Tanya Raghu
Staff Writer
@tanya_raghu
The Coppell City Hall building was beautifully decorated for the holiday season, keeping true to the annual tradition. Suiting the elegant interior, poinsettia flowers lined the foyer as smells of holiday goodies wafted through the air.
The meeting started with a formal reception to publicly thank Coppellians who have dedicated their time to improve various areas of Coppell such as the parks and recreation facilities, the William T. Crosby library, and the economic development sector of the city. Names were announced as certificates were handed out by Mayor Hunt with sincere gratitude.
The regular session city council meeting started with a prayer and pledge of allegiance and proceeded to a swearing ceremony and the public hearing cases.
Coppell High School students, sophomore Nihar Tatapudi and junior Kelly Rohe, were sworn into the parks and recreation committee and sophomore Abhishek Mohan was sworn into the library committee. The City of Coppell highly depends on the dedication of its volunteers and in return is very thankful towards their services.
The Liberation Coffee Company, a new coffee shop in Coppell received approval to develop its lot and allow outdoor seating on N. Denton Tap Road.
The Coppell Chicken Express filed a request to change the color of their roof from “Desert Tan” to “Seattle Red”. Wes Parnell, the owner of the location presented a strong case to the council, proposing for the roof to be colored brighter to attract attention since the location is low performing.
“I do understand that you probably don’t want the bright Seattle Red, maybe we could get closer to the Southlake [locations color],” Parnell said. “I appreciate you taking the time to look at [this].”
The conclusion of the hearing resulted in the color “Colonial red” being agreed upon which is a deep red color and a maintenance agreement being attached.
A notable hearing was that of a group of citizens requesting for the Council to provide emergency relief and funding for creating a structure in order to give funds for damage to their homes.
Justin Reilly and a group of his neighbors stepped on to the podium to voice their concerns regarding their backyards built on slopes.
“We are doing this so that something like this does not happen to other folks,” Reilly said.
Their main concern was with slope failure of city property and the potential water seepage into their home foundations. The group’s research showed that the damage has gotten more urgent and continues to spread since the last request.
The City of Council director of engineering and development, Ken Griffin, was questioned by the Council about the history of the slope site, creeks causing the damage, and original plans of the architect of the houses in order to holistically assess the case.
Mayor Karen Hunt along with the Council stated that the request presented was a private affair and not a problem to be brought to the City. The Council wants to avoid using public funds to benefit individual citizens, completely changing the nature of the request.
“We as a Council have been very vigilant that we are not taxing citizens to cover extraordinary items,” Hunt said.
City Manager Clay Phillips discussed future plans for the Coppell Life safety park which will provide the community a park, museum, meeting rooms, and public classrooms, a major component of the Coppell 2030 Vision Plan.
The mayor acknowledged the parks and recreation commitee on their work on the Coppell parade which took place last week and was a big success.
Hunt mentioned that “Letters to Santa” written by children will be delivered to the North Pole and will receive a special reply. With that, the last council meeting of the year was adjourned.
