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2014/10/13 In this is s u e . . . City news, features and updates October 13, 2014 Th i s W e e k i n H u n t s v i l l e National Night Out photos - page 2 Historic Preservation Commission information - page 4 City offers new Web-based document portal - page 3 State of the City address Tuesday, October 21 Hosted by the Huntsville-Walker County Chamber of Commerce Join the City Council and City Manager Matt Benoit and representatives from each City department at the 2014 State of the City address, hosted by the Huntsville-Walker County Chamber of Commerce. The address will include information about the City Council’s Strategic Plan, current City initiatives and more. The event will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Walker County Storm Shelter. City Halloween events - October 25 Scare on the Square The City of Huntsville Main Street Program will hold the 12th Annual Scare on the Scare on Saturday, October 25, and residents of all ages – especially Trick-or-Treaters ages 3-12 – are encouraged to attend. The event will be held from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the downtown area, and activities will include Trick-or- Treating, face painting, games, arts and crafts, and much more. Admission will be $1 per person. “We are so excited about this year’s Scare on the Square,” Main Street Coordinator Lindsay Lauher said. “There will be a wide range of activities, a costume contest for kids in four age groups, and a raffle for a Huntsville Fall Fun Pack for our adult attendees with tickets sold for $1 each or $5 for six. “Come to downtown and join us for a family-friendly Halloween experience!” Four age groups - 0-3 years, 4-6 years, 7-9 years and 10 years and up - will be invited to participate in the Costume Contest. Registration will be located at event check-in, and the contest will begin at 3 p.m. A maximum of 15 children per age group will be allowed to register, and one male and one female from each age group as well as an overall best costume will be awarded prizes. For more information, contact the Main Street Program at (936) 291-5920 or visit the program’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com\COHmainstreet. Haunted Hayride The second annual Haunted Hayride will be held on Saturday, October 25 at Kate Barr Ross Park, and citizens of all ages are encouraged to come out and enjoy a fun night of Halloween thrills and chills. According to Natalie Reid, Recreation Services coordinator with the City of Huntsville, the event will be held from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. and will include concessions, family activities and attractions for young attendees. “The Haunted Hayride is a great time for the whole family to come out and enjoy the scariness that Halloween has to offer,” Reid said. “Admission for the hayride will be $5 per person, and for younger participants, we will also offer a special fire truck ride for $3 per person. “The event will also feature a DJ, face painting, a balloon artist, a photo booth, concessions and much more. Come out to Kate Barr Ross for a fun, spooky start to Halloween!” Reid said dozens of volunteers from Sam Houston State University and local high schools have already signed up, and acting and non-acting roles are still available. “We’ve gotten a great response from local teens and young adults who want to volunteer for this year’s Haunted Hayride, but there’s always room for more help,” she said. “We will be accepting volunteers until Thursday, October 23 so all volunteers can know their roles by the night of the hayride.” Citizens interested in volunteering for or attending the Haunted Hayride may contact Reid at (936) 294- 5725. Additional information is also available on the Recreation Services Facebook page, https:// www.facebook.com/COHrecservices. Scare on the Square, Haunted Hayride events offer entertainment for guests of all ages High attendance at 2014 National Night Out Home reconstruction Thanks to the Houston-Galveston Area Council's Hurricane Ike Housing Recovery Program, a reconstruction process was recently completed at the home of Andrew Leigh through a partnership with the City of Huntsville. Pictured left are Leigh, Council members Ronald Allen and Lydia Montgomery, and representatives from Tegrity Construction, who completed the work on the home. Photos by Scott Bennett and Kristin Edwards A record number of attendees participated in the 2014 National Night Out event on October 10. According to HPD Officers Kenneth Posey and Mark Jenkins, over 1,500 residents attended either the gathering of law enforcement entities and local businesses in the Target and Academy parking lots or one of the three neighborhood parades. For additional photos from the NNO event, visit the “Huntsville Police Department” Facebook page. The City of Huntsville Information Technology Department is excited to announce the opening of a new records repository which will make a wide range of City documents, contracts and forms available to the public. According to Kate Smith, Help Desk Analyst, the new Laserfiche portal will allow citizens to search through thousands of City documents using simple search terms, and will also feature step-by-step instruction guides and key definitions. “We have worked very hard to create our new site, http://laser.fish, for public and employee access to the Laserfiche Repository,” Smith said. “Using the new portal, citizens will be able to follow a link from the City Web site to a collection of records including City Council agendas, minutes, contracts and more, and searching through the files will be as easy as surfing the Internet. “While we hope the portal will be easy for all users, we have provided detailed instructions and tips for searching through the documents which will provide insight into how Laserfiche is organized. We are very excited to work with our citizens to help them take full advantage of this new resource.” To access the Laserfiche portal, visit the City of Huntsville Web site – www.huntsvilletx.gov – and click on the “LASER.FISH” icon in the bottom, right-hand portion of the page. For more information, contact the IT help desk at (936) 291-5959 or helpdesk@huntsvilletx.gov. Information Technology department launches new records portal Laserfiche repository provides public access to City documents Look for the Laserfiche icon on the City Web site! With Laserfiche, citizens will have the freedom to access agendas, deeds, minutes, ordinances, proclamations, various publications and resolutions, and additional records will be made available over time! Sam Houston Statue to celebrate 20th Anniversary - 10/25 The Sam Houston Statue Visitor Center & Gift Ship will kick off their 20th Anniversary celebration on Saturday, October 25 from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. “We are excited to celebrate twenty years of the Sam Houston Statue gracing Interstate 45 and welcoming guests not only to Huntsville and Walker County but to the State of Texas,” said Kimm Thomas, Director of Tourism and Cultural Services. “While the official anniversary date is October 22, we hope more of our residents and those who were initially involved with the statue project will be able to attend a Saturday event.” Thomas said the celebration will include a short program to begin at approximately 12:30 p.m. “We are excited to have Gene Pipes, who was the City Manager at the time the statues was built, to give his account of how and why the statue came to be,” “Mayor Mac Woodward and a representative from the Walker County will give proclamations in honor of the anniversary. The day will also include local musical artist Jarrod Sterrett, who will play throughout the event.” The event will also include big games on the porch, food and door prizes In honor of the 20th anniversary, the gift shop will be offering 20% off your entire purchase excluding consignments and clearance items. Twenty years of tourism Thomas said the impact of the statue and the visitor center has grown significantly during its 20 years. “Of all the ways the Statue Visitors Center has grown and evolved over the years, I would say the impact we had on tourism by changing the perception of Huntsville as a prison city to ‘The Home of Sam Houston’ has been the most significant,” Thomas said. “Education is another significant aspect that the statue has played a significant role. Because a lot of people are not aware of who Sam Houston was before they visit, we have had the opportunity to give over a million people a significant look at Texas history.” Jamie Matthews, who has worked at the visitors center since 1999, added that the flow of guests to the statue visitor center has steadily increased over its 20 years of operation. “I feel that when I first started we had slower seasons, but now we stay very busy with people coming in from all over the world,” she said. “This includes both senior and school-aged tour groups, conferences, and local events. The statue to date has been featured in TXU Energy commercial and Ford Trucks commercials, Texas Country Reporter, Chet Garner The Day Tripper, Jeopardy game show, BET, and other TX Networks. Other nationally now figures that has stopped by to see statue includes, Kermit the Frog, Oscar Myer Weiner Van, Tillamook Cheese truck, basketball player and the list goes on. The 20th Anniversary is sponsored in part by; Sam’s Club, Gardner Glass and Whataburger. For more information on the 20th anniversary event, contact the Statue Visitors Center at (936) 291-9726. All citizens are invited to attend a curbside recycling guidelines meeting on Thursday, October 16 at the Huntsville Public Library. The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. in the Library’s Community Room. During the meeting, City staff including Esther Herklotz, Solid Waste Superintendent, will provide information on how to participate in curbside recycling according to current policy, and updates will also be presented on the new “Greener Huntsville: Easy Recycling” campaign. “All eight areas of the City have been integrated into our curbside recycling program since January, and we want to continue to work with all residents to make sure its guidelines are well understood and easy to follow,” Herklotz said. “Simple practices, like rinsing out plastics and cans, flattening cardboard boxes and refraining from bagging recyclables ensure that the items our residents recycle can be processed in an expedient and cost-effective manner. “With the help of our residents, we can continue to offer a successful curbside recycling program, and we hope this and other community meetings will ensure that outcome.” In addition to recycling program information, Herklotz will offer insight and updates on the “Greener Huntsville: Easy Recycling” initiative, including the use of the City’s Twitter page to help residents stay on top of their garbage and recycling dates. Recycling guidelines meeting: October 16 at 6 p.m. “By providing how-to guides, tips and reminders about curbside recycling on our City’s existing Twitter page, our hope is to make recycling a quick and convenient part of our citizens’ daily lives,” she said. “We plan to use Twitter to remind people to put their blue or green carts at the street’s edge both at the right time and on the right day, and also to provide new and fun ways to take part in curbside recycling.” For more information, contact Herklotz at (936) 294-5724. Solid Waste Superintendent Esther Herklotz addresses the attendees of the September 25 recycling meeting. Historic Preservation Commission making progress Lauher and Director of Community and Economic Development Aron Kulhavy address the Walker County Historical Commission during their September meeting to provide information about the new City group. The newly-formed Historic Preservation Commission held its second meeting in October, designating a chair and taking additional steps toward accepting applications for property designations. According to Lindsay Lauher, Historic Preservation Officer and Main Street coordinator, the commission is off to a strong start, benefiting from the experience and interest of its members. “I feel we’re making really good progress so far – the commission has already accepted a set of guidelines for historic properties, The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties, and during our October 2 meeting, the group also designated Todd Armstrong as their chair,” she said. “At this point, we are hoping to have our applications prepared and to be able to begin accepting applications around December.” The responsibilities of the seven-member commission, Lauher said, are two-fold – to accept applications from those interested in designating their properties as historic sites, and to provide education and information to the public about the process and importance of historic preservation. “The Historic Preservation Commission was created by ordinance as a way for property owners to voluntarily nominate their property for historic designation, and our purpose is to assist them with that process,” Lauher said. “In addition to working with our group, applicants would also likely work with groups like the Planning and Zoning Commission and City Council, and we will be here to provide assistance and insight during each phase. “As well, we’ll work to tell the community about some of the benefits of having historically designated property by working with entities like the Gibbs-Powell Museum to post information.” In the short time the commission has been active, Lauher said the group has received positive feedback from local organizations as well as media interest. “Aron Kulhavy, the Director of Community and Economic Development for the City, and I spoke for the Walker County Historical Commission to give them a brief overview of our commission’s purpose, and I’ve also had the opportunity to interview with KSAM and the Huntsville Item about our progress.” For more information about the Historic Preservation Commission, contact Lauher at (936) 291-5920.