David Norelid

All:

I’ve attached the flier for the 2014 Back to School Health and Resource Fair on Friday, August 1st for distribution. To preregister for backpack, call (832) 857-0761 or contact any of the organization on the planning committee. The following services will be available at the fair: backpacks with school supplies, immunizations, resource fair featuring community based organizations, and vision, dental, and health screenings. The Houston Food Bank mobile pantry will also be on site.

Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you and have a great day!

Respectfully,
Ariana A. Campos
District Director
Office of State Representative Jessica Farrar

Keeping Our Children Safe

As you drive or walk the streets around Landrum Middle School and Ridgecrest Elementary School you will see two hard working and conscientious ladies in the morning and in the afternoon. These ladies keep our children safe as they cross the busy streets to their schools. The weather may be very hot or very cold or it may be raining very hard but the vigilant ladies are always on duty protecting our children as they cross the streets.

At Landrum Middle School you will see Rosie Zamarripa. Rosie has been the crossing guard for Landrum for 20 years. She also serves as crossing guard at Cedar Brook Elementary. She starts her day there at 6:30 and comes to Landrum at 7:30 in the morning and then she does both in the afternoon as well. She loves the kids, they are her life.

Ridgecrest students are protected by Denise Reyes as they cross the busy streets that run by this elementary school. She begins her day there at 7:00 in the morning and then returns in the afternoon from 2:30 to 4:00. Denise has worked in this position for 15 years and she too loves the kids. She says she has had the pleasure of watching many of them grow up and become adults in the years she has had this position.

The Ridgecrest Community is fortunate to have two such conscientious and loving ladies working diligently to protect our children each day of the school year.

At the City Council Meeting last week, I presented 15 budget amendments. On Wednesday, June 18th, City Council will hear and vote on all proposed amendments. In order to keep you updated on my proposals, here is a summary of my amendments:

6.01 – To require all Houston operated public facilities (such as libraries and multi-service centers) to have and operate video conferencing technology. I have heard from my constituents that it can be difficult to drive downtown to appear before City Council to speak at Public Session meetings. This will allow you to speak to City Council without leaving the comfort of your own district.

6.02 – To establish a Neighborhood Matching Grant Program (NMGP). When neighborhoods go through the process to install traffic calming devices (speed bumps) in their community, the City only pays to install temporary devices that end up being left permanently. If neighborhoods want to upgrade, they have to raise the money themselves. The NMGP will match the money a neighborhood raises and will assist the neighborhoods to install the permanent devices.

6.03 – To add one full time employee to the Neighborhood Traffic Management Program (NTMP), which is the program neighborhoods go through to receive speed bumps and other traffic calming devices. Currently the City only has two full time employees to oversee this program for the entire city. As such, neighborhoods have to wait at least four years to get speed cushions and other traffic calming devices. I know how important it is to keep our District A children safe from speeding cars, so I would like to hire another person for this program so that neighborhoods can expedite this process.

6.04 – To require the mayor to present details about all below fair-market leases or rentals of City owned property. This will also give us a clear idea about which properties we should consider selling so that we can have more money for necessary city services.

6.05 – To require all departments to adopt a zero-based budgeting method. Traditional budgeting is based on the assumption that the “baseline” is automatically approved. For example, if a department’s budget was $1 million last year, they automatically assume that they need $1 million next year plus whatever else they add. Zero-based budgeting starts from a “zero base,” and every function is analyzed for its needs and costs. Budgets are then built around what is needed for the upcoming period. So in this example, the department would start with $0 and would have to explain what they need from there. This will essentially require departments to justify their existence.

6.06 – To change the ordinance dealing with bidding on City contracts. This will score bidding companies higher in the bidding process if the company finished previous contracts with the City at a cost under the original contract amount. This will allow companies that are providing quality service and that are being good stewards of our tax dollars to continue doing business with the City and to allow other companies make more responsible choices. I filed this amendment because I am tired of companies trying to charge more money just because it is a government contract.

6.07 – To establish an online database of deed restrictions. A common problem my constituents contact my office about is confusion with their deed restrictions because they are not always easily accessible. This will allow you to find your deed restrictions online.

6.08 – To make minor changes to City Council employee insurance.

6.09 – To require a report of all board and commission positions that have been unfilled or not renewed for more than 6 months. The City of Houston is assisted by groups of citizens who are appointed to board and commission positions. I want to make sure all positions are filled to allow for more citizen input. If you are interested in applying to a board or commission, please click here.

6.10 – To change labels in the City Council Agenda to make council members more aware of large projects that have repercussions for all Houstonians.

6.11 – To require more details about all additional strings that were attached as a result of accepting federal and state grant money. While we pay a lot of federal and state taxes and should receive our fair share of services, I want to make sure that accepting this money has not come at an additional cost for us for years to come.

6.12 – To require more details about future grants the City of Houston may accept.

6.13 – To allocate funds for design purposes of Alabonson Park.

6.14 – To allocate funds for the Houston Parks and Recreation Department to take over and improve the Inwood Forest Golf Course Maintenance Shed. This shed has been in disarray and has become a gang hangout. If the Parks and Recreation Department takes over this shed, they can improve it and will be able to have easy access to maintain the parks in District A.

6.15 – To establish a volunteer bandit sign program to allow citizens to take a class to be authorized to enforce bandit sign ordinances.

A rededication Ceremony will be held on Monday, May 19 at 10:30 for Schwartz Park. Last Fall the City of Houston spent a considerable amount of time and money ($449.672.71) updating Schwartz Park located at 8203 Vogue. Among other things a handsome new entrance was designed and constructed.

This park adds a great deal to the quality of life in our Ridgecrest Community and it is always a pleasure to see the number of people who take advantage of its facilities. Among other things the park has a baseball field, a tennis court, paths for walking and a newly added skateboard area.
Probably the facility that draws the greatest number of people is the swimming pool. This has also been updated and is a great addition to the quality of life in this community.

Having raised my three boys in this area, my husband and I have always been grateful for the ready access to such great facilities. My boys learned to play tennis, enjoyed baseball games with their friends and hit the swimming pool almost every day of Houston’s warm summers. We appreciate that all these facilities are being kept up and modernized for the young people who live in the community now

Phyllis Miller

On March 29, Weldon Tiedt gathered together a hard working crew of friends to begin the installation of the new signs that he and Robert Morgan had designed and built.   These handsome signs were designed to stand tall so that the word “Ridgecrest” was not obscured by the plantings in the esplanade and were built strong so they would last a long time.

They used the design that had been used before but added the trees.  Robert did the routing of the letters, logo and trees while Weldon painted and bolted the signs together.

The first sign was installed at the end of the Hammerly esplanade at Wirt and the second at Hammerly and Bingle.   Here you see the entire crew of hard workers – Michael Goff, Kevin Holland, Hani Al-Twaijri,  David Reynolds, Weldon Tiedt and Robert Morgan.

On April 19th the crew assembled again to mount the last two signs to complete the project.  Two of the signs are on Hammerly at the crossroads of Wirt and Bingle.  The last two are on Bingle at the crossroads of Hammerly and Longpoint.

The Hammerly signs.

 The Bingle signs

As the photos show all four signs stand tall and are topped with brass caps to make a handsome presentation for the Ridgecrest Civic Club.  Weldon, Robert and the entire group are to be congratulated for all their hard work.   The results look good and make the esplanades much more attractive.

I have collected our neighborhood’s many separate deed restrictions and scanned them to PDF to host on this website. They are presented as-is, without edits or modifications. These are the copies we got from the city, and they’re the best we can find. They’re all copies of copies of copies, and the originals are probably long gone. They’re in pretty bad shape, but they should all be legible. If you have any questions about them, please let Doris or I know, or leave a reply here.

Please note that these documents were written in the late 40s and early 50s, so they’re artifacts of that period. Some of them contain language and provisions that are foreign now but were common back then. Ridgecrest, as a community, does not stand for discrimination of any kind and will not tolerate it. We have not had an issue with the language of the deed restrictions so far, and modifying the deed restrictions to take them out would invite a host of other issues that we can’t get into, but they’re still there, so reader beware.

You can find all of the Ridgecrest Deed Restrictions in the menu above.

Theater Arts Presents “Grease”
Thursday, November 21st at 6pm in the LMS Auditorium
Friday, November 22nd at 6pm in the LMS Auditorium

Choir Holiday Concert
Thursday, December 5th at 6pm in the LMS Auditorium

Band Holiday Concert
Tuesday, December 10th at 6pm in the LMS Auditorium

Orchestra Holiday Concert
Wednesday, December 11th at 6pm in the LMS Auditorium

Student Council Food Drive
Through November 22nd. Turkey donations still needed.

Student Council Toy Drive
November 21st-December 16th. Donations may be dropped off in the front office

Please call Landrum Middle School with any Questions: 713-251-3700

Download the full flyer here: Community Job Fair – KCC

Employment Opportunity!

Community Hiring Event

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Korean Community Center
1809 Hollister St
Houston, TX 77080

Employer Hiring Event is from 10am to 3pm.

Professional / Scientific / Technical Services / Administrative / Retail / IT / Finance & Insurance / Manufacturing / Health Care / Customer Service

Additional interviewing and/or resume writing assistance will be provided starting at 8:00am.

For More Information Contact:

Workforce Solutions – Employer Service

(713) 590-2613