380 at DNT closed due to injury accident

From the City of Frisco E-mail Server (join at http://www.friscotexas.gov)

SECTION OF HWY 380 AT DALLAS PARKWAY CLOSED TO TRAFFIC AS EMERGENCY CREWS RESPOND TO INJURY ACCIDENT

(July 17, 2009 – 9:30 a.m.) Frisco police and fire crews are working the scene of a multi-vehicle, injury accident on Highway 380. Eastbound and westbound lanes of Highway 380 at the Dallas Parkway are shutdown until further notice. Drivers are advised to avoid the area and to use Preston Road or FM 423 as an alternate route.

Emergency crews are still working the scene, and information about the injured and the details of the accident are not available at this time.

Frisco Freedom Fest

24 Hours and Counting Until the Frisco Freedom Fest Fun Begins!

(July 3, 2009) Don't have your Fourth of July plans set yet? Join us tomorrow for the 8th Annual Frisco Freedom Fest beginning at 4 p.m. at Simpson Plaza in front of the George A. Purefoy Municipal Center. The festival is located at the southeast corner of the Dallas North Tollway and Main Street in the heart of Frisco. Find out everything you need to know at http://www.friscofreedomfest.org.

Admission to the Party in the Plaza is free and offers a variety of entertainment. Way before the fireworks start, the kids will have a blast in the Children's Expo featuring bounce houses, Euro bungee jumps, a 25-foot rock climbing wall, mini-train ride and old fashioned Midway games, and much more. Activities range in price from $1 to $6, or buy a $25 jump pass and play all day.

A bike valet is one of the new features offered at this year's Freedom Fest. If you don't want to drive, ride in on two wheels instead of four.

Frisco Community Bike Valet will be offering a secure spot for cyclists to store their bikes during the event. The bike valet is located on the south side of City Hall. Other new features include the Red Cross's Spirit of America Blood Drive and the Oncor Smart Texas Mobile Experience Center.

The 1,000-foot trailer showcases the new advanced meter technology and how it can help you save on electricity costs. You can also pick up a free CFL light bulb.

A couple of other new additions. the characters from the Wiggly Play Center will join us in between performances on the Community Stage. You can also catch Dorothy the Dinosaur, Wags the Dog and Henry the Octopus at the Wiggly Play Center tent. You won't want to miss the Bubble Lady. She makes square bubbles, human-sized bubbles, and kids can even try out her bubble-making station to create their own.

Show your support for America's brave men and women serving overseas.

Look for the Frisco Television Network tent (FTVN) to record a video message to the troops. Kids can also write a letter to the troops in our Frisco Fun Zone.

Get your fill of good food from the Taste of Frisco. 19 restaurants will sell Fourth of July favorites like hamburgers, hot dogs and ice cream in addition to Tex-Mex, Italian and Asian dishes. Prices vary.

No Independence Day is complete without live music.

Enjoy the sounds of hometown performers on the Community Stage featuring everything from country to rap, classic rock to rockabilly. The Paul Green School of Rock - coming soon to Downtown Frisco - will headline the Community Stage with their All-Star band. The All-Stars take the stage at approximately 9:30 p.m. and will continue playing through fireworks.

We top off the night with the biggest fireworks show in North Texas beginning approximately 9:50 to 10:00 p.m. Don't miss Frisco's boom-boom pow, when the sky over Pizza Hut Park erupts in a dazzling display of color. The Fireworks Extravaganza can be seen easily in the area around City Hall and Pizza Hut Park.

Pizza Hut Park still has tickets available for the FC Dallas MLS game against the New York Red Bulls at 8 p.m. For ticket pricing, call 1-888-FCD-GOAL. In addition to the soccer game, ticket holders can watch the Fireworks Extravaganza and the post-fireworks concert featuring Lone Star Attitude.

Want to know more about the event? Go online to FriscoFreedomFest.org to find parking information, and read more about our sponsors and vendors.

Frisco Holiday Hours

Frisco Holiday Hours

In observance of Independence Day, the City of Frisco government
offices will be closed on Friday, July 3. Regular hours resume
Monday, July 6. Please see the list below for closings or special
hours for other city facilities.


On Saturday, July 4, Simpson Plaza, in front of the George A.
Purefoy Municipal Center, will be open for Frisco Freedom Fest activities. The ‘Party in the Plaza’ begins at 4 p.m. and continues until the biggest fireworks display in North
Texas ends. Go online to www.friscofreedomfest.org for event details and tickets to the
MLS FC Dallas game and concert, featuring Lone Star Attitude, at Pizza Hut Park.



CITY HALL & OTHER ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICES
July 3 - CLOSED

FRISCO PUBLIC LIBRARY
July 3, 4 & 5 - CLOSED

FRISCO HERITAGE MUSEUM
July 3 - CLOSED
July 4 & 5 - OPEN (Sat.: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Sun.: 1 p.m. - 5 p.m.)

MUNICIPAL COURT
July 3 - CLOSED

The Court will reopen Monday, July 6 at 8:30 a.m. Any payments or
paperwork due on July 3 will be due and accepted as on time July 6.

FRISCO ATHLETIC CENTER
July 3 - OPEN: building hours: 5 a.m. - 8 p.m.
Indoor Aquatic Center: 5 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.; 4:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Outdoor Aquatic Center: Noon - 7 p.m.
Fun Club: 8 a.m. - 4 p.m.
The Zone: 8 a.m. - Noon; 4 p.m. - 8 p.m.

July 4 - OPEN: building hours: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Indoor Aquatic Center: Closed (no water aerobics)
Outdoor Aquatic Center: Noon - 6 p.m.
Fun Club: Closed
The Zone: Closed

(No group exercise classes held July 4)

SENIOR CENTER AT FRISCO SQUARE
July 3 & July 4 - CLOSED

TRASH COLLECTION - CURBSIDE RECYCLING

Since July 4 falls on a Saturday, all residential trash and
recycling services will fall on their normal collection days.

ENVIRONMENTAL COLLECTION CENTER

July 3 & July 4 - CLOSED

Mandatory Water Restrictions Begin July 1st

MANDATORY RESTRICTIONS OF FRISCO'S WATER MANAGEMENT PLAN BEGIN JULY 1:CITY WATERWISE PROGRAM OFFERS NEW, WEEKLY WATERING RECOMMENDATIONS TO GUIDE RESIDENTS

(June 30, 2009) The City of Frisco wants to remind residents that mandatory water restrictions for summer months take effect Wednesday, July 1.

The Water Management Plan, which emphasizes watering efficiently and reducing waste, was adopted by the city council in April.

This new plan encompasses a Drought Contingency Plan and a Water Efficiency Plan.
Each year, starting with the first day of Daylight Saving Time through June 30, two-day-per-week outdoor watering is recommended. Restrictions become mandatory during the summer months of July, August and September (July 1 - September 30). The plan prohibits outdoor watering between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m. and between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.
Under the new Water Efficiency Plan, outdoor watering is also restricted to two days per week July 1 - September 30 and is based on residents' trash and recycling service schedule and an additional, designated day.

Water on your residential trash pick up day: Your additional watering day
is:
Monday Thursday
Tuesday Saturday
Wednesday Saturday
Thursday Sunday
Friday Tuesday

The complete details of the City of Frisco Water Management Plan are available online at www.friscotexas.gov/water.
The City of Frisco's Waterwise program is also helping citizens take the guesswork out of watering the lawn. A new edition to the Water Efficiency homepage: www.friscotexas.gov/water, is a table listing the weekly watering recommendations tailored for Frisco based on data from the city's weather station and four automatic rain gages located throughout the city.

"The greatest waste of water in the city is excessive use of irrigation systems," said Gary Hartwell, City of Frisco Public Works Director. "To be able to communicate the actual watering needs for the city's landscapes is very important to reducing water waste."

The watering recommendations are given in quarter-inch increments. To help residents even further, there is a link to explain how to set your automatic irrigation system to deliver the recommended amount of water.
First time violators of the Water Management Plan will receive a red door-hanger alerting them to expect a $25 fee on their next water bill. However, that $25 fee will be waived or credited on a water bill if the resident contacts the city's licensed irrigator for a free, irrigation 'check up' within 30 days. Additional violations may result in additional fees and disconnection of the resident's sprinkler system.

The City of Frisco's revised plan is based on the model water conservation and drought contingency plans adopted by the Board of Directors of the North Texas Municipal Water District (NTMWD) and all the requirements of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). Frisco is a member city of NTMWD. State law required all cities to adopt and/or update their water conservation and drought contingency plans by May 1, 2009.

Coffee with the Mayor next Monday

NEXT "COFFEE WITH THE MAYOR" TO BE HELD AT NTEC, INC. JUNE 8

(June 3, 2009) Learn more about Frisco's emerging med-tech industry while you enjoy a cup of 'Coffee with the Mayor". On June 8 at 8 a.m., Mayor Maher Maso's "Coffee with the Mayor" moves to the North Texas Enterprise Center for Medical Technology (NTEC), located at 6170 Research Rd.

NTEC is a non-profit, medical technology incubator program financed through the Frisco Economic Development Corporation (FEDC) and other private partners. NTEC's 50,000 square foot headquarters opened in November 2008 at the northeast corner of Research Road and Frisco Street.
The EDC, in conjunction with the City of Frisco, issued $10.8 million bond in 2007 to build the facility. The two-story, state-of-the-art facility, includes 80 offices, 30 cubes, 10,000 square feet of highly flexible bio-labs, device labs and prototyping labs. The building can house as many as 25 entrepreneurial medical device and medical technology businesses.

It's been a year since Mayor Maso launched "Coffee with the Mayor" as one of his communication initiatives. The program centers around coffee and casual conversation and is held the second Monday of each month from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. "Coffee with the Mayor" is usually held on the fifth floor of City Hall, inside the George A. Purefoy Municipal Center, 6101 Frisco Square Blvd.

"Coffee with the Mayor" will not be held in July. "Coffee with the Mayor"
resumes on August 10 at City Hall. For more information, go to http://www.friscotexas.gov, click on 'Communication' and then find 'Coffee with the Mayor".

Like to Garden?

To commemorate National Garden Week, this Friday (June 5th), the City and the Frisco Garden Club are joining together around 8 AM to begin the replanting of the Main Street planters. Since this effort takes a lot of volunteer labor we’d love to have as many of the Downtown Merchants, Residents and Frisco Community Members join us to help if possible. We will meet out at the Gazebo around 8 AM and split up in teams and go from there. At 10:00 we will regroup at the Gazebo on Main Street in Old Town for lemonade and cookies and for a reading of a proclamation for the Garden Week celebration. Please join us on Friday if you can!

Sprinklers

Now is the time to make sure your sprinklers are off. Yes, we have plenty of water in our lakes, but over-use is still very important. The City builds infrastructure to handle peak loads. in other words, that water tank, the water lines, the pumps and everything that goes along with it is designed to handle peak loads. Of course, this costs money. Your money and my money. Using the water you only need goes a long ways in saving all of us money. Directly, through your water bill and indirectly through the infrastructure we have to build.
Also, the state mandates water conservation. Frisco has one of the highest water usage, measured in gallons used per person per day. A majority of that is irrigation. We had storms last night and it is raining right now. Every sprinkler system in Frisco should be turned off for at least the next few days.
Check this link out: http://www.friscotexas.gov/departments/publicworks/water/Pages/default.aspx and you will find lots of info on the subject.

Museum of the American Railroad Press Release

Museum of the American Railroad
Frisco, Texas
Museum of the American Railroad and City of Frisco Finalize Move

MAY 5, 2009 – Today Museum of the American Railroad officials signed, and the Frisco City
Council approved, a formal agreement that finalizes plans to move the Fair Park collection of trains to a new site in Frisco. The City Council passed by unanimous vote the Development Agreement and Lease that enables the museum to move from the planning stage to Phase I design and construction.

The Museum of the American Railroad joins an exciting array of attractions in this North Texas city including the Frisco Heritage Center and Museum. It will also be adjacent to a system of planned outdoor spaces and recreational areas to be known as Grand Park. Last year, the Museum of the American Railroad entered into an agreement with the City of Frisco that initiated serious discussions between the two organizations. The two quickly arrived at terms that were mutually beneficial and an engineering firm was hired to prepare a conceptual engineering site plan.

The plan, prepared by Lunsford Associates of Arlington with Wilson & Company of Fort
Worth, calls for nearly a mile of trackage and future exhibit buildings totaling 94,000 square feet. The museum’s priceless collection will also be covered by a train shed reminiscent of turn-of-the-century stations.

With the Council’s adoption of the formal agreements, the railroad museum will now finalize its site plan and prepare engineering specifications for Phase I construction. Phase I calls for some 5,000 feet of track to be laid at the museum’s new Frisco location, including 3,000 feet of exhibit track that will accommodate the current 36-piece rolling stock collection. The museum’s two landmark structures will also move to Frisco and compliment the historic locomotives and railway passenger cars.

The City of Frisco will provide 12.34 acres of land for the project. Located on Cotton Gin Road, the new site is adjacent to the Frisco Heritage Center and borders the BNSF Railway line to the east. The museum currently resides on a 1.8 acre footprint in Fair Park and stores one quarter of its collection offsite.

A majority of Phase I funding will come from Frisco to construct the basic facilities necessary to
relocate the museum from Fair Park. The museum will raise their portion of the funding privately. Upon completion of Phase I, the museum will open for business at the new site. “We are very excited to get to this point; it’s been mostly planning until now. We’re getting close to turning some dirt and watching the wheels roll. The area railroads have pledged their support and we should be moving equipment in early 2011,” said Bob LaPrelle, MAR’s President & CEO.

The museum will continue operations at its present Fair Park location until the rolling stock begins moving to Frisco. Educational programs for Dallas area schools will also continue through late 2010. While the collection will be relocating to Frisco, the move is viewed by museum officials as an operation becoming more regional rather than one leaving the Dallas market.
With nearly half a mile of locomotives and cars weighing almost 3,600 tons, the move of the
museum’s historic rolling stock collection will be an event in and of itself. The museum has fielded calls from as far away as New Zealand since the announcement of the move last year. The museum’s Big Boy steam locomotive, the largest ever constructed, will attract interest from all over the world when it begins to roll to its new home.

The museum has worked closely with Frisco city officials to finalize plans and create an attraction
that embraces the city’s rich railroad heritage. Frisco derives its name from the St. Louis-San
Francisco Railway Company which established a water stop there following construction in 1902.
Initially satisfying a thirst for steam locomotives, the area was later subdivided and plots were sold by the railroad. A few years later the town of Frisco was officially incorporated and has grown in population to just over 100,000 today.

While the museum will endeavor to tell the story of railroads on a local level, its collection is national in scope. In 2006 the museum, with the aid of M. Goodwin Associates of Los Angeles, created a Strategic Plan that identified its strengths and addressed limitations at its present site. The Plan acknowledged the significance of the collection as one with great potential that tells the story of the American Railroad on a national level.

The new facilities in Frisco will allow for expanded programming and house the collection in a setting that is befitting of its heritage. Future buildings will present the trains in the context of a large, urban train station while featuring all the amenities of a museum. Visitors will climb aboard trains that once arrived and departed stations at nearly every major city in the nation.
Museum officials have chosen a style of architecture for its new main building that compliments
neighboring structures in Frisco Square. A Neoclassical style is represented in the museum’s
proposed building that borrows elements from the great train stations of the past. To be constructed as part of a Phase II capital project, the facility will feature a grand hall and concourse that will serve as a museum facility by day and a venue for community activities after hours. “We envision this building being a center for local activities and events – a place that is at the heart of a community just as train stations were in their day,” said LaPrelle.

The new museum will also serve as an anchor arts & cultural institution in Frisco. The facility will
provide educational programming for Frisco ISD and surrounding school districts through interactive tours and in-class programs. The museum’s grand hall will also act as a venue for the visual & performing arts. Over the past year the museum has consulted with Freeman Ryan Design, an Australian company, to develop spatial requirements and visitor flow patterns for the new main building and train shed. Specializing in creating museums around large objects, the Sydney-based company has addressed the architectural considerations associated with housing and presenting the museum’s extensive rolling stock collection. Using the latest technologies, the museum will entertain and educate visitors and students with exhibits on the cultural history and technology of railroading. Programs will also explore the role of the railroad as a
solution to the nation’s transportation challenges. Where railroad museums have typically been viewed as looking back, the new Frisco museum will also look forward and showcase what the rail industry has to offer now and in the future.

The City of Frisco has generously provided the railroad museum with offices and 800 square feet of exhibit space in the new Frisco Heritage Museum. Located at 6455 Page Street, visitors can enjoy exhibits on Frisco history, including the arrival of the railroad in 1902. With offices and programming already established in Frisco, the railroad museum is on its way toward building a brand and engaging in fund raising and development.

With today’s vote, the City of Frisco and the Museum of the American Railroad have solidified a
partnership and created much excitement toward establishing the premiere museum of railroad history and technology in the Southwest. The Museum of the American Railroad would like to extend its most sincere gratitude to the City of Frisco and its citizens. Their generous contributions and endorsement of our museum will ensure its future role as a cultural history center and educational resource in North Texas. Consistent with its mission of …sharing the rich history and heritage, as well as the current and future development of the institution of the American Railroad through artistic, cultural, and educational programming & outreach…, the Museum of the American Railroad is about to embark on the greatest journey in its 46-year history.

For more information about the museum and its move to Frisco go to www.dallasrailwaymuseum.com

Chesney Concert Traffic Patterns

Eastbound Main Street and eastbound Cotton Gin Road -- between Legacy

Drive and Dallas Parkway -- will be closed to traffic at 10 p.m. on

Saturday, May 2, in order to move traffic out of Pizza Hut Park and Frisco

Square following the Kenny Chesney Concert. Both roads should be open

again by around 1 a.m. During this closure, traffic heading east on Main

Street should use Legacy Drive to reach either Eldorado Parkway or Lebanon

Road to continue eastward. During this time, Frisco Square can be reached

by using northbound Dallas Parkway or by turning left from southbound

Dallas Parkway at Main Street.



To minimize congestion after the concert, exit routes from Pizza Hut Park

and Frisco Square will be limited in order to reduce the points where

traffic flows try to cross each other. A map has been posted on the City's

website that shows these exit routes (go to www.friscotexas.gov and click

MOVE ALONG on the right side). Depending on where they park, concert

goers will be directed onto eastbound or westbound Main Street or north to

Eldorado Parkway when they leave Pizza Hut Park and then should follow the

signs to reach the Dallas North Tollway, Preston Road, SH 121 or US 380.

In addition, to ease congestion after the concert on the southbound Dallas

Parkway for those entering the Tollway south of Main Street, a sign has

been installed to remind motorists that they can use the right lane to

continue to the next Tollway entrance ramp at Stonebrook Parkway.



Motorists are urged to use caution in the area.