Well, summertime is in full swing. Though shortened by the needs of our school system for more teaching time, family vacations and summer camps seem to have been taken in stride anyway. I sincerely hope all of you have already enjoyed your respite, or soon will, before the rush of fall.

Though we did take last month off in terms of briefings and full council sessions, City Hall has been in motion all summer. We’ve been working on budgets, attempting to sort out our homeless mess, “trying” to work with the Cowboys, searching for a city manager and furthering the Trinity River investigations and development plans for downtown. We’ve also been discussing the merits of the many options Dallas is fortunate to have for water sources over the next 50 years, and trying to come to grips, along with our new police chief, with a good way to handle the rising crime rate across the city.

Sign up for our newsletter!

* indicates required

We did make good progress in most of these areas of interest. And I encourage all of you to attend my next Town Hall Meeting, to be held at Lake Highlands High School student center Aug. 24 at 7 p.m., for a full report on each of these topics.

Also, headway has been made in certain other areas of interest to Lake Highlands. Town Center is a viable work in progress! Many of you have heard my thoughts on this topic, and I will be asking for your thoughts on it during the August meeting and hope to make some introductions that evening as well.

I hope all of you will be in attendance at the many National Night Out gatherings across Lake Highlands on Aug. 3. It is a great way to meet new neighbors or just visit with old “what’s-his-name” from down the street. I hope to join in several of the gatherings myself. Thanks for the many kind invitations.

Once again, I thank all of you for allowing me the opportunity and honor to represent you at City Hall. I believe that working together, we can solve anything.