Sub: Details to be worked out in coming months, potential tie-in for Boo on Ballard
Jump: Recreation Center proposes 5 percent fee increase
By Joe Reavis
In a workshop session, Wylie City Council members gave their support to the Great Texas Magic Festival, a weeklong event leading into to the Boo on Ballard celebration of Wylie Downtown Merchants Association on Oct. 29.
The workshop was held as part of a regular city council session Tuesday, May 12, at city hall.
“Our idea is to elevate and enhance the art of magic,” Dal Sanders, who will serve as chairman of the magic festival, said.
Sanders is immediate past president of Society of American Magicians and worked with Wylie Mayor Eric Hogue to get magic recognized as an art form last year by the U.S. Congress.
The mayor and Sanders see the magic festival as a natural tie-in to Boo on the Square where Wylie’s youth are invited downtown to trick-or-treat at businesses.
The vision for the festival is a week of magic performances and seminars throughout town Oct. 25-31, National Magic Week. Magicians would perform at schools, retirement homes, businesses and other venues, as well as attend seminars and lectures to improve their art.
“There would be something every day leading up to Boo on Ballard,” Hogue says.
The mayor and Sanders stressed that magic is not real, but is a performing arts form that relies on illusions.
Council members indicated their support for the planned magic festival for which details are to be worked out in the coming months.
Budget season has opened for the city and council members, and in a second workshop they heard proposals to increase and make fee structure changes for the Wylie Recreation Center.
The most notable change is a proposal, presented by Robert Diaz, to increase membership rates for the recreation center by five percent, from $175 per year for a resident adult to $185 per year. The five percent increase carries to memberships across the board, but requires council approval to be implemented.
Diaz proposed changing the age for adult membership to 18-54 years from 17-54 years, and the children’s age range to 7-17 from 6-17. Senior citizen rates start at 55 years of age and children under the age of six do not require a recreation pass.
For improved operations of the center, Diaz proposes hiring a full-time front desk manager, develop a 5-year capital improvement plan and drop credit card surcharges for online program registration.
Because the magic festival and proposed recreation center changes were workshop items, the council took no official action on the matters.
Prior to the council meeting, an informal reception was held to thank Councilman Nathan Scott for his service to the city. Scott chose not to seek re-election this year and is retiring from the council.
Birmingham Elementary School student Carter Riggins was recognized as Junior Mayor of Wylie and participated in conducting the council session as well as shadowing the mayor for two days.
A proclamation was read declaring May as Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month and was accepted by representatives of more than a half dozen area motorcycle clubs.
Members of Sons of the American Revolution, Plano Chapter 37, dressed in Revolutionary War uniforms to present the colors to open the council session, then recognized members of the fire and police departments for their service to the community.
Consent agenda items approved by the council included authorizing the mayor to enter into a cooperative agreement for additional law enforcement services between Wylie and Lake Lavon, the final plat for Kreymer Estates that creates 78 single family residential lots on 27.312 acres south of E. Brown St., and amending zoning from Neighborhood Services to Planned Development-Neighborhood Services to accommodate a proposed mixed use development on 11 acres located east of Country Club Road.
0 Comments