Coppell Chronicle Vol. 4, No. 15
Coppell Weathers Effects of Big Storm • City Doles Out Baker’s Dozen of Grants • Speller Makes Return Trip to National Bee • Online Auction Features Bargains Aplenty
What a week that was. Our power was out for less than 36 hours, but I’m aware of some Coppell families who went without electricity until Saturday afternoon. Yikes.
Coppell Weathers Effects of Big Storm
North Texas has been a mess since Tuesday’s intense winds severed trees across the region, and many cities and towns — including Coppell — will remain messy for weeks.
“We will make every effort to work with our residents,” City Manager Mike Land said Tuesday. “We just ask that our residents also be patient, knowing full well that it’s going to take a while to clean this up.”
The city’s website has a handy Severe Storms page that features all of the relevant information, but I wanted to highlight a few things that Land stressed during his report to the City Council.
The trees on your property are your responsibility.
Land said city crews are working on clearing tree limbs that are blocking streets and public rights-of way. But city employees will not be able to remove debris from private property; that’s on you.
Knowing that not everybody has the ability to cut limbs and drag them to the curb, the city has contacted volunteers from the last three editions of the Coppell Connects: Neighbors Helping Neighbors event to see if they’re willing to assist. Separately, many Coppell residents who are adept with chainsaws are offering their services. I’ve already hired one to help me with this tree that fell through my rear neighbor’s fence and my redundant fence, then landed on my patio.
Land also pointed out that the city’s Tool Lending Trailer can be reserved.
Small branches and brush must be tied.
If you have branches that are 4 feet or shorter, you can assemble them into bundles weighing less than 40 pounds and place them wherever you put your yard waste for Wednesday collections. But those bundles must be tied with cotton or jute string.
“If they’re not tied, they will not be picked up,” Land said. “And that’s consistent with what we do any other time.”
Land added that those small bundles can be put out for collection on Wednesdays as long as it takes for Republic Services to collect them all.
Large branches will line our curbs for weeks.
Tree debris that’s longer than 4 feet must be hauled to your curb, even if your trash and recycling is normally picked up in your alley. Republic Services will eventually send grappling trucks to collect those larger limbs, and those trucks can’t operate within the confines of an alley.
Coppell’s administration is working with Republic on scheduling those collections, but Republic works with lots of other cities in North Texas. All of those cities were hit by the same storm, and all of those cities have plenty of trees (although not as many as they had a week ago). Land estimated that the soonest Coppell’s larger limbs might start being collected is June 10.
“It’s going to be a few weeks,” he said. “So we just ask for everybody to be patient.”
City Doles Out Baker’s Dozen of Grants
Some people think of 13 as an unlucky number, but that’s the amount of fortunate folks who will receive residential rehabilitation grants from the City of Coppell.
When Director of Community Development Mindi Hurley briefed the council on the pilot program last Tuesday, she reminded them that the grants were awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. The application window opened at 8 a.m. on May 1.
“This program was executed exactly as it was communicated it would be, and the grant opening was administered exactly as it was advertised,” Hurley said.
Hurley told the council that the first completed application was submitted at 8:01:39, and the 13th was submitted at 8:02:10. More than 120 applications were submitted in the first five minutes, and 696 were turned in overall.
(Three weeks ago, I reported that Hurley told the city’s Future Oriented Approach to Residential Development Task Force that 70 applications were completed in the first minute. Hurley told the council that she misspoke when she said that.)
In response to a question from Council Member Ramesh Premkumar, Hurley said the lucky 13 did not include any of the 50 people who applied in person. In response to a question from yours truly, Hurley said seven of the 13 requested the maximum amount of $10,000.
The Future Oriented Approach to Residential Development Task Force proposed the grants program because one of the goals in Coppell’s Vision 2040 plan is “explore refit and refurbishment of older housing stock.” Mayor Pro Tem Kevin Nevels asked Hurley how the task force decided on $10,000 for the maximum amount.
“We thought it was the amount that would cause people to actually do a project,” Hurley said, reminding the council that one of the pilot program’s rules was that the grant had to represent no more than 50 percent of the project’s cost.
“We had no idea what kind of response we would have from the community,” Hurley said. “Once the article was written, and we started getting phone calls, we realized that there was going to be a lot more interest than what we probably originally thought.”
(The article she referenced is “Coppell to Help Homeowners With Grants” in Vol. 3, No. 52.)
Hurley said the city allowed both online and in-person applications because some people said they would not be able to apply in person because of their work schedules, while others said they would not be able to apply online because they didn’t feel comfortable navigating the city’s website. She said some of the in-person applicants admitted to having a spouse who was also applying online, which helps explain the 45 duplicate applications.
Here are some other statistics compiled by Katie Blust, a project coordinator in Hurley’s department:
• The average age of the 651 homes listed on the applications was 37 years old, and the vast majority of them (445) were between 30 and 39 years old. Six homes were more than 60 years old, and two were less than 30 years old. Those two were ineligible, because 30 was the minimum age for the program.
• The average value of the 651 homes was $544,754, which is not far off from the average value of owner-occupied homes in Coppell: $597,350. The most expensive home listed on any of the applications is valued at $1,246,520; the cheapest is valued at $229,000.
• The most popular project was window replacements, which were mentioned on 233 of the applications. Coming in second and third were landscape projects (230) and fence repairs or replacements (167).
(After last week’s storm, there are a lot more fences in Coppell that need to be repaired or replaced, including two on my property.)
In February, 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. Hurley has said the city staff plans to budget $200,000 annually for such grants for the next five years, pending the council’s approval.
Many homeowners who did not receive one of the 13 grants told Hurley they plan to go forward with their projects, she said, even without financial assistance from the city.
“In our mind, it was the catalyst that got some people to go ahead and do some investment in their property, which is exactly what we were wanting to do with the program,” she said.
Speller Makes Return Trip to National Bee
Sriya Gomatam, who just completed her eighth-grade year at Coppell Middle School North, was eliminated from the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Wednesday in the sixth round of competition. That means she tied for 22nd place, which is an improvement from last year, when Sriya tied for 122nd place. Here’s how she fared in this year’s bee, which began with 245 spellers:
Round 1 (spelling): She spelled pochoir.
Round 2 (word meaning): She knew someone who is ensconced is firmly or comfortably settled.
Round 3 (spelling): She spelled geobiont.
Round 4 (spelling): She spelled Fennoscandian.
Round 5 (word meaning): She knew zaniness is the state of being fantastically absurd.
Round 6 (spelling): She misspelled alteplase as altiplase.
(Each of those links will take you to the word’s Merriam-Webster definition.)
It took two more rounds to narrow this year’s field from 21 to eight. Those eight spellers competed in the finals on Thursday, when Bruhat Soma — a seventh-grader from St. Petersburg, Fla. — bested Faizan Zaki in the second “spell-off” in the national bee’s history.
Faizan just finished his sixth-grade year at Rice Middle School in Plano. He and Sriya were co-champions of this year’s Dallas Regional Bee and last year’s as well. He will be eligible for next year’s competitions, but she’s aged out.
Online Auction Features Bargains Aplenty
If you’re in the market for a kayak, a bicycle, or some PS4 video games, act fast. The City of Coppell’s latest auction of surplus and seized items closes at 10 a.m. on Tuesday.
As I wrote in a 2022 article called “City Selling Some Surplus Stuff,” Coppell’s auctions are run by a McKinney company called René Bates Auctioneers, which keeps a commission. The remaining proceeds from the sale of a city-owned item get recorded in the fund that originally purchased it. Money related to seized or found items goes to the Police Special Revenue Fund.
The priciest item among the 67 lots in this auction is a 2016 Mercedes-Benz AMG C63. As of 10 o’clock morning, the top bid was $29,300, even though the listing for the performance sedan clearly says this: “SELLER HAS NO HISTORY ON THIS ITEM AND CANNOT BE POSITIVE ABOUT THE AUTHENTICITY OF ANYTHING REGARDING THIS UNIT, INCLUDING MILEAGE.” Nonetheless, the mileage is listed as 61,818 miles.
Perhaps you’re looking for something that’s a lot cheaper and not nearly as fast. Then you might be interested in this Assault Fitness stationary bike. The top bid was just $50 this morning.
There are a few items in this auction that I’m fairly sure I’ve touched. For example, if you’ve ever thought the Coppell Arts Center’s silver chairs with white pads were particularly comfortable, then you might want to buy 100 of them. The latest bid for that lot was $1,000. What about those stackable plastic chairs that I stacked after many Cub Scout events at the Biodiversity Education Center? The city is selling two lots of those. A set of 30 was going for $125.01 (don’t forget the one cent), and the high bid for a set of 18 was $72. There’s also a group of floating lily pads from the outdoor pool at The CORE. The 10 of them — plus some exercise mats — were going for just $5.
For whatever reason, those lily pads are categorized as “decorative items.” The only other lot in that category is comprised of these two paintings by Gustavo Montoya. The high bid this morning was $70.
Happy shopping, everybody!
Chronicle Crumbs
• I’ve heard Celena Rae sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “O Canada” before dozens of Dallas Stars games, but it wasn’t until yesterday that I learned she is a Coppell resident. If the Stars win Game 6 of the Western Conference finals in Edmonton this evening, then she’ll belt out those anthems at least one more time before Game 7 in Dallas on Tuesday.
• Attention, Class of 2024: Friday is the deadline to snap a selfie with your Grad-venger Hunt sign and possibly win a $100 gift card. I’m happy to report that the sign at the Wendy’s on MacArthur Boulevard is no longer covering a pothole in the drive-thru lane.
• A groundbreaking ceremony for Coppell’s Fire Station 5 has been scheduled for 9 a.m. on Tuesday. This will be on Moore Road, in front of Austin Elementary School. If you’re a new subscriber, catch up on coverage of Fire Station 5.
• The Coppell City Council had a two-hour executive session on Tuesday, when — according to their agenda — they discussed these topics behind closed doors:
Tax credits and workforce housing
The purchase or sale of real estate east of MacArthur Boulevard and south of Sandy Lake Road.
Zoning and development code issues in the area east of Royal Lane, west of Denton Tap Road, south of Sandy Lake Road, and north of Bethel Road.
Hey, that’s the area where I live! Hmm …
• Tuesday’s Coppell City Council meeting was supposed to include a presentation from Metrocrest Services on the area’s unhoused population, but that briefing was delayed to a future meeting. Meanwhile, this morning was the first time I’d ever seen a person sleeping outdoors in Coppell.
• The oft-revised rezoning proposal that I most recently wrote about in “Latest Valley Ranch Plan Met With Disdain” was on the agenda for last Thursday’s Irving City Council meeting. But the case was postponed until June 13 at the request of the developer, who was out of town last week.
• Now that we’re back behind the paywall without all those freeloaders, I want to clue my paid subscribers into what may be the best deal at any Coppell grocery store. Have y’all seen these trays that Market Street sells for just $25?
They feature four burger patties, four pork chops, four chicken breasts, and a comparable amount of chicken prepared for fajitas. With the addition of a few sides and salads, that amounts to four dinners for my family of four.
Does anybody else know of some good grocery deals they’d like to share?
Community Calendar
Movie Mondays: Beginning tomorrow, the Cozby Library and Community Commons will host weekly screenings for families and for teens. Separate films will be shown for each group starting at 3 p.m.
Teen Trivia: Teenagers can test their knowledge and win prizes between 1 and 2 p.m. on Tuesday at the Cozby Library and Community Commons.
Crack the Case: Children who will be in elementary school this fall are invited to investigate mysteries and puzzles between 3 and 4 p.m. on Tuesday at the Cozby Library and Community Commons.
Hunger Games Party: Teenagers are invited to join their fellow tributes between 2 and 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday at the Cozby Library and Community Commons, where they’ll have fun while testing their knowledge and getting creative. You will not need to fight for your life to leave the program a victor.
Game Night: Families can enjoy classic and contemporary board games — and a few giant ones also — between 6 and 8 p.m. on Wednesday at the Cozby Library and Community Commons.
Master Plan Community Input Meeting: Coppell’s Community Experiences Department is updating its Master Plan, which outlines goals for parks, open spaces, facilities, and programs. You can provide input during a meeting that will begin at 6 p.m. on Thursday at the Coppell Arts Center.
Big Fish: Theatre Coppell will stage nine performances of the musical about a traveling salesman who lives life to the fullest. The first show is scheduled for 8 p.m. on Friday at the Coppell Arts Center.
Box Turtle Conservation: You can learn interesting facts about box turtles and local conservation efforts, and even meet a few shelled friends, between 10 a.m. and noon on Saturday at the Biodiversity Education Center.
Coppell History Talks: Megan Bozarth, an assistant vice president of DFW International Airport, will be at the Cozby Library and Community Commons at 1 p.m. on Saturday to discuss the history of the airport as it marks its 50th anniversary. This event is sponsored by the Coppell Historical Society.
Electric Avenue: A band that bills itself as “the 80s MTV experience” will ignite your feelings of nostalgia twice on Saturday, at 2 and 7:30 p.m., at the Coppell Arts Center.
’80s Fashion Night: If you truly love the ’80s, wear your legwarmers to the Electric Avenue matinee and then head to the Irving Archives & Museum for this event starting at 6 p.m. on Saturday.
Nature Photography: Master Naturalist Matthew Read will discuss general photography tips and tricks, as well as wildlife photography and seasonal photography subjects, between 2 and 3 p.m. on June 9 at the Cozby Library and Community Commons.
Lucy: I’ve heard of K-pop, but Lucy is the first Korean act I’ve seen described as K-rock. Their world tour includes a stop at the Coppell Arts Center at 7 p.m. on June 9.
Dallas Black Dance Theatre: The oldest, continuously operating professional dance company in Dallas will perform at 8 p.m. on June 22 at the Coppell Arts Center.
Let’s Draw With Gale Galligan: The Friends of the Coppell Public Library are bringing the best-selling cartoonist to the Cozby Library and Community Commons for three workshops on June 29. Tickets are free, but each workshop will be limited to 50 participants.
Thanks for another great edition of news we can use.
Another great edition!
I just passed the former location of Ms. Mary's and a new lease sign has gone up. Did we lose another restaurant?