Topic: Announcements

I just created a new poll. Please take the time to respond to it. With so many local votes, I know people in the community may want to discuss political issues that affect us all. However, the last thing I want to do is have a toxic environment here. So I'm curious as to how you, the resident and faithful site visitor, feel about political discussions in this venue. I will use this poll and any comments to this topic in the forums as part of the decision-making process.

Early voting begins Monday, October 22 at 34 locations throughout Tarrant County and continues through Friday, November 2. For early voting, you may vote at any location. The closest to VOWS are Keller Town Hall, Watauga City Hall, and the Southlake Sub-Courthouse. To see a complete list of locations, a sample ballot or for more information, click on the VOTEXAS image to the right

We will be voting on 16 state constitutional amendments. The details of the propositions are available on the Texas Secretary of State website. In addition, City of Fort Worth will have a ballot question on establishing collective bargaining for firefighters. Go to www.fortworthgov.org and click on “Elections” under Quick Links for details on this proposition.

It's been a long week for me work-wise and I've gotten a little behind with the site. I've activated the Classified links. The code had a few more problems than I originally thought and there are a few remaining bugs. One I noticed was the "Recent Ads" page is not working. I will continue to work on these bugs. However, I've tested the Classifieds and I noticed a few of you posted some ads. They seem to be working.

It occurred to me that I needed a way for site users to report bugs in a way where I can track them so I added a forum where you can report bugs. If you find a problem on this site, please report it there. Be specific. For example, if you simply write, "It doesn't work," I may not be able to find the root cause.

Again, thanks for your support and kind words.

As this site continues to grow, I would like to expand the content offerings. Specifically, I would like to call on Woodland Springs residents who are also bloggers to contribute to this site. As you probably noticed, I've added social networking tools to the site's articles. Very shortly, I will be merging comments from stories with the forums. This article, in fact, is the first to be copied to the forums for that purpose.

Requirements: Bloggers are invited to contact the Website administrator by sending a private message to vwsadmin or an email to webmaster at woodlandsprings dot com. The blogger must be a verifiable resident of the Villages of Woodland Springs. Blog articles on this site must be related to living in the community, social activities, lifestyles residents can relate to, parenting/children, local (i.e. Fort Worth & Keller) government, or other community-relevant topics. Subjects that will not be published will be those that violate the terms of service and forum rules; in other words if you stay away from religion, sex, and politics your article will most certainly be safe. Bloggers must also commit to publishing regularly on this site, the more the better.

Site Updates

I just about have the classifieds completed. There are some formatting issues that I need to resolve. I hope to have them complete in the next few days. Many of you have already found the new avatars. The old content is being ported over and should be complete this weekend. I am also continuing on forum formatting as I'm sure some of you have noticed some improvements in the forums.

Thanks for your patience and support.

The site administrators decided to require registration to view the forums. This was the way the site was before the recent update. Requiring registration will prevent Internet programs that harvest emails and other private information from getting to forum posts. This was a technical decision to protect forum users. Registration is a simple process and only takes a few minutes. No information you submit on this site is used in any way other than for your access to this site. Our updated privacy policy and terms of service are forthcoming.

Thanks

As I'm working on getting the site completely updated, I am making changes as I have time. As a result, you might see strange things when you go to a page like an error message or funky formatting. If you just refresh your browser, chances are it will fix itself right away. I try not to have any particular update take more than a few minutes. When I break something and it will take a while to fix, I revert back to the way it was.

Things to look for in the next few days:

• A brand spanking new classified ads module
• More user-friendly formatting in the forums
• All of the old content migrated over to searchable pages
• A new menu on the left side to take you to said old and new content
• New fresh articles from community members
• A bunch of new avatars you can assign to yourself or even upload your own (an avatar is an icon you can assign to yourself so you look really cool in the forums)

Also, up at the top menu, there is a link called "User Pages". This is an experimental function that gives this site "MySpace" like functionality. It is experimental in several ways. First, the module itself is in beta, which means it doesn't have all of its features. I will be in contact with the module author to see what his plans are and if I need to enhance it. Also, it's experimental in that I can see where it will have the potential to be abused. I haven't written up the terms of use for it yet, but the forum terms of use should apply. In other words, this whole site is rated PG, at the highest. If it's not family friendly, don't post it. Period.

With that said, feel free to upload pictures, create a blog, and put your profile out there. Please report bugs to me at webmaster at woodlandsprings dot com. I will try to address them. I think User Pages will be great once we work the kinks out, but I need users to help me do that.

Have fun.

Okay, the site is finally switched over. The important function of the forums is back online (see my previous post). 

There are still some functions I'm working on like the new classified ads, new content, and migrating the old content over. I did feel since the forums were ready, I'd launch the new site. I will be tweaking the look and feel of the forums, too. I'm not fond of the default buttons.

Anyway, feel free to start posting again. Look for new links to be added. Keep coming back and most importantly, support our sponsors. This site has been a labor of love for myself and the volunteers who moderate the forums. However, the hosting, software licensing, and development does cost. Supporting our sponsors is the best way to show you support this site.

If you are interested in becoming a sponsor yourself, please send an email to webmaster at woodlandsprings dot com.

Welcome to the new Woodlandsprings.com Web site. It's still a work in progress. However, as promised, the first thing I focused on was converting the old forums over. I didn't want to lose all of that history. In fact, I got a little obsessive about it. Most all of the old data came over. 

There was an issue, however, with usernames. In the old forum system, it was possible to have a different username in the forum than what you registered with on the site. This made the transfer of old postings and their original poster difficult. We had to get those old posts and associate them with the email that matched the username from the list of registered site users. This should not be a problem for most posts, but about 140 posts came up as not associated with a registered user and those posts were assigned to the nearest match.

 Your usernames still have the number of postings, but I'm afraid that user rankings did not come over. That means you can see how many posts you made. When you make your first post in the new system, it may give you an accurate ranking. I'm not sure how that will work.

 Finally, the old rules about being nice to each other still applies. Remember that these are your neighbors too.

Early voting starts Monday, April 30th at 39 locations throughout Tarrant County. We will be voting on a constitutional amendment regarding senior/disabled school property tax freezes, city of Fort Worth Mayor, Ft Worth city council district 2, and Keller ISD Board of Trustees (4 Places). Elections for Northwest ISD (2 Places) were cancelled because there is only one candidate running for each office. Click on the image to the right for more information on locations and to see a sample ballot.

Precincts 3372 and 3417 (in general, VOWS west of Alta Vista Road) will vote at J Lyndal Hughes Elementary, 13824 Lost Spurs Dr, Haslet (Mapsco 8P) and precinct 3486 (VOWS east of Alta Vista) will vote at Woodland Springs Elementary.

If you aren't sure which precinct you are in, you can check the Tarrant County Online Voter Lookup feature.

Submitted by Rick & Cathy Pepper

As your Code Blue captains for The Villages of Woodland Springs, we attend a quarterly meeting with COPS captains from around Fort Worth. This meeting is a time for FWPD Chief Ralph Mendoza to update us on the Code Blue program, crime trends and reduction, among other topics.

Chief Mendoza reviewed the crime statistics for the past year (preliminary). The overall crime rate for 2006 from 2005 city-wide is down about 2-3%! Homicide, rape, and auto theft are each down >10%, Aggravated assault has risen about 10%. Part 1 crimes (murder, rape, robbery, etc.) are up about 5% over 2005. Property crimes (theft, auto theft, burglary, etc.) have been reduced about 2%.

The homicide rate is now the lowest for the city since 1963, although the city boundaries and population are much larger now. A rise in bank robberies earlier in 2006 was reversed after most of the bad guys were caught and convicted.

Fort Worth is now the 5th safest large city in America. Our Police and Fire departments do a great job of protecting the 347 square miles and more than 620,000 people that comprise FW. Chief Mendoza was quick to point out that much of the crime reduction results from citizens who want a safe city; citizens who report suspicious activity to the police, and the efforts of the Code Blue/ Citizens on Patrol volunteers.

The Chief has charged his officers and all of us to continue reducing crime and to make FW the safest big city!

December 2006 Crimes in VOWS:

12/19 - Snapdragon Dr. - Auto Theft
12/30 - Vienna Apple Dr. - Theft (construction site)
12/31 - Coyote Ridge Dr. - Auto Theft

First, an announcement. Our Code Blue patrollers have observed that fewer garage doors are being left open at night. Thank You! Theft of property from open garages and unlocked vehicles continues to be the most prevalent crime in The Villages of Woodland Springs (VOWS).

Your efforts to keep valuables out of sight and reach are effective in deterring the criminals from visiting VOWS. Ours continues to be a relatively low crime neighborhood and there were no confirmed Part I (non-property) crimes reported in September or October. The large number of construction sites in VOWS currently, however, present criminals with many opportunities for theft. And they are not ignoring them! Fort Worth in general, and especially fast-growing areas like ours are seeing a huge rise in thefts of copper tubing and pipe, HVAC coils (also copper), and wiring (also copper). Do you see a trend here? Copper scrap prices are at a very high level now and it has been easier to sell stolen copper than other stolen goods. The Fort Worth City Council has passed an ordinance that requires scrap dealers to take proactive measures to discourage criminals from easily disposing of stolen metals. The law requires dealers to obtain a copy of photo ID, have video surveillance running (or hold goods until investigated by the Fort Worth Police Department), and provide other measures to identify the person selling goods. It’s effective so far, but the criminals are going to dealers in surrounding towns and cities. The FWPD is working with those suburbs to enact similar regulations.

If there are construction sites near you, please be observant when you’re out and about. The most susceptible situations are just before the concrete slab is poured (buried plumbing and electrical is already in place, but not covered), and just before the home is to be occupied (HVAC, appliances, fixtures are all installed). If you see suspicious vehicles, especially after dark, or individuals acting suspiciously walking on the sites or in the homes (or they are loading appliances and copper tubing into a vehicle!), please call the FWPD non-emergency telephone number and report the street, block, and a description of the people and vehicles, if possible. A license tag number is always a valuable piece of information when reporting suspicious activity.

Finally, on a different topic, here are some observations made as we patrol your streets and villages. Perhaps you did not know that some of these are illegal or violate VOWS “Deed Restrictions”.

• Vehicles parked on the street facing the traffic flow (“wrong side”)
• Commercial vehicles (primarily trucks) parked in the street or in driveways overnight
• Garage doors left open slightly to allow pets to roam freely overnight (pets have to be secured)
• Vehicles parked too close to stop signs or fire hydrants
• Many intersections on side streets in VOWS do have stop or yield signs. But we often see drivers go right through the signs that are posted on the main streets
• Vehicles traveling at excessive speed, especially on Park Vista, Woodland Springs Dr., and Coffeetree.

This one is not a law or rule, merely an observation:

American or Texas flags displayed at night without being lit, or flags displayed in the rain. If both are displayed together, the American flag must be higher than the Texas flag

Crime Summary – OCTOBER 2006

11Oct06 Burglary (Breaking & Entering) Toffee St.
14Oct06 Burglary (Breaking & Entering Button Bush Dr.
10Oct06 Theft (from Motor Vehicle)Wild Pear Ln.
31Oct06 Theft (from Motor Vehicle)Bobcat Dr.
17Oct06 Other Larceny (Theft)Vienna Apple Rd.
22Oct06 Other Larceny (Theft)Ambrosia Dr.
23Oct06 Other Larceny (Theft)Vienna Apple Rd.

Election Day is upon us. Locally, this is an important election as there are several propositions on the ballot affecting VOWS residents - a senior & disabled tax freeze in Tarrant County, a charter amendment for the city of Fort Worth, and two bond proposals for those who live in Keller ISD. Click on the image to the right for more information on locations and to see a sample ballot.

Precincts 3372 and 3486 (generally VOWS east of Old Denton Road) will vote at the Northridge Church, 11910 Old Denton Road (north of Keller-Hicks, Mapsco 21H) and precinct 3417 (generally west of Old Denton Road) will vote at the Haslett Community Center, 105 Main Street (Mapsco 6Q).

If you aren't sure which precinct you are in, you can check the Tarrant County Online Voter Lookup feature.

Note for anyone who votes straight party ticket: The ballot propositions are at the end and must be voted separately.

Central High School to Perform “The Wizard of Oz”

CHS Fine Arts Department will be presenting their second annual musical “The Wizard of Oz.” Performances will be Thursday Nov. 30th through Saturday, Dec. 2nd at 7p.m. Additional matinees will be Sat and Sun, Dec. 2nd & 3rd at 2:30 p.m.

We invite you to bring your whole family to experience the magic that is OZ.

Come meet, greet, and have your picture taken with your favorite character from the musical. After each performance the cast will come into the lobby to say hello and sign autographs.

Tickets will cost:

Adults - $10
Students & Seniors - $8

Plan ahead, last year we had a sellout crowd. Box office opens at 6:00 p.m. and the auditorium doors will open at 6:30 p.m.

Concessions will be sold in the lobby before and after the show, and during intermission. Flowers, T-shirts and posters will also be available for sale.

Journey to Central High School, and follow the yellow brick road to the Emerald City and the magic of OZ.

The WoodlandSprings.com website signed up its 2500th member on Friday October 19, 2006.

Thanks for all the support!

Early voting begins Monday, October 23rd and continues through November 3rd at locations throughout Tarrant County. The closest early voting location to VOWS is Keller Town Hall, 1100 Bear Creek Parkway; there are 29 other sites throughout the county that will be open during the entire early voting period and another 9 at college campuses with limited days or hours. Click on the image to the right for more information on locations and to see a sample ballot.

Keller, Texas, July 21, 2006

North Central Ballet has opened a new facility in Keller to serve area youth. North Central Ballet is Northeast Tarrant County’s only professional ballet school. And Regional Company. The new 7,500 square foot facility is located at 12077 Katy Road, Suite 713, Keller Texas 76248.

Fall classes begin August 21 for students ages 2-adult and beginner-professional.

Open auditions for area youth for Tchaikovsky’s THE NUTCRACKER will be held Saturday September 9th.

Contact:
Les Jordan
North Central Ballet
817-428-8232
lesjordan@northcentralballet.com
www.northcentralballet.com

Father's Day / Kids Days 2006

Cabela's Fort Worth, Texas Retail Store is located at the junction of state highway 170 and I-35W. In addition to offering quality outdoor merchandise, the massive 230,000 sq. ft. showroom is an educational and entertainment attraction, featuring a décor of museum-quality animal displays, huge aquariums and trophy animals interacting in realistic re-creations of their natural habitats.

Father's Day / Kid's Day 2006 Flyer

June 17 & June 18 (10:00am - Dusk)

Thursday - June 8, 2006

JUNE QUALIFYING

The IRL IndyCar and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series use this day/evening to get tuned-in, revved-up and stoked for a weekend of night racing. It's a great opportunity to hang out with friends, get a peek at what the weekend holds and enjoy the late spring weather of North Texas. Warning: be prepared to get excited about IndyCar racing!

Friday - June 9, 2005

SAM'S TOWN 400

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series always puts on a great show at The Great American Speedway. Up-and-coming drivers compete against racing veterans for the Fort Worth 400 trophy. Many of today's big league stars got their start in the Truck Series - and you could witness the ascent of the next superstar! Click Here Now for the Best Seats Available!

Saturday - June 10, 2005

LEARJET 500

Open-wheel racing in Texas means that you're going to have to sit on the edge of your seat for the entire race! The gladiators of the IRL IndyCar Series don't just race, they battle for every inch of asphalt they can get - and that's not an understatement. Texas Motor Speedway has hosted seven of the top-20 closest finishes in series history. Don't miss "America's Original Nighttime IndyCar race!" Click Here Now for the Best Seats Available!

For more information visit: Texas Motor Speedway's Website