Coppell Chronicle Vol. 4, No. 11
Voters Choose Premkumar and Bentley • Nearly 700 Homeowners Seek Rehab Grants • City to Explore Digital Signage Along Roads • Coppell ISD Athletes Get Good Grades
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Voters Choose Premkumar and Bentley
All of the ballots have been cast in our municipal elections, and all of the votes have been tabulated. Let’s check the results!
City of Coppell
The second time was the charm for Ramesh Premkumar, as it has been for other Coppell City Council candidates lately.
A year after losing to Jim Walker, Premkumar had a much better showing against a different planning and zoning commissioner. Premkumar secured 59 percent of the votes to Freddie Guerra’s 41 percent. Guerra prevailed in only one of the city’s 13 precincts (Precinct 2803, which is south of Sandy Lake Road between Moore Road and Mockingbird Lane). That earns Premkumar the right to fulfill the remainder of John Jun’s term; Jun will formally resign from the City Council next week because he is a candidate for the Texas House of Representatives.
In 2023, Premkumar earned only 38 percent of the votes in his race against Walker. That was Walker’s second bid for the council, after he lost to Jun in 2020. And Jun’s victory in that COVID-delayed election followed his loss to Biju Mathew in 2018. This is starting to look like a trend.
If Guerra chooses to try again, he’ll have to wait until 2026, because Coppell City Council elections skip every third year. Two years from now, the seats held by Don Carroll, Mark Hill, Premkumar, and Walker will be on the ballot.
Coppell ISD
Nichole Bentley won a third term on the Board of Trustees in a landslide, earning 82 percent of the votes to Eneida Padró’s 18 percent. Bentley was unchallenged the first time she sought reelection three years ago. In 2018, she won an open seat by capturing 61 percent of the votes in a competition with Lynne Ryan and some bald bozo who likes to send mass emails.
One year from now, the seats held by Anthony Hill, Manish Sethi, and Leigh Walker will be on the ballot.
City of Irving
Irving voters overwhelmingly said no to a $200 million bond proposition that would have funded construction of a new City Hall. The measure was rejected by 73 percent of voters.
Al Zapanta has represented the north end of Irving on the City Council since 2018. His bid for a third term was more closely contested than I would have thought. When the early vote totals were posted shortly after the polls closed last night, Zapanta and challenger Khalid Khan were running neck and neck. In fact, Khan was leading by four votes. But a lot of Zapanta’s supporters must be procrastinators, because he captured 64 percent of the votes cast on Election Day, giving him 56 percent of the votes overall. That’s good news for those of us who like to hear Zapanta drop cryptic hints about when H-E-B might open a store in Coppell ISD.
Meanwhile, Dennis Webb easily secured a second term in his at-large seat on the council. He captured 65 percent of the votes in his contest against Khaleel Ahmed.
In 2025, the council’s other at-large seat will be on the ballot; it’s held by Brad LaMorgese.
Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD
Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD, which includes portions of Coppell and Irving, uses a system called cumulative voting. Rather than running for a specific seat, all candidates compete against each other in a game of musical chairs. And if there are two seats on the ballot — as there were this year — then each voter gets two votes, and you can vote for the same candidate twice.
Cassandra Hatfield secured a second term by winning 29 percent of the votes in her competition with three challengers. The seat held by Sally Derrick, who declined to run again, will go to Marjorie Barnes, who earned 26 percent of the votes. Luis Palomo (25 percent) and Paul Gilmore (20 percent) were left standing without chairs.
The seats occupied by Kim Brady, Tara Hrbacek, and Ileana Garza-Rojas will be on the ballot a year from now.
City of Lewisville
Voters in Lewisville — which overlaps with Coppell ISD — were considering four bond propositions with a total value of $263.4 million. All four of them were approved, with levels of support ranging from 69 percent to 79 percent.
TJ Gilmore secured a second term as Lewisville’s mayor despite having three challengers: Alexander Davis, Winston Edmondson, and Tiffany Karim. Gilmore was supported by 58 percent of voters.
Council Member William Meridith also drew multiple challengers, and one of them, Penny Mallet, secured 42 percent of the votes to Meridith’s 37 percent. The two of them will advance to a runoff without Ainsley Stelling (22 percent).
Lewisville ISD
Voters in Lewisville ISD — which overlaps with Coppell — were considering three bond propositions related to stadiums, natatoriums, and other athletics facilities. Although very similar propositions were rejected last November, all three measures passed this time, with levels of support ranging from 55 percent to 58 percent.
Lewisville ISD voters were also faced with the unusual prospect of choosing between two incumbent trustees. As a result of the district transitioning from purely at-large elections to a mix of geographic and at-large seats, Michelle Alkhatib made the “strategic decision” (her words, not mine) to run for the seat held by Allison Lassahn, although Alkhatib’s term doesn’t end until 2026.
A majority of voters must not have been comfortable with this “unorthodox candidacy” (Lassahn’s words, not mine). Lassahn won another three-year term with 61 percent of the votes. Meanwhile, Alkhatib gets to keep serving alongside Lassahn for two more years, which shouldn’t be awkward at all.
Alkhatib made this odd move because she and Lassahn reside in the same area; the switch to geographic districts will force her to sit out for a year before she can run for an at-large seat in 2027. If she had captured Lassahn’s seat, no such break would have been necessary.
City of Dallas
Although Cypress Waters is within Coppell ISD, everyone who lives there is a resident of Dallas. Voters in Big D were considering 10 bond propositions with a combined value of $1.25 billion. All of them were overwhelmingly approved.
Nearly 700 Homeowners Seek Rehab Grants
Allison Matalone had a plan. The City of Coppell is going to give out grants worth up to $10,000 to help residents rehabilitate older homes, and Matalone was determined to secure one. The 37-year-old house she shares with her husband and their three sons could use a new set of windows.
Matalone knew the application window for these grants was going to open at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, even though I mistakenly said 9 a.m. in last week’s edition (my apologies). Assuming that the number of applicants would crash the city’s website, Matalone decided to apply in person. So she set a predawn alarm and showed up at Town Center — with her 5-month-old son in tow — at 4:30 in the morning, as if she was camping out for concert tickets.
Surprisingly, the Matalones were not the first people in line. Maria Mascarenhas had already been there for 30 minutes by the time they arrived. Mascarenhas also wants to replace her windows, and she has additional plans to install a new front door and paint her fence.
I spoke to Mascarenhas and Matalone at 7:45 on Wednesday morning, when the line of applicants was more than 25 people deep. Hannah Cook, the city’s Chief Communications Strategist, told me a total of 50 homeowners turned in their applications in person, and 646 other people applied online. Luay Rahil, the city’s Assistant Director of Community Development, posted photos on LinkedIn of smiling staffers preparing to handle the onslaught.
Cook said the Community Development team hopes to have approval letters sent to the lucky applicants this week. It will likely take a few weeks to contact all of the people who did not receive a grant, because that will be a long list. The City Council allocated $100,000 to this pilot program, using less than 1 percent of the $10.2 million that Coppell received from the federal government under the American Rescue Plan Act.
(See “Coppell to Help Homeowners With Grants” in Vol. 3, No. 52)
When the council approved that expenditure in February, Director of Community Development Mindi Hurley said the city staff plans to budget $200,000 annually for such grants for the next five years, pending the council’s approval. But it’s possible that more money could be made available in the shorter term. The city’s webpage devoted to residential rehabilitation grants says the council will discuss the program during their May 28 meeting.
City to Explore Digital Signage Along Roads
We may soon see digital signs along at least one of Coppell’s major thoroughfares.
During Tuesday’s work session, a majority of the City Council appeared to be in favor of exploring the idea as a pilot program. Council Member Kevin Nevels said he would prefer to see community events promoted via digital signs rather than banners affixed to T-posts, which can often be skewed by strong winds.
“It just does not meet the standard, in my opinion, of what our community is,” Nevel said of such banners.
An earlier iteration of the council once tasked the city staff with investigating the installation of banners that would hang above major streets, like the ones you typically see in Addison. Director of Public Works Mike Garza said the city received a single bid for more than $1.5 million, which equated to about $225,000 per location — and that price covered only the poles, not the banners. By contrast, a two-sided digital sign would cost about $100,000.
Nevels and Mayor Pro Tem John Jun asked Garza to repeat those numbers, because they found the cost discrepancy hard to believe. Once Garza reiterated the dollar amounts, Jun termed the digital signs “a good investment.”
Garza said the city has about $100,000 left over from the reconstruction of South Belt Line Road, so he was seeking the council’s direction on whether they wanted to spend those funds on a digital sign somewhere on that street, which already features a digital sign promoting events in Cypress Waters. Although the exact location wasn’t determined on Tuesday, Council Member Mark Hill said he would want it to be near an intersection, so people could read the sign while idling at a traffic light. Hill also suggested the signage could display QR codes, which would help the city track their effectiveness.
City Manager Mike Land said the formal approval of a $100,000 expense will appear on a future council agenda, but that approval seems like a foregone conclusion. The only naysayer during Tuesday’s discussion was Council Member Jim Walker, who jokingly referred to himself as “Doctor No” before saying this: “They’re just aesthetic static on the side of the road. I don’t think anyone actually reads this stuff going down Belt Line. You’re going 40 miles an hour — some people are going a lot faster than that, unfortunately — and I just don’t think it’s going to really and truly convey any information.”
What do you think? Is Doctor No right or wrong?
Coppell ISD Athletes Get Good Grades
If you showed up at a Coppell High School sporting event recently to root, root, root for the home team, those red and black uniforms were likely worn by a bunch of smarty pants.
Coppell ISD Athletic Director Kit Pehl told the Board of Trustees that 64 percent of high school athletes made the A or A/B honor rolls in the first three grading periods of the school year. That statistic was even higher for middle school athletes: 74 percent.
“One of the great things about our school district is just how academically driven our kids are,” Pehl said during the trustees’ April 22 meeting. “It’s just very commonplace for our kids to not only be competitive on the field but competitive in the classroom.”
Pehl said 2,611 of the district’s secondary students were involved in athletics this school year. That equates to 34 percent of the high school population and 69 percent of the district’s seventh- and eighth-graders.
In other sports news …
• The Coppell High School varsity baseball team was eliminated from the UIL playoffs in the first round. The Cowboys beat Prosper by a score of 2-1 on Thursday, but the Eagles then recorded a pair of mercy-rule victories: 10-0 on Friday evening and 13-1 on Saturday afternoon.
• Coppell High School sent nine athletes to this weekend’s UIL State Track and Field Meet to compete in two relays and three individual races. Stanford-bound senior Aidan McFarlane had the best result, finishing third in the 110-meter hurdles.
• Coppell High School’s varsity girls golf team finished second in their regional tournament, which earned them a berth in the UIL State Tournament. That event is scheduled for Monday and Tuesday in Georgetown.
• The Coppell Lacrosse Association’s high school teams both won their playoff openers on Saturday. The boys beat McKinney by a goal, 8-7, and they were scheduled to take on Kinkaid at 1 p.m. today at Lesley Field. The girls beat St. Stephen’s, 15-13, and will face Katy at 1 p.m. today at Hockaday.
• The Coppell Special Olympics program’s unified soccer game is scheduled for 5 p.m. on May 16 at Buddy Echols Field. The varsity girls team from CHS always helps the Special Olympians during practices and this game.
Chronicle Crumbs
• Yet another proposal to build homes on the vacant land next to MacArthur Boulevard Baptist Church will be considered by the Irving Planning and Zoning Commission on Monday. (See “Valley Ranch Development Narrowly Defeated” in Vol. 3, No. 36 to review the previous proposals.) A document attached to the agenda for Monday’s meeting says this: “An ‘illustrative plan’ has been submitted to provide a possible layout of the development but is not adopted as part of the rezoning request. The illustrative plan shows a total of 31 lots accessed via a single point of access.”
• Coppell-based Dave & Buster’s made national headlines last week when it announced a plan to allow customers to wager on arcade games.
• During their April 22 meeting, Coppell ISD trustees selected Greenville-based Rutherford Taylor & Company to perform an efficiency audit. Such an audit is required before the district could consider putting a tax increase on the November ballot. (See “Trustees Discuss Tax-Ratification Election” in Vol. 4, No. 3)
• Coppell ISD’s middle schools and elementary schools will host receptions this month for their alumni who are about to graduate from high school. The first ones will happen tomorrow at Cottonwood Creek and Lakeside.
Community Calendar
Music We Love: The Coppell Community Orchestra’s season finale will include the premiere of “Coppell In The Making,” an original composition inspired and commissioned by the City of Coppell. The performance is scheduled for 3 p.m. today at the Coppell Arts Center.
Four Day Weekend: The acclaimed improv comedy troupe will return to the Coppell Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday.
Wellness Festival & Fire Truck Pull: The Coppell Chamber of Commerce’s showcase of local businesses that support a healthy lifestyle will happen between 9 and 11 a.m. on Saturday at the Coppell Family YMCA.
Bees in Your Backyard: Experienced beekeeper Jeremy Campbell will be at the Cozby Library and Community Commons between 2 and 3 p.m. on Saturday to discuss the important role bees play in a healthy ecosystem and who you should contact if you find a hive on your property.
At The Movies: The Coppell Community Chorale can’t wait to share some of their favorite movie hits with you. Performances are scheduled for 7 p.m. on Saturday and 3 p.m. on May 12 at the Coppell Arts Center.
State of Education Update: Coppell ISD Superintendent Brad Hunt and Dallas College North Lake President Christa Slejko will discuss recent achievements and future initiatives between 8:30 and 10 a.m. on May 14 at the Coppell Arts Center. Admission is free, but RSVPs are requested.
I agree with Dr No “aka” Councilman Jim Walker. Shouldn’t we be paying attention to traffic and the distracted drivers who are texting while driving rather than pointing our phones at QR codes while changing lanes?
I believe Councilman Walker is correct. In looking at those renderings, I'm reminded of the quote by the great Dolly Parton: "It costs a lot of money to look this cheap."