Yes, folks, it’s really there. The bond program recommended by staff includes $9 million to dredge White Rock Lake.

The price tag for desilting the lake is $18 million. The remaining funds will come from Dallas Water Utilities’ bonds. Included with the plans for dredging White Rock Lake is a proposal to establish an ongoing maintenance program for all lakes in the City so that we could desilt them periodically and not find ourselves in this difficult position again.

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From the comments of my colleagues on the Council, I have no doubt that we will, in fact, include funding for White Rock Lake in the Bond Program.

Now on to more mundane matters.

The vast majority of dollars included in this bond program are committed to “nuts and bolts” projects, such as street reconstruction and resurfacing, roof replacements, alley reconstruction and basic necessities at park and recreation centers throughout the City.

In our neighborhood, we can look forward to the reconstruction of Ferndale Road from Northwest Highway to Kingsley, the reconstruction of Church Road from the exit ramp at LBJ to Plano and improvements to a number of neighborhood streets, which will either be reconstructed or resurfaced.

The staff recommendation also includes a $700,000 addition to the Lake Highlands North Recreation Center. Anyone who has spent 10 minutes up there realizes we desperately need more space. Like our library, our recreation center is one of the most heavily used in the entire city.

Unfortunately, the staff recommendation did not include funds to purchase land north of LBJ for the development of a park and recreation center.

This proposed Bond Program seeks to take advantage of money available from other sources and many of the transportation improvements, in fact, would be accomplished primarily from federal, state and county funds. The proposals which would fund improvements at Fair Park and expansions at the Zoo and the Arboretum involve the expectation of private funding sources for a major portion of those expansion costs.

By the time you read this, the Council would have approved items for inclusion in the bond package and I will hold a townhall meeting in early April to make certain that Lake Highlands residents have ample opportunities to be fully educated about each proposition.

Reminder

Lake Highlands Republican Women’s Club and more than 25 homeowners associations are co-hosting a forum for mayoral candidates on March 22 at 7 p.m. at Lake Highlands High School. Please join your neighbors in taking advantage of the opportunity to question those who wish to lead the City for the next four years.

If you don’t see my column next month, that means that I will have drawn an opponent and will be busy campaigning for re-election. In that event, I’ll hope to be back in June.