Citizens For Missouri City's Future

Missouri City Police Officers Sponsor Charity Golf Tournament

The Missouri City Police Officer’s Association (MCPOA) takes their “protect and serve” mission seriously. We know they do a great job protecting, but did you know they raised money for community service and have been doing it for 31 years?

The 31^st Annual Charity Police Invitational Golf Scramble (P.I.G.S.) will be held Friday, August 8 at Missouri City’s Golf Course at  Quail Valley.  This tournament is always a fun day and that's why it has lasted 31 years! 

Over the years the proceeds from this event have benefited various community outreach efforts for kids, families in need, and helped families of officers. This year in addition to outreach programs, proceeds from the tournament will be earmarked to provide educational scholarships in honor of Officer Damian Bucker and Sergeant Andrew Svoboda.

You can have fun and benefit our community by encouraging MCPOA involvement in the community, supporting various groups from boys and girls little league and Special Olympics to Toys for Santa’s Sack, Fort Bend Child Advocates and many other worthy local endeavors as well as supporting our new city golf course!

The 4 person team, “Handicapped Florida Scramble” format is open to the first 36 paid teams to sign up by August 4, 2008. 10:30 registration box lunch with a noon shotgun start that includes golf pack with shirt, hat/visor and door prizes. Fees are $100 per participant or $115 player with a guest for dinner.

The public is also invited to participate in the dinner for $20 each. Contact Preston Cates at 281 403-1198 for more information or to sign up and support the Missouri City Police Officers Association.

 

 

It's Official: Missouri City CNN #56 Best Places to Live

We're not the only one to recognize that Missouri City is a great place to WORK   LIVE    PLAY

CNN's Money Best 100 Places to live ranks us 56.

56.  Missouri City, TX

WINNER

Top 100 rank: 56
Population: 73,600
Compare Missouri City to Top 10 Best Places

The land now claimed as Missouri  City  was once advertised for sale in  St. Louis as "a land of genial sunshine and eternal summer." The  Houston  suburb catches plenty of rays (and humidity) to match.

Located just southwest of Houston, this former bedroom    community is growing into its own place with a combination of rapid commercial development and still underdeveloped land.

Families enjoy the several master planned residential communities and parks and an acclaimed school district.

The above is the caption from the story, but go see for yourself!

Scroll to Number 64 to see our nearest neighbor.

Independence Day was Special!

Missouri City had a special Independence Day this year. The Fourth Celebration at Buffalo Run Park had something for all ages and was a wholesome family event with a cool band, Hamilton Loomis and many new activities including boating, kayaking, extreme bicycle sports, snakes and the normal fun of mingling with your neighbors.

This event was well-executed and just plain fun.

Doug Carter took some extremely beautiful photos that capture how much I personally enjoyed the evening! The fireworks were wow! and so was everything else.

Mounting an event in a new venue is always a challenge, but the City pulled it off! For me, Buffalo Run Park is a winning venue. The lake view of the fire works was spectacular, but the closer proximity of the stage and events area gave you an up close view of fireworks that was different from the photos and equally impressive. It reminded me of the fireworks in the movie Avalon, but these were really fancy with rings, hearts and all kinds of shapes and colors. As one individual said in a very approving way, "the City spent some money on these fireworks."

But that wasn't all . . . Missouri City also, through declaring eminent domain, made us independent of an organization neglecting and blighting our community.

As one Missouri City resident from Heritage Oaks  remarked,  "Upon visiting Buffalo Run Park and the 'new golf course park,' it was  the first time I had felt proud of Missouri City." Do you think our City has made some wise investments? I do!

We also need to give City employees our thanks. They work a lot of hours to develop events (and on holidays for most of us) and they achieved not one, but two this Fourth with the Fourth Celebration and re-opening the La Quinta Golf Course at the new city park and recreation center in Quail Valley.

Come out and enjoy the beauty, play a round of golf or have something to eat or drink. Food and beverage is still packaged sandwiches and soft drinks, but more is to come including areas for meetings.

There's been a steady traffic on the golf course with things running smoothly. A junior tournament is about to be held and the Missouri City Police Officer's Association holds the 31st Annual Charity Police Invitational Golf Scramble Golf Tournament, Friday, August 8. Not only do these men and women have a sense of humor, but also they are raising money for the many charities they support. They will provide scholarships in the names of deceased officers Damian Buckner and Sgt. Andrew Svoboda as well. To down load more information, Download pigs_newsprint_poster.pdf

There are so many opportunities to WORK, LIVE and PLAY in Missouri City, make sure you're not missing out on them.

Click on images to enlarge them. Small does not do them justice! Thank you, Doug Carter for letting us share them.

Yes, it was a special Independence Day. . .

 

 

 

Beauty, Birds, Flowers Return

Open land is beautiful. However, an unkempt golf course going wild does not send the same message as a meadow or open field. An unkempt golf course reflects lack of pride.

Missouri City restored pride to the center of our city.

Our picture of the 18th El Dorado Fairway is a return of beauty. It also tells another story. The fairways can regenerate with care. The greens will have to be replaced  . . . we have a telling photo at the end of this piece.

The most interesting thing, I had not seen the Ibises all summer. By mid June, there are Ibis and Spoonbills. Well, I saw the Ibis as soon as the tall grass was cut and scared out some food. I had never thought about it, but the grass had either gotten too tall even for their long bills or they could not be seen for the tall grass. This photo taken by the creek just west of the golf shop.

The trees are now being cared for--dead trees and limbs removed. All trees are under stress this summer due to the hot and dry conditions. The City will start to water these areas. There are large cracks in the ground even with recent rains. If your trees or your neighbors trees are stressed or you just want to prevent stress, our City Forester, Paul Wierzbicki, wrote an excellent article you can view here under tree care.

Flowers are also returning to areas that have not seen them in some time.

The corner of Cartwright and Murphy road is much improved, but the green will have to be replaced. It is now weeds or bare soil.

Click onto the images to enlarge them.

The Mayor Promised a Small Army

Mayor Allen Owen promised a small army to mow the grass and they did so from the El Dorado #16 to #7. What that means to the community is that you don't have to be embarrassed  any  longer  on Murphy Road or Cartwright and other highly visible streets such as El Dorado or Hampton are seeing the difference from the streets and yards.

It will take a small army to get the a highly visible center of Missouri City back in shape. This is only the first pass of mowing the area, as the Mayor said, "They will be mowing every piece of ground we have. End to end, side to side on La Quinta, El Dorado, The Executive, Par 3 and all other grounds. They will be mowing, edging cart paths, trimming trees, putting sand in bunkers on La Quinta, killing fire ants, operating the sprinkler systems on all courses, and we will dress up the holes along 1092 and Cartwright with sand in the bunkers and do the cosmetic things that will give us our "curb appeal" again as people travel though the neighborhood and City. We will continue to look at how we can get at least 9 of the El Dorado holes back to some sort of playable condition. We are looking at doing that with the 9 holes that were part of the original El Dorado course. Needless to say, that is going to take much more time since it has gone to weeds and ant hills. Probably no sooner than 90 days depending on a lot of factors."

Upon completing aerial photography today, the mowing commenced about 2:30 pm. It was met by neighbors, families and just people delighted to see the progress. It has taken a lot of pluck to stay the course on this and many families who decided not to be bullied and fight are relieved. While we know it took time to get in this condition and will require much work to continue, the first visible rewards for the entire area and its sub-divisions came today.

There has been much hard work, negotiation and lots of balls in the air kept afloat by city employees. What we have to show for it is golf opens to the public on July 4th, 5th and 6th. The golf course will close Monday, but re-open on Tuesday.

For the interim, golf will be on a first come, first serve basis. Fees are competitive to other daily fee courses and will be:

• Round of golf -- 18 holes        $23.00
• Cart Rental (per person)        $12.00
• Trail fee (personal cart)         $ 7.00

There may be a few bumps to iron out, but this is a time to come enjoy as Missouri City turns a new chapter in making Missouri City a great place to WORK, LIVE and PLAY . . . for many interests.

My spouse and I just enjoyed walking along the mowed fairways and greens . . . and look forward to many more evenings of enjoying Missouri City's newest park and recreational area.

Again, we thank Jim Young for the photos and capturing a day of new beginnings. Click on the photos to enlarge them.

 

Progress Report on QVCC Take Over

We got a progress report from Mayor Owen this morning.

• We are moving as quickly as we can. We can not mow El Dorado at all until we get our aerial photos done. Those photos will be critical to our court case so we have to get them done. Weather and scheduling with the plane has delayed that. They are to fly it today and once they finish we can begin.
• We are mowing La Quinta today so we can open on Friday for golf play. The company we are using had to hire the current employee from the Club that maintained all the grounds and they did that yesterday.
• As quickly as we can, they will then switch their efforts to El Dorado, The Executive, and the Par 3.
• We are beginning to fill the lakes also.

Mayor Owen added, "I know people want immediate results but it will take some time."

NEWS FLASH, POSTED AT 12:35 pm July, 2, 2008. At 12:25 the helicopter was flying sideways taking pictures over El Dorado #1. Let's hope weather allows them to complete the job today. I would think flying sideways for photography takes a lot of skill and good weather!

UPDATE AT 1:39 pm. Poor weather has rolled in . . . let's hope the pilots weren't grounded!

UPDATE AT 2:30 pm. Mowing has begun on El Dorado #16.

The Future Group wants the City to do this right. We want this take over to work. Preparing for the court case is the City's first priority and having aerial photographs are critical to this case. The photos in this story were taken by Jim Young on Friday and not enhanced. However, the panoramas that Jim prepared and viewable from the link below require a photo program to provide the wide angle views. Photo enhancement can be challenged in Court.

Let's hope the planes can fly today, but if they can't we've tolerated this for almost a year. A few days is nothing!

My experience from filling the lakes on the Par 3, that will start and then stop for the health department to test the water for bacteria. After that is done, the filling can resume and finish the job.

Press here to see more dramatic evidence needs to be recorded properly.