You can click here for the entire fourth quarter newsletter in pdf format.
President’s Message
This is my last letter to you as President of White Rock Valley. I have served in this position for 4 years…and that is long enough. It is time for a fresh perspective and burst of energy. Fortunately, we will have both in our new president, Chris Bellew. Chris and Jill live on Highedge and have 3 children, Julia is in first grade at White Rock Elementary, Christopher is in Kindergarten at White Rock Elementary and Sarah is age 3.
Great news! We have a new website thanks to Kim Vance, Keith Whitmire and Dana Kimbrough. Kim designs websites professionally and volunteered this summer to create a new website for WRVNA. There is more information in the newsletter about the website…check it out at wrvna.org.
Goodness, lots has happened on the retail front since my last letter. Welcome to T-Hee Greetings and Gifts the new gift store located in the old Beauty World space…just down the sidewalk from Highlands Cafe. Stop by and meet Tony and David and pick up the gifts, holiday decorations, and party supplies you need for the holidays!
And good-bye to Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market! The store at Walnut Hill and Audelia closes at the end of the year. Management cited low sales and the opening of the new super center on Forest as reasons for closing this store.
And one further welcome to Walgreens being built on the northeast corner of Walnut Hill and Audelia, opening in spring of 2009.
Our upcoming general meeting is Monday, November 17th at 7:30 pm in the cafeteria of White Rock Elementary. Our speakers are Kelly Gregan, Lake Highlands Community Prosecutor; Jerry Allen, City Councilperson for District 10 and Jerry Clement, WRVNA representative to the Town Center DART station neighborhood design committee.
I wish each of you a blessed holiday season and all the best in 2009.
Kathy Stewart
WRVNA President
The History of Lake Highlands
Before Dallas County was settled, the land on which White Rock Lake was built was a shallow, tree-lined valley where Native Americans hunted for the bison that came to drink from White Rock Creek and graze its grassy banks.
In the 1840s, while Texas was still an independent republic, white settlers began establishing homesteads on the high ground surrounding the White Rock Valley. Among them were the Coxes, the Dixons, the Humbards, the McCommases, the Fishers, and many others. In the late 1840s some of the men went off to fight in the War with Mexico with Col. John Coffee “Jack” Hays. Others joined the Confederate Army when Texas seceded from the Union in 1861. Some of those veterans are buried in the old Cox cemetery, established in 1848 when the daughter of Solomon and Lydia Dixon (for whom Dixon Branch is named) was buried there.
Following the Civil War, Freedmen and their families established a community named Egypt on what is now the northeastern shore of White Rock Lake. There, in addition to their homes, they had a church, a school, and a cemetery, now all gone.
Another nearby community was Calhoun, later named Fisher, on the northwestern side of the present-day lake. It too is gone but its name survives in Fisher Road, which still runs down to the edge of White Rock Lake.
Named for a Swiss family, the community of Reinhardt sprang up alongside railroad tracks near present-day Casa Linda Shopping Center. Like the town of Fisher, Reinhardt was eventually absorbed by a growing Dallas. Its name survives only in an elementary school that stands near the former center of the town.
Although it was not built with recreation in mind, Dallasites quickly discovered that the new reservoir and the land surrounding it was an ideal place for outdoor sports. Fishing became legal in 1917, the same year Joe E. Lawther was elected mayor. During his administration, prisoners from the Dallas County Jail constructed the road encircling the lake that was afterward named for the World War One-era mayor.
In addition to fishing, Dallasites also enjoyed boating, camping, and hunting at the lake, which was then administered by the Dallas Water Board. Although White Rock Lake was predicted to assure Dallas’s water supply for 100 years, after only a decade, work began on a new reservoir in neighboring Denton County. As soon as the new “Lake Dallas” (now Lake Lewisville) was completed, White Rock Lake and the land surrounding it became a city park. The date: December 13, 1929.
The first permanent lakeside amenities were constructed by the City of Dallas in 1930: A Bath House and Bathing Beach (complete with sand!) on the eastern shore and a municipal boathouse with berths for 36 speedboats on the western shore.
WWW.WRVNA.ORG – The address is the same; but everything else is Brand New!
White Rock Valley has a brand new neighborhood website at wrvna.org! The new site, built by Forest Trail residents Kim and Glenn Vance, features the following:
Join the WRVNA online – now you can become a member or renew your association membership via a convenient PayPal checkout.
Events Calendar – RISD, bulky trash schedule, neighborhood events and more!
Neighborhood Message Board - the heart of staying connected in the neighborhood, this moderated forum features sections for crime watch, lost & found, announcements, neighborhood services and garage/estate sales.
To register: click the “Register” link underneath the page title. You will be asked to create a username and provide your email address. After you click “register” a password will be issued and sent to you via email. You will be able to change this after you login the first time.
About the Neighborhood – find out more about our neighborhood, its history and find links to informative sites like the Lake Highland Area Improvement Association, RISD, your city councilman’s office and others.
WVRNA.org will be a website continually evolving as time goes on. We welcome your feedback and look forward to providing you with better connection to your neighbors and your neighborhood!
T. Hee Greetings & Gifts Open for Business
Welcome to T. Hee Greetings & Gifts, opening in our neighborhood shopping center just in time to offer holiday shopping solutions for everyone.
T. Hee Greetings & Gifts is the only store east of 75 in Dallas that offers a wide variety of gifts for every occasion. From Birthdays to baby showers, weddings and life’s most important events, T. Hee has the perfect gift. We are also the neighborhood source to find great items for every season or holiday including decorations, serving pieces, favors and party items. Our services include full in house printing on invitations, note cards and stationery as well as embroidery and monogramming on tote bags, towel wraps and other great soft good gift items. We also bring to Lake Highlands, full custom printing and design on cups and napkins and a wide assortment of gift wrapping supplies and balloons.
Tony Doles and David Farris began their wholesale company printing cups and making hand crafted gift bags for over 400 retailers nationwide. They are thrilled to open their first retail store offering not only their own custom services but also some of the best gift and stationery lines in the industry.
Wholesale website: www.thgandco.com
Retail store blog: http://t-heegifts.blogspot.com/
9661 Audelia Road Ste 110, Dallas, TX 75238
Phone 214.747.5800
National Night Out 2008- Another Success
With strong breezes, a sky filled with RAINBOWS, and about 650 neighbors, the 2008 White Rock Valley Neighborhood Association National Night Out just gets better every year!
Many thanks to YOU, our neighbors, and all our volunteers including: President Kathy Stewart, Robb Stewart, Deb Whitington and her staff, Jamie Peterson and his Scout Pack, David Burkhalter, Madeline Peterson, Brannt and Chase Faris, Gerald Vicki, Kelli, and Will Caldwell, Elaina Dorsey, Robbie Stewart, Dupree, Susan Abrahamson, Ashley Blomberg, Bruce Bowles, Laurie & Tim Bubel, Carol & Owen Hooten, Julie Noble, Starla Horstman, Troy and Carrie Patterson, Leah and Mike Noble, Rob Reed, Lynn Davenport, Kristen Moran, Ken and Heather Bethea, Kevin and Sharon McIlroy, Nancy Plotts, Ashton Plotts, Collin Plotts, Claire & Paul Reyes, Suzanne & David Silva, Dorothy & Larry Ferguson, Cary Woodall, Tyler Briggs, David & Lisa Briggs, Haleigh Briggs, Robbin & David Dzina, Laura & Greg Lavender, Kate & Travis Peterson, Stephani & Robert Walne, Cindy Woolley, Paul Reyes, Byron and Michael Woolley, Chris Aldredge, Pat O’Shea, Phil Tilger, and Jill Hotz for giving back to the neighborhood by supporting this event.
We also thank Suzanne & David Silva of Edward Jones Investments, Albertsons, Walmart, our Neighborhood Association and Dorsey Construction Co.-Roofing for their donations which funded this event.
Thank you to everyone who helped and came out to National Night Out this year. We’ll see you again in August of 2009. Plan for it!
Sarah & Billy Dorsey
Suzanne & David Silva
National Night Out Co-Chairs 2008
LHAIA UP-DATE
The general meeting of the Lake Highlands Area Improvement Association (LHAIA) was held Monday, October 20, 2008, at the Rosewood Center for Family Arts, 5938 Skillman, Dallas, Texas 75231. The public is welcome to attend general meetings.
This organization of over 30 homeowner associations and crime watch groups in the Lake Highlands area includes in its Mission Statement that the primary goals are to protect and promote home ownership and neighborhood self-determination and enhance the quality of life for all citizens; and continues by stating that the group envisions a master plan for economic development. Updates on the development and redevelopment activities in and around Lake Highlands including the Town Center project are consistently on the agenda. The LHAIA web page is www.lhaia.org. Also of note, the Lake Highlands Community Garden which is located behind the old Armory building north of Goforth and west of White Rock Trail now has its own web page at www.LHGarden.org. This City of Dallas supported Community Garden is the first of its kind, and will soon partner with Texas Discovery Gardens–and it’s right here in our backyard.
Cindy Woolley, WRVNA LHAIA Liaison
cindywoolley @ sbcglobal.net
214-341-6374
RICHLAND COLLEGE
The campus of Richland College is about three miles north of the WRVNA, at 12800 Abrams Road. The student body of approximately 15,000 college credit students and about 5,000 continuing education students at Richland is internationally and ethnically diverse, speaking more than 79 first languages.
The diversity continues with the age of students (late teens to seniors in the emeritus or boomer programs). The classes range from line dancing to multi media and the expected classes to be transferred to four-year universities. This might be the ideal solution for you. Check on-line or contact Becky Jones, Assoc Dean. 972-238-6246 or bjones @ dcccd.edu.
DIRECTORY UP-DATE
The clock is ticking; this is the last newsletter for the year. The next newsletter will be delivered in February, with the new 2009 WRVNA Directory. The deadline to make any changes in your information is the end of December. You can send your information to WRVNA’s e-mail wrvna@yahoo.com. or e-mail Deborah Whitington <whiterockrealtor @ sbcglobal.net> or phone Deborah Whitington 214-343-0427. Our goal is to have the 2009 WRVNA Directory as complete and accurate as possible. The following names are additions or changes to the current directory.
Brian and Julie Barnes
9631 Shadydale
214-341-5453
William and Lynn Davenport
9627 Windy Hill
214-340-8223
Frank & Nickol Gallovich
8915 White Pine Ln.
214-986-0447
Gretchen Hamm
9222 Northpoint
214-221-6155
Joe and Aimee Hardin
9545 Crestedge
Brad and Ann Hernandez
9529 Highedge
214-341-9332
James and Laura Nowell
9623 Broken Bow
214-503-1342
Andy and Kerri Scott
9521 Windy Hill
214-341-1697
WRVNA Financial Statement
Click here for the financial statement in PDF format.
Calloway’s Timely Tip for October Gardeners:
Remember too, as September gives way to the cooler days of October and November this is a good time to evaluate your landscape. Did you know that fall is one of the best times to plant trees, shrubs and perennials? Nursery stock planted now will have an opportunity for roots to settle in and become established. When spring arrives, this root system can support and take full advantage of the surge of new growth. Fresh nursery stock is arriving daily so, stop by and take advantage of the selection available and this wonderful time of the year to work outdoors!
We are also excited about more heirloom bulbs from The Southern Bulb Company. Remember, this is the Texas company known for searching out and rescuing “lost and forgotten” varieties. The Leucojum aestivum, better known as “Snowflakes”, is by far one of the most adaptable bulbs ever offered in Texas. Clusters of dime-sized blooms emerge in February accented by bluish green foliage. The ‘Grand Primo’ Narcissus is treasured for its long lasting blooms and robust foliage. This reliable bloomer’s fragrance is light and sweet and the flowers appear in late February through March. ‘Golden Dawn’ Narcissus grows 14″ -16″ tall and is multi-flowering. Enjoy a sweet, clean fragrance year after year usually in mid-March. As a good “rule of thumb” for most bulbs, plant at a depth about three times the height of the bulb.
Also, new this fall is a program which offers the early purchase of pre-chilled bulbs. Several varieties of Tulips, Narcissus and Hyacinths are available for purchasing now with delivery in December-ready to go into the ground. Gardening made easy!
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