Wylie Today

On Monday night, May 19th, 2008, the Wylie ISD Board of Trustees elected officers for the next year, voting unanimously to keep Susan Shuler as President and Ralph E. James as Vice-President. Sam Satterwhite was elected Secretary. The evening began with newly elected Trustee Lance Goff taking his oath of office along with Ronni Fetzer and Ralph E. James.

I’m still amazed at the results of the Fetzer/Goss race. Five votes. Wow. The people still have faith in Ronni Fetzer. And the people believe that Barbara Goss is the right type of person needed on the School Board. Maybe the time will come where everyone can be happy and support both Ronni Fetzer and Barbara Goss. Personally, I have no doubt that they will both put our children’s education as the top priority in each decision they make.

After the election, Ronni Fetzer said, “My sincere thanks to all the voters who made an effort to have their voice heard on the Wylie ISD elections, and to those who supported me during the campaign. Thanks also to Barbara Goss and all the candidates who put their hats into the ring to serve the students and families of Wylie ISD. We are in an important time for our district, and the dedication and commitment of many people is vital to our success. Please stay involved with your local schools.”

I also think it’s real funny (sorry, Sam) that they elected Sam Satterwhite as Secretary, even after Ronni Fetzer told everyone he said he didn’t want to be. It’s too bad Mr. Satterwhite was doing his job as WEDC Executive Director in Las Vegas today and wasn’t there to nominate someone else as Secretary. You know, Stacie Gooch, or someone like that.

Well, City Councilman David Goss called it as the above picture was being taken by Anne Hiney of Troy Aikman and I on Wednesday evening. “There’s the lead-in picture for the Wylie Today story!”

Turns out he was right. I’m sure you will see plenty of pictures of this event in the next week or so as I couldn’t count the amount of cameras on-hand. I have a few from the event that I will post below, and I might just add a gallery here in the near future.  But to lead-in, yeah, that’s me and Hall of Fame quarterback, 3 time Super Bowl Champion, the greatest Fox Sports NFL analyst and former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman. I like to mix it up.

City of Wylie Mayor John Mondy was completely jubilant this evening and with good reason. The people involved have been working on this deal for over a year and tonight was another step towards $600,000 in additional sales tax revenue for the city. It was another step towards a thousand newly created jobs in the city. It was another step towards keeping the citizens of Wylie shopping in Wylie. I’m really surprised we didn’t see Mayor Mondy break out some Riverdance moves.

Major kudos go out to Wylie’s Public Information Officer, Craig Kelly. Aside from seeing him run around picking up yoga flyers someone had left on the tables, the event went on without a hitch. Hundreds of people were in attendance for the groundbreaking ceremony and Dickey’s BBQ.

On hand to speak at the event was Wylie Economic Development Corporation’s Sam Satterwhite, Texas State Representative Jodie Laubenberg, Direct Development Sr. VP Don Bouvier, City of Wylie Mayor John Mondy and Troy Aikman.

Mr. Bouvier related the event to an Oscar speech as he mentioned so many people involved from the beginning that required accolades. He spoke further about four legs of a table and if one breaks or can’t support the weight, the table fails. He spoke very highly of the City of Wylie staff and administration and said they delivered on everything they said they would do. Now it was Direct Development’s turn to deliver on their promises.

Super Target Summer of 2009!

Some other players that need mentioning are the City of Murphy and the City of Sachse. Murphy made a small plot of land available to Wylie that was required for the development at the corner of 544 and McCreary. Sachse agreed to build a road to connect the back end of the development to Hwy 78. As Mayor Mondy said, “This has truly been a community effort”.

Troy Aikman talked about the special place in his heart for Wylie. You see, his wife was born in Wylie, though she didn’t stay very long. “I’m pretty sure if there had been a Super Target here, she would have stayed a bit longer.” he mused continuing on to talk about credit card statements and things I am so completely familiar with. He went on to talk about how great Direct Development is and how proud he is to be a part of such a great team. He knows that Direct Development isn’t a build and run type of company. They plan, build and maintain. Their developments are works to be proud of and that is why he chose them.

Overall, the event was a huge success and we can expect to see bulldozers out in the fields within a few weeks as road construction begins. This thing is moving forward quickly, people. And a ton of people were involved to make it happen. This is a fantastic day for the Great City of Wylie.

Look for more images soon and the small images above are clickable, leading to a larger image.

Photos © 2008 wylietoday.com (except for the lead-in photo of the 2 awesome dudes. Thanks, Anne!)

The Barbara Bush Republican Women’s League hosted a “Meet the Candidate” forum on Monday night, April 14th. All City Council candidates as well as 5 of the 6 School Board Trustee candidates were in attendance. School Board Trustee Baron Cook was not present due to a scheduling conflict. Also on hand to witness the event were approximately 45 citizens and supporters.

Mrs. Ruthie Wright did a fantastic job as moderator of the event. This forum was pretty typical with what I’ve seen or been a part of in the past, except the candidates knew the questions ahead of time. Frustrating though was the fact that some of the candidates didn’t seem prepared to answer and the ones that were prepared might have been a little too prepared, continually cut off by the “TIME” girl. It’s usually difficult for candidates to get their message across under such circumstances, but I don’t believe it harmed anyone as most of the 45 people in attendance were supporters of candidates. In fact, I think I was the only one who sat in the middle.

Mayor John Mondy had the right idea though after being cut off during one of his answers as he told the audience, “You can read these answers on Wylie Today”. Bravo, John, bravo.

City Council candidates went first and the questions were very basic. The questions were:

1. What makes you an ideal candidate?
2. What is your vision of Wylie in 3 years?
3. How do you propose to accomplish this vision?

Questions 2 and 3 are pretty difficult to answer because as Mr. Mondy stated, “the major planning for the next 5 years for Wylie has been completed, but there is always opportunity for refining”. So basically, all the candidates told the audience about the road construction and building construction and the bond packages. They stated what is already known by a lot of people and didn’t really delve into their unique “vision”, except for Place 6 candidate Bennie Jones.

Mr. Jones stated that his vision is to see a safer city for our youth and to be a regional leader providing “clean air, clean water, parks in all the communities, children receiving quality education without disruption from gangs and making sure everyone is taken care of.” He wants to implement progress reports for the citizens to view and to make sure they “always know what we’re working on.”

Mr. Jones continually stated that he is “approachable”, a “voice for the teenagers” and a “voice for the community”.

His opponent, incumbent Carter Porter, stated that he is past the learning curve that requires 1 or 2 years of being on City Council to understand. Mr. Porter focused on his ability to be available to the city whenever needed due to his flexible work schedule. He also discussed his election to the Executive Board of the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG). NCTCOG brings an intergovernmental relationship with the leaders of the region’s 16 counties representing over 230 member governments and is represented by 13 locally elected officials.

City Council Place 5 candidate Chris Trout identified himself as a husband, a father, a local business owner and a friend to everyone who supports many organizations with his time and money. He stated that on his previous tenure on City Council, he always did what was best for the city.

City Council Place 5 incumbent Rick White mentioned his technical, detail-oriented nature as a strong asset when working on and learning about city issues. He says he is “always seeking information from people and sources” to make the best decisions possible. He stated that he always shoots from the hip and will get you answers to your questions.

Easily the best performance of the night was delivered by Mayoral candidate Eric Hogue. Mr. Hogue is just made to be a public speaker. He exudes confidence, gestures in a friendly manner, speaks clearly and shows no hesitation through any of his speaking opportunities.

Mr. Hogue said, “A lot of things have to happen to make sure we stay on path” in reference to completing the 2005 Bond packages and road construction. He mentioned his numerous contacts with county, state and federal officials as a key asset to making sure no stray trails develop. He is for a more open and pro-active government when working with the citizens.

Mr. Hogue wants to move to bring in another big box retail store and professional business corridors that could bring in higher numbers for lunch traffic. This in turn would make Wylie more attractive towards sit-down restaurants like Chili’s. Mr. Hogue also wants to change the image of Wylie. He calls Wylie “the forgotten city of Collin County” and thinks Wylie should start acting like a city of 40,000 people.

Mr. Hogue believes the WEDC and the city staff has done a great job and they will need to continue to do so to fulfill the future of Wylie. In closing, Mr. Hogue mentioned that he realizes not everyone agrees with him on all the issues, but they support him because they believe he is the right man for the job.

City of Wylie Mayor John Mondy could have gone on talking about city issues all night if he was able. That “TIME” girl does show up quicker than one would think. Despite not being able to finish any questions, Mayor Mondy still made his points very effectively.

“Wylie is the 8th fastest growing city and I’m the Mayor of that city. I have been for 10 years. We created this vision and we delivered.” He stated that our Fire ISO top Rating, our low crime rate and our superior water system didn’t happen by themselves. “The people wanted this and they demand a high level of service. We’ve delivered.”

Mayor Mondy also said the key to success has been in hiring the right staff to get the job done. He hopes to provide better communication between the city and officials, though he does feel they have been pro-active in the past few years. He also stated they were re-engineering their already useful and valuable city website.

In closing, Mr. Mondy said “We have to work together to accomplish our goals because at the end of the day, we all go home here. We all live in this city. Sometimes we agree to disagree, but we still have to work together.”

In the next installment, I will recap the School Board Trustee candidates.

PRESS RELEASE - DIRECT DEVELOPMENT TO DEVELOP 64.5 ACRE RETAIL DEVELOPMENT IN WYLIE

DALLAS, Texas (February 25, 2008) Direct Development, a private commercial retail real estate development and investment company, today announced that it has purchased 64.5 acres located at the southeast corner of FM 544 and McCreary Road in Wylie, Texas. Direct Development intends to develop a 575,000 square foot retail shopping center, Woodbridge Crossing Shopping Center, which will be the largest retail center located in Wylie when it is completed in the summer of 2009.

“Woodbridge Crossing would not have come to fruition without the collaboration of several key groups,” remarked Don Bouvier, Senior Vice President with Direct Development. “The City of Wylie, the Wylie EDC, Target Corporation, the previous owner—Don Herzog, and countless others worked together to bring this needed amenity to Wylie residents.”

This transaction involves a $12 million public-private partnership between the City of Wylie, the Wylie Economic Development Corporation and Direct Development. Direct Development will immediately develop more than 1.5 miles of adjacent roads, public utilities, traffic signals along FM 544, and a bridge over Maxwell Creek and receive reimbursement over a 12 year period. John Mondy, Mayor of Wylie, Mindy Manson, Wylie City Manager, and Sam Satterwhite, Wylie Economic Development Corporation, were very instrumental in the development, which is expected to kick-off with an April 2008 ground-breaking ceremony.

“Woodbridge Crossing will serve as a new gateway to our thriving, growing, City and have a positive impact on the quality of life and ongoing economic development efforts in Wylie,” said City of Wylie Mayor, John Mondy. “Partnerships with our neighboring cities, Murphy and Sachse, along with the hard work by city staff, City Council and Direct Development, were key to the success of this project.”

Super Target will be the anchor tenant of Woodbridge Crossing, with the Target Corporation simultaneously closing on 13.6 acres within the 64.5 acre development. A “to-be-named” department store, numerous “junior-anchor” retailers and several well-known restaurants have also expressed an interest in the project. More than 150,000 people within Wylie, Sachse, Murphy and East Richardson are within the development’s primary trade area.

The site is part of a 186 commercial planned development, owned by Herzog Development Corporation, which includes zoning for an adjacent 100 acre sports facility complex and a 20 acre senior housing project.

David Watson formed direct Development in November of 1997, and the company was recently ranked 22nd among the Dallas 100 fastest growing private companies. In May of 2006, Troy Aikman joined the firm as principal due to the firm’s integrity and quality of development projects. Over the last 10 years, Direct Development has developed or acquired 33 shopping centers comprising over 3 million square feet of commercial retail properties, and has offices in both Dallas and Austin. Additional information on Direct Development is available at www.ddevelopment.com or call (214) 891-3222.