Coppell Chronicle Vol. 2, No. 31
Jury Awards $206M in Wrongful Death Suit • City Adopts Policy for Memorials • What’s Up With All These Parks Projects? • Winter Averaging is Coming
I apologize for the lateness of this edition, but I had to travel to West Texas and back this weekend for a funeral. Man, you forget how vast this state is until you try to drive across it.
When I volunteered to distribute game-day meals at my son’s middle school last week, the mom I was paired with looked at my name tag and said, “Oh, are you the guy who writes the articles?” Indeed, I am.
If this is the first Coppell Chronicle you’ve received this month, then you missed several articles I wrote, including these:
CISD Introduces New Accountability System
Chief Proposes Fifth Fire Station
Arts Center May Flip Script on Bookings
8-Car Garage Gets 6 Thumbs Up
Late-Night Poker Coming to Las Colinas
Paid subscribers receive the Coppell Chronicle on a weekly basis in exchange for just $30 per year. Free subscribers receive only the final edition of each month. To join the ranks of paid subscribers, click this button:
Jury Awards $206M in Wrongful Death Suit
A Dallas County jury decided that a Coppell man’s 2014 death was most likely a murder, and they ordered his former girlfriend to pay his family $206 million.
Jonathan Crews, 27, was killed by a gunshot on Feb. 2, 2014, at his home in the Riverchase Apartments complex. His girlfriend at the time, Brenda Lazaro, was in the apartment when the gun went off. Neither the Coppell Police Department nor the Dallas County Medical Examiner was able to determine whether Crews’ death was a homicide or a suicide. Lazaro, whose name is now Brenda Kelly, was never charged with a crime.
Crews’ family sued Kelly in 2016. I’m ashamed to admit that I didn’t know the case had finally gone to trial until I saw the Dallas Morning News’ article about Friday’s verdict. The six-person jury reportedly deliberated for 2.5 hours before reaching a unanimous decision. Kelly’s attorney, Andrew Jee, told the newspaper that they hadn’t decided whether to appeal the verdict.
In 2018, D Magazine published a lengthy article about the case. It said the couple met at the Wu Yi Shaolin Martial Arts Center in Coppell, where Kelly was an instructor and Crews’ sister and mother were students. According to that article, Kelly called 911 to report the shooting and told the dispatcher, “He said he was gonna prove that he loves me.”
During last week’s civil trial, the Morning News reported, Kelly invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in response to every question from the Crews family’s attorney, Thomas Shaw.
City Adopts Policy for Memorials
The Coppell City Council has approved a policy regarding public memorials that takes the matter out of their hands.
If you want to donate a park bench to honor a loved one in Coppell, the Director of Parks and Recreation gets the last word on those. But if you want to create a more elaborate memorial in the city, the buck stops with the Parks and Recreation Board.
Those facts are laid out in a new “Policy for Donations to the Parks System” that the City Council approved on Sept. 13. The policy, which takes effect in November, lists several criteria for consideration, with this being the key one: “The project or donation must have a direct tie to the City of Coppell, a citizen of Coppell (who has resided in the city for at least 10 years), Coppell business owner, or Coppell volunteer.”
As someone who is about to mark a decade as a resident of this town, that sounds fair to me.
The policy says that applications for more elaborate memorials will be considered by the Parks and Recreation Board within two months of being filed. On Sept. 12, Director of Parks and Recreation Jessica Carpenter told the board that she expects a particular application to be filed as soon as the policy goes into effect in November, so the board should expect to see it on their agenda in December or January. (Carpenter didn’t provide details about who would be memorialized by this expected project.)
Here's one aspect of the newly approved policy that should discourage a lot of memorial applications from being filed willy-nilly: “The applicant should be prepared to file a maintenance agreement with the Parks and Recreation Department and may be required to remit documentation guaranteeing a perpetual maintenance fund.” In other words, if you want to place a memorial in one of our parks, then you’re going to have to take care of it.
What’s Up With All These Parks Projects?
Back in the July 24 edition, I promised that the public would have a chance to weigh in on these parks projects that have been tentatively approved by the Coppell Recreation Development Corporation:
$810,500 for renovations at Duck Pond Park
$250,000 for pond refurbishment at Thweatt Park
$200,000 for erosion repairs at Andrew Brown Park East
$200,000 for upgrades to the parks’ lightning prediction system
$150,000 for weight machines at The CORE
$60,000 for resurfacing the playground at Allen Road Park
$50,000 for lobby furniture at The CORE
$35,000 for refurbishing a bridge at Andrew Brown Park West
$25,000 for “unexpected building projects” at the Coppell Arts Center
$3,000 for a “seat back program” at the Arts Center
Over the weekend, I noticed that the time to weigh in is imminent. The Coppell Recreation Development Corporation’s first meeting since July has been scheduled for 6:30 p.m. tomorrow, Sept. 26, at Town Center. The main item on the agenda is a public hearing regarding that list of projects.
Meanwhile, Director of Parks and Recreation Jessica Carpenter and Assistant Director Adam Richter provided updates on a few other projects during the Parks and Recreation Board’s Sept. 12 meeting:
Duck Pond Park: A variety of upgrades, which I wrote about in the Nov. 21 edition, are still in the design phase.
Wagon Wheel Park: Construction of the city’s first cricket pitch will begin in late October or early November.
Magnolia Park: The designs for a new trail and associated erosion-control measures, which I most recently detailed in the Jan. 30 edition, are expected to be completed before December, so construction should begin in the first quarter of 2023. The $1.5 million project will not be financed by the Coppell Recreation Development Corporation, because the City Council opted to pay for it with a portion of the $10 million federal windfall Coppell got from the American Rescue Plan.
Moore Road Park: The City Council also opted to finance this $1.1 million project with American Rescue Plan dollars. It involves connecting a couple of concrete trails with a boardwalk, which would replace one that was removed years ago, while also improving a storm water drainage system. Contractors’ bids were scheduled to be unveiled last Thursday.
“This boardwalk, when we took it out years ago because it was damaged – oh my gosh,” Parks and Recreation Board Chair Ed Guignon said. “You’d be surprised how many people in the community raised their hand and said, ‘Why’d you do that? We want it back.’ It’s been a lot of years in the making, and I’m thrilled to see it happen.”
Thweatt Park: The city has requested bids for refurbishing the park’s pond more than once. Each time, it has received none. It seems no contractors are interested in a $250,000 project.
“That is, in the current state of things, just small potatoes,” Carpenter said. “We’ve even had some of our engineering firms tell us that million-dollar projects aren’t receiving a lot of good bids.”
Carpenter said her staff may explore expanding the project’s scope, and raising its price tag, in order to lure contractors.
Meanwhile, Carpenter’s discussion of Thweatt Park is how I learned that its name rhymes with “sweet” and not “sweat” — which ruins a joke I made years ago about “Gonna Make You Thweatt” by Thee + Thee Muthic Factory.
Winter Averaging is Coming
The Coppell City Council is expected to approve a change to the way residents are charged for sewer services.
Because there is no way to measure how much any particular household contributes to our sewer system, our sewer charges are based on our water usage. Those charges have been capped at 13,000 gallons per month, no matter how much water a residence actually uses.
That cap will soon be lifted, assuming the council approves a shift to “winter averaging” that is on their consent agenda for Tuesday’s meeting. That means the item will be rubber-stamped without debate, unless a council member pulls it for individual consideration.
“This is just another way we are putting customers in control of another portion of their utility bill,” Director of Finance Kim Tiehen said on Sept. 13, when she briefed the council on winter averaging. “In addition, it’s an attempt to encourage water conservation by encouraging citizens to be aware of their water usage during the winter by making sure that sprinklers are either turned off or at least significantly reduced.”
The shift to winter averaging is part of a multistep program to encourage water conservation. The first one I wrote about, way back in the fifth edition of this newsletter, was establishing an increasing rate block structure that charges higher water rates to the households that use the most H2O.
Coppell’s staff surveyed other cities that already use winter averaging to decide which months should be part of the formula. They landed on a five-month period — November through March — but they will toss the highest and lowest of those months to discount spikes due to holiday gatherings or leaks and dips in usage due to vacations.
“Most people aren’t using their irrigation system or filling their pools during that time period, so it should strictly be — for the most part — what you’re using inside your home,” Tiehen said.
Based on the city’s water consumption for the 12-month period that began in June 2021, Tiehen said, 63 percent of customers would see a $4 decrease in their monthly sewer bill under winter averaging. She said 97 percent of customers would see either a $5 increase, no change, or a decrease.
The city’s biggest water hogs would see a $102 increase in their monthly sewer bills. That category doesn’t even show up on the chart above, Tiehen said, because it’s comprised of only seven households.
Anybody want to guess which addresses are in that exclusive club?
Chronicle Crumbs
• The Coppell Cowboys varsity football team is 4-0, and the eighth-grader who lives in my house told me this is the first time that’s happened in the program’s history. I asked how he knew that, and he replied, “Someone told me.” His sourcing seemed dubious, so I turned to an expert: Greg Tepper, the CHS grad who edits Dave Campbell’s Texas Football. Tepper says this is the Cowboys’ first 4-0 start since 2012.
• Applications to serve on the City of Coppell’s various boards and commissions will be accepted through Oct. 7. If you’ve ever wanted to see your name published in this newsletter, here is your opportunity.
• For a very short time, there was a restaurant along the westbound service road of Interstate 635 called Scrumbscious Burgers & Pieshakes. I was rooting for the place, only because that is an absolutely great name, but it closed before I had a chance to sample its wares. I recently noticed that its former home is about to become a Dave’s Hot Chicken.
Community Calendar
Melting Pot-Luck: This luncheon at the Coppell Senior & Community Center, which is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, is designed to connect the many cultures of the center’s members.
The Miracle Worker: Theatre Coppell will stage nine performances of William Gibson’s play based on Helen Keller’s autobiography. The first show is scheduled for 8 p.m. on Friday.
DogFest Texas: Canine Companions, an organization that provides trained service dogs to people with disabilities, will host this dog-friendly event from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday at The Sound at Cypress Waters.
The Gazillion Bubble Show: Everyone I’ve told about this show has been taken aback by the $36 admission fee. If that sounds like a fair price for a gazillion bubbles to you, you have four chances to see it at the Coppell Arts Center on Saturday and Sunday.
Coppell Women’s Club: Betsy Wilcox of the Coppell Historical Society will discuss the city’s past and present, as well as an upcoming home tour, when the Coppell Women’s Club meets at 10:30 a.m. on Oct. 5 at Church of the Apostles.
No Wine Left Behind: The Coppell Lions Club’s annual winetasting fundraiser is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Oct. 7 at the Frontiers of Flight Museum at Love Field. The cost is $50 per person, and all of the proceeds will go to the charities supported by the Lions.
Brad Linder book signing: The Coppell resident and owner of Get You In Shape will sign copies of his new book, 40 Day Challenge, at 9 a.m. on Oct. 15 at Andrew Brown Park East. The signing event will be preceded by a community workout at 8 a.m., of course.
Pioneer Day: The Coppell Historical Society’s annual event at Heritage Park will feature a petting zoo, snow cones, games and crafts that are reminiscent of early Coppell, and shopping in the vintage Minyard store. The festivities are scheduled from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Oct. 15.
Farm to Table Dinner: This Coppell Farmers Market fundraiser is scheduled for Oct. 22 at the Coppell Senior & Community Center. The to-be-announced menu will be seasonal, made with ingredients sourced from and prepared by the market’s food producers. Tickets are $108, with all proceeds benefiting the market’s operations and its SNAP program.
Thank you for keeping g us informed. I look forward to reading your chronicle each week!