Community

The City of Dallas plans to patch up bad spots and make other street repairs on Henderson. Councilman Adam Medrano recently met with new Assistant City Manager Mark McDaniel to ask if interim repairs could be done to Henderson, while the street awaits the complete streets project. Medrano says street services will be making large level-up patches and full-depth repairs where Henderson has had major base failures. The hope is to smooth the surface as an interim measure until the complete streets capital project is performed in 2016. They hope the work will be completed within the next 60 days.

The walls are going up at the new White Rock YMCA location on Gaston. There recently has been some serious progress on the building, which is good, considering the White Rock YMCA hopes to open in January. The team is within 85-90 percent of its fundraising goal of $14 million.

The Ferguson Road Initiative (FRI), a grassroots organization, which started in 1998 with the mission “to transform far East Dallas into a safe, beautiful, prosperous and proud community,” particularly through economic revitalization, hosted a meeting on Sept. 30 at the Dallas Arboretum to launch the revitalization of an old vision to build the first regional or multi-generational recreation center along Ferguson. At this point, the overall concept of the recreation center is still up in the air. The primary focus of the gathering was to tap into public opinion on which concepts are most important to surrounding neighbors. After introductions and a presentation by the project manager, Mike Pratl, the attendees of the event were given stickers and asked to vote for their most desired concepts: Fitness, multi-generation, a swimming pool, age-specific activities or equipment, cultural learning opportunities, and/or outdoor activities. For those interested in the project, on Nov. 3 there will be a threehour workshop at the Dallas Arboretum from 6-9 p.m. to determine more specific interests. Then on Jan. 27, there will be a presentation of the facility based on the feedback of the community, also at the Dallas Arboretum from 6-9 p.m.

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