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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.