December 2005 City ConnectionDECEMBER 2005
City Connection
M er r y
Ch ri s t ma s
Fire Chief Tom Grisham urges all
citizens of Huntsville to use caution
this holiday season. Holiday deco-
rations can be found cheap at
times, but, those cheap items may
be made from cheap mate-
rial. Make sure that all of your elec-
tronic items have a UL listing, which
is a symbol that proves that the
item has been tested by an inde-
pendent lab to assure its
safety. Listed below you will find
more holiday safety tips;
Preventing Holiday Tree Fires
• Holiday Tree Fire Hazards - .
Special fire safety precautions need
to be taken when keeping a live
tree in the house. A burning tree
can rapidly fill a room with fire and
deadly gases.
• Selecting a Tree for the Holiday
Needles on fresh trees should be
green and hard to pull back from
the branches, and the needle should
not break if the tree has been
freshly cut. The trunk should be
sticky to the touch. Old trees can be
identified by bouncing the tree
trunk on the ground. If many nee-
dles fall off, the tree has been cut
too long, has probably dried out,
and is a fire hazard.
• Caring for Your Tree Do not
place your tree close to a heat
source, including a fireplace or heat
vent. The heat will dry out the tree,
causing it to be more easily ignited
by heat, flame or sparks. Be careful
not to drop or flick cigarette ashes
near a tree. Do not put your live
tree up too early or leave it up for
longer than two weeks. Keep the
tree stand filled with water at all
times.
Disposing of Your Tree Never
put tree branches or needles in
a fireplace or woodburning
stove. When the tree becomes
dry, discard it promptly. The
best way to dispose of your
tree is by taking it to a recy-
cling center or having it hauled
away by a community pick-up
service.
Holiday Lights
• Maintain Your Holiday Lights
Inspect holiday lights each year for
frayed wires, bare spots, gaps in
the insulation, broken or cracked
sockets, and excessive kinking or
wear before putting them up. Use
only lighting listed by an approved
testing laboratory.
• Do Not Overload Electrical
Outlets Do not link more than
three light strands, unless the
directions indicate it is safe. Con-
nect strings of lights to an exten-
sion cord before plugging the cord
into the outlet. Make sure to peri-
odically check the wires - they
should not be warm to the touch.
• Do Not Leave Holiday Lights
on Unattended
Holiday Decorations
• Use Only Nonflammable Deco-
rations All decorations should be
nonflammable or flame-retardant
and placed away from heat vents.
• Never Put Wrapping Paper in a
Fireplace It can throw off danger-
ous sparks and produce a chemical
buildup in the home that could
cause an explosion.
Artificial Holiday Trees If you are
using a metallic or artificial tree,
make sure it is flame retardant.
Candle Care
• Avoid Using Lit Candles If you
do use them, make sure they are
in stable holders and place them
where they cannot be easily
knocked down. Never leave the
house with candles burning.
• Never Put Lit Candles on a
Tree Do not go near a holiday tree
with an open flame - candles,
lighters or matches.
Finally, as in every season, have
working smoke alarms installed on
every level of your home, test
them monthly and keep them
clean and equipped with fresh bat-
teries at all times. Know when and
how to call for help. And remember
to practice your home escape plan.
If you have any questions or con-
cerns, please feel free to visit or
call your Huntsville Fire Depart-
ment. Fire Chief Tom Grisham and
his staff look forward to helping
you in any way to make sure you
and yours have a safe and happy
holiday season.
Holiday Decoration Safety Tips
December 2005
Volume 2, Number 3
www.huntsvilletx.gov
What Causes
Water Lines
2
Street News 2
Street Sweep-
ing News
3
Solid Waste
December
Holiday
Schedule
3
Christmas
Tree Pick Up
3
Did You 4
City Calen-
dar
4
Reminder!!!
Food Ser-
vice Estab-
lishments
4
Changes in
Utility Bill-
ing Process
4
News from
the Wynne
Home
4
Inside this
issue:
Happy New Year
anytime of the day, so minimal dam-
age will occur to personal property or
to prevent loss of service to other citi-
zens. Sometimes emergency repairs
have to be made immediately and
there is no option other than shutting
down a portion of the system for as
long as it takes to safely make the
necessary repairs. Customers are
notified when routine maintenance
or system upgrades are performed
that involve service interruption.
The Water Division must have all
other utilities clearly marked before
any excavation can take place such
as electric, phone and gas lines.
These lines are buried in the ground
along with the water mains. Once
the other utilities have been located
the service crew can begin to exca-
vate the site and depending on the
location of the leak various pieces of
equipment may be required to make
the repair. The repair may consist of
either cutting in a new piece of pipe
or simply installing a stainless steel
repair clamp to cover a small crack in
the pipe wall. Once the repair is
complete the crew will make every
effort to restore the dig site to its
original condition or better.
Water line failures occur in yards,
and under streets and driveways
without warning. The City of Hunts-
ville remains diligent in our efforts to
keep the water main failures from
impacting the lives of our citizens.
Water mains are all over the City
of Huntsville in various sizes
ranging from 2” to 30” in diame-
ter. Water mains fail due to a
variety of reasons such as aging
pipe, dry soils (cracking or moving
soils), contractor error
(construction equipment damag-
ing pipes) and air surges in the
mains.
The Water Services Division has
personnel on call 24 hrs a day 7
days a week for any water or
wastewater emergency. There
are several steps that one should
follow when reporting a water
leak.
Try to determine whether or not
the leak is on the City of Hunts-
ville lines or the customer’s line.
The City of Huntsville line stops
at the meter.
Call the 24 hr emergency
phone number 294-5700 and re-
port the leak, give the location
nature of the problem, address,
and call back contact information.
The City of Huntsville encourages
citizens to call in emergencies
What Causes Water Lines to Fail?
placed on them this winter. If we can-
not chip seal this fall, the streets will be
ready to go early next spring. This same
crew has been getting the final mowing
done on the right of ways and the air-
port for the year.
These projects should be
followed by reconstruction
of the roads at the A.J.
Brown Wastewater Treat-
ment Plant. Plans are to
recycle in place and stabi-
lize the existing subgrade,
base and pavement followed by 6 inches
of full depth hot mix asphalt pavement.
This should give the facility a durable
pavement that will last for many years
into the future. Eventually, the plan is
to follow this same procedure
all the way from the entrance
of the plant out to Hwy 19.
These projects along with the usual
work load will keep the men of the
Street Division busy well into this
time next year.
Due to the unusually dry
weather this fall, the Street
crews have been rather busy.
The 1st Street Extension, a
project several years in the making, is
well on its way to becoming a reality.
Dependant upon the weather conditions,
curb and gutter placement may be on
the way by the first week of December,
with construction of drainage structures
followed by the place-
ment of hot mix asphalt
pavement. The project
should be complete by
the first of the year.
The right of way mainte-
nance crew has been
crack sealing streets all of November.
The Smith Hill area and the Avenues
have been the primary targets of this
operation. Again, depending upon the
weather staying dry and mild, some or
all of those streets may get a chip seal
DECEMBER 2005 CITY CONNECTION
The 1st Street Extension,
a project several years in
the making, is well on its
way to becoming a reality.
Street News
PAGE 2
The winter months are
busy times for the
Street Sweeping Divi-
sion. The City of Huntsville
has one full time street sweeper
and one operator. The sweeper
operator is responsible for keep-
ing all 138 miles of the City’s
streets clean. During the winter
months it can easily take four to
six weeks to sweep the entire
town. You may ask, “Why does
it take so long?” The answer is
simple, the more leaves there
are on the ground, the more
trips are required to the disposal
site to empty the truck, there-
fore, it takes longer to make a
round. During the heavy leaf
months, the sweeper may only
average 3.5 miles to a load
where during the spring and
summer months the average can
be 6 miles to a load. The expan-
sion of operations to two full
time sweepers and two full time
operators is the number one
item on the wish list.
In fiscal year 2004-2005, the op-
erator swept 3,786
curb miles of city
streets and col-
lected 954.96 tons of debris from
the streets; resulting in 727 trips
to the City of Huntsville Transfer
Station to unload.
The citizens of Huntsville can
help the street sweeper by keep-
ing the streets clean by not rak-
ing or blowing leaves into the
street. Leaves will move with the
storm runoff right into inlet
structures and drainage ditches
causing all kinds of problems,
which can cause unnecessary
flooding during rain storms. The
Street Sweeping Division greatly
appreciates any help from the
citizens of Huntsville in keeping
our streets clean and safe.
Christmas trees will be
picked up at the curb sepa-
rate from gar-
bage pick up.
The Street and
Solid Waste Di-
visions will pick
up Christmas
trees every weekday from
January 2, 2006 through
Solid Waste December Holiday
Schedule
Street Sweeping News
Christmas Tree Pick Up
December 26.
Christmas trees will be picked up at
the curb separate from regular gar-
bage pick up. The Street and Solid
Waste Divisions will pick up Christ-
mas trees every weekday from
January 2 through January 6, 2006.
City residents may also take their
Christmas trees to the Solid Waste
Transfer Station, free of charge,
from December 26, 2005 through
January 7, 2007.
The City of Huntsville Solid Waste
Division will observe Christmas on
Friday, December 23, 2005. Due to
the Christmas Holiday, there will
be no residential garbage collection
on that date. Commercial garbage
collections will run their regular
schedule.
The Solid Waste Transfer Facility
will be open as usual on Friday,
December 23, 2005.
The Recycling Drop-Off Center will
be closed to the public on Friday,
December 23 and Monday,
DECEMBER 2005 CITY CONNECTION
If you have any questions or need
additional information, please call
the Solid Waste Division at 936-
294-5723.
January 6, 2006. City resi-
dents may also take their
Christmas trees to the
Solid Waste Transfer Fa-
cility, free of charge, from
December 26, 2005
through January 7, 2006.
For questions or addi-
tional information, please
call the Solid Waste Divi-
Reminder!!!
It's that time again!!!! That’s right it will
soon be time to renew your Food Service
Establishment Health Permit, which will
expire December 31, 2005. Be looking for
your APPLICATION FOR A PERMIT TO OP-
ERATE A FOOD ESTABLISHMENT in the
mail or you can also complete an application
at the City Service Center at 448 SH 75
North. As always we are here to help you,
feel free to call 936-294-5771 for additional
information.
PAGE 3
NEWS FROM THE WYNNE HOME
offices — and plenty of
room for volunteers.
As you know, this com-
munity arts center be-
longs to us all to enjoy
and to share.
Toward
that end,
many vol-
unteers
are al-
ready
working
to prepare
for the upcoming open-
ing of the Wynne Home
Arts Center. Art pieces
are being framed for
the first exhibit which
will be an exhibition of
art by self-taught
Texas artists. Also, his-
toric photographs of the
Wynne family and home
will be displayed. Sev-
eral fascinating artifacts
were found during the
reconstruction, and folks
will enjoy seeing them on
display.
In the next City Connec-
tion issue, watch this
space to read about the
National Garden Club
grant received by the
Huntsville Garden Club
for landscaping historical
gardens at the Wynne.
If you have questions,
call the Cultural Ser-
vices Office at City Hall
at 936-291-5422.
fixtures; repairing
some windows and
hardware; and putting
the final finish on the
wood floors. The floors
are made of oak, birch,
and pine in
various rooms
in the home.
Then it will be
time to move
in – setting up
offices and
furnishing
with the proper equip-
ment to operate the
arts center, where
there will be classes,
workshops, art gallery,
ceramics studio, gift
shop, administrative
Work is now progress-
ing at the Wynne
Home after a brief de-
lay. Yesterday, work-
ers put into place again
the beautiful carved
front doors of the
house. The double
doors will now swing
outward to meet build-
ing codes -- and to wel-
come visitors.
Inside, principal work
that remains to be
completed is the inte-
rior painting, already
begun; wallpapering
several downstairs
spaces; seating the
plumbing fixtures;
hanging the lighting
Did you know?
This publication is now available
for viewing on-line…
Please go to
http://www.huntsvilletx.gov
and click on
In an effort to re-
duce losses, a num-
ber of changes have
been approved re-
garding utility ser-
vices and billings.
Effective January 1,
2006, the deposit
for single unit resi-
dential water,
sewer and garbage
service will increase
from $60.00 to
$100.00. Also, ac-
counts will no
longer be allowed to
carry a past due bal-
ance. An account
balance not paid on
or before the due
date will be assessed
a late penalty and
the entire balance
must be paid by 5:00
p.m. on the four-
teenth day after due
date to avoid an in-
terruption of service.
PAGE 4 CITY CONNECTION DECEMBER 2005
December
23/26 City Offices Closed – Christmas
Holidays
January
02 City Offices Closed—Observe
New Year’s Day
03 City Council Meeting @ 6:00 p.m. at
City Hall
16 City Offices Closed—Observe
Martin Luther King
17 City Council Meeting @ 6:00 p.m. at
City Hall
CHANGES REGARDING UTILITY SERVICES
AND BILLING
City Calendar
This publication is brought to you by the City of
Huntsville Communications Committee. If you
have any questions, comments, or suggestions
regarding this newsletter, please contact the City
Secretary’s Office at 291-5413 or City Hall, 1212
Ave M, Huntsville, TX 77340.