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November 2007 City ConnectionAll food service establish per- mits expire on December 31, 2007. Look for your application by mail or pick one up at the City Service Center located at 448 State Highway 75 North. For questions, please call 294- 5717. City Connection November 2007 Volume 4, Number 2 www.huntsvilletx.gov RESIDENTIAL CUSTOMERS It’s time to “winterize” your sewer charge Water meter usage for the months of November through February is used to calculate your new sewer average charge for the next year. Consciously reducing your wa- ter usage during these months could lower your sewer charge. You can reduce your usage by limiting or com- pletely eliminating outside wa- tering. The new sewer average charge will be effective with the April 2007 billing (due in May). HOW MANY TURKEYS CAN YOU FIND IN THIS ISSUE? Notice to Food Service Establishments Permit Information Old Town Theatre Saturday, December 1st, at 12:30 p.m. Imagine a candy factory. HUNTSVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY AND PUPPET WISE PRODUCTIONS present “MERRY MICE” Now imagine a candy factory run by mice! Join in the fun and frolic as the mice brothers concoct a Christmas treat! Admission is free! Christmas Around the Square The 2007 Christmas Season will be bright around the Square in Huntsville this sea- son. The Walker County Courthouse will once again shine bright and the new street lamp decorations, holiday garland, lights and wreaths will be back to add a glow to downtown. The City of Huntsville Solid Waste Division will observe Thanksgiving Day on Thursday, November 22, 2007. Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, there will be no garbage collected residentially on that date. Businesses with commercial dump- sters will be collected on their regular schedule. The Solid Waste Transfer Facility will be closed to the public on Thursday, November 22, 2007, but will be open as usual on Friday, November 23, 2007. The Recy-cling Drop-Off Center, located at 590 IH-45 North, will be closed to the public on both Thursday, November 22, 2007 and Friday, No- vember 23, 2007. If you have any questions about the garbage collec- tion, the Solid Waste Transfer Facility, or the Recycling Drop-Off Cen- ter, please call the Solid Waste Division at 936- 294-5723. The City of Huntsville Solid Waste Division will observe Christmas Day on Tuesday, December 25, 2007. Due to the Christmas holiday, there will be no garbage collected residentially on that date. Businesses with commercial dumpsters will be collected on their regu- lar schedule. The Solid Waste Transfer Facility will be open as usual on Monday, Decem- ber 24, 2007 but will be closed to the public on Tuesday, December 25, 2007. The Transfer Facility NOVEMBER 2007 CITY CONNECTION PAGE 2 Effective May 1, 2007, the City of Huntsville Yard Waste Trimmings collection will no longer require a call-in. Yard Waste Trimmings will be collected on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th Wednesday of each month. Heavy Trash/Large Yard Waste Collection for residential customers does require a call-in to 936-294- 5796. Residential customers must leave their complete name, address, phone number and type of heavy item to be placed on a pick up list. Heavy Trash/Large Yard Waste will be collected on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month. 1. The City of Huntsville Residential Solid Waste Division will collect heavy trash / large yard waste on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays by call- in request only – 936-294-5796. Provide your full name, address, telephone number and type of item (s) to be collected. 2. Requests for heavy trash pick-up shall be placed a minimum of one week prior to the scheduled collec- tion day. No heavy trash shall be placed at the road edge earlier than five days prior to the sched- uled 2nd and 4th Wednes- day of each month. 3. Heavy trash is large yard waste, furniture, appliance/white goods, building construction material and miscellaneous heavy debris from residential sites. 4. Large yard waste includes limbs and branches which must be prepared for pickup by using the following guidelines: 1) Limbs and branches up to a maximum of eight feet in length which should be placed curbside and cut ends must face the road; 2) Tree limbs larger than twelve inches in di- ameter must be cut to a maxi- mum three feet in length; 3) Large brush must be stacked, unbound and in one row along the road edge no higher than four feet. 5. These items shall be placed in separate piles along the road edge: 1) Appliances/white goods such as refrigerators, freezers, stoves, washers, dryers, hot water heaters and miscellaneous metal appliances (door removed); 2) Building con- struction material such as lumber, doors, windows, etc.; 3) Miscellane- ous Heavy Debris including large boxes, moving debris, and tires re- moved from the rims. The City will not collect tractor tires. 6. Items shall be placed along the road edge approximately five (5) feet from garbage cans and other obstacles such as mail boxes, fences and parked cars. Avoid plac- ing large brush and bulky items un- der low-hanging tree limbs or power lines. 7. The following items are not col- lected as part of the “Heavy Trash/ Large Yard Waste Collection” pro- gram: 1) Loose or bagged house- hold garbage; 2) tractor tires; 3) commercial sites or commercial use; 4) construction building sites; 5) property vegetation clearance. Heavy Trash pick up service is limited to Residential House- holds only. If you have any questions, please call the Solid Waste Ser- vices Division at 936-294-5723. New Heavy Trash / Large Yard Waste Collection Guidelines for Heavy Trash / Large Yard Waste Collection will re-open on Wednes- day, December 26, 2007. The Recycling Drop-Off Center, located at 590 IH- 45 North, will be closed to the public on Monday, December 24, 2007 and Tuesday, December 25, 2007. If you have any questions about the garbage collec- tion, the Solid Waste Transfer Facility, or the Recycling Drop-Off Cen- ter, please call the Solid Waste Division at 936- 294-5723. THANKSGIVING SOLID WASTE SCHEDULE CHRISTMAS SOLID WASTE SCHEDULE The Huntsville Fire Depart- ment would like to remind you that just a little time spent on safety prevention at your home can protect your family from the destructive nature of fire. It is hard for the fire department to give a statistic on the number of lives that have been saved by spreading the message of safety in the home. Nation- wide, many years ago, there was a big push for smoke alarms in the typical one family home. Since that time there has been a sharp decrease (almost half) of fire deaths in homes in the US. We know that simple steps will help you protect your family, such as; 1. Install and maintain smoke alarms - Installa- tion is the easy part, maintaining the alarms seems to be a problem for most people in the U.S. There are more homes with non working alarms in America than homes without a alarm at all. A simple method of changing your battery in your detector when you change your clock each spring and fall will keep your smoke detec- tor in good shape. In- stall your alarm where the instructions tell you to. 2. Prac-tice your escape routes - Make sure that all of the peo- ple who live in your house know how to get out in an emergency. If a fire breaks out in a structure, you might only have 30 seconds to a minute to react before you may become a casualty. Simple plan- ning will protect your family; have them prac- tice 2 ways of getting out of the house. Have everyone agree on the "Meeting Place", mean- ing the area where you will all find refuse from the fire. A good sug- gestion might be the mailbox or the neighbor’s house. 3. Make sure your kitchen is safe - Maintain a fire extinguisher in the kitchen, be safe when you cook, and make sure your children know all of the unsafe areas in the kitchen. Huntsville Fire De- partment visited every child in grades 1-4, in every school in a 6 week period. They are meet with the children each year and teach them a curriculum which is based on the State Fire Marshal’s recommenda- tions for each separate grade level. jjanuary@huntsvilletx.gov HUNTSVILLE FIRE DEPARTMENT FIRE PREVENTION MONTH FOLLOW—UP Police/Fire Statistics September 2007 NOVEMBER 2007 CITY CONNECTION PAGE 3 Police:Police:Police: Fire:Fire:Fire: * * * Calls for service: 3881 * * * Calls for service:107 * * * Accidents investigated: 91 * Main alarm calls: 24 * * * Animal Control complaints investigated: 82 Huntsville Police Department Initiates Home / Business Security Survey Program The Huntsville Police Department is proud to announce another new community oriented program it has initiated. We are now offering the services of our two newly certified Crime Prevention Officers, Senior Officer Joe Thorn-ton and Officer Justin Leh-man. These two offi- cers recently completed 40 hours of training to become certified and are now able to conduct security surveys of your house and/or business. The security survey is a primary, proactive step you can take to “harden” your home, business, and other property against an out- side criminal threat. The primary goal of the survey is the protection of your family and prop- erty. Your participation is a vital step in seri- ously hindering a crimi- nal from select- ing your home or business as their next victim. These certified crime prevention officers that will be conducting the survey will point out observed weaknesses or possible security prob- lems at your home or business. Please un- derstand that despite the best efforts of the certified crime preven- tion officer, no plan or survey is a guarantee against possible crimi- nal activity. You decide what actions to take based upon the survey results and suggestions made. There is no re- quirement or mandate that you must follow any of the recommen- dations made by the certified crime preven- tion officer. Offi-cer Leh- man recently completed his first se- curity survey which was met with a positive re- sponse: “The security survey participant seemed very pleased with the service and was surprised by the findings I brought to their attention. Prior to my leaving, the citizen had already begun working on his resi- dence to harden a po- tential outside criminal threat. I encourage every home/business owner to take advan- tage of this FREE ser- vice.” This is just one part of the Huntsville Police Department’s commit- ment to educate and provide the community with the tools needed to increase the safety and security of your family and your property, and to improve the quality of your life. To set up an appoint- ment to have a security survey conducted at your home or business, please contact either Senior Officer Joe Thornton or Officer Justin Lehman at 936- 291-5480 or by e-mail at jthorn- ton@huntsvilletx.gov or jleh- State Library and Archives Commission. In keeping with the Library goals of maximizing staff efficiency and providing quality cus- tomer service, these funds will provide equipment for use with the circulation system, a phone headset for faster telephone re- sponse, and a temporary clerk to maintain service levels during the busy summer reading program. Funds will also be used to purchase additional adult, nonfiction titles. Dodson is confident that these funds will improve library ser- vices to the citizens of Huntsville. “We are grate- ful to both the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Texas State Li- brary and Archives Com- mission for their support of our library.” PAGE 4 NOVEMBER 2007 CITY CONNECTION City Calendar November 22-23 Thanksgiving Holidays (City Offices Closed) December 01 Trail of Lights / Christmas Parade @ 6:pm 11 City Council Meeting @ 6:pm at City Hall, 1212 Avenue M 24-25 Christmas Holidays (City Offices Closed) Visit www.huntsvilletx.gov for a complete calendar of events Huntsville Public Library Receives Grants Huntsville Public Library received a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Founda- tion which has been used to replace two children’s computers and three adult computers. The adult computers include 20” monitors for increased visibility. The grant, which is administered by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, will also be used to replace the patron printer. “This is the third grant Huntsville Pub- lic Library has received from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation”, says Linda Dodson, City Librar- ian, “the benefits of this grant will be felt for many years.” The Library has also re- ceived a Loan Star Librar- ies Grant from the Texas volved in community activi- ties such as the Festival of United Cultures, The Folk Festival, and the Airing of the Quilts. The “Gemstones” keep journals to record their thoughts on these experiences, and their im- pressions are accompanied by photographs in an exhibit to be displayed at the Wynne Home, and other community locations. Ahia Shabaaz and her organi- zation, the World Cultural Ex- change, promote better under- standing of diverse cultures by presenting various cuisines, crafts, dances, and music at public events in Huntsville such as the Trail of Lights and cele- brations of Black History Month and Cinco de Mayo. Ms. Sha- baaz also offers classes at the Wynne Home Arts Center which last year included cook- ing, creating holiday decora- tions, etiquette in various countries, and African dance. For information: 936-291-5424 or www.thewynnehome.com The Huntsville Arts Commission funds many worthy arts-related ac- tivities and organizations every year. Several of these now take advantage of the Wynne Home Arts Center’s facilities. On October 26, Tamara Chasteen held an adult volun- teer training session at the Center in preparation for a huge tie-dye event, “All the Colors of Huntsville,” to take place in late spring that will be open to all the local schools. The goal is to create the most tie-dye pieces in one day and submit the results to the Guinness Book of World Records, as well as having fun and opening up an art form to large numbers of children, teachers, and other adults. An organization of junior high age girls called “Gemstones” is designed to expose them to an enriching variety of cultural arts experiences in the Hunts- ville area. The girls are in- Pumpkin Drawing Contest Results CONGRATULATIONS to all of the contest win- ners! We had over 200 submissions. The winners were: Pre-K: Chaemin Yu—1st Place Chase Davis—2nd Place Nolan James—3rd Place Kindergarten: Alexis Holbrook—1st Place Tara Samuels—2nd Place Hannah Brent—3rd Place 1st Grade: Blake Shelby— 1st Place Jaida Gbawar— 2nd Place Mazie Staples— 3rd Place 2nd Grade: Anne Crane—1st Place Victoria Bounds—2nd Place Kristen Fance—3rd Place 3rd Grade: Lauren Morales—1st Place Connor McKinney—2nd Place Marlon Johnson—3rd Place 4th Grade: Anna Lynch—1st Place Wesley Jackson—2nd Place Madison Lively—3rd Place Visit the Revised City Website @ www.huntsvilletx.gov News from the Wynne Home Arts Center Thank you to all that par- ticipated in the contest. Great work everyone! Chase Davis, Pre K—2nd Place Blake Shelby, 1st Grade— 1st Place—Mrs. Nichols class Winners from Gibbs Elementary—Mrs. Fuqua’s class