Donating
blood is one of the easiest ways to save someone's life. In fact, it
could even be your own. There are blood drives all the time all over
the city, check out the giveblood.org website for locations for one
close to your home or office.
Great
News! The Halbert Park Improvement Project has been selected to
receive funding from the City of Houston's 2010 Neighborhood Matching
Grant Program. This project includes the resurfacing of the tennis
court and the addition of a park bench in the shade by the playground.
The grant is for $3000 and the estimated cost of the project is $6,000.
We look forward to working with Houston Parks and Recreation and the
Houston Park Board on this project. If you would like to contribute to
the project you can do so via this PayPal link, or see the Membership
section below for more donation options.
Remember, there is no meeting this month because of the holidays. We
will be meeting next in January, on Thursday the 28th. The January meeting always
includes the election of officers, if you would like to volunteer
please let us know.
Sunset Heights has a group on Facebook now.
If you would like to contribute news or stories for the newsletter, please send a note to
.
Feel free to forward this newsletter to your neighbors.
Financials for 2009
Below
is a summary of income and expenses. The IRS fee was a one time fee
necessary to obtain our official 501c4 designation. The park supplies
include the doggie bags for the dispenser and mulch. The flowers and
other park supplies were donated.
Jan 2009 Balance $10,780
Income:
Dues and Donations + $490
Interest + $45
-----------------------------------------------------
+ $535
Expenses:
Anti Graffiti Donation -$100
Crime Stoppers -$100
P.O. Box Annual Fee -$38
Facility Donation -$500
IRS fee -$300
Park Supplies -$462
State of Texas Filing Fee -$0 ($25 value, donated)
Website - $0 ($88 value, donated)
Newsletter/Email Service - $0 ($162 value, donated)
National Night Out Flyer -$0 ($26 value, donated)
Pay Pal dues -$7
-------------------------------------------------------
-$1507
Nov 2009 Balance $9,808
Trash
Big trash day is Jan 18th for 77008 and Jan 8th for 77009. They will be picking up tree waste this time.
Recycling
days for 77008 and 77009 are the same, they are the Thursdays of Jan:
7, 21. Recycling and trash pickup are on the same schedule again.
You
may have seen the information about the upcoming electronic waste
recycling event in Ed Gonzalez's District H Newsletter, if not here are
the details:
Safely dispose of and recycle electronic devices
such as televisions, CPU's, monitors, cellular phones, keyboards, laptops,
fax machines and other electronics. Saturday January 10 2010
9:00 AM - 1:00 PM Houston Community College, Northline Campus
8001 Fulton Street
Don't want to put your tree by the curb?
Here's where you can bring your tree for recycling:
Curb side recycling accepts plastics with numbers 1-5 and 7, newspaper, cardboard, aluminum cans.
We found some photos posted of the grand opening of the new MKT bikeway
that runs through the Heights. (You don't need a FaceBook account to
view them.) The much anticipated grand opening was December 19th,
Saturday, at 9:00 AM. So air up your tires and check it out... here
are links to the big map and the photos.
As
you read in the introduction, the big news is that our project was
selected to receive the maximum matching grant, $3000, in 2010. We can
proceed with the tennis court resurfacing and adding a bench in Halbert
Park. Sunset Heights Civic Club has obtained a vendor number with the
City of Houston and faxed in our W9, so we are ready to get started in
January. We are also working with the Super Neighborhood to try to get
funding for Halbert Park via SNAPs.
You may have noticed the
new park adoption sign near the information shelter. HPARD put up this
sign after Sunset Heights Civic Club extended our adoption of Halbert
Park through 2014.
This
month's Halbert Park cleanup included ant bed remediation, trash
pickup, doggie bag refilling, graffiti cleanup, and updating the
information shelter. The recently planted pansies survived the snow
and ice and are still blooming.
In February we will be looking
for volunteers to help spread mulch. Why February? We don't want to
put down a bunch of mulch until we can find a way to keep the mulch
from washing away into the storm drains. We will work with the City of
Houston's Park Maintenance department to find a solution. Then we can
get a bunch of mulch delivered and that's when we'll need your help to
spread it around the park. We want to mulch the trees and also cover
the PVC drain pipes around the basketball court.
Crime
The Citizen Patrol logged 42 hours for November. The Citizen Patrol is
always looking for more volunteers. Residents can become volunteers by
attending a training session held by HPD and passing a background
check. Volunteers help HPD by watching the neighborhood and reporting
information about suspicious activity, if a crime in progress is seen
the volunteer calls 911 immediately. Please send an email to
if you are interested in getting on the waiting list for training.
Houston
Heights Association is making excellent progress on signing up
homeowners to fund the West Area Constable Patrol; they expect to be
able to hire a constable to patrol that area sometime during first
quarter 2010. Then they will be ready to sign up the North Area,
that's us! The benefit of this program is that a dedicated constable
patrols the area, becoming very familiar with it, enabling them to more
easily identify problem situations. The constable listens to HPD's
channel and assists HPD with responses to calls and alarms. The program
has some impressive statistics and success stories already for the East
Area. One resident spoke at a recent Heights meeting about the
constable arriving in time to save her property from a destructive
trespasser. Please talk to your neighbors and rally support for this
service in the North Area.
* Started the Sunset Heights Citizen Patrol in March 2009.
* Participated in and promoted joint efforts with East Sunset Heights:
Yard of the Month
National Night Out
Sunset Spooks
* Produced monthly Sunset Heights Civic Club newsletter.
* Applied successfully for a 2010 Neighborhood Matching Grant for improvements to Halbert Park.
* Participated in Super Neighborhood Council, inputting SNAPs for Halbert Park.
* Extended Sunset Height Civic Club adoption of Halbert Park through 2014.
*
Dialogue started with Field Elementary regarding the school's wish
list, specifically focusing on volunteer opportunities for an
educational garden.
* Guest speakers from Centerpoint Energy and Harris County Tax Office.
*
Houston Parks and Recreation Department (HPARD) has already resolved
some of the issues raised by Sunset Heights Civic Club and City Council
Member Ed Gonzalez in 2009 including a very nice rebuilding of the
drinking fountain that was perpetually surrounded by mud and appeared
to be leaky; there is now a new section of sidewalk that provides
access to the fountain. The pebbles that had escaped the playground
were collected and put back into the retaining curb. The low spot with
exposed, broken PVC pipe has been filled in a couple of times, the
ground has settled again so a low spot exists but the area is much
improved.
* Sunset Heights Civic Club maintained the Halbert
Park butterfly garden including turning the soil, rebuilding the
perimeter, mulching, and flower planting. Volunteers performed regular
trash pickups, treated ant beds, replenished the supply of dog waste
bags in the dispenser, and maintained the content in the information
shelter.
* Improved the monthly meetings with AV equipment.
Restaurant Review of the Month
If
you enjoy eating at Shade on 19th Street, and you find yourself in the
Montrose area, stop by and check out the new restaurant named Canopy.
The owner of Shade just opened Canopy this month. The french onion
soup will warm you up on a cold day. We ordered several dishes and
shared them family style and they were very accommodating. Canopy is
open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
The
new restaurant next door to the Glass Wall is Stella Sola. It's a good
idea to make a reservation; we went on a Thursday and it was busy. We
didn't know what to expect from the restaurant described as Texas meets
Northern Italy, but we all agreed that whatever that is, it's
heavenly. While our table was readied we found seats at the bar and
started a drink. We had a little time to relax before moving to our
table where we thoroughly enjoyed mussels, caesar salad, braised short
rib, snapper, scallops, and dry aged beef. We were very full, but we
didn't want to stop there, so we ordered risotto beignets and chocolate
torte for dessert. http://www.stellasolahouston.com/
Newsletter 
Big trash day is Jan 18th for 77008 and Jan 8th for 77009. They will be picking up tree waste this time. 
The Citizen Patrol logged 42 hours for November. The Citizen Patrol is
always looking for more volunteers. Residents can become volunteers by
attending a training session held by HPD and passing a background
check. Volunteers help HPD by watching the neighborhood and reporting
information about suspicious activity, if a crime in progress is seen
the volunteer calls 911 immediately. Please send an email to
if you are interested in getting on the waiting list for training. 