2017 March Lakewood

HOLY HOUSE

(Photo by Danny Fulgencio)

the

Dan Patterson page

So you’ve decided you want to make a change and are considering a remodeling project in your home, but to ask to help you make a decision. Choosing wisely is always in the details!

How do I choose a residential contractor?

Local Experience Professional Insurance Process

• have with local building codes and conservation standards in neighborhood?

• What is their architectural neighborhoods?

• Do they have similar projects to yours with photos and addresses in which you can visit?

Trade Organizations

• Does the company actively participant in trade organizations?

• Such as, the National Association Dallas Builders Association

• Participants in these organizations and business practices, which can all save you time and money.

• Which insurance protects you as the home owner? Builder’s risk and general liability insurance will or job site injuries.

• coverage limits and the procedures in place should an accident occur on the job site.

• ensure their Project Managers are

References

• with phone numbers to call and

• Ask your peers, neighbors, and other people involved in all aspects

• be hearing that the company is organized, responsible, attentive to detail, and responsive to warranty issues.

• Once your home project cost and contract has been agreed upon, then what happens? An organized company with a clear process

• the Project Manager during regarding daily communication, job site cleanliness and privacy

• issues handled once the project has been completed?

Let us know!

Have a question or topic you’d like to read about in future issues?

Email us:

info@bellavistacompany.com

Darin Breedlove, CR, CGR, CGP, CAPS, Sara Haley, & Lance Tyler

SUPER SPRING ACTIVITIES

AT THE WHITEROCK YMCA

T-BALL, BASEBALL, SOFTBALL

Season Dates: May 13 – July 8

Registration: Now – April 14

Ages: 3 years through 4th Grade

TEEN ACTIVITIES

Teen Nights: March 4, April 15, May 13

Teen Babysitting Class: March 11, April 15, May 13

Teen CPR: March 2, Apri 6, May 4

Interested in Volunteering?

Please contact Cassie McKee at cmkee@ymcadallas.org.

LIFEGUARDS

Hiring for summer lifeguards

Please contact Cassie McKee at cmkee@ymcadallas.org.

WHITEROCK

214-328-3849

www.whiterockymca.org

OPENING REMARKS

By RICK WAMRE

No shame

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Frank McClendon

I’m thinking about making my interaction with stop lights optional. Same with stop signs.

If it fits my schedule, and if I have a little extra time on my hands, I’ll stop. But if I have other things to do, or if I’m in a hurry, or if I just don’t feel like stopping is the right thing to do for me, I won’t.

I’ve been pondering this move for awhile. It has always been an annoying time-suck for me to be stopped randomly when I’m running late for lunch. But I knew it was the right call after reading an online neighborhood brawl over a pickup truck parked in a handicapped space outside a Starbucks.

Apparently, the truck’s driver decided that, despite not having a handicapped sticker or license plate, using the space for a short period of time would be fine.

A well-meaning neighbor, noticing the infraction, posted a picture of the truck on Facebook. But the neighbor didn’t stop there: He did a little research and identified the truck owner’s name and business, suggesting online that anyone willing to park illegally in a handicapped space wasn’t worth being patronized.

I wasn’t offended by any of this. The truck driver was clearly wrong, and the neighbor was just making the digital equivalent of a citizen’s arrest by calling attention to a crime.

But an awful lot of people in this forum felt otherwise. Some piled on the neighbor for “cowardly” publicizing the infraction online as opposed to walking up to the truck’s owner in person and calling him out.

Others were offended by outing the guy’s business — why, they grumbled,

should his employees and family be deprived of income just because the guy parked in the wrong parking spot?

It was pretty entertaining reading, in a train-wreck-is-beautiful kind of way, and it made me realize something: A lot of us don’t believe the law needs to be interpreted literally.

Illegally parking in a handicapped space isn’t the right thing to do, but apparently shaming someone for violating that law isn’t right, either.

There’s a lot of that type of thinking going on these days. We’re using religion, in some cases, and personal values, in others, to justify doing what we think is right as opposed to following the rule

214.560.4215 / fmcclendon@advocatemag.com

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contributing editors: Sally Wamre

of law. We’re kind of conscientiously objecting to laws we don’t believe are right and, therefore, shouldn’t apply to us.

All of which brings me back to my new red light philosophy. I’ve told you publicly of my plans, so I don’t want any complaining later when I exercise my rights to sidestep the law if I feel it’s necessary.

Just keep an eye out for me at intersections, and don’t even think about filing a claim against my insurance policy. I’m not so sure that being forced to pay for insurance is a good idea, either.

Rick Wamre is president of Advocate Media. Let him know how we are doing by emailing rwamre@advocatemag.com.

contributors: Angela Hunt, Lauren Law, George Mason, Kristen Massad, Brent McDougal

photo editor: Danny Fulgencio

214.635.2121 / danny@advocatemag.com

contributing photographers: Rasy Ran, Kathy Tran

Advocate, © 2017, is published monthly by East Dallas – Lakewood People Inc. Contents of this magazine may not be reproduced. Advertisers and advertising agencies assume liability for the content of all advertisements printed, and therefore assume responsibility for any and all claims against the Advocate. The publisher reserves the right to accept or reject any editorial or advertising material. Opinions set forth in the Advocate are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the publisher’s viewpoint. More than 200,000 people read Advocate publications each month. Advertising rates and guidelines are available upon request. Advocate publications are available free of charge throughout our neighborhoods, one copy per reader. Advocate was founded in 1991 by Jeff Siegel, Tom Zielinski and Rick Wamre.

I’m going rogue, and it’s none of your business … right?

We’re using religion, in some cases, and personal values, in others, to justify doing what we think is right as opposed to following the rule of law.

6 8 La Lakes es keshor ho hor o e Dr Drive ve e i | Of fer fe ed d at a $7 $

10 NEW STORIES WEEKLY AT LAKEWOOD.ADVOCATEMAG.COM

READERS REACT TO: ‘City evicts White Rock Lake Museum from Bath House Cultural Center’

“If I’m reading correctly, considerable private donations were made specifically for the White Rock Lake Museum. I would think it would be problematic to repurpose the building without taking those donations into consideration.”

MARTHA HUMPHRIES

GET TO KNOW LEE LAMONT

Now in his 13th year, Lee has helped many families realize their dream of home ownership.

“If the city built the Bath House, they have a right to do whatever they please with the property. The White Rock Lake Museum was never impressive. Hopefully opening up the space for more art exhibits for local artists will be beneficial to the local arts community and help it thrive.”

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able, but are not guar an teed. The Ad vo cate and Coldwell Banker are not re spon si ble for the ac cu ra cy of the in for ma tion. Real estate agents affiliated with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage are independent contractor sales associates and are not employees of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage.

Married to Kelly, the Lamont family has three children Grace, Luke & Hope and are active members of St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church. Enthusiastic and dedicated to get the results for his clients, Lee brings a fresh approach to selling Real Estate, especially in the M Streets, Lakewood, Forest Hills, where he has lived and owned homes. Lee is of British decent but is now an ‘adopted’ Texan after previously living in London, Sydney & Toronto. If you are thinking about selling or moving to the area, call Lee for an honest and experienced opinion.

Lee Lamont 214.418.2780

Lee@LamontRealEstate.com

STEPHA SANDOVAL

“The city cares nothing about history if there’s money to be made.”

DONNA MCCOMMAS

L A UNCH

MARCH 11

St. Patty’s parade

Put on your best green shirt and celebrate St.

Patrick’s Day the way Dallas knows best. More than 125,000 people are expected to watch the rowdy procession wind down Greenville Avenue, where an impromptu festival always breaks out.

Greenville Avenue and Blackwell Street, dallasstpatricksparade.com, free

Out & About

MARCH 4

MATA AUCTION

Vacation packages, jewelry and even student artwork will be up for auction at Mata Montessori PTA’s largest fundraiser of the year. Held from 6:30-10 p.m., “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” also includes dinner, drinks and dancing.

KayCee Hall, 10110 Shoreview Road, matamontessori. ejoinme.org, $45

MARCH 12

SOUL FOOD

East Dallas’ Promise of Peace Community Garden will launch its Seed to Soul program and celebrate the creation of three new garden sites. Listen to live music, enjoy a four-course dinner and sip wine from Oak Cliff Cellars.

Parigi Restaurant, 3311 Oak Lawn Ave., promiseofpeace.us, $75

MARCH 15

NONFICTION WRITING

Want to know what it takes to become a writer? Awardwinning author Karen Blumenthal will review her work and discuss her writing process during “Telling True Stories: Adventures in Nonfiction for Young People and Adults” at 6 p.m. Lakewood Branch Library, 6121 Worth St., 214.670.1376, dallaslibrary2.org, free

MARCH 16

EAT, DRINK AND BE MERRY

Stroll through the Dallas Arboretum as you sample cuisine from 40 awardwinning chefs during the Food and Wine Festival. The event starts at 6:30 p.m. and offers American, Mediterranean, Pan Asian and South American dishes, as well as dessert. Dallas Arboretum, 8525 Garland Road, 214.515.6615, dallasarboretum.org, $140-$195

MARCH 26

WOODROW ROCKS

THE GRANDA

For the fourth year, Woodrow’s high school band will take over the Granda for an afternoon of music from 4-6 p.m. The highlight will be a “Tribute to the Glen Miller Orchestra.” All proceeds benefit the Private Lession Scholarship Fund.

Granada Theater, 3524 Greenville Ave., woodrowwildcats. org/performingarts/band, $20

MARCH 30

CELEBRATE THE LAKE

After running in the Celebration! White Rock Lake 5k or 10k, grab dinner and a drink from local vendors at Winfrey Point from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Proceeds from the race and block party will be used to renovate White Rock Lake Park. Winfrey Point, 950 E. Lawther Drive, whiterockdallas.org, $20-$45

PHOTO BY DANNY FULGENCIO

Most of the Dines-designed homes in the album did not include addresses or identifiers, as is the case with the photo of the woman at top.

A SNAPSHOT OF HISTORY

An early glimpse of Lakewood architecture through the lens of Albert Dines, builder of dozens of homes

By NICHOLE OSINSKI

When John and Lisa Moreno bought their house in Lakewood in 1998, they had not only found their new home but a piece of history, though at the time they didn’t know it.

The couple, both history buffs, knew that noted Lakewood architect Albert Dines built their home. Some searching and the help of a mutual friend led them to Dines’ daughter, Janet Dines Meredith, who lived down the road in Meadowlake. The Morenos told Meredith they now lived in the home her father had built in 1925 and asked if she had ever seen it. The answer was no, so they invited the builder’s daughter over and, not surprisingly, the three found themselves talking about the past.

The question the couple really wanted to ask was if Dines’ daughter had any photos of their house. She explained there was nothing, everything was lost in a house fire years ago. But a few weeks later, the Morenos were in for a surprise.

Meredith invited them over for tea and there, sitting on a table, was a stack of photographs, not only of the Morenos’ house but many other houses Albert Dines built. It turned out not all of the photos had been lost in the fire. In total there were about 100 images that the Morenos believe were all taken in the 1920s and possibly early ‘30s when Dines did most of his work. Whether they were taken by Dines himself isn’t known.

“Just that perspective of what Lakewood looked like, we found it so fresh and new, we just found it so intriguing,” Lisa says. “We wanted to make sure we had the opportunity to preserve the photos.”

While the houses themselves have largely retained much of their original character, there were unique details within the images that show how much

Lakewood has changed. Awnings once hung from many of the homes, and lawns weren’t as rich with foliage as they are now. Then there were the photos with people in them, like the one of a woman in a flapper-style dress leaning glamorously while holding a drink, never knowing that decades later a couple would study her image.

With Meredith’s blessing, the couple took all of the photos to be scanned and

copied to create an album of their own, which they duplicated for Preservation Dallas. They also shared images with as many present-day homeowners as they could identify.

“Our interest is to try to promote the history of Lakewood,” John says.

Meredith has since passed away and the Morenos believe the original photos are still within the Dines family. While Meredith was still alive, she considered donating the collection to the city’s library archives. In the end, she decided to keep the images. The couple believes it’s actually the memory of her father that she wanted to keep close.

“I think she wanted to protect the photos in the end and so I think she didn’t want us to come back and look through them again,” Lisa says. “We pretty much had one chance to do it and we were very fortunate that we got that opportunity.”

“Just that perspective of what Lakewood looked like, we found it so fresh and new, we just found it so intriguing.”

HUTSELL HOUSE

Like Dilbeck and Dines & Kraft, Clifford Doris Hutsell is a name you’ll reconize if you’re into local architecture. Hutsell built dozens of homes in Lakewood in the 1920s-‘40s, including his own private residence at 7035 Lakewood Boulveard. It cost him $10,000 in 1930, making it one of the most expensive homes in the neighborhood at the time, comparable with the Grand Dames on Swiss Avenue. Included in the Spanish Colonial design was this richly hued stainedglass window. When current owner Christy Fagin acquired the property, she set out to restore Hutsell’s original vision, ensuring the colorful parabolic window remained a centerpiece of the house, which became a historic landmark in 2005.

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT

Sarah Sarkees just looked at little Oliver’s fluffy face and she was in love. “I came across his photo online and had to meet him,” she says. She headed to Fort Worth to adopt him from the Humane Society North Texas and brought him home to Lakewood. Now 3 years old, Oliver has never met a stranger: he is quick to kiss anyone he comes across. He also likes to hang out at the local dog park where he prefers playing with the big dogs versus the ones his size. “He thinks he’s much bigger than his 19 pounds,” Sarkees says. “He also loves hanging out on dog friendly patios in the neighborhood and making new puppy and people friends. Or just going for a ride in the car. He can’t have enough wind running through his fur.”

AFTER THE FALL

How a hardcore cyclist is adapting in a body he can no longer control

Story by CHRISTINA HUGHES BABB | Photo by DANNY FULGENCIO

A50-plus mile bike ride from his home to White Rock Lake to Sunnyvale and back constituted a typical Saturday morning for Jim Heitzenreder.

“It’s like an old guys’ game of pick-up basketball,” he says of rolling lakeside on weekends, where he always finds a little friendly competition among fellow cyclists.

As he peddled away on Nov. 5, his wife Alison Heitzenreder stood in the doorway, watching until he was out of sight.

“That wasn’t something I normally did. Call it women’s intuition,” she says. “I felt something was wrong.”

She shook it off and kept her haircut appointment. At the salon, though, she found herself obsessively checking Strava, a smartphone application that tracks runners’ and cyclists’ miles. For someone whose 50-yearold husband puts in 10,000 miles per year on Dallas’ oft-treacherous roads, it’s also, usually, a good way to offset apprehension.

Jim met his buddy James Aston at the 7-11 on Garland Road and they headed

south. When they turned toward home it was almost 10 a.m.

They chatted as they rode, “About everything and nothing,” Jim says. There likely was some political talk, the presidential election was two days away, but he doesn’t remember specifics.

They were traveling the I-30 service road, approaching Loop 12 when Jim heard the cacophony of crunching metal at his back. All in a flash, he looked down at his speedometer, pushed his pace and thought only of outkicking whatever horrible situation was hurtling his way.

That is Jim’s last recollection of the day that changed his life.

There was no escaping the out-of-control vehicle that propelled into his path.

Aston, thrown from his bike, incurred a concussion, bruises and lacerations.

Jim took the brunt of the collision; an initial police report shows it resulted when 18-year-old Lester Flores, weaving in and out of traffic at about 80 miles per hour, hit another car.

The second vehicle, when it struck Jim,

severed his spinal cord and dislocated multiple vertebrae.

Flores at time of publication is in Dallas County Jail facing charges for “aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury.”

Checking her phone again, Alison watched her husband’s route deviate from the norm. Strava suddenly showed “a b-line toward Downtown Dallas,” she says. “I didn’t immediately put him at Baylor Hospital, but I knew something had happened. I started texting and calling.”

When the call from Jim’s phone came, a hospital worker told her in vague terms about the accident.

“I could hear the clank of machines and things in the background, and then Jim’s voice: ‘I am OK, baby.’”

In a recreation room on the third floor of Baylor Rehab Institute in early January, Jim, sitting in a motorized wheelchair that he controls with his chin, says he doesn’t remember saying that, though he’s not surprised he did.

“That is my packaged line,” he says.

He smiles, his eyes twinkle, his shoulders

Jim Heitzenreder

shrug for emphasis. No evidence remains of the bumps, cuts and bruises that covered his face in November.

A nurse teases him about running over her toes; he challenges her to a race.

It’s enough to momentarily distract from the neck brace, sternly holding him face-forward, and his inability to move any other part of his body.

His first memory following the crash was waking up Nov. 7, seeing election results pouring in on the news and thinking, “I didn’t vote.”

He recalls relief in ICU when doctors removed a breathing tube. “It was like an alien invading your body — I was like Sigourney Weaver,” he says.

It meant he could talk again — not being able to do so had been frustrating.

Alison, perpetually by his side, walks with a slight limp. She explains that a childhood stroke partially paralyzed her right side.

“We’re down to about 25 percent of us combined that works now,” Jim says as they smile at one another.

For Alison, panic was followed by an unexpected peace, she says, “Something kicked in. The Lord scooped me up and carried me.”

Within several hours, Jim underwent an operation to fuse his third and fourth vertebrae. A few days after that, surgeons reconstructed his shattered fifth vertebrae. When the doctor broke the news that he was going to be quadriplegic, Alison rejoiced.

“Because it meant he was going to live,” she explains.

Jim agrees. “I had a couple semi-pity parties, but I was really thankful I still had a fully functioning brain, that I was alive, that she had never let me go without a helmet.”

Supportive family, neighbors and friends from their Highland Park Presbyterian Church surrounded the couple at the hospital.

“I remember thinking how sweet it was having so many people praying for us,” Alison says.

In addition to moral support, friends, neighbors and strangers alike have united to help fund Jim’s medical expenses beyond what insurance will cover. Many have contributed through REACT, a spinal cord injury recovery 501(c)3. Tax-deductible donations are accepted via PayPal at neuroreaction.org. The Oddfellows took up a collection at a Christmas party and wrote Alison a check. A fellow Sunday school student helped Alison prepare the house for the day Jim would come home, a massive undertaking.

Jim says that he has seen the very best come out in his friends and neighbors during this time. “It is a great example of communities coming together just to help someone get through something.”

Extraordinary Dental Care Is Right Down the Street

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In their strength and optimism, the Heitzenreders in turn have inspired others.

Dallasite Bill Dunham had never met Jim, but visited on behalf of a mutual friend who could not travel. He says his “chance encounter” with the couple “stunned and motivated” him in various ways.

“I was struck by Jim’s positive attitude, resiliency and his strong faith,” Dunham notes. “He didn’t show any signs of depression or bitterness towards the driver who hit him. I am so impressed and inspired by his determination, which he’ll need as he transitions to his new reality at home.”

Baylor released him in mid-January, and the couple was ecstatic to go home to a newly remodeled house. A new ramp provides Jim access to his front door. Four interior doorways have been widened to accommodate the wheelchair. The bathroom is redone, from the studs up, to make way for a specially designed tub and shower.

“And we had to get a van,” Alison says. A good thing, because before heading home, Jim wanted to collect his bicycle from the police station.

“We’ve had 10s of thousands of good miles together,” he says. “It’s a beautiful bike, a good girl, we went down hard together.”

He isn’t sure how he might replace his passion for cycling, he says. Along with everything else, that is a day-by-day discovery process. “Looking too far into the future would be overwhelming. The reality is, wallowing would be useless.”

If anything can be derived from his situation, he hopes it involves drivers thinking a little more about cyclists’ rights and safety, he says. Jim says and he doesn’t hold a grudge against the young driver, who is facing serious charges, though he does make a couple jokes about condemning the guy to be his caretaker for a period of time. Alison says she’s too busy to give the kid a second thought.

There are things the Heitzenreders could use (a $20,000 therapeutic cycle, for example, that would allow Jim to exercise his muscles) and things they hope (maybe he will use his arms again someday — every spinal cord injury is different, they point out, so you never know). But overwhelmingly they feel “wonderful,” Alison says.

A Godsend caregiver comes every morning, and, though it isn’t easy, Alison learned after three days how to get Jim to bed on her own, so they have time together alone. After spending months having people in and out of the room day and night, that is a blessing, she adds. “He still has the biggest smile,” she says of Jim. “And he keeps me happy, as we are getting to normal, the new normal.”

EAST DALLAS’ BEST KEPT SECRET

Lipscomb Elementary is ‘on the precipice’ of becoming a neighborhood school worthy of Realtors’ selling points

Story by KERI MITCHELL

Last spring, in the midst of a heated school board election, three candidates in a close race to represent East Dallas, Preston Hollow and Oak Lawn schools were asked which school in these areas is the best-kept secret.

All three, without hesitation, gave the same answer: Lipscomb Elementary.

“The principal there is doing excellent work,” said the eventual winner and current Dallas ISD trustee, Dustin Marshall. “They have an magnificent two-way dual language program. It’s a jewel for the district that I think we need to replicate elsewhere.”

Lipscomb is the neighborhood school for three Old East Dallas historic districts — Junius Heights, Swiss Avenue and Munger Place — but in recent history, families living in the homes on these established streets haven’t sent their children to the school. An Old East Dallas early childhood PTA formed in 2008 to attempt to reverse that trend, with some success.

By the time Principal Roxanne Cheek took the helm of Lipscomb in summer

2013, the school had hit a rough patch.

“The community distrusted the administration and vice versa,” Cheek says. “There was a lot of brokenness in our community and in the culture and the climate here.”

Her first order of business was to fill a whopping 20 vacancies in the teaching staff, left by people who “had a bad year,” Cheek says. “The teachers who returned were the people who were faithful to this community and loved Lipscomb.”

Cheek knew she had to rebuild, and she proceeded methodically and meticulously. Her first priority was to “make Lipscomb a welcoming place and a place where people want to be,” she says. Once that wheel was in motion, she turned to academics.

“International Baccalaureate [IB] came along at that point, and that helped give us a focus,” Cheek says of the holistic curriculum approach Lipscomb introduced nearly three years ago. She expects the school will be fully authorized sometime this fall, joining the ranks of J.L. Long Middle School and Woodrow Wilson High School, where her students

Principal Roxanne Cheek, in her fourth year at Lipscomb Elementary, says “the work is not done here by any means” but believes the school is “turning a corner.”

PHOTO BY DANNY FULGENCIO

eventually will attend.

Then there’s the dual language program Lipscomb launched last year, where native Spanish and English speakers are combined in a classroom to learn in both languages. Both dual language and IB are “a part of what makes Lipscomb special, but it is not what makes Lipscomb special,” she says.

The secret ingredient is what Cheek constantly refers to as “our team.”

“We have the right people in every place,” she says. “This year, there are fewer parent concerns because they love their teachers. I feel the same about our parents, who are constantly working for the betterment for our community.

“We’re all really rowing together.”

Keith Peeler, a Lipscomb dad who chairs the school’s site-based decision making (SBDM) committee, gives Cheek credit for her “dynamic job of hiring the right teachers.”

Peeler lived in the Park Cities when his oldest daughter, now at Woodrow, attended Highland Park ISD’s Bradfield Elementary.

“Outside of the fact that we just don’t have as many toys as they have, and the obvious money differences, I would put all of this year’s teachers toe to toe with any of the great instruction they had at Bradfield,” he says.

As Peeler points out, Lipscomb’s population is starkly different than Bradfield’s and even some nearby DISD schools. Nearly 90 percent of its students are economically disadvantaged.

Though Lipscomb has made some “fairly big improvements” in the last few years, says Alex Enriquez, another SBDM committee member, “We don’t have real estate agents putting the name of our school on the fliers yet. If you go to Lakewood or Hexter [elementaries], you see that.”

Enriquez lauds Hexter, where he attended elementary school, for its socioeconomic diversity that over time has been shown to benefit low-income students. Though Lipscomb is 90 percent low-income, the students zoned to the school are not. The neighborhood’s economic demographics are a fairly even split.

“If Lipscomb was just to attract families who already live in our neighborhood, we could recreate that,” he says of Hexter’s diversity, “and DISD needs dozens of schools like that.”

Enriquez lives in Junius Heights close enough to Lipscomb that he can see the school from his house. There are six chil-

dren under the age of 5 on his small block alone. Young families are “waiting in the wings,” he says.

“The key is going to be to keep them there,” Enriquez says. “Our houses are relatively small by Dallas standards, and once their kids are 5 or 6 years old, it’s not any big deal to move to the M Streets or Lakewood or Coppell.”

Part of keeping them will require better marketing of the great school Lipscomb already is, he says, and part of it will require continued improvement. Enriquez, who heads the education-focused nonprofit City Year Dallas, believes it takes five years to turn a school around. Cheek is close to finishing her fourth.

Even so, she is the longest tenured principal amid Woodrow and its feeder schools, which had leadership turnover at every campus over the past two years.

“Time is of the essence,” Cheek says. “If you’re two grade levels behind, we still need time to close those [achievement] gaps,” and then there’s “the time needed to make a school well rounded and not just test focused.

Of 143 DISD elementary schools, Lipscomb ranked 139th on the district’s culture and climate surveys when Cheek arrived in 2013. That number rose to 97th the following year, then 55th last year and, now, 45th.

“It’s probably what school turnaround should actually look like when you’re allowed and given time to create your team and figure out what your priorities are,” she says. “We’re really trying to create a neighborhood school that people can be proud of, where people want to come to work, and we’re just on the precipice of that.”

PHOTO BY DANNY FULGENCIO

Transparency and collaboration are the keys to Lipscomb’s success, Principal Roxanne Cheek says. “I don’t make any decisions without consulting my administrative team and looping my parents in.”

DELICIOUS A taste of home

Havana Café offers Cuban cuisine, just like owner Ernesto Velez’s mother made it

By ELISSA CHUDWIN

DID YOU KNOW: Ernesto Velez left Cuba when he was a 23-year-old trombone player in a band, and he’ s excited to show off his talents once the mojito bar opens. “In Cuba, you live in a bubble,” he says. “There was only propaganda, so that’s how I decided to get out here.”

Ernesto Velez is even more anxious than his customers to open the mojito bar adjacent to Havana Café.

Velez leased the Casa Linda Plaza space next door to his Cuban eatery with plans to serve perfectly crafted cocktails and tapas by August 2016. As months passed and the “mojito bar coming soon” poster remained in the window, restaurant staff and patrons alike grew restless.

“We’re very frustrated,” he says. “Almost every day, somebody asks me, ‘When is the mojito bar opening?’ ”

The long-awaited watering hole has yet to launch because of a City of Dallas code compliance issue, Velez explains. A fire wall separates the café and bar, so it’s against city code to alter the wall. The only way Velez can connect the two spaces is to install sprinklers, an expensive and time-consuming process.

The former owner of Havana Social Club is used to rolling with the punches,

and he’s determined to open the mojito bar by June. In the meantime, Velez is focused on the menu’s every detail. He plans to offer a wide selection of rum

and serve Cuban, Spanish and African small dishes that cost no more than $10 per plate.

“I just want people to come here and have a good time,” he says.

Neighbors have flocked to Havana Café since its inception five years ago. In a city overflowing with Mexican restaurants, authentic Cuban cuisine was a welcome to change of pace.

“The only difference is ingredients are hard to find,” he says. “Cuban food is more organic.”

HAVANA CAFÉ

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Hours: 11 a.m.- 9 p.m. MondaySaturday, 12-7 p.m. Sunday 1152 N. Buckner Blvd., suite J-126 214.660.9611 havanacafedallas.com

The establishment’s simple yet flavorful offerings stem from Velez’s nostalgia for his mother and grandfather’s cooking. Velez’s bestseller is ropa vieja made with lean brisket and sofrito sauce, but his favorite is arroz con puerco, or yellow rice with bites of pork in a sauce of white wine, tomatoes and spices. The pork is roasted for 11 hours every night.

“In this business, the most important thing is just to buy good meat or good ingredients,” he says.

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CITY VIEW ANTIQUE MALL

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Angelo’s frutti di mare

Few places in Lakewood bring back as many warm-and-fuzzy memories as Angelo’s Spaghetti House. For 21 years, it served up old Italian staples that simmered over with garlicky goodness.

Bernadette and Jim Fisher named it for her grandfather, in honor of the rich history of recipes in the family. She cooked up the meals she remembered having as a child, ensuring those homemade flavors permeated the corner of Gaston and La Vista. Neighbors flocked there for the weekly lunch buffets, or to the cozy booths for romantic nights out.

It all came to an end in 2013 when the business was booted unceremoniously out of its location. A few months later, The Ginger Man opened another franchise in its place, only to close in 2016. For now, the space sits vacant, although the high-profile corner should attract interest quickly.

2SHEA BABY BOUTIQUE

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(Between Bank of America & Lakewood Post Office)

YOGA MART

New products at the NEW LOCATION. Stop by soon to check it out. Across from Arboretum Village Shopping Center. 2201 Tucker St. Suite 101 214.534.4469 yogamartusa.com

FLEECE

Spring Break “Kids Camp” March 14-18, ages 8-17 at Fleece your LYS. Knit and crochet classes for all ages. Learn a skill that lasts a lifetime.

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But for those missing the classic Italian flavors, here’s Angelo’s original frutti di mare recipe, one of their alltime best sellers, first published in the Advocate in 1999.

FRUTTI DI MARE (serves two)

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cayenne

½ teaspoon white pepper

½ teaspoon black pepper

½ teaspoon thyme

1 teaspoon basil

1 teaspoon minced garlic

3 sticks margarine

¾ cup white wine

1 cup chopped onions (optional)

1 pound seafood (shrimp, crab, scallops or any mix)

16 ounces cooked angel hair pasta

In a medium saucepan, melt margarine and add garlic, but don’t brown. Sautée it 2 minutes, then add spices and cook until the mixture bubbles.

Add onions, wine and seafood and cook until the seafood is pink (be careful not to overcook it).

Toss with angel hair pasta. Serve hot.

PHOTO BY MARK DAVIS

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HEAVENLY transformation

SUZY BATIZ’s resurrection of a 100-year-old Junius Heights church is a vision

STORY BY EMILY CHARRIER PHOTOS BY NINE PHOTOGRAPHY

The church nave became the main living area.

Everyone thought she was crazy.

Not one person close to her thought she should do it, but Suzy Batiz is not a woman easily dissuaded from her vision. While others saw a 100-plus-year-old church in disrepair, she saw a unique home that had the potential to support her dream of hosting workshops for women.

“The Realtor even tried to talk me out of [buying] it,” she laughs. “I knew I needed to buy it. I have been obsessed with the idea of living in a church for years.”

She says she heard angels sing when she first laid eyes on the Eastside Avenue property, which was once St. John’s Methodist Church.

“It was a trolley church, they had no parking,” Batiz says. “That’s why they closed, when the trolley line went.”

In the 1950s the church boasted about 1,000 members, but by 2006 just a dozen gathered in the basement, since the rest of the church was leaky and drafty from years of neglect. It simply didn’t make financial sense, so the church closed its doors and put up a “for sale” sign that year.

Batiz wasn’t the first to have the vision of turning the church into a home. A prior owner did extensive work, adding a staggering 11.5 bathrooms and two kitchens, one of which grandly sits where the pulpit once stood, awash in a golden glow from the massive stained glass window. But it was all cosmetic enhancements; they ran out of money before they could make the house safe and functional. It went back on the market and sat for months — a property as rare as this takes just the right buyer.

Enter Batiz.

“It’s such a sacred space, it has this warmth,” she says.

While Batiz had never been part of a major renovation, she didn’t hesitate in tackling the 15,000-square-foot Junius Heights property. She thrives on challenges, which is why two bankruptcies didn’t stop her from becoming the founder of a $300-million bathroom spray empire. Poo-Pourri began as a solution to a smelly problem she had with her then-husband but it grew into a cash cow, and she remains at the helm 10 years in, despite several lucrative offers to sell.

For her, the holy house was a new sort of challenge, one that inspired her creatively as she tried to find a balance between preserving the church and its unique offerings, while also making it a modern living space. It began with

“I KNEW I NEEDED TO BUY IT. I HAVE BEEN OBSESSED WITH THE IDEA OF LIVING IN A CHURCH FOR YEARS.”

Clockwise from top: The choir bay is now a sitting room. Batiz’s home office features a conference table made from old church fans. The church office was turned into a sauna. An original marker remains for St. John’s Methodist Church.

the basics, fixing the leaks that puddled water around the property whenever it rained — and about 100 other things that needed attention after years of disrepair.

She had the original soft pine floors repurposed, but she left the small divots made by the shoes of past parishioners. For the windows, of which there are thousands, she turned to Munger Place neighbor Tom Clark of Leeds Clark, one of the state’s top window restoration experts. It took him an entire year to repurpose the hundreds of church windows (read the Q&A on p. 41).

Nothing went to waste in the church, the back end of which was built in 1890 before the elegant cathedral front was added in 1911. Batiz repurposed even the littlest items, like the Bible holders she made into decorative planters in the soft pink “unicorn bedroom.” Or the fans she had turned into a stately conference table in her home office above the sanctuary. She even collected scrap metal pieces to fashion into artistic holders for the essential oils she uses to mix scents for Poo-Pourri.

“Most of [these projects] were done by local artists,” Batiz says. “My favorite part of this project is getting to collaborate with so many specialists. It’s a totally new type of creativity for me.”

Slowly but surely the pieces fell into place. The choir stall became an upper sitting area. The nave where parishioners once sat is a whimsical living room with a fluffy swing chair

that hangs from the two-story ceiling. The church office became a sauna room.

“I did find it interesting that my bedroom was the marriage counseling office,” Batiz laughs, “especially because I was going through a divorce at the time.”

She’s big on symbolism. The reconstruction of her house clearly mirrored the new path she was forging in her own life. So much so that she named her home “The Temple of Transformation.”

“I’ve never been in a more transformative space,” she says.

It was like coming home in a way. She grew up attending church but had a rebellious falling out with her faith as

“I DID FIND IT INTERESTING THAT MY BEDROOM WAS THE MARRIAGE COUNSELING OFFICE.”

Clockwise from left: Batiz sought whimsy in a swinging chair. A choir room became a meditation room. The Bible-holders were repurposed from the church pews. Opposite page: Batiz went for antique design elements despite her modern taste.

Suzy Batiz hosts “Awaken and Amplify Your Genius” April 14-17 in the Eastside Avenue church. Get the details at templeof transformation.com

Above: Modern meets vintage in one of the home’s 10 bedrooms.

Bottom: Azucar, Batiz’s dog, has 15,000 square feet to roam in his church home.

a teen and young adult. Recently, she has reconnected with her religious roots.

“It’s been very sweet to be in [a church] during this process,” she says.

When it came to décor, Batiz admits her tastes tend to be more modern, but knew that wouldn’t suit the space. Instead, she worked with a designer and focused on finding antique and artisan-made items that would complement the church.

“I’m not really into antiques,” she says with one hand draped on her 19th century high-backed dining room chair. “Everything in here, it’s for the house. It’s more about a feeling than a look to me.”

It’s a feeling is already sharing with others. One of her goals is to help empower other women who might feel stuck or unable to move forward with their dreams. Participants all stay in the church, which quickly feels like a sanctuary, Batiz says. “It’s such serene space I have to share it,” she says. “I have always been interested in helping women, and there’s so much going on right now in the world for women.”

FRAGILE HANDS

WHILE HE’S always been into preservation, Tom Clark didn’t set out to become an expert in window restoration — it just kind of happened. But tackling a project with hundreds of windows like Suzy Batiz’s church-turned-home took an entire year and painstaking attention to detail. Having worked on the Alamo and the old Dallas High School downtown, it was just another day for Clark.

How did you get into this?

TC: I’ve been doing historic preservation work since 1978. I worked on the Main Street project with the Texas Historic Commission. They would go into little historic towns and put the store fronts back up. In the 1950s, they wanted them to look modern so they covered them all with aluminum. By the 1980s they wanted to put them back they way they were.

How did you get involved with the church?

TC: There’s not many people who do this, it’s a pretty unusual specialty.

What was the biggest challenge on this project?

TC: The monumental [stained-glass] windows in the main room. The wood frames are a lot more intricate, of course. Someone had tried to repair them. But they used Bondo, like you’d use for your car. We had to strip it down to the bare wood then repair where it was needed. We finished it with putty glaze and paint. I’d hate to pay their electricity bill.

‘A RESPITE FROM THE CITY’

The past secures the future of this wooded refuge in the middle of Lakewood

By KERI MITCHELL

Photos by JENIFER McNEIL BAKER

You may not know about the simple yet significant house at 3201 Wendover Drive in Lakewood. Even those who know it’s there may never have seen it.

And that’s on purpose.

Built in 1939 for Alfred and Juanita Bromberg, the house was positioned to be “deliberately invisible from the street and deliberately subtle,” according to its City of Dallas landmark documents. At that time, the property was situated “at

the edge of town,” its National Historic Register form states, and “the historic context of this house remains unchanged since it was constructed.”

To this day, both documents note, the property remains a “respite from the city.”

Lakewood itself is not urban. The single-family neighborhood that developed between the 1920s and the 1960s was a classic subdivision at its inception and remains suburban in its present form, but the city grew up around it. A 10-acre wooded refuge in the middle of this urban context is an endangered species, which is precisely why the current owner, Dan Patterson, and his late wife, Gail, sought

The house at 3201 Wendover in Lakewood was built in 1939 and completely restored at the turn of the century by its second and current owner, Dan Patterson (pictured below) and his late wife, Gail.

to protect the property with landmark and historic designations.

And yet, the question of what the future holds for 3201 Wendover hovers over the expansive acreage. When the Pattersons moved in 14 years ago, houses on nearby Sondra and Velasco were “$150,000 teardowns,” he says. “Now they’re $1 million homes.”

“I know that Lakewood is changing. It’s changing quickly,” Patterson says. “And the uses of this land are going to depend on the circumstances of Lakewood.”

Of the 10 acres, only two are protected — the land on which the house sits.

“I can sell off the land; that’s not the issue,” Patterson says. “I can’t destroy the house.”

What he is allowed to do, however, isn’t what he wants to do. Patterson actually re-assembled the original property when he and his wife bought the house.

The Brombergs had held onto five of their original nine acres after selling off two 2-acre lots in the ’60s. Patterson purchased those lots and added them back to the estate.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the property was part of the expansive Metzer Dairies farmland. A feeding trough near Beards Branch Creek still exists along the border Patterson’s land shares with Lakewood Elementary’s outdoor learning area. The creek also trickles between the parcels purchased in the late ’30s by Bromberg and his good friend, Stanley Marcus.

“They decided to move to Lakewood, which was the new up-and-coming neighborhood,” Patterson says. “They bought 10 acres across the creek from each other.”

The gate connecting their properties, used by the two men to visit each other,

truly feel surrounded by nature in the middle of the neighborhood,” says Jenifer McNeil Baker, who roamed the 10-acre property at sunset to photograph the home for the Lakewood home tour. Inside, she says, “I was mostly surprised at how on trend the entire house still is. Many of the original features of the home feel just as modern today.”

still stands, he says. Of course, the property around the two houses is now filled in with lots of other single-family homes.

Stanley Marcus, one of the namesakes of the Neiman Marcus empire, originally commissioned notable architect Frank Lloyd Wright to design his house, until Wright was fired for a design that overreached Marcus’ $25,000 construction budget by $115,000. Local architect Roscoe DeWitt took over, creating “a unique and singular statement,” the landmark document states, amid the Lakewood neighborhood where “the romantic revival styles of Tudor, Italianate, and Spanish dominated.”

The 10,000-square-foot contemporary mansion at 10 Nonesuch Road is no doubt flashier and more famous than the 5,500-square-foot house on Wendover, and that was intentional on the part of the Brombergs. They hired O’Neil Ford, who specialized in Texas regional architecture, to design “an honest house that respected the natural environment,” according to the landmark documents.

The house “allow[ed] the Brombergs to take advantage of the local climate in an informal lifestyle that including outdoor living for much of the year.” The creek and woods around the house, then and now, “provides a unique sense of seclusion that is unusual in a large city.”

“Peaceful” is the word Patterson believes most apt.

He wasn’t an immediate fan, however.

“It looked like it was going to be very

expensive to renovate. But I loved the land,” Patterson says. “Gail handled the house and did an amazing job. I did the land and it was a work in progress. It’s still a work in progress.”

They were living in a historic home on Swiss Avenue with young children when they first learned about the property. The Brombergs’ son, Arthur, inherited the property when Juanita Bromberg died in 1999 at the age of 96. He had reached

KEEPING OUR NEIGHBORS IN LAKEWOOD SMILING FOR OVER 70 YEARS

out to Preservation Dallas asking for help in deed restricting the house. Gail Patterson was president of the Preservation Dallas board at the time, and the couple lived on historic Swiss Avenue with their young children.

“With no kids, I could have seen us buy some quirky house that needed preservation in an even more urban place than Swiss Avenue,” Patterson says, but they lived near busy Munger Avenue, and “we felt we needed more of a suburban environment.”

The house already was listed and other offers had been made, but the Brombergs hadn’t responded to any. About a month after making a “low-medium” offer, he says, the Pattersons and their children

were summoned to the Highland Park home of Arthur Bromberg and his wife for a face-to-face meeting.

“At the end of the meeting, they told us, ‘We’ll accept your offer,’ ” Patterson says. “They were looking for somebody who really wanted the house, who wanted to fix it up, to preserve it.”

They family made good on their promise, tending to the overgrown property and dilapidated house for nearly four years before moving in.

“My wife was meticulous and didn’t miss a beat on the restoration,” he says.

Patterson still chokes up when he talks about Gail. They had only five years to enjoy the fruits of their labor at Wendover. In 2009, she died in an automobile

The creek and woods around the house, then and now, “provides a unique sense of seclusion that is unusual in a large city.”

RICK BEADLE D.D.S. | REID SLAUGHTER D.D.S.

accident on the icy roads of New Mexico.

“What we missed was our happily ever after once we did all the work,” he says.

His wife loved history and preservation. And Patterson loved his wife, who imbued her husband with her passion for history. After Gail’s death, he didn’t consider moving from the home filled with their memoires.

“It was about my kids,” he says. “I wanted them to have as much stability as they could. I didn’t even ask the question then. It didn’t even cross my mind.”

More than seven years later, he’s still not interested in leaving.

“I just love the house. It’s so easy and convenient and beautiful,” Patterson says. “I feel like this is kind of a respite from the busyness of the world. You come in here, and you feel like you’re in the country. I know Mrs. Bromberg enjoyed that — that’s why she lived there until she was 96.”

He doesn’t think he’ll stay for that long, however. Patterson is now an empty-nester; his son is in college and his 25-year-old daughter is on the board of Preservation Dallas, following in her mother’s footsteps. The property will eventually be theirs, he says.

He has considered some other uses for it. “It’s a great party house,” he says, and it was built the same year as the Camp house at the Dallas Arboretum, a frequent venue for wedding receptions and glitterati events. Ford and Staub, the architect of the Camp house, had similar styles, he says. Both houses were designed to maximize breezes in an era that preceded air-conditioning, and with patios that open onto the grounds for entertaining.

6333 E. Mockingbird @ Abrams Tom Thumb Shopping Center Ste. #275

O’Neil Ford designed the Brombergs’ home to complement its surrounding natural landscape, which was part of the Meztger Dairies farmland expanse in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Just as the Brombergs regularly hosted charity fundraisers, especially for the art world, Patterson, too, offers his home as a charity venue and opens it up on home tours. It was featured on the Lakewood Home Tour last fall. His girlfriend is Mary McDermott Cook, who chairs the Trinity Trust and operates her family’s Eugene McDermott Foundation from her angular, energy-efficient hilltop home behind the Belmont Hotel in West Dallas — “so we have the city house and the country house,” he quips. Cook, too, is a frequent party host.

“It’s become part of what we do,” he says. “I do it because it’s fun; she does it because she’s a philanthropist.”

He wonders if his residence may one day be Lakewood’s version of the Aldredge House on Swiss Avenue, which was bequeathed to the Dallas County Medical Society Alliance. The alliance rents it as a wedding venue and also makes it available for neighborhood meetings and nonprofit events.

Patterson at one point looked into the possibility of turning the property into a 10-acre sculpture garden, a sort of Nasher outpost or “mini arboretum.”

“But as we started digging into it, we said, ‘Lakewood’s never gonna go for it,’” he says. “They would hate it.”

Patterson doesn’t know what exactly the future of his land holds. He takes notice of the real estate changes between his former Swiss Avenue neighborhood and Downtown — “the inexorable march toward modernization and density, and there’s nothing we can do about it,” he says.

That won’t happen to the Bromberg house, he is confident.

“The difference in Lakewood is we’re surrounded by dense single-family homes, and it’s a community that protects its single-family homes,” he says.

Not to mention the protections the Brombergs and the Pattersons worked to put into place. Deed restrictions decree that if anyone breaks the covenants protecting the architecture, the interior details, even the house’s relationship to the natural environment, the property may revert to Southern Methodist University.

“The houses that are architecturally significant and can stand the test of time, those houses will be protected and others will not be,” Patterson says. “A lot of the architectural treasures of the city have been lost, but this house is not going to be one of them.”

DALLAS ACADEMY

950 Tiffany Way, Dallas 75218 / 214.324.1481 / dallas-academy.com Founded in 1965, Dallas Academy’s mission is to restore the promise of full academic enrichment to students with learning differences in grades 1-12. A meaningful connection with each student is established to overcome barriers to success. Dallas Academy offers students an effective program and strategies to meet the special educational needs of bright students with learning differences, while including the activities of a larger, more traditional school. Classes are small, with a student-teacher ratio of 6 to 1 where students are encouraged, praised, and guided toward achieving their goals. Diagnostic testing is available to students throughout the community.

HIGHLANDER SCHOOL

9120 Plano Rd. Dallas / 214.348.3220 / www.highlanderschool.com Founded in 1966, Highlander offers an enriched curriculum in a positive, Christian-based environment. By limiting class size, teachers are able to build a strong educational foundation to ensure confidence in academics, athletics, and the creative and performing arts. Highlander offers a “classic” education which cannot be equaled. Monthly tours offered; call for a reservation.

HOLY TRINITY CATHOLIC SCHOOL

3815 Oak Lawn Ave., Dallas 214-526-5113, htcsdallas.org For more than 100 years, Holy Trinity Catholic School, has been committed to the religious, intellectual, emotional, social and physical growth of each student. This commitment is carried out in a nurturing atmosphere with an emphasis on social awareness, service to others, and religious faith in the Catholic tradition. The Immaculate Heart Program at Holy Trinity School was initiated to fully realize our school’s mission of developing the whole child by meeting the needs of one of the most underserved and underperforming groups in catholic schools, children with dyslexia.

LAKEHILL PREPARATORY SCHOOL

Leading to Success. 2720 Hillside Dr., Dallas 75214 / 214.826.2931 / lakehillprep.org

Kindergarten through Grade 12 - Lakehill Preparatory School takes the word preparatory in its name very seriously. Throughout a student’s academic career, Lakehill builds an educational program that achieves its goal of enabling graduates to attend the finest, most rigorous universities of choice. Lakehill combines a robust, college-preparatory curriculum with opportunities for personal growth, individual enrichment, and community involvement. From kindergarten through high school, every Lakehill student is encouraged to strive, challenged to succeed, and inspired to excel.

SPANISH HOUSE

Four East Dallas Locations / 214.826.4410/ DallasSpanishHouse.com Spanish Immersion Program in East Dallas! Nursery, Preschool, Elementary and Adult Programs available. Our new dual-language elementary

campus is now open at 7159 E. Grand Ave. Please visit our website at DallasSpanishHouse. com for more information.

ST. JOHN’S EPISCOPAL SCHOOL

848 Harter Rd., Dallas 75218 / 214.328.9131 / stjohnsschool.org

Founded in 1953, St. John’s is an independent, co-educational day school for Pre-K through Grade 8. With a tradition for academic excellence, St. John’s programs include a challenging curriculum in a Christian environment along with instruction in the visual and performing arts, Spanish, German, French, and opportunities for athletics and community service.St. John’s goal for its students is to develop a love for learning, service to others, and leadership grounded in love, humility, and wisdom. Accredited by ISAS, SAES, and the Texas Education Agency.

UT DALLAS CHESS CAMP

800 W. Campbell Rd., Richardson 75080 / (972) 883-4899 / utdallas.edu/chess ) 2016 Summer Chess Camp Campers learn while they PLAY. Chess develops reading, math, critical and analytical skills, and builds character and self-esteem. Just don’t tell the kids…they think chess is fun! Join beginner, intermediate or advanced chess classes for ages 7 to 14 on the UT Dallas campus. Morning (9am-noon) or afternoon (1-4pm) sessions are available June 13-17, June 20-24, July 18-22, July 25-29 and extended playing classes. Camp includes t-shirt, chess board and pieces, trophy, certificate, score book, group photo, snacks and drinks. Instructors are from among UT Dallas Chess Team Pan-Am Intercollegiate Champions for 2010-2012!

WHITE ROCK NORTH SCHOOL

9727 White Rock Trail Dallas/ 214.348.7410 / WhiteRockNorthSchool.com

6 Weeks through 6th Grade. Our accelerated curriculum provides opportunity for intellectual and physical development in a loving and nurturing environment. Character-building and civic responsibility are stressed. Facilities include indoor swimming pool, skating rink, updated playground, and state-of-the-art technology lab. Kids Club on the Corner provides meaningful after-school experiences. Summer Camp offers field trips, swimming, and a balance of indoor and outdoor activities designed around fun-filled themes. Accredited by SACS. Call for a tour of the campus.

ZION LUTHERAN SCHOOL

6121 E. Lovers Ln. Dallas / 214.363.1630 / ziondallas. org Toddler care thru 8th Grade. Serving Dallas for over 65 years offering a quality education in a Christ-centered learning environment. Degreed educators minister to the academic, physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs of students and their families. Before and after school programs, Extended Care, Parents Day Out, athletics, fine arts, integrated technology, Spanish, outdoor education, Accelerated Reader, advanced math placement, and student government. Accredited by National Lutheran School & Texas District Accreditation Commissions and TANS. Contact Principal Jeff Thorman.

OH BABY

East Dallas mom’s make-your-ownbaby-food kits are right on trend

By NICHOLE OSINSKI

Alot of people talk about quitting their 9-to-5 job to follow a dream, but a scarce few actually make good on the threat.

Karen Salerno is one, with a passion that bloomed a successful business.

The wife and mother of a baby girl, the inspiration for her business, has taken the simple idea of meal-prep delivery and catered it to parents. Enter Lilly & Bella, a meal-kit service that works like the popular online retailer Blue Apron, in which the company sends out recipes and precisely measured ingredients to be

whipped up at home. In this case, whole produce, always organic, is transformed into healthy baby food options.

Fresh squash may come mixed with pears to create one puree while another package could include broccoli, bananas and yams. It’s a way to alleviate some stress from parents and ensure healthier options for their infants while keeping it simple for busy parents. There’s a complete set of instructions on how to combine each ingredient as well as a guide for the best meals based on the child’s age.

Salerno says when her daughter, Bella, was born in March 2015, she faced the

challenge of balancing limited time with wholesome meals. Salerno had to return to work less than five weeks after giving birth, but she began thinking of an idea that would change the way some parents feed their children. Already a fan of preplanned food delivery services, Salerno was on trend.

It began with a website, and eventually Salerno brought in a pediatrician to consult on what foods should be included in the menu that would be best for babies from 4 to 12 months.

“We knew we wanted to make it 100-percent plant based, 100-percent

PHOTO BY RASY RAN

organic,” Salerno says. “My daughter does eat meat sparingly but we try to focus on fresh vegetables, and organic is critical because we just want to protect them from the kinds of things they are exposed to if they’re not eating that.”

Of course, the company name was partially inspired by Salerno’s daughter but she also has a niece and aunt both named Lilly that filled in the other half.

The company piloted its service with a few friends and family members, and grew from there. They, or more appropriately their children, liked what they tasted.

Salerno adds that she, her daughter and her husband “ate a lot of baby food” throughout the process. As the word got out about Lilly & Bella, demand grew. In July, she quit her job to dedicate all of her time to the new endeavor.

“I love startups and I love to set a vision and sort of work toward it,” Salerno says.

The company, which ships packages weekly, first began in Dallas before ex-

panding across the state. She hired two people to help with the growing demand in Texas, with plans to eventually take Lilly & Bella nationwide.

In the meantime, Salerno is using her business as a means to reach families throughout the Dallas-Forth Worth area who don’t have easy access to healthy or organic food, specifically produce.

Salerno and her team recently formed a partnership with Mosaic Family Service in Dallas and will be working to send Lilly & Bella packages to families in need throughout the city. The organization provides services to a wide range of people in need, meaning the food could go to a refugee family or victims of domestic violence.

According to Salerno, they are now serving 50 families in need across DFW and hope to expand this to additional people in the future.

“We’re extremely fortunate in our lives, we’ve had a lot of blessings and we have amazing families and friends, a huge network in Dallas,” Salerno says. “I feel very strongly about community service and our responsibility to pay it forward. I do think being a small business owner gives you a huge opportunity to do that.”

Salerno adds that she, her daughter and her husband “ate a lot of baby food” throughout the process.

SOBRIETY ALL DAY

The 24 Hour Club is new and improved, but its mission stays the same

By RACHEL STONE

When the 24 Hour Club temporarily closed its doors last year, the place was falling apart.

The nonprofit sober living facility primarily serves men and women who otherwise would be homeless.

It first opened in 1969 and took up residence in a 100-yearold building at the corner of Ross and Grigsby avenues in 1988.

Before it closed, there typically were 67 people living in 7,000 square feet. In 2014 its board of directors had spent $25,000 to squeak past code enforcement and another $25,000 for pest control to treat bedbugs.

“It would scare people, to be honest with you,” executive director Marsha Williamson says of the club’s former digs.

But the 24 Hour Club is getting an upgrade. A new facility, going in at the same site on Ross, will double the building’s size.

The old place had two dorms, one for men and one for women,

with just three bathrooms. Men newly entering the facility had to sleep on mats on the floor of a meeting room — all 15 of them had to shower and be out of the room by 7:30 a.m., in time for the first 12-step meeting of the morning.

The new club will have two stories comprising 14,000 square feet with an outdoor recreation area, a community room, three resident lounges and plenty of bathrooms and showers for residents. It will also have a public restroom, which the old facility never had. It will be big enough to house 78 men and 30 women comfortably in two dorms for men and one for women.

The nonprofit raised $600,000 to partially fund the new building, which has a value of about $3 million. HKS Capital Partners donated 100 percent of the architecture work, a $225,000 value. Builder KDC also is donating services and has worked to acquire hundreds of thousands in donations from its subcontractors and vendors.

The 24 Hour Club offers alcoholics and drug addicts a safe

Top: An architect’s rendering of the newly designed 24 Hour Club. Below: the former building was bulldozed last year.

place to confront sobriety. It’s open to anyone who agrees to be sober, and there are 12-step meetings at all hours, hence the name.

Residents receive bed linens, toiletries, clothing, three free meals a day for the first week and health services from Parkland Hospital. The facility’s staff also helps connect residents to other agencies for additional resources.

Residents pay $9 a day, and low-cost meals are available for breakfast, lunch

and dinner. Those who arrive penniless with no job are extended credit. It’s the only sober-living facility in the region that allows addicts to enter with no money.

But extending credit gives residents something to work toward so they can regain their dignity, Williamson says.

“It gives people a solid foundation of sobriety so they can become productive members of society instead of a drain on the system,” she says.

Resident can stay up to 18 months, long enough to rebuild their lives — jobs, apartments, visits with their children — while learning how to cope without substance abuse.

None of that will change with the new facility, Williamson says.

Ground broke on the new 24 Hour Club in February, and it could be completed within a year.

While there’s no other sober-living facility like this one, the 24 Hour Club does what it can to help people find housing in the interim. Manager Aaron Smith still answers the phone from a temporary office at the Agape Clinic.

And the 63-year-old Ross Avenue Alcoholics Anonymous group, second oldest in the Dallas area, also still meets 21 times a day at the Agape Clinic, 4104 Junius St.

“It gives people a solid foundation of sobriety so they can become productive members of society instead of a drain on the system.”

OUR NEIGHBORHOOD

By PATTI VINSON

Rocking the neighborhood

Artist’s treasure hunt for hand-painted stones delights neighborhood kids

“It’s not about what it is, it’s about what it can become,” says the Lorax, Dr. Seuss’s sneakily radical environmentalist, disguised as a children’s book character. In much the same way that the Lorax saw seeds as trees, East Dallas artist Carrie Sharp sees rocks as canvas for art.

Sharp, who is entirely self-taught, had been quietly painting and selling her rocks for a few years when she decided to up the ante. She posted plans for her first-ever “rock hunt” last Halloween on the “Lakewood, Dallas” Facebook page.

After delicately detailing rocks with hand-painted “Peanuts” comic characters, grinning pumpkins and other spooky designs, she walked the blocks, hiding them for neighborhood children (and art-loving adults) to find. Parents showed their gratitude by posting photos of their grinning kids clutching rocks emblazoned with Snoopy and witches.

She’s planning another hunt, appropriately scheduled around Easter — but more on that later.

Sharp’s path to the paintbrush was winding and unexpected.

While she grew up in Rockwall, most of her weekends were spent at White Rock Lake with family and friends. When she married Little Forest Hills resident Matt Sharp 28 years ago, they made East Dallas their home. College came in fits and starts, but Carrie Sharp earned an associate’s degree in accounting. “Of all things,” she laughs. “I never used it.”

Instead, she toiled in the insurance industry while raising three children.

“I was the best coloring mom at night,” she remembers. “That’s what I did to relax and unwind — I colored. The kids had their own coloring books and I had mine.

I’ve always liked to draw and color, but never thought about it as a job.”

By 2009, her kids were grown, and Sharp was a bit restless. As a favor for a friend, she agreed to paint faces at a party. That simple act sparked an epiphany. “I found what I had been missing: a paintbrush,” she says.

She became involved in local art groups and was thrilled to put brush to canvas, painting “happy and bold and colorful flowers and abstracts.”

In 2013, she had her first show at Art Love Magic. “I could not breathe at this point without a paintbrush.”

Three years ago, she was leaving a taco joint with her granddaughter Mackenzie when, in a moment of serendipity, the young girl picked up a stone from the restaurant’s rock garden and said, “Nana, can you paint this rock for me?”

She got permission to take the rock and headed home to embellish it with a ladybug. The unconventional medium

hooked her instantly, and the artistry poured out of her.

Soon Sharp was selling sealed, weather-proof rocks with all sorts of designs — birds, lizards, fish, intricately detailed hedgehogs and labor-intensive turtles with mandala shells. In addition to the natural inspiration, her art reflects her fondness for all things “Peanuts,” along with a tribute to the Beatles with rocks painted of John, Paul, George and Ringo.

When she found herself with some leftover inventory last year, the idea of the treasure hunt was born. “Instead of selling them, I decided to give them. But to make it interesting, I thought it would be fun to hide them, kind of like a scavenger hunt,” she says. “Get the kids out of the house, get some fresh air, get off the video games and TV.”

In the weeks leading up to Halloween, Sharp used the Lakewood Facebook page to post photos of rocks and where to search for them: Tietze Park one week,

PHOTOS BY RASY RAN

Carrie Sharp likes to keep her designs seasonal, but “Peanuts” pieces are close to her heart.

Lindsley Park or Lakewood Park the next — she did her best to cover the neighborhood. Judging from the many smiling photos, local children enjoyed swarming the parks to find treasures on benches, paths, picnic tables and slides.

Sharp’s next artistic rock hunt will lead into Easter, so keep an eye on the “Lakewood, Dallas” page for details. In the meantime, she continues working on commissions as well as paintings and rocks for upcoming shows at Kettle Art Gallery in Deep Ellum and Art Love Magic, plus stocking the shelves at Gallery Schloss in Ennis and The Hobbit House in Rockwall.

Like any artist, Sharp finds it gratifying to sell her work. But it’s clear she has a soft spot for children and sharing her love of art with them.

“When I teach the kids’ workshops at Art Love Magic, I always want to do it full time. That’s when the wheels start turning. My dream is to have a little space somewhere here in Lakewood to teach the kiddos how to paint rocks,” she says. “I think I’ll continue to do the rock hunts for Lakewood because the kids adore hunting for rocks, and it’s my way of giving back to the community. I wish I could afford to paint rocks for free all the time. It is truly a joy to see their little faces when they find a one-of-a-kind painted rock. It’s like a little treasure they have to hold onto.”

Patti Vinson is a guest writer who has lived in East Dallas for over 15 years. She’s written for the Advocate andReal Simple magazine, and has taught college writing.

The FBI Violent Crimes task force is looking for two men suspected of 10 bank robberies in Dallas, including two in our neighborhood at the same bank. The Bank of Texas in the 4200 block of Live Oak was first robbed Dec. 29 and then again on Feb. 1. Both times the suspects were armed with handguns, although in the second robbery one fired a shot. Luckily, no one was injured. One suspect is described as late 20s or early 30s, between 6-foot and 6-foot-4, about 210 pounds with a light complexion and short blonde hair. He wears sunglasses during the robberies and carries a handgun. The other is a white male, about 6-foot who wears a ski mask during the crimes and carries a revolver. Dallas Crime Stoppers are offering up to $15,000 for information leading to their arrest at 214.373. TIPS (8477).

The other robberies took place:

• UMB Bank, 4228 N. Central Expressway, Jan. 24

• BBVA Compass, 6240 Mockingbird Lane, Jan. 23

• UMB Bank, 4228 N. Central Expressway, Jan. 4

• Chambers Bank, 4418 Towson Ave. in Fort Smith, Ark., Dec. 20

• Chase Bank, 6310 E Mockingbird Lane, Dec. 16

• Capital One Bank, 3647 W Northwest Highway, Dec. 14

• Wells Fargo Bank, 4301 Lovers Lane, Dec. 14

• Bank of America, 4023 Cedar Springs Road, Dec. 12

CRIME NUMBERS

2 bank robberies in two months

10

suspects

$15,000

how much Crime Stoppers will pay for information leading to an arrest

BENEFITING BLUE RIBBON HEXTER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Campesina by Solange Mariel

BIZ BUZZ

WHAT’S UP WITH NEIGHBORHOOD BUSINESSES

EVICTED

Thirteen years after neighbors raised more than $200,000 in cash and inkind donations to build White Rock Lake Museum, much of which was done with volunteer labor, the city handed it a 60day eviction notice from the Bath House Cultural Center. There was no discussion before the notice came with an email that stated: “After more than a decade, we feel the museum has lived its useful life. In addition, the number one resource we hear that is needed by the cultural community is more gallery space for emerging artists. Hence, we are requesting that you remove the museum panels so that we can replace them with an emerging artist space.” The museum board was shocked, and got the support of the White Rock Lake Task Force to ask the city to delay the decision to allow for more discussion. “It took a community to build this museum; it’s going to take a community to save it,” says Kurt Kretsinger, president of the museum board. The building is overseen by the Office of Cultural Affairs, and has existed as a community center since the early 1980s.

NEW OWNERS

Hillside Village shopping center in Lakewood has a new owner in Northwood Retail . Neighborhood investors, husband-and-wife Rebecca and Jim Tudor of Twinrose Investments, sold the 62-yearold shopping center at the northeast corner of Mockingbird and Abrams for an undisclosed price. They first bought the land in 2007 and proceeded to revitalize

the 169,299-square-foot property with fresh tenants, which today includes Olivella’s Neo Pizza Napoletana, Dream Café, White Rock Coffee and Manny’s Lakewood Tex-Mex.

FOOD NEWS

Times Ten Cellars is just completing an upgrade to add a kitchen to its mix. The wine bar has long offered cheese boards, salads, dips and other bites that can be prepared without a full kitchen, in addition to hosting rotating food trucks. The upgraded kitchen will allow for an expanded menu, while also opening the door for specialty wine dinners. Don’t worry, for those who love the Wednesday pizza nights with Urban Crust or Sunday afternoon jazz, both of those traditions will continue — now with more food options.

Knox-Henderson is getting a new fastfood offering. Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers is busy building a location on Ross at Greenville, near the Waffle House and Burger King. A spokeswoman for the company says the opening date has not been set and won’t be announced until six weeks before the business is ready to begin service.

Greenville Avenue Pizza Company, a.k.a. GAP Co. Pizza, is almost ready to open its second location in our neighborhood at the corner of Garland and Peavy this April, in a small location that used to house a tattoo parlor. The second outlet will mostly be geared toward delivery and take-out services, but there will be a few limited seats for those who want to dine in.

Bath House Cultural Center

SCHOOLS

The PTA and Booster Club at Woodrow Wilson High School is considering whether they could build a $10-million athletic complex, the centerpiece of which would be a 5,000-seat football stadium. “It’s not going to be Woodrow’s stadium — it won’t have our name on it. It’ll be a Park Department stadium that we would just have first right of refusal on,” says Maria Hasbany, PTA president. The stadium and other facilities, including new tennis

courts and a track, could be used by other neighborhood schools that lack athletic facilities, such as Bryan Adams, in addition to neighborhood teams. It would all take place in Randall Park, adjacent to the school, where local sports have been played since Woodrow’s athletic director Bobby Estes led a community effort to improve the park for school and community use 15 years ago. The current field and track at the high school, which is in failing condition, would become a parking lot to provide for the growing complex.So far, the idea is just a dream; it will take buy-in from Dallas ISD and the city’s Park Department to become a reality, goals that will take several months to accomplish. “We’re just in the preliminary stages of talking to people in the neighborhood,” Hasbany says. “We need to find out if we are going to have enough community support to go out and raise the money we need to get this thing built. Because we’re going to have to raise a lot of money to make this work.”

By this time next year, students at Lakewood Elementary School will be out from the dingy modular classrooms that have housed the overflowing student

Woodrow Wilson High School

body for decades. The long-planned 52,500-square-foot addition will allow the school to increase capacity to roughly 1,000 students, up from 552. That extra room is needed. There are1,844 elementary-aged studentsliving in Lakewood’s attendance zone currently, which is almost double that of any other East Dallas elementary, although around 700 attend private or home school.

PARK PATROL

Those of us who get perturbed when you see someone fail to clean up after their dog or litter in public parks might see some relief this year. The City of Dallas has reinstated its Park Rangers program, assigning six staff members to patrol its parks for added safety and to better enforce city ordinances. The rangers would be certified in CPR and other life-saving skills in case they need to assist the public in a medical emergency, but largely they would be charged with enforcing the often-unenforced rules of the city, like banning public alcohol consumption, ensuring special events in the parks follow city code and the newly passed ban on smoking, which goes into effect March

1. Most major cities in Texas have park rangers on staff — Austin has 24, while Houston has 37. The Park Department hopes to find the funds needed to eventually add 10 bicycle patrol rangers as well as a citizen park patrol.

By GEORGE MASON

The right to remain impartial

Before we “totally destroy” something, we might ask why it’s there to begin with.

President Trump has pledged to use all the tools at his disposal to get rid of and totally destroy the Johnson Amendment. In 1954 then-Texas Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson proposed an amendment to the IRS tax code that prohibited charitable organizations (including religious ones) from endorsing political candidates or collecting money to support candidates for public office, while at the same time claiming tax-exempt status. This rule reinforces the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which prevents the government from establishing religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

Nowadays some preachers argue they are being denied religious freedom by this restriction. They believe the First Amendment only applies to government interference in religion and does not restrict pastors from endorsing candidates or churches from engaging in partisan politics.

The dangers of abolishing the Johnson Amendment are legion, but consider what is already permitted under current law. Religious leaders may speak boldly and unapologetically about social and political issues. We may with no fear of prosecution speak for the right of a woman to have a legal abortion or against that right. We may speak for the proposal to build a wall on our southern border or not to. We may advocate for increased public school funding or for a voucher program that would subsidize private and religious schools with taxpayer funds.

What’s more, our communities of faith may organize, rally and take positions on matters of moral and ethical concern that we believe strengthen our civic life or undermine it. We may without fear of the loss of our tax-exempt status advocate for public policies that reinforce our spiritual values or oppose them when they don’t.

If religious leaders and their institutions were to endorse candidates and become partisans in the political process, we would become only one more special interest group for politicians to pander to. Some politicians crave the support of religious leaders and organizations. After all, when it’s not just human endorsement they can claim, but also divine approval, what more could you ask for? Some politicians already curry favor with pastors by putting them on advisory councils, attending their prayer breakfasts and sometimes even speaking in their churches.

WORSHIP

ANGLICAN

ALL SAINTS EAST DALLAS / allsaintseastdallas.org

Sunday worship 5:00 pm / Live in God’s Presence. Live Out His Love. Meeting at Central Lutheran Church / 1000 Easton Road

BAPTIST

PARK CITIES BAPTIST CHURCH / 3933 Northwest Pky / pcbc.org

Worship & Bible Study 9:15 & 10:45 Traditional, Contemporary, Spanish Speaking / 214.860.1500

WILSHIRE BAPTIST / 4316 Abrams / 214.452.3100

Pastor George A. Mason Ph.D. / Worship 8:30 & 11:00am

Bible Study 9:40 am / www.wilshirebc.org

DISCIPLES OF CHRIST

EAST DALLAS CHRISTIAN CHURCH / 629 N. Peak Street / 214.824.8185

Sunday School 9:30 am / Worship 8:30 am - Chapel

10:50 am - Sanctuary / Rev. Deborah Morgan-Stokes / edcc.org

LUTHERAN

CENTRAL LUTHERAN CHURCH, ELCA / 1000 Easton Road

Sunday School for all ages 9:00 am / Worship Service 10:30 am

Pastor Rich Pounds / CentralLutheran.org / 214.327.2222

FIRST UNITED LUTHERAN CHURCH / 6202 E Mockingbird Lane

Sunday Worship Service 10:30 am / Call for class schedule. 214.821.5929 / www.dallaslutheran.org

METHODIST

GRACE UMC / Diverse, Inclusive, Missional

Sunday School for all ages, 9:30 am / Worship, 10:50 am 4105 Junius St. / 214.824.2533 / graceumcdallas.org

LAKE HIGHLANDS UMC / 9015 Plano Rd. / 214.348.6600 / lhumc.com

Sunday Morning: 9:30 am Sunday School / 10:30 am Coffee Worship: 8:30 am & 11:00 am Traditional / 11:00 am Contemporary

NON-DENOMINATIONAL

The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. wisely said, “The church must be reminded that it is neither the master nor the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state.” When we give up our power to speak prophetically to those with political power, we give up the one precious gift that is ours. We would be like the foolish Esau who hungered to be fed in the moment and gave up his birthright to Jacob for a mess of pottage.

Calling upon political leaders to act wisely is part of our calling. Applying that same standard to ourselves will keep us from hypocrisy. We shouldn’t need an amendment to remind us of that, but happily we still have one just in case.

George Mason is pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church. The Worship section is underwritten by Advocate Publishing and the neighborhood businesses and churches listed here. For information about helping support the Worship section, call 214.560.4202.

LAKE POINTE CHURCH – WHITE ROCK CAMPUS Classic Service at 9:30 & Contemporary Service at 11:00 am lakepointe.org / 9150 Garland Road

PRESBYTERIAN

NORTHRIDGE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH / 6920 Bob-O-Link Dr. 214.827.5521 / www.northridgepc.org / Welcomes you to Worship 8:30 & 11:00 am / Church School 9:35 am / Childcare provide d.

ST. ANDREW’S PRESBYTERIAN / Skillman & Monticello Rev. Rob Leischner / www.standrewsdallas.org

214.821.9989 / Sunday School 9:30 am, Worship 10:45 am

UNITY

UNITY ON GREENVILLE / Your soul is welcome here! 3425 Greenville Ave. / 214.826.5683 / www.dallasunity.org

Sunday Service 11:00 am and Book Study 9:30 am

If the church gives into partisanship, it gives up its calling

When it’s not just human endorsement politicians can claim, but also divine approval, what more could you ask for?

CLASSES/TUTORING/ LESSONS

ART: Draw/Paint. Adults All Levels. Lake Highlands N. Rec. Ctr. Days: Mon & Wed. Students bring supplies. Nights: 1xt month workshop, supplies furnished. Jane Cross. 214-534-6829,

CREATIVE ARTS CENTER More than 500 adult art classes/ workshops from metal to mosaic! www.creativeartscenter.org

VOICE TEACHER with 40+ years experience. M.M. LSU www.PatriciaIvey.com • trilletta@msn.com • 214-769-8560

EMPLOYMENT

PET SITTERS, DOG WALKERS reply to http://www.pcpsi.com/join

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES

FINANCIAL CONSULTANT Five Rings Financial has part-time opportunities! JR@FiveRingsFinancial.com 214-702-0033 x502

SERVICES FOR YOU

AT ODDS WITH YOUR COMPUTER? Easily Learn Essential Skills. Services include Digital Photo Help. Sharon 214-679-9688

COMPUTER HELP! Viruses, Data Recovery, Upgrades, WiFi Problems, Onsite Tech. 214-533-6216 WebersComputers.com

CONFUSED? FRUSTRATED? Let A Seasoned Pro Be The Interface Between You & That Pesky Windows Computer. Hardware & Software Installation, Troubleshooting, Training. $60/hr. 1 hr min. Dan 214-660-3733 / stykidan@sbcglobal.net

FLAWLESS DETAIL Mobile Car Cleaning. 3M Paint Protection Film (Clear Bra). Established 2009. Exp/Insd. flawlessdallas.com 214-280-5920

WILD ENCOUNTERS

J.L. Long Middle School students Crawford Courville and Julius Martinez made a slithering new friend when the Dallas Zoo came to campus recently. Both boys are members of Zoo Crew, a conservation club launched by science teachers Michael Jones and Johnny Deleon .

SERVICES FOR YOU

MY OFFICE Offers Mailing, Copying, Shipping, Office & School Supplies. 9660 Audelia Rd. myofficelh.com 214-221-0011

NEIGHBORHOOD ENERGY EXPERT Helps you earn rewards for free energy, travel points & more. Call Elaine today for a free electric bill review. 214-500-3667 Make the Switch & Save!

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

ACCOUNTING, TAXES Small Businesses & Individuals. Chris King, CPA 214-824-5313 www.chriskingcpa.com

BOOKKEEPING NEEDS? Need help preparing books for CPA? No job too big or small. 22 Yrs. Exp. C.A.S. Bookkeeping Services. Cindy. 214-577-7450 cascastle@sbcglobal.net

LEGAL ISSUES? The Law Office Of Lauren C Medel, PLLC. LaurenMedel.com. 972-773-9306

LICENSED PHYCHOLOGIST Academic, behavioral, ADHD, emotional testing. Children, adolescents, adults. Therapy. Dr. Katherine Pang 214-531-7624 lighthousepsychtesting.com

PET SERVICES

DOGGIE DEN DALLAS Daycare, Boarding, Grooming, Training. 6444 E. Mockingbird Ln. 214-823-1441 DoggieDenDallas.com

HOUSE CALLS OF DALLAS Personalized Care For Your Pet Or Home. Everything from traveling or away for the day. Insured/ Bonded.214-505-2525.housecallsofdallas.com

BUY/SELL/TRADE

CARS/TRUCKS WANTED!!! All Makes/Models. 2000-2016. Any Condition. Running Or Not. Top $$$ Paid. Free Towing. We’re Nationwide. Call Now. 1-888-985-1806

RANGERS, STARS & MAVS

Share front-row Texas Rangers, Stars & Mavs seats. Tickets are available in sets of 10 games (sets of 2 or 4 tickets per game available). Participants randomly draw numbers prior to season to determine a draft order fair to everyone. Call 214-560-4212 or rwamre@advocatemag.com

ESTATE/GARAGE SALES

ALL POINTS ESTATE SALES and Property Services. Call Pat 214-802-2781 - AllPointsEstateServices.com

NEED A NEW WEBSITE?

PARADIGMFAMILYHEALTH.COM Affordable Family Medicine. Healthcare you deserve! 214-810-3553 Mobile. SEO Friendly. Maintainable.

AdvocateWebDesign.com 214.292.2053

WANT TO MAKE MONEY? Richardson Mercantile is looking for dealers who want to join one of the best antique malls in DFW. Need details? Go to richardsonmercantile@gmail.com 214.560.4203

AC & HEAT

CONCRETE/ MASONRY/PAVING

BRICK & STONE REPAIR

Tuck Pointing / Crack Repair. Mortar Color Matching. Windows,Doors, Cracks Etc. Don 214-704-1722

Family Owned & Operated

Serving the Dallas area for over 30 years

972-274-2157

www.CrestAirAndHeat.com

APPLIANCE REPAIR

JESSE’S A/C & APPLIANCE SERVICE

TACLB13304C All Makes/Models. 214-660-8898

USED APPLIANCES FOR SALE Washer $125. Dryer $89.1 yr. Warranty. Repair. 972-329-2202

CABINETRY & FURNITURE

SQUARE NAIL WOODWORKING

Cabinet Refacing, Built-ins, Entertainment/ Computer Centers. Jim. 214-324-7398 www.squarenailwoodworking.com

CLEANING SERVICES

A MAID FOR YOU Bonded/Insured.Park Cities/ M Streets Refs. Call Us First. Joyce 214-232-9629

AFFORDABLE CLEANING Insd./Bonded. Move In/Out. Routine Cleaning. Reliable. Dependable. Residential/ Commercial. References. 28+yrs. Delta Cleaning. 972-943-9280.

ALTOGETHER CLEAN

Relax ...We’ll Clean Your House, It Will Be Your Favorite Day! Bonded & Insurance. Free Estimates. 214-929-8413. www. altogetherclean.net

AMAZON CLEANING

Top To Bottom Clean. Fabiana.469-951-2948

CINDY’S HOUSE CLEANING 15 yrs exp. Resd/Com. Refs. Dependable. 214-490-0133

WINDOW MAN WINDOW CLEANING.COM

Residential Specialists. BBB. 214-718-3134

COMPUTERS & ELECTRONICS

BILL’S COMPUTER REPAIR

Virus Removal, Data Recovery. Home/Biz Network Install. All Upgrades & Repairs. PC Instruction. No Trip Fee. 214-348-2566

BRICK, BLOCK, Stone, Concrete, Stucco. Gonzalez Masonry. 214-395-1319

BRICK, STONEWORK, FLAGSTONE PATIOS Mortar Repair. Straighten Brick Mailboxes & Columns. Call Cirilo 214-298-7174

CONCRETE, Driveway Specialist Repairs, Replacement, Removal, References. Reasonable. Chris 214-770-5001

EDMONDSPAVING.COM Asphalt & Concrete Driveway-Sidewalk-Patio-Repair 214-957-3216

FLAGSTONE PATIOS, Retaining Walls, BBQ’s, Veneer, Flower Bed Edging, All Stone work. Chris 214-770-5001

ELECTRICAL SERVICES

ANTHONY’S ELECTRIC Master Electrician. TECL24948 anthonyselectricofdallas.com 50 Yrs. Electrical Exp. Insd. 214-328-1333

BRIGHT LIGHT ELECTRIC • 214-553-5333 TECL 31347 Brightening Homes and Businesses

EXPERIENCED LICENSED ELECTRICIAN Insd. Steve. TECL#27297 214-718-9648

LAKEWOOD ELECTRICAL Local. Insured. Lic. #227509 Call Rylan 214-434-8735

TEXAS ELECTRICAL • 214-289-0639

Prompt, Honest, Quality. TECL 24668

TH ELECTRIC Reasonable Rates. Licensed & Insured. Ted. E257 214-808-3658

WHITE ROCK ELECTRIC All Electrical Services. Lic/Insd. E795. 214-850-4891

FENCING & DECKS

#1 COWBOY FENCE & IRON CO. Est. ‘91. 214-692-1991 www.cowboyfenceandiron.com

4 QUALITY FENCING Call Mike 214-507-9322 Specializing in Wood, New or Repair.

AMBASSADOR FENCE INC. EST. 96 Automatic Gates, Fences/Decks, ambassadorfenceco.com 214-621-3217

FENCING & WOODWORK oldgatefence.com . 214-766-6422

HANNAWOODWORKS.COM

Decks, Pergolas, Patio Covers. 214-435-9574

KIRKWOOD FENCE & DECK New & Repair. Free Estimates. Nathan Kirkwood. 214-341-0699

LONESTARDECKS.COM 214-357-3975

Trex Decking & Fencing, trex.com All Wood Decks, Arbors & Patio Covers

EST. 1991 #1

COWBOY

FENCE & IRON CO.

214.692.1991

SPECIALIZING IN Wood Fences &Auto Gates

cowboyfenceandiron.com

FLOORING & CARPETING

DALLAS HARDWOODS 214-724-0936

Installation, Repair, Refinish, Wax, Hand Scrape. Residential, Commercial. Sports Floors. 30 Yrs.

FLOORING & CARPETING

Willeford

hardwood floors

Superior Quality: Installation • Refinishing Repair • Cleaning & Waxing

Old World Hand Scrape 214-824-1166

FOUNDATION REPAIR

• Slabs • Pier & Beam

• Mud Jacking • Drainage

• Free Estimates

• Over 20 Years Exp. 972-288-3797

We Answer Our Phones

GARAGE SERVICES

IDEAL GARAGE DOORS • 972-757-5016 Install & Repair. 10% off to military/1st responders.

ROCKET GARAGE DOOR SERVICE - 24/7. Repairs/Installs. 214-533-8670. Coupon On Web. www.RocketDoor.com

UNITED GARAGE DOORS AND GATES Res/Com. Locally Owned.214-826-8096

GLASS, WINDOWS & DOORS

EAST DALLAS WINDOW CLEANING Power Wash. Free Est. Dependable. Derek. 214-360-0120

JIM HOWELL 214-357-8984 Frameless Shower Enclosures/Custom Mirrors. Free Estimates

LAKE HIGHLANDS GLASS & MIRROR frameless shower enclosures • store fronts replacement windows • mirrors 214-349-8160

PRO WINDOW CLEANING prompt, dependable. Matt 214-766-2183

ROCK GLASS CO Replace, repair: windows, mirrors, showers, screens. 214-837-7829

HANDYMAN SERVICES

CONSUMERS CHOICE AWARDS 2007-2016

Making

TECL20502

972-926-7007

arrowelectric.net

Phones

EXTERIOR CLEANING

G&G DEMOLITION Tear downs, Haul. Interior/Exterior. 214-808-8925

ALL STAR HOME CARE Carpentry, Glass, Tile, Paint, Doors, Sheetrock Repair, and more. 25 yrs. exp. References. Derry 214-505-4830

WOOD

FLOORING SPECIALISTS Restoration

HANDY DAN The Handyman. ToDo’s Done Right. handy-dan.com 214-252-1628

HANDY MANNY PAINTING/HOME REPAIR Int./Ext. Manny 214-334-2160

HANDYMAN SPECIALIST Residential/ Commercial. Large, small jobs, repair list, renovations. Refs. 214-489-0635

25+

Installation · Hand Scraping Sand & Finish · Dustless restorationflooring.net

HOME REPAIR HANDYMAN Small/Big Jobs + Construction. 30 Yrs. Exp. 214-875-1127

HOMETOWN HANDYMAN All phases of construction. No job too small 214-327-4606

HONEST, SKILLED SERVICE With a Smile. General Repairs/ Maintenance. 214-215-2582

HANDYMAN SERVICES

WANTED: ODD JOBS & TO DO LISTS

Allen’s Handyman & Home Repair 214-288-4232

Your Home Repair Specialists

972-308-6035 HandymanMatters.com/dallas

HOME INSPECTION

•

LAWNS, GARDENS & TREES

LSI LAWN SPRINKLERS “Making Water Work” Irrigation system Service & Repair. Specializing In Older Copper Systems. LI #13715. 214-283-4673

MAYA TREE SERVICE Tree Trim/Remove. Insd. CC’s Accepted. 214-924-7058 214-770-2435

TAYLOR MADE IRRIGATION Repairs, service, drains. 30+ years exp. Ll 6295 469-853-2326. John

LAWNS, GARDENS

•

HOUSE PAINTING

1 AFFORDABLE HOUSE PAINTING and Home Repair. Quality work. Inside and Out. Free Ests. Local Refs. Ron 972-816-5634

A+ INT/EXT PAINT & DRYWALL

Since 1977. Kirk Evans. 972-672-4681

BENJAMIN’S PAINTING SERVICE Professional Work At Reasonable Prices. 214-725-6768

RAMON’S INT/EXT PAINT Sheetrock, Repairs. 214-679-4513

TONY’S PAINTING SERVICE Quality Work

Since 1984. Int./Ext. 214-755-2700

TOP COAT 30 yrs. exp. Reliable, Quality Repair/Remodel Phil @ 214-770-2863

VIP PAINTING & DRYWALL Int/Ext. Sheetrock Repair, Resurfacing Tubs, Counters, Tile Repairs. 469-774-7111

KITCHEN/BATH/ TILE/GROUT

BLAKE CONSTRUCTION CONCEPTS LLC

Complete Kitchen And Bath Remodels. Tile, Granite, Marble, Travertine, Slate. Insured. 214-563-5035 www.blake-construction.com

FENN CONSTRUCTION Full Service Contractor. dallastileman.com 214-343-4645

MELROSE TILE James Sr., Installer, Repairs. 40 Yrs. Exp. MelroseTile.com 214-384-6746

STONE AGE COUNTER TOPS

Granite, Quartz, Marble For Kitchen/Bath-Free Est.. stoneage.brandee@gmail.com 940-465-6980

TK REMODELING 972-533-2872

Complete Full Service Repairs, Remodeling, Restoration. Name It — We do it. Tommy. Insured. dallas.tkremodelingcontractors.com

TOM HOLT TILE 30 Yrs Experience In Tile, Backsplashes & Floors. Refs. Avail. 214-770-3444

TRACY’S LAWN CARE • 972-329-4190 Lawn Mowing & Leaf Cleaning

U R LAWN CARE Maintenance. Landscaping. Your Personal Yard Service by Uwe Reisch uwereisch@yahoo.com 214-886-9202

1. Walk around the exterior of your home. Check the caulking, roof tiles and gutters. Replace anything worn so it will fit tight in case of rain or wind.

2. Rake leaves and replace old garden hoses. Remove tree limbs from sidewalks and driveways. Then start working on your seasonal landscaping plan.

3. Check your AC, and replace dirty air filters

4. Clean your windows, check smoke alarms and change batteries. Then sit back and enjoy the weather.

PEST CONTROL

A BETTER EARTH PEST CONTROL Keeping the environment, kids, pets in mind. Organic products avail. 972-564-2495

MCDANIEL PEST CONTROL

Prices Start at $85 + Tax For General Treatment.

LocalWorks.advocatemag.com

LAWNS, GARDENS & TREES

#1 WHITE ROCK TREE WIZARDS

Professionals, Experts, Artists. Trim, Remove, Cabling, Bracing/Bolting. Cavity-Fill Stump Grind. Emergencies, Hazards. Insd. Free Est. 972-803-6313. arborwizard.com

A BETTER TREE MAN Trims, Removals, Insd. 12 Yrs Exp. Roberts Tree Service. 214-808-8925

BURRIS TREE SERVICE | 469-939-3344 Expert tree service. | Prune. Stump grind. Plant.

CHUPIK TREE SERVICE

Trim, Remove, Stump Grind. Free Est. Insured. 214-823-6463

DALLAS GROUNDSKEEPER Organic Lawn Maintenance designed to meet your needs. 214-471-5723 dallasgroundskeeper.com

DALLAS K.D.R.SERVICES • 214-349-0914

Lawn Service & Landscape Installation

HOLMAN IRRIGATION

Sprinkler & Valve Repair/ Rebuild Older Systems. Lic. #1742. 214-398-8061

Average Home-Interior/Exterior & Attached Garage. Quotes For Other Services. 214-328-2847. Lakewood Resident

PLUMBING

A2Z PLUMBING 214-727-4040

All Plumbing Repairs. Slab Leak Specialists. Licensed & Insured. ML# M36843.

AC PLUMBING Repairs, Fixtures, Senior Discounts. Gary Campbell. 214-321-5943

ANDREWS PLUMBING • 214-354-8521 # M37740 Insured. Any plumbing issues. plumberiffic69@gmail.com

Sewers • Drains • Bonded 24 Hours/7 Days *Joe Faz 469-346-1814 - Se Habla Español*

HAYES PLUMBING INC. Repairs. Insured, 214-343-1427 License M13238

M&S PLUMBING Quality Work & Prompt Service. Jerry. 214-235-2172. lic.#M-11523

NTX PLUMBING SPEC. LLLP 214-226-0913

Lic. M-40581 Res/Com. Repairs & Leak Location

THE PLUMBING MANN LLC

All Plumbing! Since 1978. Family Owned. RMP/Master-14240 Insured. 214-FAST-FIX/ 214-327-8349

Spring is the perfect opportunity to prepare your house for sunshine and flowers.

URBAN THRIFT

Thrift store

9850 Walnut Hill Ln. 214.341.1151 Facebook.com/UrbanThriftStore

New stuff & sales everyday! We accept ALL donations! You’re welcome to come drop them off or schedule a FREE pick up!

We give back to our community!

SUNSTONE FIT

Yoga, Pilates, Barre, Cardio

1920 Skillman Live Oak Dallas, TX 75206 214.764.2119 x 113 sunstoneFit.com/slo

Arrive 30 minutes before any class to earn your One Free Class, become acquainted with our studio and staff, and receive exclusive special offers for our first-time students.

EYEVENUE DALLAS

Eye exams, glasses & contact lenses

www.eyevenuedallas.com

2714 Greenville Avenue

Dallas, TX 75206

Phone: 469.320.1888

Fax: 469.320.1889

Glasses can be made the same day after you pick out some new frames! Need an updated prescription? No problem, Dr. Nguyen has appointments available the same day as well! Call us or schedule an appointment at www.eyevenuedallas.com

Creative Arts Center 50

Center Yourself

est. 1966 by Octavio Medellin

2830 Laughlin Drive Dallas, TX 75228 214.320.1275

www.creativeartscenter.org

Cultivating creativity for 50 years, the Creative Arts Center of Dallas (CAC) offers more than 500 art classes and workshops each year in everything from metal to mosaic!

ROOFING

By ANGELA HUNT

‘Learn your role’

Democracy requires thoughtful questions to thrive, especially on the Park Board

What is the role of a citizen in our city government?

Our answer depends on whether we view our government as a team or as a tool.

When we think of our government as a “team,” then cheerleading becomes the highest form of patriotism, regardless of how corrupt, wasteful, despotic or inefficient the government or its officials may be. Thoughtful criticism is castigated and blind loyalty championed. Systemic problems are not addressed because to identify them in the first place is to be disloyal.

When, however, we view our government as a tool — as an implement — then we recognize critique as our patriotic duty, necessary to keep our government in optimal working order. We appreciate that we alone are the mechanics responsible for maintaining this fragile machine we call democracy. We take pride in identifying our government’s weaknesses and failures because we know that without undertaking this most crucial of civic tasks, our democracy would fall into disrepair.

These two divergent perspectives on government fell into stark relief during a recent Dallas Park Board meeting.

The Park Board is unique among city commissions: appointed by the Dallas City Council, this panel of 15 volunteers is obligated by our city charter to oversee Dallas’s Park and Recreation Department. Given the breadth of this responsibility, Park Board members would be shirking if they didn’t fervently investigate city park contracts, actively inquire about park operations, and put their noses into anything and everything involving our taxpayer-funded park and recreational facilities.

But this is Dallas. Team Dallas. And it’s kind of tacky to ask tough questions. A bit unmannerly. A smidge uncouth.

Park Board member Jesse Moreno found that out the hard way a few weeks ago when he made the mistake of asking tough questions about Fair Park, and more specifically, about the State Fair of Texas.

For the last two years, the City of Dallas has been stumbling and fumbling around the issue of Fair Park, haphazardly trying to figure out what to do with this

Board members Marlon Rollins, Paul Sims (my husband) and Becky Rader asked pointed but reasonable questions about State Fair finances and operations.

But they were talking to an empty chair: once the highlight reel was over, State Fair representatives had hightailed it to avoid the hot seat. Regardless, other board members took offense on behalf of the State Fair. Board member Sean Johnson loudly scolded his curious colleagues for their impertinent queries, admonishing them to “Learn your role! Learn your role!”

massive recreational asset. Throughout the process, the city has acted as if the State Fair didn’t exist. This is odd because the State Fair has a long-term contract with the city to rent Fair Park four months every year, making it essential to any future plans. It is the elephant in the middle of Fair Park.

So when the State Fair was scheduled to appear before the Park Board in late January to present highlights from the 2016 fair, Moreno saw this as an opportunity to finally ask the organization some illuminating questions.

As vice president of the Park Board, Moreno used a parliamentary move to allow other board members to question the State Fair about things other than how many corndogs were sold or how they get those pants on Big Tex. Park

Indeed. So what exactly is the role of a citizen in our government? Those who think it is to sit politely, nod at the appropriate times, smile, backslap, applaud, and relentlessly cheer Team Dallas will be pleased to know that soon after the Park Board meeting, eight of 15 council members voted to remove Moreno as vice president of the Park Board and replace him with Sean “Learn Your Role” Johnson.

Those with a different perspective, who recognize government as a tool and believe that citizens have a civic responsibility to actively challenge the way our city government works, to question the decisions it makes, to investigate and interrogate, well then, they will be quite relieved to know that Dallas City Council elections are May 6.

Your role is to vote.

Angela Hunt is a neighborhood resident and former Dallas city councilwoman in East Dallas. She writes a monthly opinion column about neighborhood issues. Her opinions are not necessarily those of the Advocate or its management. Send comments and ideas to her ahunt@advocatemag.com.

But this is Dallas. Team Dallas. And it’s kind of tacky to ask tough questions. A bit unmannerly. A smidge uncouth.

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