pineda

From The Woodlands Association Board meeting held on January 25th, 2007: The Board accepted a report to update current mobility projects in The Woodlands area including the following: o Widening Research Forest to 3 lanes starts mid-2007. o Extending Kuykendahl to FM 1488 starts during 2008. o Plans for traffic signals on Research Forest and Woodlands Parkway. o I-45 from FM 1488 to south Loop 336 is scheduled to be completed August 2008. o Construction for FM 1488 expansion starts March 2007. The 4 mile segment from the FM 2978 intersection eastward will take 19 months to complete. o The Engineering contract to widen FM 2978 from the Harris County line to FM 1488 will be released in early 2007. o Planning for Grand Parkway continues with completion scheduled for mid-2012. o Construction start of the Woodlands Parkway Park & Ride near Ashlane Way is expected in the near future.

story found on Woodlands Online today

(as seen on Blog Houston "47-68. Calls public hearings at which interested persons will be given the opportunity to be heard on a proposal for the City of Houston and Bridgestone Municipal Utility District, Chelford City Municipal Utility District, Fort Bend County Municipal Utility District No. 119, Harris County Municipal Utility District No. 33, Harris County Municipal Utility District No. 53, Harris County Municipal Utility District No. 55, Harris County Municipal Utility District No. 154, Harris County Municipal Utility District No. 165, Harris County Municipal Utility District No. 179, Harris County Municipal Utility District No. 185, Harris County Municipal Utility District No. 188, (pant, pant....) Harris County Municipal Utility District No. 222, Harris County Municipal Utility District No. 189, Harris County Municipal Utility District No. 264, Harris County Municipal Utility District No. 286, Harris County Municipal Utility District No. 322, Harris County Municipal Utility District No. 358, (pant, pant, pant....) West Harris County Municipal Utility District No. 6, Northwest Harris County Municipal Utility District No. 9 , Harris County Municipal Utility District No. 365, White Oak Bend Municipal Utility District, Harris County Municipal Utility District No. 368, Harris County Municipal Utility District No. 397, Timber Lane Utility District, Sagemeadow Utility District, Harris County Municipal Utility District No. 468, and Harris County Water Control And Improvement District No. 119 to enter into a strategic partnership agreement and on a proposal by the City of Houston to annex for limited purposes certain territory. (I'm going to go rub liniment on my knuckles now....) "I for one, welcome our new municipal overlords." I'd heard that the Legislature was going to take a hard look at banning these limited purpose annexations. Clearly the City of Houston is trying to grab as much land while the grabbin's good. If you live in any of the above districts, keep your eyes open for those public meetings and be sure to appear. 69-72. Calls public hearings at which interested persons will be given the opportunity to be heard on a proposal for the City of Houston and Horsepen Bayou Municipal Utility District, Morton Road Municipal Utility District, North Forest Municipal Utility District, and Northwest Park Municipal Utility District to enter into an amendment to the strategic partnership agreement and on a proposal by the City of Houston to annex for limited purposes certain territory. The problem is, once you pay the Danegeld, you're never rid of the Dane..."

From the Bridgestone MUD minutes: "Ms. Jarmon recommended that the Board also review the budget twice a year in order to address any changes that may be necessary. Ms. Jarmon stated that she did not include any Strategic Partnership Agreement (or

Thanks for the link, CDeb!

coal's apparently too dirty, but... wind turbines are supposedly noisy and ugly, so... what's the answer here for Texas? Comments?

apartments on the rise in northwest quadrant

Niche, what you're asking about might be in here somewhere.

GOOD NEWS FOR TEXAS PARKS MAY BE ON THE WAY! By Ella Tyler The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department

KTRK did a story that might be of interest to you.

Examiner discusses Westbury Rebels mascot

skip to page 10 for an update on what PASA is doing now in Klein ISD try this one, Chris

Gotta agree with you on this one. Tom Ricker was in charge of the whole "mold remediation" situation at Northampton Elementary last year and had several big missteps in my opinion. He was only recently moved into his new position, in charge of Facilities, a step up from his last position, in charge of the Bus Barn. The bigger problem, again in my opinion, is the PASA report done for and paid for by the Klein ISD. This report was and is loaded with errors, but the past board just skimmed over the report's findings and approved all their recommendations. This was a mistake, considering the group that did the work had also done a similar report for Spring ISD, and sent that whole district into a tail-spin, one from which they still haven't fully recovered, which included a failed bond election. The PASA report needs to have another committee, since the school board appears to be too busy to bother, to go over its' findings with a fine-toothed comb. A nice touch would be to include representatives from each of the affected communities on the committee.

" The American Institute of Architects is presenting

AIA Houston

Chris- Did you attend the Community Forum at Klein Oak regarding zoning proposals? If you did, would you be so kind as to give us your thoughts on how you thought it went on this rather contentious issue for Klein ISD? Thanks!

I know that the bus service issue for the International Baccalaureate program at Klein Oak was to be addressed by the school board, but I don't know the outcome yet. Hopefully, they decided to provide bus service to and from Klein Oak for the students whose home campus is either Klein Collins, Klein Forest or Klein. Otherwise, it unfairly penalizes those students who might have qualified to attend the program, but had not transportation provided by the district.

All day at school on Friday, my kids said their teachers kept saying that maybe they would all be getting a 4-day weekend, instead of three, because maybe Tuesday will be a SNOW DAY! Wouldn't that be fun?!

Thanks, Niche! The difference between the two is one is grade-separated which means underpass or overpass, so no interference with train operations. The other is at-grade, which means pedestrians, cars and trucks could potentially cross paths with a train. I'll check out that location you listed. It's not for the Metro train, is it? I need one for freight trains, like UPRR.

Question: Does anyone know if there are any pedestrian-only at-grade train crossings located in the Houston area? If so, where are they located, specifically? These would be for people walking across the tracks, no cars. This would apply to freight trains like UPRR. Question: Does anyone know how to find out what types of loads are being carried by UPRR on a daily basis on a specific stretch of track? Question: Does anyone know how to find a list of all the accidents or NAR's (non-accident releases) UPRR has had? Question: Does anyone know how to find out the specific speed of a freight train on a specific stretch of tracks? Question: Does anyone know of any pedestrian-only grade-separated train crossings in the Houston area? If so, where specifically? And, thanks so much for playing pineda's five questions about railroad freight trains game!

from Woodlands Online Update! The Goose's Acre grand opening is tomorrow! I believe the McTeggart Irish Dancers will be there to perform as well. Should be a lovely time for those of you so inclined to participate.

Not all are. The I.B. (International Baccalaureate) program is located at Klein Oak. My question would be: Is Klein ISD providing bus service to VISTAS and the IBA? They currently do not for the IB program. On a related note: Here's a press release from Klein ISD regarding Klein Forest's appeal of their AYP- "Klein Forest High School was recently granted an appeal of its preliminary 2006 AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) rating. An AYP rating is based upon requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. As a result of the approval of the appeal, all campuses in Klein and the district itself now have ratings of "Meets AYP." To meet AYP, student groups on each campus must achieve performance and participation standards in reading and mathematics. The student groups are: all students, African American, Hispanic, white, economically disadvantaged, limited English proficient, and special education. Klein Forest students met all performance standards, but one group did not meet the required 95% participation rate for mathematics. An absence by one student caused the campus to have a 94% rate of participation in that group. The campus submitted proper documentation regarding the student's absence in the appeal, and its rating for 2006 was successfully changed to "Meets AYP."

Trees for Houston website announcement for Arbor Day

Katy Prairie Conservancy newsletter