Coppell Chronicle Vol. 4, No. 25
Residents Oppose Office on Their Street • Rendering Revealed for Redesigned Dog Park • City to Help Fund Special Olympics • Library Board Wants Updates on Challenges
This newsletter’s inaugural intern, Samantha Handshy, learned a valuable lesson about journalism last week: Sometimes, a story can keep developing while you’re working on it. She handled the heavy lifting on the article about Howell Drive. The rest are by your usual correspondent.
Residents Oppose Office on Their Street
Howell Drive has seen a lot of change over the years, and residents weren’t happy to hear the prospect of any more.
At the July 18 meeting of the Coppell Planning and Zoning Commission, residents voiced their complaints about a commercial building potentially being added to the northwest corner of Southwestern Boulevard and Howell as offices for Graystone Construction. Concerns were raised about the area’s mix of commercial and residential zoning, drainage issues in the vicinity, and Graystone’s trailers being parked on Howell.
Rich Pilone, who has lived on Howell for over four decades, said the neighborhood has been plagued by problems for 45 years, including multiple arson incidents.
“My objection is it is so crowded with the school [Pinkerton Elementary] coming in and out, and the new warehouses that just came there, and we don’t need additional stuff there,” Pilone said.
Graystone purchased the quarter-acre property at 192 Southwestern in April of 2023 and was seeking a zoning change that would allow the construction of an 1,800-square-foot office building.
“There was a lot of constricting things regarding that site,” said architect Joseph Wilkins, who represented Graystone at the hearing. “It was just fortunate enough that we have a client that it worked for them to put that 1,800-square-foot building on there.”
The proposed site plan, however, shows the new building being accessed off of Howell, which is where residents’ opposition stemmed.
“It’s a Southwestern Boulevard address,” Pilone said. “Stay off my street!”
The small 1960s neighborhood on the edge of town probably goes unnoticed by most of Coppell. With the narrow cul-de-sac’s entrance featuring a few commercial buildings, it is fair to say that Howell has seen better days.
Julio Castaneda owns multiple properties on Bullock Drive, an adjacent street with similar drainage issues. He expressed his major worry about Graystone’s large trailers being parked and driven down Howell, and he said the company’s property should be accessed from Southwestern.
“I get that a person is entitled to do something with their land,” Castaneda said. “But not at the cost of ... causing such a hardship on the residents of that area.”
Senior Planner Mary Paron-Boswell told the commissioners that the size of the Graystone property made a driveway on Southwestern impractical. Given the corner lot’s location and dimensions, “any building that you put on there, any type of business, would require some type of variance,” she said. The requested zoning change largely concerns variances to the setback rules, and those variances would apply to a garage that was built directly on the north property line in the 1980s. That garage was a stumbling block for many of the commissioners.
“Why should we want to allow this non-conforming use on this site?” Commissioner Kent Hafemann asked. “I’m all for people using the land the way they need to use the land to use their operation, but when it’s encroaching on the neighbors the way it appears to be, that concerns me.”
Glenn Portman pointed out that the garage has been in place for decades, and he reminded his fellow commissioners that parking commercial vehicles on a public street with commercial zoning is legal.
“It is unfortunate for residents behind this area to deal with the problem,” Portman said, “but there are lots of areas in the city where you’ve got residential areas near commercial. And it’s unfortunate, but commercial areas are required.”
Portman made a motion to approve the case as presented, and Sue Blankenship seconded it. Only Cindy Bishop voted with them, so the motion failed, 3-4.
Commissioner Ed Maurer then made a motion to approve the case with two new conditions (remove the garage and prohibit trailer parking), and Hafemann seconded it. Edmund Haas and Freddie Guerra voted with them, so the motion passed, 4-3.
The ultimate decision would have been made by the City Council this Tuesday; however, Graystone withdrew its application on July 23.
Rendering Revealed for Redesigned Dog Park
A year and a half after a redesign of Coppell’s dog park was approved, we have a glimpse of what it will look like.
“It’s been kind of put on hold for a while, while we worked through some design things with our consultant, but we’re really close,” Director of Community Experiences Jessica Carpenter told the Parks and Recreation Board on Monday.
Although he did not bring a drum to Monday’s meeting, Assistant Director of Community Experiences Adam Richter did say “drumroll” before revealing this rendering.
Richter then shared some stats to show how the redesigned Waggin’ Tails Dog Park will improve on the current version.
Acreage: The footprint will increase from 1.9 acres to 3.4 acres.
Paddocks: That number will double, from two to four. One of the four will be reserved for small dogs, and another will feature 10,000 square feet of synthetic turf.
Entrance gates: That number will quadruple, from two to eight. Each paddock will have two gates.
Shade structures: That number will triple, from one to three.
Drinking fountains: That number will increase from three to four, with a fountain in each paddock.
Surveyed dog owners have lamented the park’s lack of lighting, agility features, and wash stations. Richter said the redesign calls for six lights, 10 agility features, and three wash stations.
After a brief discussion of how the new synthetic turf will be cleaned, Parks and Recreation Board Vice Chair Maureen Corcoran asked whether park patrons pick up after their pets.
“That would be questionable,” Richter said. “I think we could definitely use some help out there.”
Corcoran, who does not own a dog, got some laughs with her immediate response: “Well, I’m not volunteering.” But she wondered why there isn’t a volunteer group — a la Friends of Coppell Nature Park or Friends of the Coppell Public Library — that could organize clean-up efforts.
“The city and the staff are doing an awesome job, but I guess I’d like to see the dog owners take great pride in this too,” Corcoran said.
Carpenter said many surrounding communities have such groups, and the city staff would welcome one here, as would our elected officials. Mayor Wes Mays bemoaned Coppell’s lack of a nonprofit organization supporting the dog park when the City Council approved funding for the redesign last year.
(See “Dog Park Overdue for Makeover” in Vol. 2, No. 52.)
Carpenter said education about excrement etiquette (my words, not hers) will be addressed before a ribbon is cut for the redesigned dog park.
“The majority of our users out there are responsible owners and will pick up after their pets,” she said. “There are definitely some that do not, and that makes it a not-enjoyable place for everybody.”
City to Help Fund Special Olympics
The folks who run Coppell’s Special Olympics program made a rare request for money from the city government. It appears they’re going to get more than they asked for.
During the City Council’s budget workshop on July 15, Patti Simonds and Laura Jennings said the program has about $12,200 on hand, including about $6,750 raised via this year’s Coppell 5K. (Their goal for that June 1 event was $10,000.) The projected expenses for the upcoming year are between $17,000 and $19,000, leaving the organization with a shortfall of at least $4,800.
Simonds said Coppell Special Olympics serves about 90 active athletes, with an average of 50 participating in each of these five sports: basketball, soccer, swimming, bocce, and bowling. They range in age from elementary school students to adults in their 30s, and their families don’t incur any out-of-pocket costs.
“We don’t want our parents to have to pay for anything,” Jennings said. “We don’t want to keep anybody from … being able to participate.”
(Full disclosure: One of those Special Olympians lives in my house.)
The City Council allocates funding to local service organizations each year, but Coppell Special Olympics hasn’t asked for any money since 2017, when the program was granted $5,350. About $2,400 of that amount went to Main Event to reserve lanes for bowling practice, Simonds said, and about $2,250 was spent on basketball and soccer uniforms.
This year, the organization requested a grant of $9,925, which would cover $3,375 for new uniforms in four sports, $3,200 for lanes at Main Event, and $2,200 for pool fees at the Coppell Family YMCA.
Several members of the council thanked Simonds and Jennings for their service to the community. After they left, Mayor Pro Tem Kevin Nevels proposed giving them more money than they requested.
“It’s a little outside the box,” he said to his peers. “I know I’ve never done this before [or] seen this done.”
Nevels said he was “incredibly impressed” with how the Special Olympics leaders manage their funds, evidenced by the fact that they hadn’t asked for any money in seven years.
“They came to us just to ‘bridge the gap,’ if you will, and haven’t been back since then,” he said.
Nevels tried to follow Simonds and Jennings out of the room after their presentation, so he could ask them how much money they’d need to pay for some of the items on their list of future goals. But Mayor Wes Mays stopped him from leaving, because doing so would have prevented the council from maintaining a quorum.
Before the council’s subsequent workshop on July 22, Nevels got more information from Simonds: An extra $5,000 would pay for uniform swimsuits as well as expenses related to out-of-town meets. The rest of the council seemed to be OK with that bonus amount.
I couldn’t find the council’s total allocation to service organizations in the city’s latest proposed budget for fiscal 2025, but a reliable source told me it’s about $422,000. The council will discuss the budget during the work session before Tuesday’s meeting. Formal votes on the budget and tax rate are expected during the council’s Aug. 27 meeting.
Library Board Wants Updates on Challenges
Challenges to the Cozby Library’s collection are rare, but if one happens, most members of Coppell’s Library Advisory Board would like to know about it.
During Thursday’s board meeting, Library Manager Alexis Wellborn presented a revised version of the library’s collection development guidelines. One of the revisions drafted by City Attorney Bob Hager would call for a hearing before the board, separate from a regularly scheduled board meeting, if a challenger wanted to appeal the library staff’s decision. You can review the proposed revisions by downloading this PDF:
The board members agreed with all of Hager’s revisions, but a majority of them said they’d like something else added to the guidelines. They want a policy that says they’ll be notified of any challenges (also known as reconsideration requests) that aren’t appealed.
This is something board member Patricia Graziano has been asking for since last September. When Wellborn attended her first board meeting in October, she read this excerpt from her inaugural report: “Reconsideration requests are not a regular occurrence at the Cozby Library. When they do happen, it is incumbent upon both the library and library board to remain impartial to protect the rights of our citizens during a possible appeal process.”
During Thursday’s discussion of the guidelines, Graziano brought up the topic again. She would like the board — and the general public — to be informed of which titles in the collection are challenged and how the library staff resolves such challenges.
“It’s important for citizens to be able to access that information,” Graziano said. “I mean, if you don’t tell the Library Board, the Coppell Chronicle’s gonna figure it out. It’s gonna be out there anyway.”
Hey, I appreciate the shout-out! In the first few months of 2022, the Chronicle included multiple articles about a challenge to a graphic novel called Gender Queer. A pair of 3-3 votes were documented in “Library Retains ‘Gender Queer’ – For Now,” and a subsequent 4-2 decision led to “Board Votes to Retain ‘Gender Queer’.”
While listening to a recording of Thursday’s discussion, I laughed out loud when board member Frank Gasparro said, “I had fun at both of those meetings.” Board Chair Martha Garber agreed that they were fun, while Anne Diamond and Haridas Radhakrishnan categorized them as “interesting.”
Library Supervisor Morgan Pritchett assured the board that no challenges had been filed since the Gender Queer decision, so there’s been nothing to report. “I feel very fortunate that our community is continuing to be supportive of the materials that we have,” Pritchett said.
Radhakrishnan suggested any future challenges resolved by the library’s staff could be summarized in Wellborn’s written memos to the board, and Gasparro agreed. Although Garber, Gasparro, and Graziano all said they wouldn’t want to know the name of the challenger, Wellborn said, “I wonder if that starts to impede on patron confidentiality, though.”
Not all board members were eager for the information. Carla Madrigal asked, “What do we as the board get from having that report?” If challenges were summarized in Wellborn’s memos, “it’s easier to get the information and make it politicized,” Madrigal said.
Garber suggested that Wellborn and her staff confer with the city attorney and bring the guidelines back for the board’s consideration at their September meeting. Channeling her inner Larry the Cable Guy, Garber said, “We’ll ‘git ’er done’ then.”
Updates From the Sports Desk
Volleyball: The U.S. women’s national team, which includes Coppell High School graduate Chiaka Ogbogu, lost to Italy today in the Paris Olympics’ gold-medal match. The Americans were the defending champs, but they had to settle for the program’s fourth silver medal after falling in straight sets.
Lacrosse: During Monday’s meeting of the Coppell Parks and Recreation Board, Coppell Lacrosse Association treasurer McKee Smith reported that more than 97 percent of the organization’s players attend Coppell ISD schools or other schools within Coppell’s city limits. However, the high school girls team that made it to the state championship game last spring lost half of its roster to graduation. The association will host a recruiting event for new players of all ages between 4 and 6 p.m. on Saturday at Lesley Field.
Kickball: Congratulations to the Kickaholics, who won the championship of Coppell’s co-ed adult league on Friday night. The Kickaholics (9-1) came very close to having an undefeated season; their only loss was by a single run.
Chronicle Crumbs
This might be the crumbliest edition of the Chronicle Crumbs yet.
• Last week, H-E-B announced plans to open a Joe V’s Smart Shop along State Highway 183 in Irving. That would be the third location for the discount concept in Dallas County. Meanwhile, longtime subscribers will recall my series of articles about the prospect of a traditional H-E-B store along Interstate 635 in the Coppell ISD portion of Irving. I’d hoped to break some news on that front in this edition, but I’m waiting for the City of Irving to respond to an open records request. If I have something to report before next Sunday, I’ll do so via the Notes tab on the Chronicle’s website.
• Reminder to commuters without kids: Monday is the first day of classes for Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD (which includes Riverchase Elementary in Coppell and multiple campuses in Irving) and Universal Academy in Coppell. Lewisville ISD will get started on Tuesday, followed by Coppell ISD and Coppell Classical Academy on Wednesday.
• In the summer of 2022, I published an article called “Short-Term Rental Permit Was Short-Lived.” It was about a property on Oakbend Drive, where Scott Young’s permit to offer short-term rentals was revoked for a variety of violations. Since then, Coppell has adopted a process that calls for public hearings before the Planning and Zoning Commission and the City Council whenever someone applies for such a permit. Despite his history with the city, Young’s property will be the subject of a hearing at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday.
• A subscriber told me he’d recently noticed that new cameras are attached to traffic signals around Coppell, and he wondered if I knew anything about them. Back in March, the City Council approved spending about $116,000 to install automated license plate readers at 16 intersections. “The use of these cameras has proven to be a force multiplier providing law enforcement with real-time automated notifications of possible suspects, stolen property, Amber Alerts, Silver Alerts, wanted subjects, etc.,” Police Chief Danny Barton wrote in a memo to the council. The money came from the Crime Control and Prevention District fund, which is derived from sales taxes.
• Another subscriber asked me to look into the giant black pole that’s been erected along Denton Tap Road, right in front of Wendy’s. After pulling into the parking lot to get a closer look, I noticed this sticker on the pole.
Despite what the sticker says, the person who answered that 800 number was not able to provide more information. But Verizon spokesperson Holland Behn told me via email, “We are building new cell sites to support coverage and capacity for the Verizon network in the area.”
• Just down the road from that pole, I recently noticed some workers adding something to the east end of the traffic signal at Town Center Drive. I asked Director of Public Works Mike Garza for some insight, and he said that vertical black cylinder on the right side of this photo is a 5G antenna.
• During the July 30 meeting of Coppell’s Animal Services Advisory and Appeals Board, Animal Services Manager Charlene Lovato said there had been no reports of alligator sightings for two weeks. On Friday morning, she told me nothing had changed in that regard.
• The pricing sign for Kroger’s fuel station is in place along MacArthur Boulevard. As I drove by, I thought these placeholder figures might have been Cyrillic numerals. Upon closer inspection, they appear to be the right side of a 4 and the left side of a 5.
• It’s been 18 months since Coppell’s Little Greek bounced back from being shuttered for more than a year. Yet there’s still a “WE ARE OPEN” banner hanging above the restaurant’s front door. OK, bro, we get it. You’re open.
• The Houston law firm that manages Denton County Levee Improvement District No. 1 informed me that its Board of Directors would meet at 11 a.m. last Monday at the pump station just north of the Coppell-Lewisville border. I showed up at that time — as did two of the district’s taxpayers — to find a locked gate and an empty parking lot. I emailed my contact at the law firm to ask what was up, and she said the meeting had been cancelled. Apparently, the cancellation notice had been sent to the wrong distribution list. Oops!
• The Texas Department of Transportation plans to spend more than $216 million reconstructing a stretch of Interstate 35-E in Lewisville. According to a form filed with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, the work is supposed to begin next April and continue until October of 2028. Fun!
• “Know All Earthlings by These Presents, Greetings.” Those are the opening words in a pair of classified ads that have appeared in the Rambler — the City of Coppell’s official newspaper — multiple times this summer. These ads inform the rest of us Earthlings that Dwain and Allison Hulse of Fort Worth have “elected to divorce and separate [themselves] from the presumption of United States citizenship.” The ads say the Hulses took this action “on the 3rd Day of the 12th Month of Dagim in the Adamic Year of 5,966.” Noted!
Community Calendar
Coppell Band Community Performance: The Coppell High School band will perform at 7:30 p.m. on Monday in the parking area due west of Buddy Echols Field. Bring your own lawn chair.
Northwest Dallas County Flood Control District: The obscure taxing entity’s three-man Board of Directors will meet at 11 a.m. on Tuesday in the clubhouse of the Oaks Riverchase apartment complex.
Assistance League of Coppell: The club’s first general membership meeting of the season is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Thursday at Life Safety Park. (Last week’s edition listed a different time and location for this meeting; I received updated info after that was published.)
Rotary Club of Coppell: Cortney Jones is a former foster child who founded Change 1, a nonprofit dedicated to helping youths successfully transition out of foster care. She will speak during the Rotary Club meeting scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. on Thursday at 3401 Olympus Blvd. in Cypress Waters.
Spotlight on Broadway: The Coppell Community Chorale will perform songs from Heathers, Avenue Q, Kinky Boots, Six, Hamilton, and other musicals at 7 p.m. on Saturday at the Coppell Arts Center.
August Paint & Sip: A Starry Night (Texas Version): Kate Shema of Createria Studios will guide participants through a relaxing evening of painting a vibrant scene. This event, which will begin at 6 p.m. on Aug. 21 at the Coppell Arts Center, is for adults only because alcohol will be available.
Nathuram Godse: A two-act play about the man who assassinated Mohandas K. Gandhi will be performed at the Coppell Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 22. The dialogue will be delivered in Marathi, but an English translation will be available to patrons who bring their own devices.
New Gardener Orientation: The volunteers who tend to the Coppell Community Gardens will orient new gardeners at noon on Aug. 24 at the Helping Hands Garden next to Town Center. Registrations are requested by this Thursday.
Mark Nizer: Nizer has been known to juggle everything from ping pong balls and bowling balls to a burning propane tank and a running electric carving knife. He’ll perform at the Coppell Arts Center twice on Aug. 24, at 2 and 7 p.m.
Coppell Lariettes Spaghetti Dinner: This annual fundraiser will begin at 5 p.m. on Aug. 30 in the Coppell High School Commons before the varsity football team takes on Sachse. Halftime of that game will include a performance featuring former Lariettes. (See “Former Lariettes Invited to Dance Again” in Vol. 4, No. 23.)
Patriotic Peace Ceremony: Troop 841 will mark the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks during its meeting at 7 p.m. on Sept. 9 at Andrew Brown Park East. Weather permitting, the ceremony will include the release of a dozen white doves.
Town Hall with Sen. Tan Parker: Parker represents not only Coppell in the Texas Senate but also a portion of Tarrant County, about half of Denton County, and the entirety of Wise County. He’ll be at Dallas College’s Coppell Center for a town hall meeting at 9 a.m. on Sept. 10. Admission is free, but RSVPs are requested.
Raina Telgemeier: The author and illustrator of Smile and other bestselling graphic novels will be at the Coppell Arts Center at 3 p.m. on Sept. 14. This free event is made possible by the Friends of the Coppell Public Library. Attendees are welcome to bring one book for Telgemeier to sign. Books will also be available for purchase through Grapevine’s Talking Animals Books.
I am beyond excited to learn that Council approved well-deserved funding for Special Olympics. This group brings energy to the community with their participation in the Olympics and City Parades. Thanks for sharing this with your readers, Dan.
I wonder if they considered the artificial turf temperature in the summertime for the dogs. The banter on the Coppell Facebook page about backyard artificial turf has been saying it’s pretty hot on the dogs paws