Many longtime Lewisville residents know that when their drains make that familiar gurgling sound, it may mean a sewer line stoppage between their house and the city's sewer lines. A quick call to the City, and a truck would show up with a worker to clear the blockage. Residents could get several free cleanouts per year this way, with escalating fees for subsequent cleanouts if the blockage was under the customer's property. But the cost of keeping workers on staff and on call to provide this service is less money to spend elsewhere maintaining the city's infrastructure. And the liability cost from possible damage to a customer's pipes or dwelling is also a concern. The City Council agreed this year to discontinue the service, effective March 1st, 2013. You can watch the video of a discussion of this topic at the Feburary 2012 Council Retreat, which LTJ filmed.

For stoppages that occur after that date, residents can either try their hand at clearing the blockage themselves, call a plumber or "rooter" service and pay their fee, or find a third party to warranty their service line and provide that service free when needed. Water and sewer service lines and stoppages are not covered by any homeowners insurance, according to City Councilman T.J. Gilmore, who said he called numerous insurers to see if they offered such coverage.

As a way to provide residents with access to that third option, The City of Lewisville will enter into an agreement with Service Line Warranties of America (SLWA) to offer that service to Lewisville residents at a discounted rate in exchange for the City informing residents about it. The City of Lewisville is not receiving any payment for this promotion. The nearby City of Plano recently came under fire when word got out that they were accepting a commission from SLWA in exchange for promoting the same service.

By Peter Funt

During a trip to Washington, D.C., last month, Lindsey Stone posed for a snapshot while making crude gestures. She posted it on Facebook, and soon her life turned upside down.

The incident — and to even call it that is part of the story — serves to underscore the power of social media. Moreover, it exposes the extent to which mainstream media have become obsessed with whatever is echoing online.

Stone, 30, and a co-worker visited Arlington National Cemetery, where they noticed a small sign near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier advising "Silence and Respect." As Stone had done earlier on the trip when she posed with a cigarette in front of a No Smoking sign, she mocked the cemetery advisory by opening her mouth as if yelling and raised her middle finger to convey disrespect. The behavior was juvenile, and posting the photo on Facebook was offensive, but what happened next was unexpected.

Saturday, December 1st is the Holiday at the Hall Festival in Old Town Lewisville. Festivities begin at 8 a.m. with the "Breakfast with Santa", at the Medical Center of Lewisville Grand Theater, where the Lewisville Kiwanis Club will serve pancakes and sausage.

There will also be live music, a motorcycle toy run, a parade at 12:30, and the Old Town Holiday Stroll with the merchants on Main Street.

The Christmas Tree lighting and lighting of Old Town is at 5:30 p.m.

A full schedule of all the festivities is here.

By Michael Stafford

The great American conservative thinker Russell Kirk once observed that some disasters are so catastrophic they require a re-examination of first principles. On Election Day, the Republican Party suffered such an existential shock.

The corporate wing of the GOP was decisively rejected by the voters because it offered nothing but obsolete ideas driven by a bankrupt libertarian ideology that would actually exacerbate the problems America is facing. It cravenly serves the interests of the rich through an agenda composed of tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulation for large corporations, crony capitalism, and climate change denial coupled with attacks on the existing social contract. These outmoded, unappealing, elite-friendly policies are marketed to mainstream Americans mixed with a toxic stew of nativism, misogyny, racism, and fear.

by R Neil Ferguson
Lewisville City Council Place 2

It likely is not on your calendar, but this is National Recycling Day, aka America Recycles Day. So the idea is to become better informed about recycling. And I encourage you to do just that. Here are some thoughts from me, meaning I did not get it from some website. In fact, it is just common sense if you understand the recycling line.

When your recycling materials hit the sorters (a mix of equipment, technology and humans), you can help streamline the process by making sure you are not sending mixed materials -- that is, paper with plastic attached, or vice versa, or a box you have stuffed with mixed materials.

For example, that Kleenex box that has a plastic film to make the tissues come out one at a time is mixed material. If you will pull the plastic film out, you make the paper ready to use.
Another example is the hard plastic "clamshell" cases with cardboard inserts. Pull them apart, and you make the plastic and the paper ready to go their separate directions. It really does reduce the human labor to make things ready for their different piles.

BTW, those cardboard boxes? Spend a little time cutting cardboard boxes into panels instead of sending the whole box. That makes them ready to bundle.

Also, look carefully at what you throw into the recycle bin. Styrofoam is not accepted, including packing peanuts. Neither is the results of your document shredder, unfortunately. Putting these item into the recycle bin just slow the process down.

That is my 2¢. Now, if we could just get the City of Farmers Branch to do curbside pickup, maybe they would not need to expand the Camelot landfill . . . .

by R Neil Ferguson

I had posted a link on Facebook to my most recent article on Farmers Branch’s Camelot Landfill. Earlier today, I got this question:

"Hi Neil, so glad you are sharing this with all of us. Question: How does the landfill issue impact Lewisville? I didn't think we got our water from Elm Fork. Also, WHERE does this contaminated soil come from and where ELSE would they take it? Anywhere it goes it will contaminate somebody's water, a problem for sure!"

In answering it, I realized that there were a lot of details that probably were not well known or understood that relate to these basic questions. As I responded, I felt that understanding the details would help explain a lot about what is happening here. Consequently, I am posting my response s here to the readers of LTJ who may not have read the response I put on my own Facebook page.

October is "Bullying Prevention Month", and anti-bullying advocates want people to stand together against bullying. “Nearly one-third of all school-aged children are bullied each year - upwards of 13 million students,” said Julie Hertzog, director of Parent Advocacy Coalition for Educational Rights’ (PACER) National Bullying Prevention Center, which sponsors Unity Day and founded National Bullying Prevention Month in 2006. “We need to show these students they are not alone. By joining together and wearing orange on Unity Day, we can send a national, unified message that bullying will no longer be accepted in this society.”

Wednesday, October 10th is "Unity Day" - a day when advocates want people to wear orange to raise awareness and remind people of the importance of preventing bullying.

Locally, the Flower Mound Youth Football Association will be hosting a bullying prevention day on October 27th, selling T-shirts to raise money for PACER, and asking their players and cheerleaders to sign the anti-bullying petition.

Lewisville ISD has had a focus in recent years on bullying prevention, holding assemblies in some schools, and making sure kids know that they can speak up when they are bullied, and that the behavior is not acceptable.

In 2012, then 9 year old Montana Lance hanged himself in the nurse's restroom at Stewart's Creek Elementary in The Colony, after being bullied in school by kids who tormented him and called him "gay". His parents filed suit in Federal court against LISD, but the suit was recently dismissed. LISD denied culpability, and denied that bullying was involved, but court documents show that the school had an assembly right after Lance's death to talk to the students about bullying.

The issue of bullying has gotten attention from state legislatures, including here in Texas. This September 1st, new laws went into effect regarding bullying. School districts must now have policies that define bullying and cyber-bullying and prohibit it. Districts, in addition to being required to provide transfers to different classrooms or schools for victims of bullying, now have the option of transferring the perpetrator. A victim of bullying MAY NOT be punished for using reasonable self-defense. In the past, lazy school administrators had implemented now-banned "zero-tolerance" policies that prevented them from actually having to investigate incidents and use common sense about determining the aggressor and punishment. In many cases, both parties would be punished simply for being involved in a fight.

Lakeside Arts Foundation will hold “Fall For the Arts,” a wine and cheese fundraiser, on Saturday, Oct. 6, at the Medical Center of Lewisville Grand Theater.

The event will be from 7:30 to 10 p.m. in the MCL Grand Black Box. Tickets are $20 per person, $30 per couple, and include beverages, snacks and musical entertainment. The evening will include a silent auction featuring items donated by area businesses and professional sports team, as well as original artwork and photographs by local artists. For ticket information, visit www.lakesidearts.org or call 972.625.1726.

Lakeside Arts Foundation is a non-profit based in The Colony whose purpose is to support and promote local fine arts and art organizations.

Note: That headline is correct, even the first part. You just didn’t read it right.

Enduring an afternoon rain that seemed to get heavier as the competitors did, a crowd of about 100 people lined up in front of Lewisville City Hall today to see the 8th Annual World Tamale Eating Championship. As a carnival barker peppered his speeches with every bombastic religious allegory he knew, the crowd watched a dozen men cram over 500 tamales in their bodies over the course of 12 minutes. It may have been a novelty for some, but for the eaters on the stage, it was strictly business.

Joey Chesnut, with as much grace as anyone could have during a contest like this, ingested 103 tamales provided by Lewisville’s Dat’s Good BBQ. Chesnut, who has won the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest and dozens of other eating competitions, came striding off the competitors’ stage after the contest, more than willing to pose for pictures and talk to curious onlookers.

By Terry Heaton

I’m such a Heinz 57 variety political guy that it’s really hard to fit myself into anybody’s pigeonhole. I like it that way, and my suspicion is that I’m not alone. We are silent, or so it seems, because no one truly speaks for us. We are offered choices that really don’t matter at the dawn of a new era (postmodern) in which the best we can do is hope for something different. Just like life itself, we can either live it or hope to live it, the former coming with great risk while the latter offering the same old, tired-but-comfortable options.

Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative and many other political groupings are all designed by our top-down culture to suit, well, our top-down culture, but if we believe that “top-down” doesn’t cut it anymore, then we need to start thinking differently when it comes to how “we, the people,” govern ourselves and, by extension, our country. Anybody wishing to start something new must fit himself into the old political portal mindset, which is by nature designed to prevent such intrusion without incredible cost.

I was the executive producer of The 700 Club in the early 80s, a wonderful adventure to which I gave my all but ended up broken. I was an outsider, of sorts, and even though I often led worship services at the ministry, I’d like to think I still managed to nourish and maintain my observer roots. In board room meetings on a host of issues, for example, Pat Robertson would often look at me for reaction to what he was proposing-cum-ordering, because he knew my head could and would move in both directions. I’m proud of that (book forthcoming some day, I promise), and while I’m sure many thought I was conflicted internally, the truth is I rather enjoyed being in that place at that time. Never try to judge what somebody’s thinking on the inside by his or her outside performance or circumstances.