Eldorado Town Hall Meeting

On Thursday, October 25, Frisco hosted a special Town Hall Meeting to discuss the construction of Eldorado. Residents in NW Frisco have become increasingly frustrated with the traffic on Eldorado. The worst was the first week on school as residents were trying to figure out their routes. We received several hundred e-mails that week when traffic and frustrations were at their worst. There has been some relief as traffic patterns have become more established and with the opening of the Tollway extension. Also, Panther Creek was made a higher priority which should we open late next summer. This, along with the opening of some new schools, will help to relieve Eldorado further. Since Eldorado is 2-3 years from opening, any relief will be appreciated. We will continue to explore any ideas to help our residents in NW Frisco.

Here is a link to some FAQs regarding Eldorado:
http://www.frisco-online.com/article.cfm?id=2912

Here is an article discussing alternate routes for Eldorado:
http://www.frisco-online.com/article.cfm?id=2824

In Collin County, The 'C' Stands for Cooperation

I often get asked if the County should be building roads or should that be the responsibility of the individual cities? The answer is "Yes!" the County should absolutely be involved with the construction of our local roads. With the County's assistance, the cities within the County are incentivized to cooperate to build our growing infrastructure.

The cities within the County are required to pay 50% of the costs associated with the road construction. County participation and leadership in this process assures the funding is spent for major arterials/thoroughfares (generally 6 lane divided) carrying traffic through and between cities and towns. It permits concentrating funds on the highest priorities in the county. County participation and leadership also assures coordination between cities and towns for continuity of the overall road system and to prevent bottlenecks/discontinuities at city/town boundaries in a cost effective manner. In addition, all projects in the bond program are required to be started within the next five years to help mitigate congestion as rapidly as possible.

Dallas News said it well:
Think of the upcoming election as a referendum on more than 25 years of planning. That's how long the county has been partnering with cities to build and expand roads throughout the county. Partnership and comprehensive planning have resulted in six-lane divided thoroughfares that are the envy of other counties.

It didn't use to be this way. Back in the early 1980s, roads were planned and built independently by cities and the four precincts that make up the county. Ever wonder why Texas back roads zig and zag all over the place? A lack of coordination resulted in roads that didn't quite link up at city or precinct lines. That's also why some four-lane concrete roads with medians abruptly become two-lane asphalt roads lacking even a shoulder.
That's increasingly rare in Collin County, and it's not by chance.

Every few years, citizens work closely with engineers, city staff and elected leaders to go over the needs of their communities. This year, for example, they considered 180 requests, matching them with the master plan for the county to help set priorities.

They work with engineers to determine where the public's money will do the most good, and they consider the work done in previous bond packages. That's because large projects don't get done in one step. An engineering study in this bond package, for example, may lay the foundation for actual construction in the next.

It's a complex but well-oiled machine, a process that has been nearly perfected by dedicated citizens, staff and engineers.

see the full article here:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/collin/opinion/stories/DN-north_roads_1014edi.ART.North.Edition1.425d708.html


I urge the voters of Collin County to vote "Yes" for the bond proposal and continued cooperation and growth in Collin County.

Ever wonder how the Collin County Bond Priorities Are Set?

If you wonder how the County funds are allocated, below is some information on how the process works. As the Transportation bond proposal is the most complex of the three and directly addresses Collin County’s most critical issue – traffic mobility/congestion – this discussion explains the Transportation proposal.

• The Commissioners Court appointed a 37 person committee representing cities and towns throughout the county to develop a proposed transportation bond program. This committee was supported by an independent consultant as well as city/town and county staffs.
• The committee was exceptionally well staffed to make recommendations: many staff members were professional engineers, the consultant was a large, highly respected engineering firm, one of the co-chairs has a PhD in civil engineering, another co-chair, a former mayor, led the two prior transportation bond programs and hence has an intimate knowledge of the roads in the county, and Commissioner Jack Hatchell is a professional traffic engineer.
• Joint county and city funding and the use of a citizens committee representing numerous cities/towns assure the funds are spent wisely—where it is most needed to relieve current and future congestion.
• The Commissioners Court gave guidance that included a budget of about $200 million for 2007 county bond funds, not to include funding for projects eligible for sharing of NTTA revenues (Comprehensive Development Agreement or CDA funds) or state reimbursement funds (pass through funding), and submit recommendations by mid June.
• The county and the cities and towns initially submitted 180 projects totaling $1.3 billion. This listed the roads most needed to minimize congestion caused by local, county-wide, and through traffic over the next 5 years or longer. These projects were then screened primarily against the following criteria:

- The road must be included on the County’s 2007 Mobility Plan to assure the road is or will be a significant thoroughfare critical to county as well as city/town traffic.
- Capable of a construction start within 5 years to assure the project will have a relatively near term impact.
- Must add capacity and/or provide operational improvement
- City/town funding available for at least 50% of the project cost thereby leveraging the ability of the county and the city/towns to improve both countywide and city/town traffic flows. Without such leveraging many projects would not be affordable at the city/town level.
- Must result in a fair, balanced program county-wide
- Total county bond participation costs of approximately $200 million

The projects surviving the screening were evaluated by the consultant and prioritized by the committee on the following criteria:
- Population growth trends
- Average daily traffic volumes for year 2030
- Congestion factor (volume/capacity)
- Cost efficiency (cost/vehicle miles)

The result of this intensive evaluation and discussion is a transportation bond program of 113 projects in19 cities and towns, as well as the county, totaling $235.6 million in county funds. When the city and town funding is included, this totals $484.7 million in transportation improvement benefits to the citizens of Collin County. This is 17.8% over the Commissioners Court’s original guidance to the Transportation Committee. The county’s increasing growth and resulting traffic issues are so critical, the additional projects represented by this overage are warranted and will not increase the county’s tax rate or adversely impact the county’s AAA bond rating. This is summarized as follows:





The proposed transportation improvements were approved by 100% of the committee and also approved for voter consideration by the Commissioners Court in a 4 to 1 vote. The four Commissioners, including one who is a traffic engineer, approving the bond package were those who were most experienced with county affairs. The newly elected county judge was the only person to vote against this beneficial package.

The above information has been reviewed by the three co-chairs of the committee.

Vote FOR the Collin County Bond Proposal
Election day November 6th
Early voting starts October 22nd.

Health Fair at Centennial Hospital

Frisco-Online.com had a booth at the Health Fair today so Dana and I volunteered the event. They had a great turnout and I was pleasantly surprised by how many people came up to me and were interested to discuss their ideas and concerns regarding Frisco. All of the kids at the event enjoyed watching the Careflight Helicopter take off and land. I grazed on cookies and candy all afternoon....perfectly suiting for a health fair!

New park discussions in Stonelake Estates

I attended the meeting put on by the Parks and Rec board to discuss the proposed park between Stonelake Estates and Custer Creek Farms. It was a lively discussion among the residents concering the type of Park they would like to see. This was an information gathering session by the Board before they go to design phase.

Teachers on Ice!

Tonight we took the entire family to Teachers on Ice. If you have never been, it is a wonderful event that benefits the Frisco Education Foundation. It pairs the teachers of Frisco in a grudge match hockey game. My kids loved the game and the turnout packed the house.

I got 3rd place in the "Chuck a Puck" contest and won my boys an autographed hockey puck. I cannot quite make out who actually signed it but I am sure it is someone very important :)

Frisco-Online.com's 2nd Annual Kid's Safety Day

Today we have our 2nd annual kid's safety day at Legacy Christian Academy. The weather did not hold up for us but we did need the rain. Despite the poor weather he had another great event. A few hundred families showed up to learn bike safety, get car seat checks, get finger prints and ID checks, learn pool safety, and much more! We even got to see the Care-Flight helicopter land in the parking lot!

This is quickly becoming a great pre-summer tradition that we really enjoy doing. Thank you to all of our volunteers that helped make this a great event.