilmember positions are se- lected citywide. The At-Large Position 1 Councilmember elected will serve the remainder of the current term, but will then have to run again in November this year, if they wish to try to retain the seat for its next term. Candidate Packets for the 2015 City of Huntsville General Election are available through the office of the City Secre- tary at City Hall, 1212 Avenue M, or on the City web site at http://www.huntsvilletx.gov/Elections. The City of Huntsville application fee is one dollar, per City Charter mandate. City Secretary Lee Woodward acknowl- edged members of the public may have questions about the responsibilities of Councilmembers. “The City Secretary’s office provides the candidate pack- ets, which include general information, a brief of the state election calendar, and references for guidelines and stat- utes,” Woodward said. “Anyone is welcome to learn more about the duties of Councilmembers and how the election process is conducted, even if they have no desire to run for office. The steps to becoming and the obligations of an elected Councilmember are many and varied.” For more information, email citysecretary@huntsvilletx.gov, call 936-291-5403, or visit the City's Elections page at http://www.huntsvilletx.gov/Elections. Special Election Called Candidate filing open through March 7 for Council vacancy Page 2 CITY CONNECTION National Book Awards Festival Comes to Town For a third year, the National Book Foundation returns to Huntsville in the springtime with the National Book Awards Festival. This budding literary occasion brings recent National Book Award Finalists to town for three days of events. It's an outreach program that exists to promote reading and American literature on the SHSU campus, in the community, and in the public schools, with the goal of bringing books (and the worlds contained within them) to people who might not otherwise have access to them. The 2016 guests will be Fiction Finalist Angela Flournoy, Finalist in Young People's Literature Noelle Stevenson, and Poetry Finalist Ada Limòn. Join them all at the Huntsville Public Library’s Community Room from 5-6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 16, to share the warm welcome Huntsville’s known for. Then make plans for the main event on Friday, March 18, be- ginning at 6 p.m. in the Concert Hall of the Gaertner Center for Perform- ing Arts. Steph Optiz, former literary director of the Texas Book Festival and fiction co-chair of the Brooklyn Book Festival in New York, will serve as the moderator for the onstage interviews. There will be other opportunities to meet and interact with the authors and learn more about their books and the National Book Foundation dur- ing this free festival, including activities at the Huntsville Public Library and the Wynne Home. For more info., visit www.shsu.edu/nba or follow at www.facebook.com/shsubookawards or @shsubookawards. Residential customers - winterize your sewer charge Water meter usage for the months of November through February is used to calculate your new sewer average monthly charge for the next twelve months. Conscious- ly reducing your water usage during these months could lower your sewer charge. A method to reduce usage in- cludes limiting or completely eliminating outside water- ing. The new sewer average charge will be effective with the April billing (due in May). “We advise residents to limit outdoor watering, such as washing cars, in order to keep water consumption down during winter months,” said Jerri Weaver, City of Hunts- ville Billing and Revenue Manager. “Also, residents should be aware of any water leaks and make sure to have those repaired.” For more information, contact City of Huntsville Utility Billing at (936) 291-5431. Take the Survey! The City of Huntsville Parks & Leisure Department would like your help as they develop a new Parks and Recreation Master Plan. The department has been meeting with groups of residents to get feedback on potential projects and priorities. The survey used is also available online for a few more weeks, for anyone to take at any time of day or night. “This survey will be used for long-range planning in our community,” said Penny Joiner, Administrative Coordinator for the department. “The large-scale projects you will be asked about in the survey have been brought to staff's at- tention by citizens and advisory board members. It's a quick and easy survey that will help us determine what you would like to see happen in your community in terms of quality of life from a parks and recreation standpoint.” Access the survey on the City’s website at http://www.huntsvilletx.gov/158/Parks-Recreation. Save the Date - HOT Fund Workshop coming up March 24 Those interested in applying for Hotel Occupancy Tax funds for local events to entice tourists to the area this year must attend the March 24th HOT Fund Workshop. This informative day will be held at the Huntsville Public Library’s Community Room from 8-4. Attendance is $25.00 and includes lunch. Reservations can be made by contacting the City Tourism and Cultural Services Department at 936-291-9726 or check their website at www.huntsvilletexas.com for more information. Page 3 CITY CONNECTION 35th ANNUAL MARCH 2 CELEBRATIONS IN HUNTSVILLE ANNOUNCED The Walker County Historical Commission, the Sam Houston Memorial Museum, and the City of Huntsville’s Sam Houston Statue and Visitors Center announces the 35th Annual Texas Independence Day and General Sam Houston’s Birthday Cel- ebration in Huntsville on Wednesday, March 2, 2016. Festivities get under way on March 2 with a coffee and reception from 9:15 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. at the Gibbs-Powell House Walker County Museum, 1228 11th Street. At 10:15 a.m. the traditional march to Sam Houston’s gravesite at Oakwood Cemetery will assemble at Austin Hall (located on the campus of Sam Houston State University) and proceed to Sam Houston’s grave along University Avenue led by the SHSU ROTC and students. A special ceremony will take place at 11:00 a.m. to honor General Sam Houston at his gravesite in Oakwood Cemetery (Sam Houston Memorial Drive at 9th Street). This year’s featured speaker is Denton Florian, Executive Director of the Sam Houston Project. He is a native Texan and graduate of both the University of Texas at Austin and Texas State University. In addition to his work in the private and nonprofit sectors in operations, team building and organization change, he has pur- sued his lifelong interest in early American history. He organized and led the team that produced the celebrated documen- tary, Sam Houston, which won five EMMY Awards. The gravesite ceremony will include a “Baptized Texan Ceremony.” As featured in the March 2013 issue of Texas High- ways magazine, this is a way for non-Native Texans to burnish their Lone Star credentials. Being “baptized” as a Texan at Sam Houston’s gravesite on Texas Independence Day is an event to be experienced. (In case of inclement weather, the gravesite ceremony will be held at Mance Park Middle School located near Oakwood Cemetery.) Immediately following the ceremony is a buffet luncheon at 12:30 p.m. at the Gibbs Conference Hall, Katy & E. Don Walk- er, Sr. Education Center, 1402 19th Street. The day culminates at 2:00 p.m. at the Sam Houston Statue and Visitors Cen- ter with a “Toast to Texas” and birthday cake and a special commemorative award. Reservations are required for the “Baptized Texan Ceremony” by February 15 and for the luncheon by February 25, 2016. For more information on reservations and payment please contact Jamie Matthews at jmatthews@huntsvilletx.gov via email or call 936-291-5931. For more details on the March 2nd schedule of events visit www.walkercountyhistory.org, www.samhoustonmemorialmuseum.com or www.huntsvilletexas.com. Sam Houston connections - On March 19, Maryville, Tennessee will be unveiling its new statue of Sam Houston as the young man he was when he lived there from 1807-1813. The figure portrays the 20-year-old patriot as he left Maryville for the military and a life of greatness. The theme of the statue and the surrounding plaza is “You shall hear of me!” which supposedly is the last thing Houston said on his way out of town. We hope to have photos and news for you in the April City Connection, but look for more on the City web site and future issues of This Week in Huntsville. Pancake Dinner for Literacy! Love eating breakfast for dinner and sup- porting good causes? The Kiwanis Club will be holding their famous Pancake Supper at the Huntsville Public Library on Friday, February 19, at 5:30 p.m. For $5, come enjoy all you can eat pancakes, sausages, and drinks. Proceeds help support literacy programs at the Huntsville Public Library. (Pssst! - There’s tons more going on at the library this month, just not room for it here. Find it all at www.MyHuntsvilleLibrary.com, or by subscribing to This Week in Hunts- ville, the City’s digital newsletter, which comes out twice a month.) Put the 20th Annual HUB Show on your calendar The City of Huntsville, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Sam Houston State University, the SHSU Small Business Development Center, and Walker County will together sponsor the 20th Annual Historically Underuti- lized Business (HUB)/Vendor Show. The HUB/Vendor Show will be held in the Walker County Storm Shelter located on Highway 75 North, on March 17, 2016. From 10-11 a.m. there will be a training session which will provide detailed information on how to do business with government entities, with presenters including the State of Texas and the City of Huntsville. Lunch for participating vendors will be served immediately following the training, to allow more opportunity to net- work, with introductions and opening remarks beginning at 11:30. The HUB/Vendor Show is scheduled to con- clude at 2:30 p.m. “The main objective of the show is to assist vendors in the Huntsville area increase their customer base to in- clude government entities,” Smith said. “Each level of government has slightly different bidding requirements and this can be daunting to the vendors. The sponsors will be available to discuss various details pertaining to their purchasing processes and procedures. These will include Sharon Schultz, HUB Director with the Texas Depart- ment of Criminal Justice; Robert Barragan, Director of the SHSU Small Business Development Center; SHSU As- sistant Director of Contract Management Bob Chapa; Walker County Purchasing Agent Mike Williford; and Billie Smith, City of Huntsville Purchasing Manager. All will be available to address any questions related to their entity's purchasing procedures. “While there will be no charge for booth space or to attend any part of the event, booth space will be provided on a first-come, first-serve basis,” Smith said. “Vendors from all across the state attend each year, and, during the last several years, we have reached capacity prior to opening day.” For more information, contact Billie Smith at (936) 291-5495. To register a company for booth space, call Ruby Cowan, TDCJ HUB Coordinator, at (936) 437-3128.