3rd Quarter WGNA Meeting Summary 7/27/17 K.Agee

Our 3rd quarter WGNA meeting was held on 7/27/17 at our usual location (back of the Christian Church at 3525 Lawler) at the usual 7 p.m. start-time.

President Ricardo Rocha directed the meeting. After a roll call of officers and a short review of old business, Treasurer Robert Vera reported a balance of $1500.59.

President Rocha again announced the need for new officers for the roles of President, Vice-President, and Secretary. David Morehead has tentatively volunteered for VP, and Irene Ryan volunteered for to be Secretary. We are still looking for a volunteer for President. We plan to confirm as many of these positions as possible during the next quarterly meeting on October 26.

Other business included initial plans to host a Neighborhood Night Out event, to be held on Tuesday October 3^rd starting from 6 or 6:30 p.m. until sundown. We may collaborate with the new owners of the Christian Church where we hold our meetings, but we need to hold a few pre-event meetings before things like this are fully defined. If anyone wants to help, please either email mail4wgna@gmail.com or call our voicemail number at 972-379-7497 so we can include you in the planning sessions.

President Rocha volunteered to hold a low-key garage sale to help fund the group. Rather than hold it on a specific day, he will just keep the donated items in his garage and sell them via Craigslist (or equivalent) over a longer period of time.

Our Treasurer and longtime WGNA member Robert Vera is now our new District 6 City Councilman. He introduced himself and his role. He has also graciously volunteered to act as a go-between for people with Code Compliance issues – whether they want to remain anonymous or are just not making enough progress on their own. Robert’s official phone number is 469-271-5471 and his email address is: Council6@GarlandTX.gov

Councilman Vera arranged to have our Assistant City Planner Rick Vasquez attend, along with Director of the Health Dept. Jason Chessher and Public Health Manager Diana Beeler presenting information.

Mr. Vasquez explained that they’re in the middle of the next budget cycle and was pleased to say that our tax rate will remain the same again, despite their adding another 4-5 Policemen and 4-5 Firemen to the payroll.

Mr. Chessher explained that Health is divided into three departments: Animal Services, Public Health, and Environmental Health. We had a discussion about micro-chipping of pets. The City doesn’t require all pets to be micro-chipped (like Dallas does)… instead, they micro-chip all pets going thru the Shelter and add the cost to their final bill to the customer.

Ms. Beeler mostly talked about their vaccination programs. They offer low-cost vaccinations for school age children, and also for the general public, including travel vaccines and Shingles vaccines at competitive rates. They have a doctor on-staff with a walk-in clinic that’s open Mon-Fri from 7:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. including lunchtime.

Each speaker allowed time for questions, and Councilman Vera had some closing comments regarding mosquitoes.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:04 p.m., although there were additional ad hoc discussions before the lights went out at 8:25 p.m.