October 2023 Newsletter | North College Park Neighborhood Association

www.ncpna.org

National Night Out

National Night Out, A great Success

National Night Out on Tuesday, October 3rd, attracted over 200 people who enjoyed great weather, burgers, tacos and sandwiches from the Grill LLC Food Truck and Kona Ice. The popular Berkner Drum Line gave a another great performance and young children were excited to meet Chase from Paw Patrol, a popular cartoon show. Our Richardson First Responders dropped by as did our City Council member Curtis Dorian. Local merchants, especially Applebee’s, donated items for our many door prizes!

We collaborated with the College Park and Town North neighborhood associations for our biggest event in many years! Thanks to our volunteers who helped promote, set up and tear down the event! See photos here.

Robert Grinsfelder
Cell: 972.313.5053
rmgrins@aol.com

Special Halloween Yard of the Month Selection!

The top 10 Halloween-themed decorated homes will be selected on Halloween weekend. A special newsletter will be sent sharing photos of the homes with a ballot for neighbors to vote on their top two choices. The winners will be posted on Facebook and in our regular November newsletter! We invite all neighbors to participate and wish everyone a happy and safe Halloween.

Book Club

Thank you to everyone who joined us in discussing Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt on Saturday! It was incredible to hear about Shelby’s writing process from those who were able to attend her lecture. Thank you to Linda Vaughn for hosting and providing snacks! Our next book will be The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab. We will meet on Saturday, October 28 from 1-3pm at Liz Waits’ home. Please we already have some mixed reviews over this one, so needless to say, it will be a good one to discuss! If you are looking for a copy of the book and cannot find one, I have a copy I would be happy to loan out, just let me know!

If you’d like to get on our book club list, please email: spateshannah@gmail.com. Happy Reading!

Huffines Harvest Fest

For over 46 years, the two day festival formerly known as the Huffhines Art Trails, celebrates local makers, food vendors, live music and family fun along the trails of Huffhines Park.

Saturday and Sunday, October 21st and 22nd at Huffines Park

Huffhines Harvest Fest is produced by the City of Richardson and held on the third weekend each October. More information.

Pawtoberfest

Pawtoberfest is a “Special Feature” of Huffhines Harvest Fest, held only on Saturday, October 21. Admission is free!

Come join us for a day in the park with your pup and friends while sipping craft beer, enjoying delicious goodies from the food trucks, listening to live music, shopping from vendors, and participating in other fun activities! More information.

Veteran’s Day Thanks & Giving Yoga + Brunch

Please join us for an all-ages/all-abilities Gratitude Yoga and brunch on 11/18 at 9am. This will be an instructor-led gentle yoga practice with bubbly beverages and pastries to follow at Glenville Park. In addition to yoga, we’ve registered with “Treats for Troops” for a special opportunity to give back. If you have leftover candy from Halloween or simply want to buy more to donate, we will collect any individually wrapped candy during the event. You can read more about the organization here.

Update on Rainbow Water Main/Road Construction

If you live on or have passed Rainbow, you have seen what a mess we have been dealing with ever since last April, now going on our sixth month. When will it ever end is the question on everybody’s mind. Well, the folks we’ve spoken to at the City of Richardson say that construction will be wrapping up by the end of October, so the end is in sight, hopefully! The problem that delayed everything for so long apparently was the water quality test. So now that we’ve finally gotten past that, we will have one more water service outage to undergo on Monday, October 16 from 9:00 to 3:00 to isolate the water mains and close the existing valves and hopefully get our street finally back to normal.

Community Flag Program

To keep our costs down we have a volunteer flag team who help deploy and retrieve the flags. If you can place and remove the flags on your street it would be very helpful. We can deliver and pickup the flags at your home. Next flag placement will be Veterans Day November 11th.

We now have over 100 flags flying in North College Park! If you are willing to help with this activity, please contact Janice Gromadin at Elway100@gmail.com.

RCPAAA Electronics Recycling and Paper Shredding Event

Event Date: October 28, 2023, from 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Location: Old Sears parking behind Lowes

All types of electronics are accepted with the exception of the old “tube” style TVs and monitors. No hazardous materials; such as fluorescent bulbs and batteries.

Paper only, no binders or other material. Paper clips & staples are okay.

Contain paper in plastic grocery bags or small boxes. Volunteers will remove them from your car, and return empty boxes/bags

Paper will be shredded on-site if possible – otherwise, the paper will be secured and taken to the shredding company’s warehouse for shredding.

Paper shredding is designed to help prevent identity theft. The recycling and shredding services for up to five (5) boxes or bags are free for locals residents. A minimum donation of $5.00 for additional boxes. A box is a standard banker’s box about 10x12x18. Only paper documents containing personal information should be brought for shredding.

Sensitive documents only, use normal recycle for other paper.

This is a fund raiser for RCPAAA which helps pay for programs supporting the Richardson Police Department personnel and to help educate the community throughout the year. The RCPAAA contracts with the shredding company for the use of their trucks and employees. This is a significant expense paid for by the RCPAAA (not the City of Richardson)! Please be generous with your donations.

Crime Watch Patrol

If you are willing to help with Crime Watch Patrol, please contact Doug Freeman at d1004free@aol.com to sign up.

Solicitors in the Area

After the recent hailstorm. we have been having lots of solicitors from roofing companies in our neighborhood. If you see solicitors in the area please call RPD to report them at 972-744-4801 or 911. Solicitors should not knock on doors or ring doorbells of any home that has a No Soliciting sign on their front door.

All solicitors must have a city of Richardson Permit visible on their person. The city permit is mandatory and very important as it means the city has checked them out to make sure they are a legitimate roofing business.

It is always best to use a roofing company that you know and trust rather than using a roofing company that may not even be local. Sometimes roofing companies come in here from other states and are showing up in neighborhoods after a serious hailstorm and they may not do a good job and then they leave the area and you have no way to contact them.

If they request any up front monies that is a red flag also. You should never pay the company up front for any of the work or materials.

House Number Project

The house number project is still alive and well. Volunteers will make a sign at no charge for your back fence to comply with city regulations. These numbers make it easier for emergency services to find your residence.

Membership

Thanks to everyone who is supporting the association. Your memberships and volunteerism makes our neighborhood better and more enjoyable for everyone.

If you missed the renewal, it’s not too late.

You may pay your membership by credit card, Zelle™ or personal check. Details on the membership page: ncpna.org/join. If you pay by Zelle™, be sure and include your name and street address in the message block so we can match you payment with you!

As part of membership you can opt for the Rotary Flag program and membership for $65.

Membership alone is $25.

If you have questions about the association, please contact Robert Grinsfelder rmgrins@aol.com

Help Plan Or Staff Our Special Events

We need more neighbors involved in helping to plan and work at our special events. These include the Spring Celebration, our Backyard Tour event, the 4th of July parade/caravan and party, our National Night Out and other new events in the works! Please contact Robert Grinsfelder at rmgrins@aol.com for more information!

North College Park Neighborhood Facebook Group

NCPNA has an active private Facebook group. One of the administrators will quickly approve your admission to the group. Click here to go to the group page: facebook.com/groups/ncpna

This newsletter is the collaboration of several of your neighbors. It would not be possible without their support, thank you!

If you did not receive this newsletter in your email, you can easily sign up to receive your very own copy. We send out a newsletter every month with an occasional special email. We promise to not share your email address and we won’t drown you in emails. Go to http://ncpna.org/enews and fill out the form. Be sure and look for the confirmation email and confirm the subscription.

About North College Park Neighborhood Association

NCPNA is a neighborhood association, and unlike a homeowner’s association, we do not have any authority over anyone’s property. We sponsor activities and projects to help make our neighborhood a more pleasant and safe place to live. Volunteers are always needed, and we look forward to hearing about new ways to achieve our collective goals.

Contact Robert Grinsfelder at rmgrins@aol.com if you can help with any of these activities.