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Allen parks department receives five awards
By Monique Oaks, moaks@starlocalnews.com
The Allen City Council on Tuesday recognized the city's Parks and Recreation department's receipt of five awards at the Nov. 9 TRAPS (Texas Recreation and Parks Society) Region 2 and 3 conference.
"From a director's standpoint, it's great to have a staff like we do," said Tim Dentler, Parks and Recreation department director. "Because when you sit there, and you hear all the awards being announced -- and every other city they announce an award, it's 'Allen, Texas' - what a feeling, to know that we have such professional staff who work for us."
The wakeboard park, Hydrous, won the Park Design Excellence award.
"In fact, I've already received three phone calls since we received the award from different cities going, 'OK, what is it?"' 'How'd you do it?"' and, 'We want to know more about the award,'" Dentler said.
Other TRAPS awards included:
The Excellence in Programming award: The Alliance for a Healthier Allen - Lori Smeby, assistant director; Lyndsey Cecka, Joe Farmer Recreation Center supervisor; Leslie Doran-Cope, Allen Senior Recreation Center supervisor; Elizabeth Jones; and Dana Gillespie, Don Rodenbaugh Natatorium recreation specialist.
The Horizons Award: Timmy Vessakosal, who works at the Joe Farmer Recreation Center.
Part-time Employee of the Year award: Justin Kelly. He has been with the Don Rodenbaugh Natatorium for 10 years as a lifeguard and swim instructor. Dentler also recognized Kenny Walsh, supervisor at the DRN.
Communications award: the Marketing Division, for outstanding communication efforts by a park and recreation and leisure agency with the use of social media. Receiving the award were Jeff Mues, senior marketing coordinator; and Ryan Brandon, marketing coordinator. Others in the Marketing Division areBrandy Rentz, marketing manager; and Ashley Swadley, marketing coordinator.
"We submitted seven submissions for awards, and we walked away with five - and we're very excited about it, because the next step is the state awards," Dentler said. "We have a very good group of folks here, and it makes my job easy to have such a professional staff."
In other council business, all members of the council approved Ordinance No. 3123-11-12 for a specific use permit for Allen Assisted Living. The SUP is identical to one that was previously approved but had expired before construction could begin.
The council also conducted a public hearing to adopt a resolution concerning the 2011-2012 Comprehensive Annual Performance Evaluation Report (CAPER), required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program.
"The city at the end of each year has to submit to HUD a report detailing what we accomplished in the past year," said Patrick Blaydes, planner with the city's Planning and Development department. "The Community Development Block Grant funding is given by the federal government to the city to help low- and moderate-income individuals. How the city spends it is up to itself; that's accomplished through a strategic plan."
The city's 2010-2014 Strategic Plan has three objectives, according to Blaydes' presentation: "to preserve and expand the supply of decent, safe, and affordable housing through the rehabilitation of existing residential property; to provide education to low- and moderate-[income] persons about affordable housing, homeownership, lenders, fair housing laws, and lead-based paint hazards; and to encourage the expansion and accessibility of human services for low to moderate-income persons."
One program satisfying the strategic plan's first objective assists qualifying families with major home repairs as well as "urgent" repairs, such as an air conditioner breaking down in August. The homeowners receiving the assistance must be up-to-date on their mortgage, insurance and taxes.
"This past year, the city did nine total houses - six of those were those major repair programs, three were those urgent repair programs. The city spent $169,230 on those nine houses," Blaydes said. "Our five-year goal was to help 45 houses over that time period - so nine [houses] is really hitting our mark."
The second plan objective - education - is accomplished through workshops given by the library, through Wells Fargo, and by answering individual questions, Blaydes said. The third objective - public service funding - was achieved by awarding a grant of $36,000 of CDBG funds to Allen Community Outreach; the city also provided grants to CASA of Collin County, Collin County Committee on the Aging (Meals on Wheels), and the Children's Advocacy Center.
Of the total CDBG grant amount of $246,252, the city spent $211,126, which amounted to 86 percent of the grant.
"This year, HUD actually did come out and do a monitoring visit, which is basically like a week-long audit of the city," Blaydes said. "They looked at our policies, our programs; they did a full financial audit ... and they also did a Fair Housing review. HUD came back with pretty much glowing reviews.
"In fact, I'd share that after that monitoring visit, in the past few months, the city has received inquiries from other entities, other cities that are around our size or are looking at this type of program, that HUD's prompted them to call us, to say this is what an example of [how] a good program is run - so if you want good practices, take a look at Allen."
The council unanimously approved the CAPER, which will be submitted to HUD by Dec. 31; it also approved Ordinance 3125-11-12 for the proposed amendments to the Allen Land Development Code.
Those amendments to the ALDC include outdoor lighting, residential driveway access, front yard patios, driveway cuts, street lights, a simplified fees structure, and adding a new section regulating solar panel installations.
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