APRIL MEMBERSHIP MEETING
Tuesday April 21 at 6:30 p.m.
Fort Worth Firefighters Hall
3855 Tulsa Way at Crestline Road
This membership meeting is open to everyone. You don’t need to be a member to attend. Our meetings are always open to the public, so feel free to invite your friends and neighbors, even if they don’t live in Arlington Heights.
Following a brief business meeting that includes the neighborhood crime report from our Neighborhood Patrol Office, we will welcome one of our favorite guest speakers, Steve McCoy from Archie’s Gardenland who can answer any questions you have about plants and gardening in Fort Worth.
decades and knows everything you could ever want
to know about gardening challenges in Fort Worth
and how to remedy them. He also always brings lots of free stuff to give away.
Our meetings are always BYOB, so feel free to bring your own alcoholic beverages to enjoy and/or share.
Please note, there is an accessible entrance on the east side of the building for anyone not wishing to use the stairs
TIME TO HEAD TO THE POLLS AGAIN
Lately it seems like we’ve been heading to the polls to vote for something every month. Saturday May 2, 2026 is the next election. This time it’s for the City of Fort Worth’s Bond and Charter Election. Early voting starts Monday April 20 through Tuesday April 28.
Here is a link to a two-page sample ballot
The ballot includes six bond propositions and nine charter amendment propositions. It’s hard to ignore the capitalized warning at the beginning of every bond proposition: “THIS IS A TAX INCREASE.” The State of Texas has mandated that warning be included at the beginning of every bond proposition. Despite the warning, this is not the case. The bond package is structured to fit within the City’s current property tax rate. Some of the propositions are for projects that are vitally needed for public safety. Several of the charter amendements are simply housekeeping to bring the City’s rules in line with the new state laws.
While the ballot can look confusing and overwhelming, the City of Fort Worth has done a good job of explaining things. Helpful links to check out are fortworthtexas.gov/2026bond and fortworthtexas.gov/2026charter.
The City is sponsoring a final informational public meeting on Saturday April 18, 2026 at 10:30 a.m. at Worth Heights Community Center, 3551 New York Ave., 76110. You can watch the meeting live at home on the City’s YouTube channel or on the City’s website. To view a past informational meeting, go to this recording.
The Fort Worth Report has also published a series of stories about the charter amendments and bond package:
- Fort Worth voters asked to give city manager more autonomy, increase council’s pay in May election
- Fort Worth city manager would have more authority under charter amendment on May ballot
- Fort Worth roads would get half a billion dollars in upgrades if bond package passes
- Fort Worth asks voters to remove city leadership’s right to public hearing before firing
- 4 years after closing, south Fort Worth library could reopen in bond proposal
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WORLD WAR I CHOCTAW CODE TALKERS RECEIVE TEXAS STATE HISTORICAL COMMISSION MARKER
Councilmember Macy Hill (left) joined Chief Gary Batton
of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and Nuchi Nashoba,
president of the Choctaw Code Talkers Association,
at the unveiling ceremony for the new Texas State
Historical Marker commemorating World War I’s Choctaw Code Talkers.
(Photo courtesy of Choctaw Nation)
Anyone driving by Veterans Memorial Park at the corner of Camp Bowie Boulevard and Clover Lane on April 1, 2026 could easily see that something special was going on. A crowd had gathered to celebrate the new permanent Texas State Historical Marker honoring the Choctaw Code Talkers from World War I. News outlets throughout the U.S. ran stories about this momentous event.
These Native American soldiers trained in Fort Worth at Camp Bowie in the 36th Infantry Division. When they shipped off to the battlefields in northern France in 1918, their native language was used to the benefit of the Allied forces who sent messages in Choctaw, thus the name Code Talkers. The enemy was never able to decipher the messages. The Code Talkers were sworn to secrecy about what they had done, but by the late 1980s their important contributions were discovered by their families.
This is the fourth Texas State Historical Marker on Camp Bowie Boulevard.
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APRIL YARD OF THE MONTH
The front yard of 2320 Ashland Avenue always looks great.
A pleasing combination of shrubbery, trees and vegetation makes this yard a solid winner.
When Stephanie Kelly moved into 2320 Ashland Avenue right after Thanksgiving 2002, she inherited a fully developed and very appealing landscape. “I can’t take any credit for it,” she says. “I just try to keep it going.” The previous owners, Whitney and Lauren Neal, had the vision and Stephanie carries on what they started. Because it’s on a well-travelled corner lot, there’s more than the usual amount of yard work to do.
A spring highlight of Stephanie’s yard are the red, pink and white azaleas spread out across the front of the house. As any experienced gardener knows, azaleas are not carefree plants. Even though Stephanie says she’s hardly done anything special to them, they’ve continued to bloom profusely, some of them even twice in a season. This year she topped them off with potting soil, but otherwise she’s taken a low maintenance approach. However, there’s a trimming in their near future, she says.
Boxwoods provide a solid backdrop along the front and side yards. They, too, will be receiving a hair cut soon. Two very large lorapetulum shrubs anchor each side of the house and provide contrasting color with the boxwoods. The Japanese red maple tree next to the front porch adds another pop of color against the boxwoods.
On the north side of house near the air conditioning unit are two trees that are actually overgrown hollies.
Along the El Campo Avenue side yard, red and yellow daylilies are lined up in front of the lorapetulum and boxwoods. In between the boxwoods is a bed of pink and red knockout roses. At the end of this run is a very large crepe myrtle and black-eyed Susans next to the driveway.
On the front porch is a planter of white pansies that will get changed out as the summer heat takes over.
The two well established oak trees facing Ashland Avenue are doing fine, but the large maple tree near the parkway on El Campo Avenue was beginning to fade. So, Stephanie engaged John Tomlinson, an arborist with Southern Charm Tree Care, to work on it. He’s been injecting it with a magic potion twice a year and the tree seems to be reviving.
“I’m always experimenting,” says Stephanie who works as the Development Manager for the American Cancer Society in Fort Worth. She is lucky to have adjacent neighbors Kanani Mahelona and Ann Wilson, both Yard of the Month past winners, to help her. “I can’t go wrong,” Stephanie says. The purple iris at the corner of Stephanie’s yard is from Ann.
“All my beds could use new soil, so that will be my next big undertaking,” according to Stephanie. “I haven’t done much except weed. Weeding is cathartic to me,” she admits. “It’s my therapy.” Her favorite weeding tools are the SIXCAR weed remover tool she ordered off Amazon. Another tool she likes is Fiskar’s Weeder Tool. Both help her break up soil that’s as hard as a rock.
For someone who grew up and raised her family in Pampa, Texas, Stephanie has embraced her Arlington Heights home as her forever home. “I just love it here,” she sighs.
Congratulations to Stephanie for being selected as AHNA’s first Yard of the Month in 2026. She received a $25 gift certificate to Archie’s Gardenland and a year’s membership in Arlington Heights Neighborhood Association, courtesy of AHNA.
If you see a yard you’d like to nominate for this award, please send the address to AHNA President Lori Murray Bosken at president@arlingtonheightsna.com.
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TRINITY RIVER TRASH BASH
Here’s another opportunity to clean up the trash in our city. Saturday April 18 is this year’s date for the Trinity River Trash Bash, sponsored by the Tarrant Regional Water District. Volunteers can sign up ahead of time. The event runs from 8:00 a.m. until 10:00 a.m. at different locations along the Trinity River. At 10:00 a.m. head over to the after-party at the Coyote Drive-In Theater, 223 NE 4th St., 76164.
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LIGHTS OUT FOR ANNUAL BIRD MIGRATION
Peak seasonal bird migration runs from Wednesday April 22 through Tuesday May 12. Evening bird activity increases considerably during this time period as thousands of birds fly through the metroplex area. Residents are encouraged to turn off or dim non-essential lighting and close indoor blinds or curtains from 11:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. to reduce light spill.
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COWTOWN CLEANUP WRAP-UP AND AWARDS
This year’s Arlington Heights Cowtown Cleanup included
(left to right) Trey Mesman, Steve Waas, Linda Waas and Chris Cisneros.
Even though the Cowtown Cleanup event is an early Saturday morning call, Arlington Heights has always participated in the annual citywide trash pickup undertaking, now in its 41st year. This year 3,800 volunteers registered to clean up the city, and 1,854 tires were retrieved from illegal dumping sites.
AHNA’s Cowtown Cleanup Captain Shanna Cisneros won an
honorable mention in the Trashion Show at the Earth Celebration
that followed the trash event. Shanna was recognized for using the most varied materials.
She used feed sacks, paper bags, bottle caps, aluminum cans,
twist ties and wire, duct and clear tape, sponge paint brushes and
magazine cutouts for her Cowtown Clara character. Way to go, Shanna!
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