It seems hard for me to believe that we have reached the year 2000. I hope the Y2K bugs will be kind to us all. As we start a new year, much less new century, my hope is that our crime rate in District 10 will continue to show improvement.
As you may have recalled in a previous month’s issue, we were having some problems, especially in auto-related theft and burglary. I am glad to report that September’s numbers showed improvement. The bad news is that we still see increases over last year, just not as large a percentage.
Terrell Bolton, our new police chief, has received some tough treatment from the media at the start of his tenure. I really did like Chief Click and appreciated his being so involved in the community, but I also realized that we had some problems that were not being addressed. Last year, after complaining for several months, I was assigned an assistant chief who started addressing my concerns. His name was Terrell Bolton.
Terrell did not just sweep my complaints under the rug but admitted that the Northeast sub station had not received the manpower that was called for, and he made sure that the next graduation class at the academy had a greater than proportionate share of officers assigned to Northeast. This along with some reassignment has helped the situation in our district.
I believe Terrell was chosen for this position by our city manager because he saw a need not to just keep the status quo. Although some of the changes seem to be radical, I ask everyone to give Terrell some time and see if the changes being made result in some very positive results.
With a 19.4 percent increase in non-violent crime this year in District 10, we need to do something different. Chief Bolton is increasing the number of officers on the streets, and I support his effort.
Other news in the district brings us the opening, finally, of the Royal Lane extension between Audelia and Skillman. Hopefully, this will bring some relief to the Skillman-LBJ intersection.
I really wanted to give thanks to our football and volleyball teams at Lake Highlands High School. This was a tough season for football, but the effort given – considering nine starters were out with injuries – was great, and the community appreciates the extreme effort. Congratulations also goes to the girl’s volleyball team on a trip to the playoffs, showing that Lake Highlands excels across the board.
Lastly, congratulations to our new Downtown arena. Recent announcements place the 2003 U.S. Figure Skating Championship, the 2003 and 2004 Big 12 Basketball Championship for men and women, and the first and second round of the 2003 NCAA Final Four in Dallas with a direct economic impact of over $80 million. Not bad for a facility that is not even half-finished!
