Highland Park Talks ‘Best Practices,’ Generosity

Officially the Highland Park Town Council met in an emergency session on Thursday to extend Mayor Margo Goodwin’s “Declaration of a Local Disaster for Public Health Emergency” beyond its initial seven days.

But Town Council Member David Dowler also used the occasion to encourage the town’s residents to think about others during this COVID-19 pandemic.

“I think we should consider helping those less fortunate,” Dowler said.

He recommended creative measures such as pre-buying five haircuts to get later when the situation calms down.

“I’m paying my housekeeper not to come,” he added.

Dowler suggested the town share other ideas for helping. “I think we are a generous community.”

To Readers: If you know of other ideas or efforts to help at this time, please let the newspaper know. Provide news tips here.

Emergency Declaration

Town council members voted to extend the emergency declaration and tie the specifics to a similar order by Dallas County. The county’s order limits recreational gatherings to 10 or fewer to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The town’s declaration will last as long as the county’s does unless the Town Council votes otherwise.

An emergency meeting could be called with two hours of public notice.

“So we can meet pretty quickly to take this up,” Council member Eric Gambrell said.

The vote to approve came with Mayor Margo Goodwin and council members Dowler, Gambrell, Jimmy Grisham, and Craig Penfold sitting spread out around a table with Mayor Pro Tem John McKnight participating remotely via speakerphone.

“I just wanted to do one of the first telephonic votes in Highland Park history,” McKnight said.

Gambrell corrected him, “It’s not one of the first; it’s the first.”

Park Policies

Highland Park is leaving its parks open but closing its playgrounds.

“We want to do best practices,” Gambrell said. Keeping people from touching “the playground equipment is a best practice.”

The town will keep most tennis courts open but will shut down the two middle ones in Fairfax Park to separate groups of players and avoid a recreational gathering of 10 or more.

“That’s the right solution,” McKnight said. “That way, we don’t have to count heads.”

Steven Alexander, the town’s chief financial officer and director of administrative services, said the town would use signs initially to alert people that playgrounds are off-limits but could fence the equipment off if residents don’t comply voluntarily.

Otherwise, usage of the park should be OK as long as there are no organized activities, and residents separate themselves while taking walks or kicking balls.

“I don’t want to criminalize it at all,” he said.

William Taylor

William Taylor, editor of Park Cities People and Preston Hollow People, shares a name and a birthday with his dad and a love for community journalism with his colleagues at People Newspapers. He joined the staff in 2016 after more than 25 years working for daily newspapers in such places as Alexandria, Louisiana; Baton Rouge; McKinney; San Angelo; and Sherman, though not in anywhere near that order. A city manager once told him that “city government is the best government” because of its potential to improve the lives of its residents. William still enjoys covering municipal government and many other topics. Follow him on Twitter @Seminarydropout. He apologizes in advance to the Joneses for any angry Tweets that might slip out about the Dallas Cowboys during the NFL season. You also can reach him at william.taylor@peoplenewspapers.com. For the latest news, click here to sign up for our newsletter.

One thought on “Highland Park Talks ‘Best Practices,’ Generosity

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *