Northwood Hills Homeowners Association, Inc.
Spring 1999 Newsletter

President's Message

By Larry Baker

In our last newsletter we announced that we had 460 members as of February 28, 1999. I am pleased to report that on May 15 our membership numbered 510. That's an increase of 11% in less than three months. We sincerely thank you for your support!

Our April 12 meeting was attended by 105 members and guests. Jody Puckett, City of Dallas Director of Sanitation, spoke to us on the new containerized garbage collection scheduled to begin July 1. Scott Newland, Regional Manager for Code Enforcement, spoke on the do's and don'ts of monthly bulk trash curbside pickup.

Internal NHHA reports were also presented: first quarter financials by Treasurer Glyn Jordan; July 4 parade by Sherry Peart; spring/summer tennis by Stewart Mitchell; fall golf by Larry Baker, and run/walk events by Melissa Leibowitz.

I would like to draw special attention to the Fall Festival scheduled for Saturday, October 2. Melissa Leibowitz has gone all out to organize a fantastic afternoon and evening program. It starts with a 1-mile Family Fun Run/Walk and ends at Fretz Park, where all contestants and non-contestants alike will gather for an old-fashioned family picnic. Afterward, kick back and listen to the sounds of the Town North Concert Band. NHHA member Tom Reger plays in the band and arranged the evening entertainment. Please mark you calendar and come join us!

Have you checked out our web site yet? If not, you're in for a big surprise! Member Gene Saunders has taken charge of this program and turned our web page into a really useful information resource.

NEW MEMBERSHIP I.D. EMBLEMS COMING IN JUNE

When dues notices are mailed for third quarter 1999, all dues paying members of NHHA will receive a newly designed membership ID emblem as shown below.

The actual size of the adhesive-backed emblem is 4.5" in diameter. It can easily be attached to the door of your mailbox, front storm door, window, or any other prominent location that is readily seen.

The colors are silver and blue. The emblem's inner circle is approximately 3" in diameter, and identifies current members by calendar year. Next calendar year, renewing members will receive a replacement inner circle sticker reading "2000 Security Patrol." New members joining in 2000 will be provided a completely new emblem for that year. It is our hope that this member identification device can be repeated for years to come.

The Board approved this new ID system for two reasons:

1. The yard signs currently in use would require costly repair or replacement.
2. The new emblem identifies valued members more cost-effectively.

NOW NHHA HAS ITS OWN WEB SITE -- BIG TIME!

You asked for it. Now it's here. More NHHA information at your fingertips. Just log onto our home page on the World Wide Web -- www.northwoodhills.org.

NHHA member Gene Saunders is now our Webmaster, and what a terrific job he's done enhancing our original web site. For example, if you need a map of the NHHA neighborhood, trash collection info or dates, code compliance specs, a history of Northwood Hills development, current and past newsletters, membership applications, calendar of events, real estate home sales updates, Security Patrol info, e-mail addresses of Board members, and much, much more -- just tap into our new web site.

In addition to the above details concerning NHHA, our web site also includes key phone numbers and links to other sites such as schools, other neighborhood groups, and city services. Once you have visited our site, we're sure you will want to "bookmark"it as one of your favorites.

Effective and timely communications are vitally important to any organization, and NHHA is no exception. We are very pleased to add this rich information source to our existing channels: open membership meetings, newsletters, the NHHA NeighborLine (972-480-5249), and our growing number of Block Captains.

Next time you are on the Internet, check us out. Then call our NeighborLine and let us know what you think.

NHHA AND CITY TO GET TOUGH ON CODE ENFORCEMENT

By Barbara Dunn and Allen Rudy

City of Dallas Regional Manager for Code Enforcement Scott Newland, speaking at the April 12 NHHA meeting, gave a detailed presentation on the rules and procedures of curbside bulk trash pickup. A summary of his remarks follows.

Dallas city ordinance requires that bulk trash be placed at the curb no earlier than one week prior to the scheduled week for pickup. Any bulk trash accumulated by a homeowner prior to the above authorized time period must be stored out of sight on the owner's property.

Placement of bulk trash at curbside prior to the authorized time is a violation of City Code and may subject the homeowner to one or all of the following:

• Citation by Code Compliance Officers
• An unscheduled trash pickup at the owner's expense
• Potential fines for repeat offenders

Following Mr. Newland's presentation, the Association discussed this problem and voted to adopt a policy of "Zero Tolerance" (105 for, one against) toward violations of the ordinance. Zero Tolerance means that NHHA has requested Mr. Newland to ensure the strict enforcement of the ordinance within our area.

The effective date for this new policy is July 1, 1999. We have delayed the startup date to ensure that all residents of Northwood Hills have been made aware of the policy by means of this newsletter and/or by word of mouth.

Schedules for monthly bulk trash pickup remain as follows:

• North of Spring Valley and east of Hillcrest -- pickup will be made during the first full week of the month, i.e., weeks of July 5, August 2, and so on.
• If you live west of Hillcrest or south of Spring Valley, pickup will be made during the second full week of the month, i.e., weeks of July 12, August 9, etc.

Questions? Contact Barbara Dunn or Allen Rudy through the NHHA NeighborLine at 972-480-5249. For information on what the city will or will not pick up (hazardous waste, for example), call 214-670-3495.

CONTAINERIZED GARBAGE PICKUP FOR NHHA AREA BEGINS JULY 1

At the April 12 membership meeting, Jody Puckett, Director of Sanitation Services for the City of Dallas, demonstrated how the new containerized trash collection will be handled in our area. Jody and her people had an actual container, such as the City will provide at no cost to homeowners, in the meeting room for all to see and inspect. Northwood Hills residents will begin receiving these containers sometime during the month of June. Also, in the school parking lot, meeting attendees could look over the new, one-man operated garbage collection truck.

If Sanitation fails to make your weekly garbage pickup, call 311 with your name and address. They'll fix it.

MEADOWCREEK MEDIANS ARE BEAUTIFUL AT LAST!

By Val Collins

Finally the beautification project for Meadowcreek west is COMPLETE! What a beautiful difference! We hope everyone is as pleased with the result as your Board.

This project was designed by Carol Feldman, M.L.A., and executed by Rohde's Landscaping, Inc. The design includes four new planted beds, four new redbud trees, trimming of existing trees, sod replacement, and an entrance stone wall with a "Northwood Hills" sign.

While work was in progress on Meadowcreek west, Carol Feldman offered suggestions for improving Meadowcreek east. The cost was minimal, so we decided to do the work. I think it will please you.

A very big special recognition thank you to member June Casey who gave NHHA a donation from Crime Watch Block 1010 for the Meadowcreek project.

More good news: the City of Dallas approved our application for "Median Share the Cost Program," which means the City will reimburse NHHA 50% up to $10,000 for material and construction.

Our next project will be to give the beds on Meandering Way the same TLC treatment that Meadowcreek received. We also want to add trees to the Meandering Way medians. The City has a tree program which supplies trees free of charge. We are looking into this program and hope to include it in our fall schedule.

Volunteers who are interested in helping out in our beautification programs please call Val Collins at 972-661-2794.

THERE'S SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE THIS SUMMER AT FRETZ PARK

By Fretz Park Staff

Our summer programs for children and youth are called "Camps." Sports Camps include basketball, baseball, soccer, volleyball, tennis, golf, track, gymnastics, swimming, and a special Mini-Camp for children age 4 to 7 to introduce them to sports of all kinds.

But there's much more than Sports Camps at Fretz Park. We conduct Camps for piano, art, music, theater, and travel as well. Adults can join fitness programs, judo, yoga, memory improvement and art classes. Other adult activities include dance, bridge clubs, and even a "stop smoking" seminar.

Senior citizens have a long list of activities too. There are frequent one-day tours of nearby towns, a Texas Rangers baseball game, and horse racing at Lone Star Park. Longer duration trips of three to four days are also offered -- to Las Vegas, for example. Fretz Park seniors qualify for the Dallas ArtReach Program which provides free tickets to outstanding cultural events, stage plays, and the Meyerson.

For EVERYONE, the swimming pool opened on May 22.

Please stop by the center and we'll give you lots of informative materials on our summer programs. The best part is, these activities cost you little or nothing.

Have a great summer -- and share a part of it with your friends at Fretz Park!

AVERAGE SALES PRICE OF NORTHWOOD HILLS HOMES RISES IN FIRST QUARTER '99

By Cris Murrey

Eight homes in Northwood Hills were sold in the first quarter of 1999, according to the Greater Dallas Association of Realtors Multiple Listing Service. The average sales price was $360,250 and average price per square foot was $94.55. This compares with an average sales price of $331,651 and price per square foot of $90.86 for first quarter 1998.

Statistical details follow:

Note: When new neighbors move in near you, please call our Voice Mail NeighborLine at 972-480-5249 and leave a message for Cris Murrey, NHHA Secretary, with the new family's name and street address. This will help us keep our mailing list current.

NEWS FROM NORTHWOOD HILLS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

By Dr. Everett Williams, Principal

If you've gone by Northwood Hills Elementary School lately, you've probably noticed maintenance employees and contractors busy at work. RISD bond money is updating our hallway ceilings and placing new lighting throughout the building. We are looking forward to having a new and brighter look as school starts in August. Come by and inspect what your tax dollars have done.

We appreciate so many of you supporting our school by putting your newspapers, magazines, cardboard boxes, etc. in our recycling bins. We get about $60 per month from this project.

Our student discipline plan at NHE is based on our "Self Manager" program. Students work to achieve the status of Self Manager, which entitles them to special recognition and privileges. This allows us to acknowledge the students who are behaving properly and make them feel appreciated. Almost all our kids work to become Self Managers, and about 70% had attained this high standard as our school year ended.

We feel good about how hard our students worked on the TAAS test in late April. We'll know in August if it was good enough for us to maintain our Exemplary rating from the state. We're optimistic!

Please consider being a volunteer in your neighborhood school. We have many children who could benefit from your reading or doing math with them once or twice a week. If you do, you will make a difference, and I bet you'll enjoy it!

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ALL THAT FRETZ PARK LIBRARY HAS TO OFFER YOU

By Laurie Hardaway, Branch Manager

Your neighborhood Fretz Park Library is a resource available to all for information, entertainment, education and community service. Our programs include Book Discussion Groups, instruction in Internet and Library Database, English as a Second Language, programs and storytimes for kids of all ages. Visit our bulletin board for a complete list of upcoming events.

Of particular interest to parents are our two weekly preschool storytimes: Wednesdays from 7 to 7:30 PM and Fridays from 10 to 10:30 AM. For school- agers our summer reading program (open to all children preschool through grade 12) is underway with prizes to reward the readers. For more information, or if you have children over age 14 who would like to help with this program, call Judi Dixon at 972-670-6420.

The library has a donations table of slightly used books and magazines given by local residents. Proceeds from sales go to our materials budget. Your donations will be gratefully accepted!

Our English as a Second Language program has patrons who would greatly benefit from working with volunteers willing to help them strengthen their conversational skills. This is a one-on-one venture, usually once a week. We have a list of patrons waiting for volunteers. Please call Barbara Katz at 214-670-6420 if you are interested in helping.

Fretz Park enjoys an active Friends of the Library group. I invite you to join this excellent organization whose mission is to support and enhance our services, activi- ties and facilities. The Friends recently held a successful plant sale; the proceeds bought two beautiful wing chairs for our Large Print Collection area (for patrons who have impaired eyesight).

Through the Friends organization, Tom Thumb food stores have included Fretz Park Library in its Good Neighbor Program. If you link your Reward Card to "Fretz Park Friends" (code no.7733), we will receive a percentage of your total grocery purchases.

Friends of the Library membership forms are available at the library, or you can call Pat Wilbanks for more information at 972-385-1442.

A PERSONAL HISTORY OF NORTHWOOD HILLS

By Marion and Stewart Mitchell

The land that was to become phase one of Northwood Hills had been in the George E. Drewery family for three generations prior to its purchase by Mixon & Troth in 1955. A tract of 450 acres, it was huge by residential real estate standards back then, and it took vision and guts to gamble on a luxury home addition of such unprecedented risk. A major factor driving the developers was the sheer beauty of the site. Bordered on the west by a branch of White Rock Creek, and containing a small woods-lined tributary, graced with gently sloping hills and native trees, the land was richly contoured and elevated above the surround- ing plains. From our front porch on Paldao Drive, for example, you could see all the way to downtown Dallas.

The night-time view was like diamonds on velvet -- at least until the roof went up on the house across the street.

Recognizing the value of their site's natural beauty, the developers chose to enhance it by laying out wide streets in gentle curves and winding loops. There was nothing else quite like it anywhere in the burgeoning North Dallas real estate market. It would have cost less to use the familiar grid layout -- and perhaps produced more lots to sell -- but Mixon & Troth stuck to their vision, described in a 1957 newspaper ad as, "the first post-war attempt to duplicate a 'Park Cities' environment for distinctive home sites."

Nor did financial conditions of the times make their decision any easier. Interest rates were rising, and financing was complicated by a regulation prohibiting commercial banks from lending money on unimproved land. One of the "BigThree" Dallas banks of that time ultimately backed the venture, but it had to be done through a third financial institution, a trust and mortgage company. This added to the cost.

To help pay for initial streets and paved alleys, Mixon & Troth sold thirty acres of their land to Trammell Crow for a shopping center to be built on the northwest corner of Spring Valley and Coit Road. The Crow interests later decided to reduce the shopping center's size to five acres and build luxury apartments on the remaining land. The Chanteclair Apartments were indeed luxurious; many Northwood Hills residents-to-be lived there while their homes were being completed.

Over the years that followed, Chanteclair changed hands twice before falling into bankruptcy. The apartments were ultimately renamed Holly Tree.

By mid-1956 a select group of homebuilders had been invited to participate in the development. Strict provisions for square footage, construction materials, and architectural design were set. The first section of the Northwood Hills Addition, with home sites ranging from a half to a full acre, opened in early 1957.

When Marion and I arrived with our three kids in November 1959, life out here on the prairie was more rural than urban. On the way to work each morning I drove past fields of grazing cattle all the way south to Northwest Highway.

The heartbeat of Dallas was slow and easy as the sixties began, but the pace was about to quicken.

A little chip-like device made of silicon and metal no bigger than your finger tip would soon change the landscape of North Dallas -- and the world.

This statement appeared in a real estate brochure in early 1960, "A major factor in the growth of Northwood Hills has been the emergence of a young and expanding electronics industry in the nearby Richardson area." How prophetic.

NEXT: Decades of change and the millennium.

HOW YOU CAN HELP NHHA SPECIAL EVENTS

Perhaps you or your business could lend a hand by donating merchandise and gift certificates to be awarded as prizes at this year's NHHA Special Events.

So far, the following local businesses have responded with donated prizes, along with a Free RT Ticket from Southwest Airlines:

C&S Hardware      
Edwin Watts Golf Shops    
Gary Miars Automotive
Marble Slab Creamery
Mendenhall Automotive
Mountain Hideout
North Haven Gardens
Richardson Bike Mart
R.J.S. Gardens
The String Bean

These are the Special Events planned, together with possible prize ideas:

Tennis Tournament - sports clothing, equipment, trophies, CDs.

July 4 Parade - things for children: ribbons, trophies, gift certificates for sporting goods, dolls, books, CDs.

Family Fun Run/Walk - for all ages: gift certificates, hats, T-shirts and water bottles for as many as 100.

Golf Tournament - men and women's clothing, golf equipment, trophies, CDs, books, restaurant gift certificates.

Please call in your gift donations to Susan Hanchey, 972-233-4865.

First Quarter Financial Report, 1999

Income for the first quarter totaled $55,926.02 with total expenditures of $19,448.53. I am pleased to report that NHHA received 55 percent of 1999 budgeted annual membership dues by March 31, 1999. Many members elected to make advanced payments of 1999 annual dues in 1998 and during the first quarter. The advanced payment of dues is greatly appreciated by the Board.

During the first quarter, expenditures for printing and postage exceeded budget because of increased newsletter communications to the membership. Members have requested more information concerning NHHA activities. However, newsletter advertising fees will reduce budget overruns. Expenditures against the budgeted Meadowcreek beautification project began in April 1999. Further, expenditures for median maintenance and watering of medians will increase during spring and summer.

As shown on the balance sheet for March 31, 1999, the cash balance was $62,472.22

Thank you for your support of NHHA. If you have any questions concerning your dues payments or NHHA expenditures, please feel free to contact me.

Comments? Please drop us an email.
Material Copyright © 1999 Northwood Hills Homeowners Association, Inc.