Lake Cities Information Group

Just got back from voting this Saturday morning, at 8:00 am the line was relatively short, only waited about 5 minutes to get to my voting station. The new equipment for verifying voter registration seems to be helping the line move quickly. There seems to be about 8 electronic voting stations and 16 paper ballot stations.

There are a few dates left to early vote:

Early voting by personal appearance will be at the same location. Early voting on the following times and dates; between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m on Oct 20, 21, 22, 23, 24.  From 1 p.m. to 6 p.m on Oct. 26th.  From 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Oct. 25, 27, 28,29,30 and Oct 31.

With the turnout in this Presidential election, I am sure on Nov. 4, there will be a really long line. Take advantage of the early voting!

Paula from the The Friends of the Lake Cities Library submitted the following:

The Friends of the Lake Cities Library will sponsor a Lake Dallas mayoral candidate discussion forum from 6 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 21, at the Lake Cities Library, 302 S. Shady Shores Road in Lake Dallas.

It is open to the public. Each mayoral candidate will be given a list of identical questions before the event, and will have a limited time to give answers. In order to encourage the youth to be active and learn more about their local politics, youth have the opportunity to submit questions to participating teachers or at the local library.

Please feel free to contact the Friends for more information.

Thanks!

~paula

The elections are not far away and in our next posting, we will try and cover all the candidates that you will be voting on November 4th. It is important to take the time to vote for every position, not just the presidential position.

Local races actually have more of a direct effect on your daily life than any other position. The Denton County Election Comission now has sample ballots for each of the precincts. You can print out a sample ballot for your precinct and find links on our current political position’s to each candidates web site. We will have the links updated this weekend for those that are missing from our list.

In addition there two bond elections, one for $310 Million and one for $185 Million.  The basics are discussed in this Dallas News article. We do suggest you read the following PDF’s So you know where the money is being spent.  More detail of where the 310 Million is being spent is in this Denton County PDF. The request for 185 Million in improvements in the Denton County Administration Complex is shown in this capital improvement PDF.

Well besides voting for all the political offices that are up this November 4th, Hickory Creek resisdents will also be voting on a additional sales tax increase of % 0.250.

Voting will take place Nov. 4th from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., at 212 Main St., Lake Dallas (Lake Dallas City Offices).

Early voting by personal appearance will be at the same location. Early voting on the following times and dates; between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m on Oct 20, 21, 22, 23, 24.  From 1 p.m. to 6 p.m on Oct. 26th.  From 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Oct. 25, 27, 28,29,30 and Oct 31.

The deadline for applications of ballots by mail must be recieved no later than the close of business on Oct. 28th. Mail all applications to Don Alexander, early voting clerk, 401 W. Hickory St., Denton TX 76202.

Voter turnout reported was 418 for and 80 against passage of the tax increase. The additional 13 cent increase over the previous fiscal year. This translates to a  total tax rate of $1.65 tax per $1000 property tax value. Typical tax increase per home will be in the range of $186 per year.

Lake Dallas Superintendent Gayle Stinson said  – “Lake Dallas’ new tax rate will translate into an extra $2.1 million for the district — $1.5 million in tax revenue and $600,000 in additional state funding. Stinson said $900,000 would be used to eliminate the district’s deficit while another $900,000 will be set aside for pay increases. The remaining $300,000 will be used to cover fuel and energy cost increases”

Additional Information from LDISD.

A tax rate election has been called by the Lake Dallas Independent School District for October 4, 2008. This tax ratification election will approve or disapprove the adopted tax rate for the 2008-2009 School Year. Early voting will start September 17, 2008 and end September 30, 2008.

Early voting is ending on September 30th, so if you desire to vote early there are many convient locations in this election information pdf.

Explanation of the reasons for the increase are in the Community Letter PDF from the LDISD school system, and in their LDISD Slide Show PDF.

Regular votion will occur on October 4th, and will be held at a single location of the LDISD Administrative offices next to the Lake Dallas Middle School at 315 East Hundly, Lake Dallas Texas, 75065. The voting administrator do have copies of the voters names who are able to vote in this election. But we strongly suggest you bring your voters registration card, and a must will be a valid ID.

Lake Dallas will have a three way race for Mayor this November 4th with the following candidates.

Karl Hammond

Karl Hammond, 40, currently mayor pro-tem. Karl moved to North Texas at a young age from Lubbock and grew up in Denton. He moved to Lake Dallas  in 2000 and is currently the manager at a lumber company. He attended college at North Central Texas College, earning an associate in arts and an associate in science and served in the U.S. Navy between 1985 and 1993.

Toni Marino

Tony Marino, 53, came Lake Dallas in 1994 and was originally born in Niagara Falls, NY. He is an automotive technology instructor for Lewisville Independent School District. Marino received masters of education from Texas A&M University, a bachelor of science from State University of New York, a management/administration certification from Texas Woman’s University, a trades and industrial certification from the University of North Texas and automotive technology education from Wyoming University.

Maria Zulch

Maria Zulch, 37, originally came to Lake Dallas in January 2002 and was born in St. Louis. She is currently a receptionist at Shady Shores Elementary School. She attended Southwest Missouri State University and studied accounting.

While updating the Current Political Positions Page we requested information from Shady Shores, Carol Belknap was kind enough to write back including this important information. Carol let us know that during the April 7 town meeting there will be a discussion of canceling the 2008 elections for three council positions that have no opposing candidates to run against the incumbents.

This means the current council positions will automaticlly be extended. If your located in the town of Shady Shores and are interested in a being a candidate to run against the incumbents, please contact Shady Shores at (940) 498-0444 for further information.

In addition looking at the Shady Shores Election Calender we see the last day for registration for voting in local elections is April 10th.

Attorney Steve Burgess faces attorney Doug Robison in the Republican race for the seat of retiring 393rd District Judge Vicki Isaacks. Mr. Burgess was the top vote-getter March 4 in a four-way race. The winner will not face Democratic opposition in November.

For Railroad Commissioner Mark Thompson and Dale Henry are running on the Democratic Ballot.

These are primary runoff elections, for the November 4 general election.

Lake Dallas City Hall will be our local location, and you can find more locations from the Denton County website page.

Remember helping choose your party’s representatives is important!

This site is being created to inform local Lake Cities residents on political items of interest in our area. This came about from the recent Democratic Party presidential race. Putting our idealogical choices in the current presidential race aside. The group found we had quite a bit in common with our discussions during the caucus. We all felt there was a need for more information on candidates and issues that we need to be aware of. We will strive to bring information on all candidates and issues that are in the voting area of the Lake Cities.

That last statement is important, and is the foundation of our desire to create this website. We will gather information on every candidate, either by being submitted to us by the candidate, or by our own activities, or by member submissions.

Commenting and submission of articles can be preformed if you become a member of LCIG, and graduate from just being a standard user to a Writer. We will soon have a page of areas that need to be covered and hope you will find a interest in helping build this site to its full potential by contributing your time to investigate the political challenges that are present in our area.

Being a site on political topics is very difficult. We will be starting off with the original eight members being editors and administrators, their function is to bring information and order to the site. Mud slinging, or non factual posts or comments will be removed without warning. Keep it civil and orderly. Most of all, visit often before voting to get the latest information on candidates that you will be voting for. This is the democracy at its best, by being informed.

Site Administrator – Rod Longhofer