Coppell Chronicle Vol. 2, No. 48

Silver Line Running Behind Schedule • Plans for Banquet Hall Get Derailed • Pickleballers Want to Go Inside and Play • Candidates Lining Up for Elections

Happy Lunar New Year to all who celebrate. Today marks the beginning of the Year of the Rabbit, so let’s hop right into a bit of breaking news that I haven’t seen reported anywhere else.

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Silver Line Running Behind Schedule

Don’t count on seeing these trains running anytime soon.

DART officials said last week that revenue service on the Silver Line won’t begin until well into 2026. The previous estimate was late 2024.

During a community meeting in Cypress Waters on Wednesday evening, DART spokesman Ruben Landa attributed the delay to two factors: “major design changes” and COVID-19.

The latter reason is easy to understand; anybody who hasn’t been in a coma for the past three years knows that the pandemic has led to a variety of labor shortages and supply-chain issues. When I followed up for an explanation of the former reason, DART spokesman Gordon Shattles said the biggest design changes involved the rail crossings at Hillcrest and Coit roads in Far North Dallas.

As a refresher, here’s a map showing the Silver Line trains’ future path between DFW Airport and Plano. The second stop on that west-to-east line will be Cypress Waters Station, just outside Coppell.

It appeared that DART employees and contractors outnumbered the rest of us at Wednesday’s meeting, but the event was newsworthy for one Chronicle subscriber who asked me not to mention her name. She and her husband live in the Northlake Woodlands subdivision, specifically on Crestview Drive, which abuts the Silver Line’s future path. Wednesday was when she found out that the “Veloweb” hike and bike trail, which is being built in conjunction with the Silver Line, will sit between her property and the train tracks; she had assumed the trail would run between the tracks and East Belt Line Road.

Here’s a map showing the planned path of the Veloweb trail, which will include 3.75 miles within the City of Coppell.

Most neighborhoods that are next to the Silver Line tracks will be shielded by 15-foot sound walls. Landa assured my Crestview-residing subscriber that the sound walls near her home would be only 12 feet tall, a compromise that she and her neighbors agreed to in exchange for more decorative vegetation.

Speaking of noise, agreements were recently reached with freight operators along the existing tracks, so Silver Line construction activity should intensify soon. Sure enough, this sentence appears six times in the slides from Wednesday’s meeting: “Community members should anticipate an increase in construction noise around the operations.”

On a related note, all of the Silver Line crossings in Coppell have been designated as “quiet zones,” which means trains operators will blow their horns only when necessary. (The Federal Railroad Administration admits that “reduced train horn area” would be a more appropriate label.) DART project manager John Hoppie said Wednesday that the freight-only crossing of Denton Tap Road, just north of Dickie’s Barbecue Pit, has also been designated as a quiet zone.

Yuki Frey, who was a DART commuter before she moved to Coppell from Plano in 2020, stood up to ask what can be done to increase security at DART stations, given the large number of homeless people they attract.

“This is one of the reasons I chose Coppell: There is no DART,” Frey said. “And now DART’s coming.”

The aforementioned slide presentation says DART leadership and DART police are working with member cities’ police departments to address the homeless issue. Landa told Frey that the pandemic has made it hard to hire enough officers to patrol DART’s vehicles and stations, but Hoppie — who happens to be a Coppell resident — said DART wants to bring on a “homeless czar” to tackle the problem.

I have no idea what skills and experience qualify someone to be a homeless czar, so I wonder if finding the right person will be as difficult as hiring construction workers and police officers. The good news is, DART has plenty of time for the hiring process; it will be at least three years before anybody can catch a ride to Cypress Waters Station.

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Plans for Banquet Hall Get Derailed

Here’s a peek inside Town Hall, which is part of The Sound at Cypress Waters.

The meeting chronicled in the previous article happened at Town Hall, an event space within The Sound at Cypress Waters. This was my second visit to the second-story venue; last year, one of my neighbors rented it for a ceremony celebrating her husband’s military promotion.

I wanted to bring Town Hall to your attention because people have been lamenting the lack of event venues in and around Coppell. We were supposed to be getting another option as part of the Victory Shops at Coppell development, but those plans have changed.

As originally proposed last year, the Victory Shops on South Belt Line Road were going to include a banquet hall. However, the developers submitted revised plans that include larger buildings and fewer parking spaces. Consequently, there aren’t enough spaces left to satisfy Coppell’s parking requirements for an event venue.

“The banquet hall was something we were planning on trying to achieve in the development; weren’t sure if that was going to happen,” Bobby Mendoza of Victory Real Estate Group told the City Council on Jan. 10. “Because of the changes in the buildings, you know, we had to reduce some of the uses, and the banquet hall was the first one to be reduced.”

If you’re interested in renting Town Hall for an upcoming event, good news: I did some of the legwork for you. Marci Parrish, the Billingsley Company’s Community Relations and Events Marketing Manager, said the base rate is $200 per hour Monday through Thursday and $300 per hour on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. She also said clients can bring in their own catered food.

By contrast, if you rent the Reception Hall within the Coppell Arts Center, you have to buy your food from its exclusive caterer, Macklin’s Catering. Nobody at the Arts Center immediately responded to my inquiry about rental rates last week, but Coppell Historical Society President Chris Long told the City Council last November that her nonprofit organization would have been charged $1,000 for a two-hour event there.

If that’s too pricey, the city does have free options. For example, meeting spaces can be reserved at Life Safety Park, but there are two big caveats there. First, the spaces are typically available only between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. on weekdays. Second, if you did want to host an event during those hours, you’d be required to devote the first 10 minutes to a safety lesson taught by the park’s staff. Seriously.

A more convenient option is the Cozby Library and Community Commons, which has spaces available until 9 p.m. and on weekends. Its largest meeting room can accommodate up to 100 people, and you can book it (no pun intended) for up to three hours without having to carve out any time for a presentation by a librarian.

Meanwhile, there are four hotels in the City of Coppell, all of which have meeting spaces available. (See “Did Andy Brown Need More Tributes?” in the Sept. 11 edition.) Those four are among the 29 hotels within the boundaries of Coppell ISD.

Did I miss any event spaces in and around Coppell? Let me know.

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Pickleballers Want to Go Inside and Play

Throughout 2022, Coppell senior citizens pleaded with city officials to provide an indoor venue for pickleball. This year’s first City Council meeting was no different.

On Jan. 10, Jack Henderson lamented the fact that pickleball has been exclusively an outdoor sport in Coppell since the COVID lockdown eased up. He reminded the council that, prior to the pandemic, older pickleball enthusiasts could play at The CORE and at the Coppell Senior and Community Center without being exposed to the elements.

“This was a case of fixing what was not broken,” he said during the “Citizens’ Appearance” portion of the meeting.

Henderson was also at Town Center on Jan. 9, when Eric Clay, who manages the Wagon Wheel Tennis and Pickleball Center, provided a report to the Coppell Parks and Recreation Board. There are 12 tennis courts at Wagon Wheel plus four dedicated pickleball courts – all of which are outdoors. Clay said four of the 12 tennis courts have “blended lines” so they can be used as eight additional pickleball courts.

Clay said the initial iteration of his facility’s pickleball league had 100 participants, and the second round more than doubled that number; a third season is in the works. Meanwhile, the “open play” pickleball sessions recently expanded from three days per week to four. More than 100 people show up to play on a typical Saturday morning.

“You’re constantly getting to meet and greet different folks and generally have a pretty good game of pickleball,” Clay said.

The Parks and Recreation Board added new pickleball courts to their list of development priorities last year, specifically in the “high priority” section. (See “Parks Board Finalizes Priority List” in the May 8 edition.) However, Parks and Recreation Director Jessica Carpenter said during the board’s Jan. 9 meeting that the priority list does not include an indoor facility, nor does her department’s master plan. And Clay said there’s been no detailed discussions about bringing pickleball back to the senior center.

When asked whether his facility has space for any new courts, Clay said he’s eyeing a grassy expanse behind the Wagon Wheel pro shop.

“I’m biased, but I would pave it all — so I’m going to put that out there right now — and paint lines on it for either sport,” he told the board.

Clay was also asked whether he’s worried about competition from Chicken and Pickle, a chain of pickleball-themed restaurants that opened a Grapevine location last Tuesday. Clay said he doubts the eatery will be a direct competitor, due to the difference in pricing.

Wagon Wheel charges Coppell residents just $2.50 to reserve a pickleball court for 90 minutes; non-residents have to fork over $3.50. Clay said those prices put Wagon Wheel in the middle of the market relative to municipal facilities in neighboring cities. Meanwhile, Chicken and Pickle charges $20 per hour on weekdays and $40 per hour on evenings and weekends to use its pickleball courts, which come in three varieties: outdoor, shaded, and indoor.

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Candidates Lining Up for Elections

I can’t recall seeing a candidate for the Coppell ISD Board of Trustees actively campaign against a candidate for the Coppell City Council, or vice versa. However, that may happen this year, depending on how tomorrow’s school board meeting goes.

Jim Walker leads the Bond Steering Committee for Coppell ISD. He and his co-chair, Coppell High School senior Dilan Patel, are scheduled to present the committee’s recommendations to the Board of Trustees on Monday. One of the people who will be intently listening to their presentation is Julie Waters, the vocal leader of the Pinkerton Parent Coalition, who has encouraged her followers to fill the board room tomorrow evening. “If we show up en masse on Monday, we can save Pinkerton,” she said on TikTok.

Wednesday was the first day candidates could file paperwork for this year’s elections. Walker is running for a seat on the City Council, and Waters is running for a seat on the Board of Trustees. She has already told the incumbent trustees, “Pinkerton parents will remember which of the board members voted for or against — or even abstained — in closing a school.” (See “District Asks Everyone to Remain Calm” in the Dec. 18 edition.) I would assume the same veiled threat applies to a City Council candidate who recommends closing a school.

Walker, who is also a member of the Coppell Planning and Zoning Commission, is one of two candidates for the seat that Cliff Long has held since 2014. Walker’s only competitor at the moment is Ramesh Premkumar, who is a member of Coppell’s Smart City Board.

The other three incumbents on the City Council — Don Carroll, Mark Hill, and John Jun — are running for reelection without challengers, for now, but the filing period doesn’t close until Feb. 17. Carroll is also a member of the Bond Steering Committee, so the recommendations in Monday’s presentation may inspire someone to run against him.

Waters is one of three candidates for the Coppell ISD seat that Neena Biswas has held since 2020. The others are Samit Patel and Ranna Raval, who are both members of the Bond Steering Committee and also serve on the board of the Coppell ISD Education Foundation. Biswas has until Feb. 17 to join the fray.

Two more Coppell ISD seats will be on the ballot in May. At the moment, Board President David Caviness is unchallenged in his bid for a third term. Meanwhile, for reasons that aren’t clear to me, the filing period for the seat that Jobby Mathew has held since last November doesn’t open until Tuesday, and it has a later closing date than the others: March 6. Whoever wins that seat in May will be elected for just one year; the other winning candidates will secure three-year terms.

If you want to throw your hat in these rings, the City of Coppell and Coppell ISD have both scheduled candidate workshops for 6 p.m. on Thursday. Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD will offer a similar event at 7 p.m. on Monday. As of this morning, incumbent Carolyn Benavides was the only candidate for the two available seats on that district’s board.

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Chronicle Crumbs

• Do you remember Michael Feathers? His house on Ashford Drive was raided by federal agents in June 2021, and he has since pled guilty to drugs and weapons charges. About a month ago, I was told he would be sentenced on Friday afternoon, so I trekked to the federal courthouse in downtown Dallas to take notes on your behalf. And that’s how I learned a hard lesson about calling ahead to confirm details. After paying $12.99 for the privilege of parking my car, I was informed that Feathers’ sentencing has been delayed until May.

• The former Petco space next to Tom Thumb will soon become a Popshelf store, according to a form filed with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. The Tennessee-based chain is affiliated with Dollar General and styles its name as pOpshelf, a la eBay and iPhone. (To that, I say, “uGh.”) Its website says the store offers “a fun, on-trend and rotating selection of seasonal, houseware, home décor, health and beauty products, home cleaning supplies and paper products and party goods in addition to candy & snacks, toys, games and electronics, among other items.” That’s a lot to unpack.

• Deputy City Manager Vicki Chiavetta will retire this week; before earning her current title in 2018, she was Coppell’s Director of Library Services for eight years. The City Council will honor her during Tuesday’s meeting, when they will also recognize former Coppell Parks and Recreation Board member Ed Guignon for his years of service. The city will also host a public reception in Chiavetta’s honor between 3 and 5 p.m. on Thursday.

• As previewed in the Nov. 20 edition, the department formerly known as Coppell Parks & Recreation rolled out its new name last week: Coppell Community Experiences. I got a snootful of that phrase on Monday morning while coincidentally engaging in a community experience — working out with my Camp Gladiator trainer, Brenda Lyon, at the Farmers Market pavilion, where several slides trumpeting the rebranding rotated across the screens.

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Community Calendar

Lions Club SPOT Screening: The Coppell Lions Club will provide preliminary vision screenings for children 6 months to 5 years old, or any child with special needs, between 11:45 a.m. and 12:45 p.m. on Wednesday at the Cozby Library and Community Commons.

Cyber Threat Awareness: New Tech High senior Maya Mata will present two more opportunities to learn about protecting yourself and your devices from online threats — at 5 p.m. on Wednesday at the Cozby Library and Community Commons, and at 4 p.m. on Feb. 3 at George Coffee + Provisions.

Teen Craft — Canvas Bag: Teenagers are invited to decorate reusable canvas bags with fabric paint between 5:30 and 7 p.m. on Wednesday at the Cozby Library and Community Commons.

Coppell Chamber of Commerce Members’ Choice Awards & Community Gala: Metrocrest Services CEO Tracy Eubanks has been named the recipient of the Cliff Long Leadership Award. Other winners will be announced after 6 p.m. on Saturday at the Courtyard by Marriott in Grapevine.

Mamma Mia! The Coppell High School Cowboy Theatre Company will stage five performances of the ABBA-inspired musical between Saturday and Feb. 5.

Play ball: The registration deadline for the Coppell Baseball Association’s spring leagues is Jan. 29. The registration deadline for the Coppell Girls Softball Association’s spring leagues is Jan. 31.

Coffee and Connection: Coppell ISD’s Intervention Services Department invites all parents of students with disabilities to George Coffee + Provisions between 9 and 10 a.m. on Feb. 1.

State of the City: Mayor Wes Mays will review the 2023 vision for our fair suburb during a luncheon scheduled for 11:30 a.m. on Feb. 9 at the Coppell Arts Center. (Irving Mayor Rick Stopfer will address the state of his city at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday at the Irving Convention Center.)

Coppell Lions Club Pancake Breakfast: The 36th annual fundraiser is scheduled from 8 to 11:30 a.m. on Feb. 11 at the First United Methodist Church of Coppell. Tickets are $5 per person, with $20 being the maximum charge for a family.

Frost Fest: This free festival for families will feature a variety of snowy activities, no matter what the actual weather looks like on Feb. 18. It’s scheduled from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Levy Event Plaza in Las Colinas.