TEXAS LIVING!

Let’s start with the City of Allen for this posting. Earlier I have complained, and written about some frustrations with the City, their lack of adequate communication (in-my-humble-opinion), and their poor responsiveness to issues. But I have a good story here. In this week’s Allen American paper, there was an interesting article about a private/public partnership to build a new in-door soccer facility at Hillside Park. Hillside Park currently has a couple of baseball fields and a City water tower. The article went on to say that the soccer facility would replace the ball fields and the water tower would be replaced as part of the project. The article mentioned that the neighborhood had been communicated with to discuss the project. We live about 600 feet from the edge of the park and the proposed project, and this was the first we had heard of it. Man-oh-man! I couldn’t wait to send off an e-mail! I got a response back within an hour from the City Parks Director, and he did a wonderful job addressing our concerns about parking and the access conflict with our housing development. KUDO’s to the City of Allen for not only being responsive, but answering our questions without the bull-sh_t! And just maybe our grandson Connor will be able to play his in-door soccer here! And as long as I’m writing about the City! I read in Thursday’s Vancouver, Washington Columbian newspaper about Clark County’s effort to build another waste transfer station in the northern part of the County. And along with it, the revision the recycling program to begin using roll carts (here we call them totes) for recyclables with the exception of glass. What’s the difference between here and there? Cost for one thing! The City of Allen charges us $12.28 a month for waste services and $0.50 a month for a hazardous waste fee. For that monthly fee we get a garbage tote and a recycling tote furnished, weekly garbage pick-up and every other week recycling pick up. ANNNNND, we can use the Collin County transfer station twice a month for free. We also get monthly bulk pick up and free leaf pick up in the fall months. And on a sad note, some son-of-a-bi_ch stole my traffic signal head from my back yard. It was a re-conditioned working 12” lens head that had been given to me as a retirement gift from the County staff. PLEASE bring it back – no questions asked!