Seagoville Quarterly Newsletter
First Quarter 2020
Preparations Begin for 2020 City Officers Election
The 2020 City Officers election will be held on Saturday, May 2nd. This year’s slate of offices includes Councilmembers to represent Places 1, 3 and 5.
The first day to file an application for a place on the ballot is Wednesday, January 15th. The application deadline is 5:00 p.m. on Friday, February 14th. Applications for a place on the ballot are available at City Hall in the office of the City Secretary. Candidates must meet any state requirements along with the City qualifications for candidacy including: petition signed by twenty-five (25) qualified voters residing within the City and shall be a resident of the City for one (1) year.
The Mayor and all Councilmember Places are elected at large by majority vote.
Anyone not currently registered to vote has until April 2nd to register in order to cast a ballot in the May 2nd election. Voter registration applications may be obtained at City Hall. Questions concerning voter registration should be directed to the Dallas County Voter Registration Department at (214) 819-6389.
Additional information regarding the upcoming election may be obtained by contacting the City Secretary at (972) 287-6819.
Seagoville Fire Department News
The City of Seagoville wants to wish all its citizens a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Please keep in mind no fireworks are permitted inside the City limits.
(a) The city council hereby declares the use or discharge of fireworks within the city limits and extending five thousand feet (5,000') outside the city limits a public nuisance. The city manager or designee is hereby authorized to take appropriate actions to abate such nuisance.
(b) It shall be a public nuisance and unlawful and an offense for any person to use or discharge fireworks within the city limits and extending five thousand feet (5,000') outside the city limits.
The city would also like to remind citizens to stay warm throughout the holiday season, but be mindful of safe space heater placement. Also, please exercise caution with placement of anything that could ignite a dried out Christmas tree as they are very flammable.
Seagoville Police Department News Quarterly Safety Tip #1 "Theft of Motor Vehicles"
As colder weather approaches folks have a tendency to go out on cold mornings and start their vehicles to warm them up and leave them unattended while they finish their morning routines.
If your vehicle is equipped with a remote starting system it is fine to pre-start the vehicle to let it warm up because the vehicle cannot be activated for driving, or be driven without the key fob in the vehicle. If your vehicle is not equipped with a remote starting system the ignition key in most cases is left in the vehicle and unattended while it warms up, which is an open opportunity for thieves to take your vehicle.
Please make sure that if you intend to start your vehicle on cold mornings to let it warm up and your vehicle is not equipped with a remote starting system, be prepared to remain with your vehicle to avoid someone taking it without your authorization.
Quarterly Safety Tip #2 "Visible Residential and Business Addressing"
In an emergency can we find you? Every second counts in an emergency and having your numerical address in a place and large enough where it can be easily seen is very important. Please take a moment to inspect the front and back of your residence if you have a paved alley access to ensure that you’re numerical address is clearly visible from the street and alleyway. Please make sure the color of your numerical address is a different color from the background that it’s affixed to for clear visibility.
Spring 2020 Citizens Police Academy
April 07, 2020 will start the spring session of the Citizens Police Academy. Sign up now for a great opportunity to learn about your Seagoville Police Department and get to know the officers who work for this great City. This twelve (12) week course will give each participant insight on how your Seagoville Police Department operates, and a great deal of knowledge into how a vast portion of police work is done and why. These classes have helped build a great volunteer program known as the Citizens Police Academy Alumni association and Citizens on Patrol (C.O.P.) which you will learn more about and have the opportunity to become a part of. The Citizens Police Academy Alumni members help with a number of special events such as Seago-Fest, May-Fest, Mesquite Rotary Club bike ride, July 4th celebration, annual toy drive and many other events.
Classes are held every Tuesday evening from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM at the Seagoville Police Department in the training room. For more information on these classes, crime prevention, or neighborhood crime watches, please contact Officer Richard Clemmo or Sgt. Tim Talley at 972-287-2999 or by email. Officer Clemmo: rclemmo@seagoville.us or Sgt. Talley: ttalley@seagoville.us.
Spring 2020 National Drug Take Back Program
The Seagoville Police Department in conjunction with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will host the Spring 2020 Drug Take Back program. This program is focused on removing potentially dangerous prescription medications from our nation’s medicine cabinets.
The event known as the National Drug Take-Back Program will provide residents with a safe means of disposing of expired, unwanted, or unused pharmaceutical / prescription medications along with other medications by turning them over to Law Enforcement officers for proper disposal.
This one day event, which is normally held twice a year helps bring national focus to the issue of prescription medication and controlled substance abuse. The program provides an opportunity for Law Enforcement to collaborate with DEA and establishes a safe collection site.
Where?
Super 1 Food Store, 125 Hall St.
When?
April date T.B.A. 2020 from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM
For more information on this event, contact Crime Prevention Officer Richard Clemmo or Sgt. Tim Talley at 972-287-2999, or by email at rclemmo@seagoville.us or ttalley@seagoville.us
2020 Census Job Opportunities
Respond to the 2020 Census to Shape the Future
Responding to the census helps communities get the funding they need and helps businesses make data-driven decisions that grow the economy. Census data impacts our daily lives, informing important decisions about funding for services and infrastructure in your community, including health care, senior centers, jobs, political representation, roads, schools, and businesses. More than $675 billion in federal funding flows back to states and local communities each year based on census data.
The Census Bureau is required by law to protect any personal information we collect and keep it strictly confidential. The Census Bureau can only use your answers to produce statistics. In fact, every Census Bureau employee takes an oath to protect your personal information for life. Your answers cannot be used for law enforcement purposes or to determine your personal eligibility for government benefits
By law, your census responses cannot be used against you by any government agency or court in any way—not by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), not by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), not by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and not by
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The law requires the Census Bureau to keep your information confidential and use your responses only to produce statistics.
Seagoville 2020 - Recycling & Waste Collection Schedule and Guide
Storm Water and the Impact of Yard Waste
Citizens can report illicit discharge of materials into the storm water system through the City of Seagoville website at: https://www.seagoville.us/388/Request
The Problem
While grass clippings, tree leaves, and other yard waste are natural, they still pollute our local waterways. As yard waste breaks down or decomposes in a local creek, stream, river, or lake, it depletes the oxygen in the water. Aquatic life, such as fish, need oxygen to survive. If oxygen levels become too low, fish and other aquatic life cannot survive.
How to properly handle yard waste
Leave it on the lawn, use it to improve your landscape, or compost it!
Follow the "Don’t Bag It!" Lawn Care and Leaf Management plans for:
Mowing
“Leaving it on the lawn” and “Don’t Bag It!” methods aim to recycle your yard waste—and its nutrients—back into your landscape. This may reduce your need for chemical fertilizers. The rule of thumb for mowing the lawn is remove no more than one-third of the grass surface at any one time. With this mowing schedule, you no longer need to bag your grass clippings but can instead leave them on the lawn. (Do not mow when your grass is wet, as wet clippings clump together and smother your lawn.)
Grass clippings left on the lawn do not contribute to thatch, but return valuable nutrients to the soil. They contain about four percent nitrogen, 0.5 percent phosphorus, and about two percent potassium, as well as the necessary minor elements plants need. During the fall, you may not need to rake your leaves and collect them. Instead, you could mow them! A light covering of leaves can be mowed without the catch-bag attachment, leaving the shredded leaves on the lawn. This technique is most effective when a mulching mower is used. With light leaf drop, this is the easiest and most efficient way to manage leaf accumulation. And as leaves contain 50 to 80 percent of the nutrients that a plant extracts from the soil and air during the growing season, you’re taking advantage of a natural resource.
Mulching
Mulching is a simple and effective way to recycle leaves and improve your landscape. It reduces evaporation from the soil surface, inhibits weed growth, moderates soil temperatures, keeps soils from eroding and crusting, and prevents soil compaction. As organic mulch decomposes, valuable nutrients are released for use by plants. Leaves can be used as mulch in vegetable gardens, flowerbeds, and around shrubs and trees.
As an option to raking, a lawnmower with the catch-bag attachment provides a fast and easy way to shred and collect the leaves. Leaves that have been mowed or run through a shredder will decompose faster and are more likely to remain in place than unshredded leaves.
Soil Improvement
Leaves may be collected and worked directly into garden and flowerbed soils. A six- to eight-inch layer of leaves tilled into a heavy, clay soil will improve aeration and drainage. The same amount tilled into a light, sandy soil will improve water and nutrient holding capacity. In vegetable gardens and annual planting beds, collect and work leaves into the soil during the fall. This allows sufficient time for the leaves to decompose prior to spring planting.
Composting
What is compost? Compost is a dark, crumbly and earthy-smelling form of organic matter that has gone through a natural decomposition process.
Compost can be used to:
- enrich the soil by adding nutrients
- loosen tight, heavy soils
- help sandy soils retain moisture and nutrients
- add to potting soils for container grown plants
- mulch around landscape plants and gardens
What makes compost? Bacteria, fungi, beneficial nematodes, mites, wolf spiders, and other beneficial insects break down organic materials into the rich, soil-like material known as compost. How easily bacteria are able to decompose organic material is determined by the carbon-nitrogen ratio (C:N). All living organisms need relatively large amounts of carbon ("browns") and smaller amounts of nitrogen ("greens"). “Brown” materials include fallen leaves, corn stalks, straw, paper, and sawdust. “Green” materials include vegetable scraps, coffee grounds or grass clippings. A ratio of two-thirds “brown” and one-third “green” is a good rule of thumb to achieve light, fluffy compost.
Do not add diseased or insect-infested plant materials, pet droppings, noxious weeds, meat, dairy products, cooking oil, grease, fat and meat trimmings, or table scraps to your compost pile.
To create compost, small pieces of "greens" and "browns," microorganisms, air, water, volume (3x3x3 feet), and time are needed. A small amount of garden soil or compost can provide sufficient microorganisms the fungi and bacteria that break down the material. The right amount of air and water provide a favorable environment for the microorganisms to decompose the organic materials and make compost.
Air is the only ingredient that you can’t add too much of to your pile. A lack of nitrogen to "feed" the microorganisms will slow the process, while an excess amount is wasteful and can kill the microorganisms. Too much water limits the amount of air (oxygen) available to the microorganisms, inhibiting their activity. One common method of building a compost pile is in layers. The five steps are:
- Step 1: Place a layer of coarse material such as tree branches on the ground.
- Step 2: Add a six- to eight-inch layer of organic material such as shredded leaves or grass clippings.
- Step 3: Add a one-inch layer of manure or rich garden soil.
- Step 4: Repeat these layers and keep the pile moist.
- Step 5: Stir the pile weekly during the summer and monthly during the winter.
As composting occurs, heat is generated, often causing temperatures to rise to 140°F or higher. It takes about 90-120 days to have ready-to-use compost.
If grass clippings and tree leaves are washed or dumped down a storm drain, the storm drain may become clogged. The next time that it rains, or yard irrigation runs off into the street, the water that would normally flow down the storm drain will be blocked by the yard waste. This can cause flooding.
In some cities, blowing or sweeping yard waste into streets, sidewalks, driveways, or storm drains is illegal. If caught, you could receive a ticket for this violation. Communities are on the lookout now more than ever for polluters, so handle yard waste properly.
Seagoville Library Closing for Carpet Replacement January 6-11, 2020
Keep Seagoville Beautiful 14th Annual Trash Off
City Wide Clean Up March 30th through April 4th.
This annual event is part of the Annual Don't Mess With Texas Trash Off and provides Seagoville residents access to City sponsored dumpsters to dispose of trash and debris from their properties.
Details about the City Wide Clean Up are available on the City website. Please follow this link for more information: https://www.seagoville.us/calendar.aspx?EID=1388