One more busy week, and then...

Four trips in 10 days, a very unusual stretch of travel for me. Houston, New York City, Austin, then back to NYC between October 21 and October 30. Then no more travel until December, which means more posts to FlowerMoundRoad, and much more work on our new community news site, RoundTheMound.com.

I posted a couple of new stories to the new site last night, so check them out.

In case you're curious, I plan to keep FlowerMoundRoad open for a while. Perhaps one day I'll integrate it into the new RoundTheMound site, because our new site is built really well to incorporate your blogs. If you'd like to start your own free blog on RoundTheMound.com, let me know and I'll help you get set up. It's really easy to start your own (did I mention it was free?!) blog, not so easy to find time the post on a regular basis. I know that from years of personal experience on this site.

Meaningless Readers' Choice Awards

I don't know why newspapers and magazines bother doing this. Oh yeah, because it helps sell ads.

Last week's DMN Neighbors section had the 2006 Readers' Choice Awards. Here's what you get. A handful of your basic "Best of" categories. Some of the winning businesses paid a small fee (I'm sure) for a small photo to be listed alongside the award it won. Beyond that small apparent conflict-of-interest, there's the whole fairness/accuracy thing surround the survey itself. Like the Leader's annaul "Best of" section, there's no discussion from the paper as to how the results are calculated, no in-print accounting of how many votes were cast in each race. How do you know that a "Best Of" category wasn't decided by a 3-2 vote margin?

Anyway, take it or leave it, but as for me, I'll stick with a more reliable source of good information about the "Bests" of Flower Mound -- word-of-mouth from my like-minded neighbors, and your comments posted on this blog! Let's beat them at their own game -- who's got the best pizza in town? I'll tell you my favorite if you tell me yours. Click below to post a comment, and read mine while you're at it.

Mound Showdown -- What was up with that last FG?

The very first bona fide news article posted at our new local-news site RoundTheMound, written by my new friend Greg Dykes, details an unusual ending to last week's Mound Showdown. With seconds to play, and Flower Mound HS safely ahead by 10 points, the Jaguars called timeout to put their field goal unit on the field. The 23-year try is good, and FMHS walks off the field with a 30-17 win.

So does anyone know why the Jags didn't run out the clock, opting instead to put 3 more points on the board? Was it to take a shot at their cross-town rivals, or was it to increase total points, helping them get closer to their playoff hopes?

Don't look now, but FMHS and Marcus are both 2-1 in district play and only a game behind district co-leaders Coppell and Hebron. Keep in mind also that four teams from each district make the playoffs this year. Up through last year, only the top three advanced.

By the way, Greg Dykes did a terrific job recapping last week's big game for the RoundTheMound audience.

UPDATE: My friend Keith Whitmire writes for the Dallas Morning News, and he posted a blog entry of his own regarding the end of the FM/Marcus game, which he covered for Saturday morning's paper. He doesn't offer definitive proof, but it seemed to himthat the last-second field goal (meaningless for the game at hand) wasn't anything more than a chance to put points on the board that may prove useful in a playoff tiebreaker down the road.

Fits and Starts: the new website!

I've made you wait long enough, and I'm sorry about that. We do have a new website, but I haven't had the hours yet to make it look really great. I spent a little time tonight, and I've got it just enough along to introduce you to it.

Here it is, with the winning name: Round The Mound !!!!

Why did we choose that name? It was unique. It sounded like Flower Mound. It's easy to say, and easy to read. It lends itself to a fine logo, once we find someone to do that for us.

If you click to the site now, you'll see only the barest of bones there. But I hope to make it look a lot better by tomorrow.

For now, go to roundthemound.com, create your own account, and try to post your own news story.

We have a winner!

The organizing committee of The Flower Mound News Project met at my house tonight, and we're a step closer to launching a revolutionary new community news project.

We accomplished two major objectives tonight:

1) We started the process of creating a not-for-profit corporation.

2) We agreed on a name for our new community-news site. It's a secret for now, though I hope to be able to share it tomorrow once all the tech stuff with the new site is turned on!

More soon! The Flower Mound News Project is a GO!

Help these people move to Flower Mound!

I got a great letter yesterday from a woman who's looking hard at moving to Flower Mound. But she had gotten some strong warnings about FM commuting from some of her co-workers. She's given me permission to post her letter here. If you've got good information for her, please post a comment. She'll be checking to see what you say! Here's her letter:

Hi:

My husband and I have been looking into moving our family to Flower Mound. We are currently trying to sell our house in the Mansfield area…which is going to take a long time in this market but we are committed. I stumbled across your website flowermoundroad.com and thought you can help me with a few questions.

We have made several trips to Flower Mound and decided we probably cannot move any further north than Flower Mound Road. To give you an idea of where we are looking, we really like some of the subdivisions of Wellington (it appears the older areas appealed to us more than the new construction). We thought the Villages of Northshore were very nice too. It’s more established and we got a really good “feel” when we drove through there. We REALLY liked the section with “all the trees”. My concern is commuting issues as we both work full-time outside of the home. We have heard that getting out of Flower Mound is a nightmare. Is 2499 south from Flower Mound road really that bad?

My husband works in Carrollton and I work in Dallas. Currently, my husband’s commute is 2 (on a good day) to 3 (one wreck on 360 and he’s toast) hours per day and mine is 1.5 hours per day. We decided on Flower Mound after researching the school system (we have a son that is in kindergarten and a daughter who will be one next month). We wanted something comparable to Mansfield ISD or better and Flower Mound definitely fits our criteria. A friend of ours, who works at my husbands company, lives off of Gerault (in the Bluebonnet elementary school area) and claims it take him 20 minutes to get to work. They work off Crosby Road if you are familiar with that. I work in Dallas off of Commerce street…West Commerce the real industrial area not downtown. Everyone at my job tells me that I will be hating my commute and life if we lived there. On a side note, no one from my office lives in Flower Mound but one person lives in Keller and one lives in Colleyville and they hate the traffic (they come in via 114). Can you give me any insight on the traffic situation? I saw that you work in Dallas.

Oh, I do have a friend that lives in the Marcus High School area. I think the subdivision is Waterford Park? He told me that I would have to leave at 6 am to be sane. That area is way too north for us I believe. He works from home so how can he be so sure?? Anyway, there is no way I would be able to start my drive to work at 6 am because of the kids. My work hours are 8-5 and my husband’s workday starts at 7:30 and ends at 4.

My husband says an option for me to get to work may be 635 to GB/161 (taking over his tolltag) to 183 to Loop 12? He says 635 and 183 may be bad but 161 is always clear and Loop 12 would be going against traffic. Or would that be a nightmare too? He says it may be an even better option once 161 goes all the way to I-30 since I-30 is so much better now. Any insight on the commute to and from Dallas you can give me would be very much appreciated.

Thanks for the letter. I posted my response to her as a comment. You should too!

Severe weather safety class November 1st

This is something near and dear to my heart, since I help with severe weather coverage at the TV station where I work.

Karen Skordinski with the Flower Mound Fire Department e-mails to say the Town is hosting a severe weather safety class Wednesday night November 1st at 7pm. My friend Gary Woodall from the National Weather Service will do the teaching, and he has a great presentation that will educate and entertain everyone in your family. The class will be at the Central fire station on Forums Drive. E-mail Karen or call her 972.874.6209 to RSVP.

(So Much for) Best Football September in Memory

Reference this post from last weekend, and then check out this weekend's scoreboard:

Hebron 21, FMHS 14 (coulda/shoulda won this game)
UTEP 24, SMU 21 (coulda/shoulda won this game)
Eagles 38, Cowboys 24 (coulda/should won this game, too)

So much for opening my big mouth. Hey but Marcus beat Creekview, and that's not too shabby.

I'll see all of you at the Mound Showdown this Friday night! Who's gonna win?

A record month for the Road

Stats for September:

2,512 unique visitors
6,493 visits
10,201 pageviews

All of these are new records for flowermoundroad.com. Thank you for your interest!

$150,000 for a building lot?

That new Adam's-something-or-the-other small subdivision on Old Settlers Road near the high school is open for business. They're advertising lots for $150,000 and up. None of the lots appears to be larger than a half-acre or so. Already some of the better locations (back of the neighborhood near a pond) have SOLD signs posted on them.

Flower Mound News Project: one week til meeting #2

We're a week away from the second-ever meeting of the Flower Mound News Project. Next Wednesday October 11 at 6:30pm.

On the agenda:

• Discussion and perhaps an agreement over a name for our new community-centered news and information site. Check out our protoype at flomojo.com and read the top story on the home page. Then click on the Comments link to see some of your neighbor's suggestions. Post your own ideas, if you've suggestions.
  
  
• Update on legal issues surrounding our newborn organization.
  
  
• Update on marketing plans and spreading the word to all our neighbors, and I'll share some exciting news about the potential for grant money to seed this project a few months down the road. How would we invest $5,000 or $10,000 or $50,000, if we were to get it? This is only a dream for now, but a possibility worth talking about.
  
  
• I'll prepare a short lesson -- "Journalism 101" for those who've never done this before.
  
  
• We'll lay out a timeline with goals for launch.

If you'd like to receive regular e-mail updates on the Flower Mound News Project, please e-mail me at chip@fmtx.us to join the FMNP Founder's e-mail list. There's no obligation, but we'll always be looking for volunteers to contribute to the site.

Scanning the P&Z case log

A couple of interesting items on the "perhaps soon to be built here" list published by the Town of Flower Mound Planning Staff:

1. Thanks to MattN for this tip. The log says Calloway's Nursery wants to build a store on FM2499, south of Bob White Lane, which would approximately across the street from where Firewheel Drive ends (and where they're building a new traffic light, by the way).
   
   
2. Parker Square is asking the Town for permission for amend the permitted uses for the property to include "fast food with a drive-thru window". Where would they put this on their land. Perhaps on the far east side, closest to the Lewisville line, right along FM1171. I hope it's more donuts. :)
   
   

News Connection back online

TNC's investigative reporter Stephen Webster (I'll always remember him as the fake homeless guy who came to my church) reports The News Connection's website appears to be back on track, as is their TNC blog. The TNC website was totally redesigned a couple of months ago, but after a couple of week's of fresh content, the well went dry and the site stayed static for several weeks. They say it was technical difficulties, which have been resolved.

Sign up for the Town's new e-mail alert system

The Town is relaunching a vital communications system open to all residents free of charge. It's a system long advocated by yours truly.

Click here to sign up for the Town of Flower Mound's e-mail alerts. Once you type in your e-mail address and click "GO", you'll then be able to fill out the form to select what kind of news you want. You can either choose from specific categories (Parks news, Emergency Alerts, Library News) or choose the box that says "All Bulletins". Do this and you'll get a nifty e-mail back that says something like this:

Dear Chip,

Thank you for taking the time to learn more about our Town by subscribing to the E-Town Bulletins.

Welcome to Town of Flower Mound. We are happy to have you as a member of our community. Your email address and interest preferences have been recorded in our database. In the future, you will receive periodic emails specific to your interests.

Privacy is important to us; therefore, we will not sell, rent, or give your name or address to anyone. At any point, you can select the link at the bottom of every email to unsubscribe, or to receive less or more information.


Thanks again for registering. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact us.

Sincerely,

E-Town Bulletins
Town of Flower Mound


It will be interested to see how Town staffers use this new tool, and what kinds of bulletins are sent out and not sent out.

More skeeter spraying - Wellington alert

The Town posted another mosquito alert today, alerting everyone that spraying will take place in "affected neighborhoods" this Friday night starting at 11:30pm and lasting a few hours, until Saturday at 4am.

Curiously, the news released we received at the TV station didn't include which neighborhood(s) were going to get the spray, and why they were getting it. So your enterprising neighbor-reporter dashed off a quick e-mail to the Town communications staff to get the skeeter skinny.

First, the neighborhood is Wellington. Based on the response from the Wellington HOA resident e-mail alert system during the last crisis, I'm totally surprised I haven't gotten e-mails from Road readers alerting them (and subsequently me) to this latest news. But that's beside the point.

My question to Town staff was why the secrecy over which neighborhood was getting the juice, even though the news release stated that the Town would notify affected residents directly? I was told that there was indeed a new case of West Nile virus coming out of Wellington, but the circumstances behind this case are such that it's possible the victim wasn't infected in Wellington, but somewhere else. So the Town is doing this round of spraying only as a precaution. The Town will likely be posting hangers on the front doors of those people who'll be sprayed.

Best football September in memory

I realize the season's early, but I don't think I've ever had it this good with regard to September success for my favorite teams on the football field.

The neighborhood FMJags are 3-1. (Marcus is also 3-1, for those of you who favor the northsiders.)
My alma mater SMU Mustangs are 3-2.
The Dallas Cowboys are 2-1.

Thanks mostly to SMU's dismal showings of recent years, I don't think I've had a situation where all my favorite teams are playing above .500 at the same time.

Whose fence is it anyway?

Here's a question from a Road reader, Quincy, who says he's new to Town (welcome Quincy) and he's got a question about fences. Here are his words, and perhaps you can help him with the exact answer he's looking for.

I recently moved to Flower Mound and was wondering if you could shed some light on the fences surrounding neighborhoods throughout Flower Mound. Many of them around Morris and Forest Vista look really bad- they look run down, crooked and some of them as if they are about to collapse. Conversely, across the street there are some made of shrubs, others of nice looking sturdy wood etc.

Do these fences get replaced regularly? Who is responsible for keeping these in good condition and/or replacing them? As a new home owner, I'm not sure where to go or who to ask. Perhaps at the town hall meeting? Maybe the HOA?

Who among you can answer Quincy's question? Click the Comments button to post your answer or to comment in general about any other fence issues you might have.

OK, the weekend really got away from me

I had promised more ideas about the Flower Mound News Project this weekend, but I haven't had a moment to sit down (much less think and write), with all the kid stuff we've been doing this weekend.

Now that I'm back in the work week, and now that I'm past a big out-of-town teaching presentation I had to give last week, I should have more "free time" this week to focus on the FMNP and our upcoming get-together a week from Wednesday.

More soon - very soon, I promise.