TUES. OCT. 3 NATIONAL NIGHT OUT PARTY
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FIRE STATION #18 100TH BIRTHDAY PARTY
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SEPTEMBER MEMBERSHIP MEETING
Tuesday September 19 at 6:30pm
Fort Worth Firefighters Hall
3855 Tulsa Way at Crestline Rd.
Please join us for the monthly AHNA Membership meeting. This is an open meeting and everyone is welcome to attend. Hear about the latest doings in the neighborhood. The slate for the 2024 AHNA Executive Board and Officers will be presented. Neighborhood Patrol Officer Andy Moquecho will tell us what’s happening on the streets of Arlington Heights in his monthly neighborhood crime report.
Guest speaker: Kakkie Cunningham. Kakkie is a certified Texas Master Naturalist with a specialty of gardening for critters, particularly winged ones. Learn all about monarch butterflies and their migration through Fort Worth that starts in late September through October. Kakkie’s fascinating presentation “Chasing Monarchs: The Migration, Catching and Tagging of Monarch Butterflies” will include video and photographs of these important pollinators. In addition to serving as a long-time board member in Arlington Heights Neighborhood Association, Kakkie volunteers at the Fort Worth Nature Center.
Photo by Kakkie Cunningham
Vending Nut Company is providing free nibbles for the meeting. THANK YOU!
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CITY SELLING NINE HOMES IN ARLINGTON HEIGHTS
The City of Fort Worth has put up for sale nine homes on Carleton and Western Aves. in Arlington Heights. The City acquired the homes over the last several years from homeowners who voluntarily sold them because of drainage challenges in this particular area of the neighborhood. Some of the homes have taken in water during intense downpours; some have never taken in water. The City bought the homes and was considering demolishing all of them to put in a stormwater detention project similar to the one by Walgreen’s on Bryce Ave. and Hulen Ave., but about four times larger. The City cautioned neighbors to not expect the project to significantly improve the drainage in the area.
Nearby neighbors successfully petitioned the City to abandon the detention project plans and keep the area residential. This summer, the City issued a Notice of Sale (NOS) for the homes. The plan is for the City to sell all nine homes to a single residential developer who, in turn, can sell to individuals once the sale with the City is complete. There is no minimum bid. Here is the link to all of the details about the sale: https://www.fortworthtexas.gov/departments/property-management/real-estate-division/real-property-sales-section (scroll down to Special Bid Sale Information).
This Wednesday September 20, 2023 from 9:00AM until 1:00PM, the nine homes will be opened for interested parties to tour. The homes will also be opened for touring this Thursday September 21, 2023 from 1:00PM to 5:00PM. It’s not necessary to pre-register to take a tour. Before entering each home, visitors must sign a waiver to walk through the property. These site visits are open to anyone with a potential interest in the redevelopment of the properties to help them in their decision making process. At this time, there are no other tours of the inside of the homes scheduled.
This sale is an exceptional development opportunity in the highly desirable Arlington Heights neighborhood where property values continue to increase at a surprising rate. Here are some of the highlights in the Notice of Sale:
• No minimum bid required. A recent appraisal of the homes resulted in a negative value after taking into account the typical profit margin developers expect to get from projects they undertake.
• Bids are due by November 30, 2023.
• All lots must have single family homes on them. No lots can be left empty with no homes on them.
• The City is not offering the properties for sale individually. It will sell all nine properties to a single developer only, but allows the developer to turn around and re-sell individual homes to separate parties.
• The existing homes must either be elevated two feet above flood level, or demolished and redeveloped with new homes that are two feet above flood level. The amount of required elevation for each house varies, between 3.21 feet and 4.48 feet. Anything under 5 feet is considered a “low lift” in the trade. All the houses are on pier and beam, except for the new build on Western, but all are capable of being elevated successfully, according to a report by an expert lifting company out of Houston that the City hired as a consultant.
• Adverse risks to nearby property owners must be mitigated.
• Developer(s) has four years to complete the project.
For more information, contact the City’s Real Estate Division of Property Management at 817-392-6253 or 817-392-7590.
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SEPTEMBER YARD OF THE MONTH
Despite the brutal summer, most of the plants in the front yard of 4816 Pershing Ave. managed to survive and some even thrived.
Martha and Louis Felini will be the first to tell you that neither of them have green thumbs or a sense of landscape design. They’re self-proclaimed novices who are learning about how to take care of plants.
When the historic winter freeze hit in 2021, they lost just about everything in their front yard. “I felt horrible,” says Louis. “I didn’t want to have the worst yard in the neighborhood.” So, they commissioned landscape architect Nancy Spradling with Changing Color to develop a plan for them. Their only direction to Nancy was to make sure her landscape design complemented the architecture of their 1925 vintage bungalow. They also wanted hardy plants that were low maintenance and dog-friendly. “We left it in her hands,” explains Louis.
Once Nancy completed the design, the installation has been unfolding in stages, starting with the front yard. Nancy’s crew worked from sun up to sun down for a week to get the front yard installed. “It was shock and awe for us,” admits Louis who says the crew ripped out all the grass, stripping it down to the dirt. And then sodded it with zoysia that now covers the front like a tightly woven plush carpet. It’s hardy through the summer heat and chokes out weeds, according to Louis.
This was the first full season for the Felini’s front yard. Unlike most of their neighbors, most of their plants survived this year’s unrelenting summer heat. The main bed in front of the porch is anchored by a line of Majestic Beauty Indian Hawthorns. In front of them is a line of Gulf Green Indian Hawthorns. At the front of the bed are Knock Out roses that are still blooming. Next to them were Emerald Spreader Junipers that succumbed to the heat. Another summer casualty is the line of Taxus Densiformis along the east side of the house.
The two Japanese Yew at each end of the front bed didn’t skip a beat. Same for the centerpiece dish planter filled with periwinkles on a bed of cobblestones. The periwinkles love the heat, as long as they get watered. The planter gets changed out twice a year with seasonal color.
Two front porch pots are filled with pyramid-shaped boxwoods. Martha says one of the biggest selling points when they bought their house in 2019 was the big front porch. “We spend a lot time out there,” she says.
Martha loves her pleasant drive through Arlington Heights every morning as she goes to work at University of North Texas Health Science Center. She is an Associate Professor in Pediatric Medicine at the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine and is also an epidemiologist who studies gene and environmental influences on cancer risk and disparities.
Louis is a retired sergeant with the Dallas Police Department who now runs his own security service company in Fort Worth.
Courtesy of Arlington Heights Neighborhood Association, the Felinis received a $25 gift certificate to Archie’s Gardenland and a year’s membership in AHNA.
If you see an award-worthy yard, even your own, please let us know by sending the address to president@arlingtonheightsna.com.
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NEW PARKING LOT FOR COMMUNITY CENTER
Construction on the new Thomas Place Community Center parking lot came to an unexpected halt, but should be completed in October.
Everything was going along just fine on the new parking lot project at Thomas Place Community Center. The plan is to replace the asphalt with concrete and add a few islands in the middle of it. But, the project hit a snag when it came to the dumpster enclosure. So, it’s back to the drawing board with expectations that everything will be completed sometime in October. National Night Out will be held on the center’s soccer field on Tuesday October 3, with the possibility of temporarily closing off Lafayette Ave. for the night. Stay tuned, but the party will absolutely go on at the center this year.
Thomas Place Community Center has been on a roll lately. Despite being one of the city’s smallest community centers, Thomas Place is among the top five performing centers in Fort Worth. Its summer and after school programs are in such high demand there are always waiting lists for them. This fall’s after school program serves 75 kids, with another 10 waiting for an opening. More than 100 kids attended summer camp there this year, with another 50 on the waiting list. The recently inaugurated Rising Stars program caters to teens and provides them with skills to succeed in business and in life. Interior renovations at the center are almost done and new exercise equipment is on the way.
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