Focus Friendswood
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Focus Friendswood Volume 24 Number 3 www.friendswood.com | Summer 2011 Family Circle Magazine Places This Issue Friendswood in the Top 10 Page 2 low crime rate, affordable homes, quality Emergency Telephone schools, financial stability, access to health Notification System care, green space and volunteerism — and ranked them from top to bottom. Family Page 3 Circle selected the 10 winners from among Officer of the Year the highest-rated towns. Page 4 According to Family Circle’s survey, the Keep Friendswood Beautiful a 10 Best Towns are: Silver Star Affiliate • St. Charles, Illinois Page 5 • Peachtree City, Georgia Storm Water Management • Liberty, Missouri Critical to our Creeks • Fairhope, Alabama • Friendswood, TX Page 6 riendswood, Texas has been named #5 • Novi, Michigan Friendswood Volunteer Fire Fon the list of 10 best towns for families • Trumbull, Connecticut Department, EMS Earn Award in the United States, according to Family • Germantown, Wisconsin Circle magazine. Friendswood is the only • Oviedo, Florida Page 7 town in Texas to receive this designation. • Maple Valley, Washington Teen Court The results of the comprehensive survey appear in Family Circle’s August 2011 issue, The article describes Friendswood Page 8 on newsstands now. as a community rich with academic 2011 Flood Awareness Update ambition, support for our kids, beautiful With the help of Onboard Informatics, a neighborhoods, and specifically cited Page 10 New York City research firm that provides real Friendswood’s new Veterans Memorial Library Corner estate, demographic and other data, Family adjacent to City Hall as an example of one Circle initially assembled a list of 2,500 cities of our community’s “good deeds”. Page 12 and towns with populations between 15,000 Distinguished Budget and 150,000 and assessed which places best Presentation Award met the family-friendly criteria—including Five Star City of Friendswood’s Emergency Spirit Award Telephone Notification System he City of Friendswood utilizes the situations. The following represents only TFirstCall Emergency Notification a partial list of situations in which it may System to provide emergency notifications used: concerning weather and other local • Evacuations information over the telephone within • Flood emergencies minutes to all residents of Friendswood. • Severe Weather • Hazardous material spills What is FirstCall? • Major water breaks FirstCall provides a unique 24-hour • Orders to Boil Water telephone notification system to all Friendswood residents. FirstCall will Unlisted telephones and cell phone users provide citizens and businesses with Since unlisted/private and cellular critical information, warnings and telephone numbers are not included in advisories concerning area emergencies commercially available databases, citizens and other critical incidents within the are encouraged to register these numbers. city. By using a series of computers There are several ways to register: and recorded voice messages, FirstCall rapidly and efficiently contacts citizens Kabiri with City Manager Roger Roecker and businesses by telephone to provide emergency information. he Five Star Spirit Award recipient for the First quarter of 2011 is T Why is FirstCall important to you? Morad Kabiri. Morad is the Director of FirstCall provides a quick method to the Community Development Depart- reach residents with pertinent emergency ment. He began his career with the City information. It allows citizens of in late 2007 as the Deputy Director Friendswood to take immediate positive of Community Development. In July actions to protect themselves in case of 2008, he was named the Interim Director an emergency; and it saves valuable time, of Community of Development and effort, and money. Most importantly, it was promoted to Director of CDD in saves lives. FirstCall also permits emergency September 2009. response agencies to focus on other activities to bring the emergency under control, Morad received numerous nominations anytime during the day or night. Call the FirstCall Network’s registration from residents and developers alike that line at 866-484-3264. This process is very cited the assistance he provides to citizens, How does FirstCall operate? user-friendly. the work he puts in with the Planning and FirstCall provides the operators, Zoning Commission and the Galveston telephone circuits, computers, and other Using the City of Friendswood’s County Consolidated Drainage District, programs to run an emergency notification website, put in the flowing link: www. and his generally courteous nature. He system/service. If an event threatens ci.friendswood.tx.us/FirstCall. There is was also recognized for the attention to Friendswood, police, fire, medical, and an option shown “Click here to register”. detail he provides when working with the other city services will respond to evaluate This option takes you to a screen where development community on a day-to-day the problem. If needed, key personnel you can enter and submit the required basis. can initiate the activation of FirstCall. information. Once contacted, the FirstCall operator We appreciate the service that Morad immediately begins the notification If registering using web registration, Kabiri has provided this community very process to affected areas. This process simply log on to www.firstcall.net click much, and we congratulate him on being takes only minutes to complete. on Unlisted Registration, fill out the form the recipient of the Five Star Spirit Award and click submit. for the first quarter of 2011. When is FirstCall used? FirstCall may be used for different 2 | Focus on Friendswood Officer Kevin Crouch is “Officer of the Year” Officer Crouch has worked to to coordinate directed patrol efforts to implement a number of programs for the reduce speeding in residential areas and to community, including a Rape Aggression address problem houses where nuisances Defense for women, a program designed exist or breaches of the peace occur. to raise the situational awareness of women and to provide women with the capability Officer Crouch is a 12-year veteran of to fight off an attack. Since this program’s law enforcement. He began his career with inception in 2008, Officer Crouch and his the Freeport Police Department in 1999, team have hosted and/or instructed more joined the ranks of the Friendswood Police than 10 four-day classes, including two for Department in 2002 and became the adolescents. Crime Prevention Officer in 2006. Officer Crouch is an Advanced Peace Officer and Officer Crouch is a certified child- a Crime Prevention Inspector. He is also safety seat technician and a lead instructor a veteran of the United States Army and for the National Highway Traffic Safety served During Operation Desert Shield Administration. He routinely educates and Desert Storm as a combat engineer. the public in this subject matter and has He currently serves as president of the coordinated and participated in numerous Friendswood Police Officers Association, Officer Kevin Crouch safety seat events and inspections. He is an and is married to Dijana, his wife of 15 instructor for Safe Kids Greater Houston years. riendswood Police Officer Kevin and also conducts classes and training on FCrouch was awarded the Fifty bicycle safety and safe babysitting. He Congratulations to Kevin Crouch for Club of Galveston County’s Officer of also teaches Internet Cyber Safety to the this well deserved honor. the Year Award at their 40th Annual students attending schools in the City of Luncheon in May, at Moody Gardens Friendswood. in Galveston. Officer Crouch has served with the Friendswood Police Department In addition, Officer Crouch serves since 2002. He is being recognized for as the police department’s liaison to outstanding law enforcement efforts and homeowners’ associations, revitalizing the his extensive accomplishments in Crime Neighborhood Watch program in several Prevention. subdivisions. He has also helped Focus of Friendswood Summer 2011 Published by the City of Friendswood City Manager’s Office It is the Mission of the Council and Staff of the City of Friendswood to provide the highest level of service to our citi- Mayor David J.H. Smith zens at the greatest value. Mayor Pro Tem Jim Hill Council Position 1 Mike Barker Council Position 2 Billy Enochs Adopted: July 9, 1990 Council Position 4 Patrick J. McGinnis Revised: January 4, 1993 Council Position 5 John Scott Revised: August 18, 1997 Council Position 6 Deirdre Carey Brown Revised: January 12, 2004 Focus on Friendswood | 3 Keep Friendswood Beautiful Recognized as Silver Star Affiliate by Keep Texas Beautiful a Silver Star Affiliate, a designation conferred on just a handful of Keep Texas Beautiful’s more than 360 affiliates in 2011. Gold Star recognition is the highest status any community affiliate can achieve. Friendswood was recognized during its 44th Annual Conference in downtown Austin, which was held June 20-23, 2011. Keep Friendswood Beautiful was recognized for successfully implementing programs to prevent litter, reduce waste, beautify community areas and educate local citizens last year. Keep Friendswood Beautiful members this year include Sherry Goen, John T. Merrifield, Kaye Corey, Gail Rodgers, Patricia Steinke, Paul Marx, Martha Cotton, Frank Garza, Loretta Murphy, Mary Stockwell, Susan eep Texas Beautiful, a statewide Delcambre, and Susan Stephens. Susan Stephens, Keep Friendswood Beautiful Kgrassroots environmental and com- For more information on how to board member, Community Services