Tag Archives: Princeton TX

local news

City facing plenty of teeth-gnashing

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Princeton, Texas, is a community in transition. How do I know that? Because it is moving rapidly from its former status as a tiny burg to a community of considerable consequence.

Part of that transition is going to involve traffic improvements. How does the city improve traffic flow while it is in the middle of rapid-growth mode? By tearing up streets and forcing residents and visitors to the city around construction sites.

In short, we’d all better prepare ourselves for an extended period of teeth-gnashing, grumbling and flashes of anger.

The Texas Department of Transportation is going to tear U.S. Highway 380 up in the next year or so. TxDOT plans to widen the highway that runs east-west through Princeton; it will add a lane in either direction. If I owned a business along the highway I would be, um, upset with the disruption of access to my property.

That’s just one part of what awaits U.S. 380. Later, TxDOT will build a freeway bypass that will take motorists away from the existing highway, clearing it of much of the traffic that slows to a virtual stop at least twice each day.

The city has two major street jobs underway. A significant portion of Myrick Boulevard is being remade. So is Second Avenue. The city has erected detour signs, sending motorists along routes that take them out of their way.

I want to caution everyone about something they know in their hearts, but which they likely forget at times. It is that the construction won’t last forever and that the result of that construction is going to produce better-quality rights-of-way. The streets won’t be as bumpy and pothole marked as they are at the moment.

Our tax dollars are going to be working for us. I’m OK with it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Streets: City’s job No. 1

As I run my errands through the city where we live, Princeton — a fast-growing city in Collin County, Texas — I am struck by the number of “Road Closed” and “Road Work” signs I see.

Which brings me immediately to my point. Princeton is tending to an issue that is on the minds and lips of many residents with whom I visit from time to time.

The quality of our streets is, um, horrible.

The city just completed an extension of Beauchamp Boulevard, which is two blocks from the home my bride and I bought nearly four years ago. It is now working on a total remaking of Second Street. Myrick Boulevard, south of our neighborhood, is being widened and beautified into a work of civil-engineering art.

Your tax dollars at work? You bet! Do I object to that expense? Not in the least bit!

This is what cities are empowered to do. They are obligated, in my view, to make it as easy as humanly possible for residents to travel from point to point.

There will be plenty of grumbling from those who encounter the detours and “Road Closed” signs. Let ’em grumble. That’s their right.

I am going to accept that this is the cost of progress in a growing community. I am paying my taxes to finance this work. The best news? There’s an end to it!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Expressing thanks for charter vote

My attention has been focused since Election Day on the national implications of the midterm election and on Democrats’ astonishing performance in keeping control of the Senate and cutting Republicans’ effort to gain control of the House.

But here in Princeton, Texas, we had an important election that affects the manner in which our city government will be able to do business.

Fifty-six percent of the voters who cast ballots approved a city charter for the city where my wife and I have lived for nearly four years. This is an important step toward what I call “municipal adulthood.”

Princeton is a city in a serious growth mode. Our population is exploding, and I believe firmly that the outcome at the ballot box was determined by the numbers of new residents who decided to lift the city into the 21st century. The final tally was 2,257 votes in favor compared to 1,787 votes against.

Princeton had been governed as a “general law” city, meaning its laws were set by the Texas Legislature. The city had tried four times previously to approve a charter; it failed all four times, chiefly because of opposition from those who lived outside the city limits. Think of the irony. These charter foes opposed it because of annexation concerns, yet they couldn’t even cast ballots to oppose it, as the referendum was limited only to those who live inside the city’s corporate limits.

Well, the annexation matter has been settled. The city’s voters turned out in significantly greater numbers than they had in previous elections to approve the charter.

This means the city now can set its own rules, which is necessary for a growing community such as ours.

it was a good day, indeed, for those of us who are concerned about the tone of the Republican Party’s rhetoric. Election Day 2022 also proved to be a good day for those of us who favored Princeton’s City Hall’s decision to ask for voters’ permission to run its affairs with a home-rule charter.

To their great credit, our neighbors in Princeton answered the call.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Princeton enters ‘adulthood’

Finally, it happened. Princeton, Texas, took a big step Tuesday toward municipal adulthood when its voters approved enactment of a home-rule charter that gives the city a measure of independence that many residents sought.

The election turned out well for the city, with 56% of voters approving a home-rule charter. More than 4,000 residents cast their ballots, which was a significant improvement in turnout from the four previous electoral failures the city endured.

Texas law requires cities to have a population of 5,000 or more inhabitants to conduct home-rule charter elections; Princeton crossed that threshold long ago. It just couldn’t get enough voters to approve previous charter proposals.

Until this week.

The city’s population has exploded since the 2010 Census. Our city now comprises something north of 20,000 inhabitants. The number is growing damn near daily. We need a home rule charter. Thanks to the wisdom of most of the voters who cast their ballots on Tuesday, Princeton is going to be able to govern itself.

It will be able to set its own zoning rules. It will allow residents to recall city council members who mess up. Princeton now will be able to set its own rules and no longer will have to rely on legislators who live far away in this huge state.

Princeton is now taking a step into the realm of communities that are all grown up and are able to make decisions on their own without permission from Big Brother.

What in the name of sound government can be wrong with that?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

economic news, local news

Growth is great, however …

A Princeton, Texas public school administrator told me something the other evening that I didn’t appreciate fully … until this morning when I ventured to our local Post Office to take care of some routine business.

Princeton School Superintendent Don McIntyre mentioned how “out of control growth” in a community can be troublesome for educators who need to plan for how best to educate the children pouring into a school system.

This morning, I walked into our Post Office at the moment it opened and found that I was one of about 30 people already waiting for the doors to open.

You want growth? We have it in this Collin County community.

I mention my experience this morning because of what I am certain was the norm, say, about a decade ago when Princeton’s population stood at just a shade less than 7,000 residents. Today, that number appears to be well past 20,000, maybe nearer to 30,000.

This place is booming, man!

I know this is a little thing but going to the Post Office when the place opens shouldn’t require one to spend nearly an hour waiting to conduct a routine matter that should have been resolved in less than a minute.

I happened to encounter my mail carrier later in the day and told her what happened to me this morning. “They only have one person waiting on customers,” she told me. I know that, I said. She said something about having a new postmaster on duty in Princeton, to which I said we need to find a new postmaster general to run the operation from the top.

In actuality, what I learned today is that our new hometown is underserved by the U.S. Postal Service. Its distribution center here is nowhere near large enough to accommodate the volume of human traffic that uses it.

Hey, I am all for growth. I am pleased to be part of the inbound migration that found a forever home in this bustling city. My wife and I could not be any happier with the decision we made.

I just wish at this moment that the higher-ups could do a better job of anticipating the chaos that develops occasionally at places like the Post Office. That part is no fun at all.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Hoping to see this project done

My next-door neighbor and I were chatting just a little while ago and he reminded me of something I already knew, which is that the traffic on U.S. 380 just north of where we live is horrendous in the extreme.

We laughed about the impossibility of traveling east on 380 from Princeton to Farmersville at 5 p.m. I drive it a few times each month to cover events in Farmersville for the Farmersville Times and I have to build in extra drive time because of the traffic jam along U.S. 380.

Then the subject turned to what the Texas Department of Transportation has planned to help alleviate that traffic. TxDOT is going to build a series of bypass routes around communities between Denton and Greenville.

It’s a long-term project … to say the bare minimum.

Indeed, I told my neighbor — a much younger man than I am — that I probably won’t live long enough to see it completed.

However, I am going to offer some hope that I can see it occur.

The idea is to build freeway bypasses around communities such as Princeton. Those who want to keep on truckin’ can just stay on the freeway; those who have business to do in Princeton or in any community along the U.S. 380 corridor will be able to exit.

TxDOT has done a good job so far of keeping the communities along the way informed of its plans. It has held town hall meetings, opened itself up to plenty of questions from affected residents and sought to explain its long-term strategy in building the bypasses — which TxDOT doesn’t like to call what it intends for the 60-mile-long corridor.

The traffic only is going to worsen along U.S. 380. Collin County is in major growth mode, as are the communities stretched along the highway corridor.

I suppose I am left, therefore, to use this post to implore TxDOT to get busy building the highway. I want to live long enough to see it finished.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

City needs to wipe away annexation myth

Whoever leads the Princeton, Texas, citizens campaign to approve a home-rule charter will have to destroy a myth that doomed the city’s latest effort at winning voter approval of this proposal.

It’s the myth of annexation. More specifically, it is the myth that a home-rule charter gives a city carte blanche to seize property at will.

It does not.

The 2017 Texas Legislature enacted a law that requires property owners to grant approval of any annexation effort by a city. That includes, quite naturally, Princeton. Yet the city’s most recent election, which occurred after the law took effect, went down because property owners outside the city limits put the scare into residents over the annexation matter.

Well, the city has exploded in size since then. Thousands more people live in the city, which saw its population effectively triple from the 2010 census to the 2020 census.

Princeton long ago grew into a city that needs to govern its own future, rather than running as a “general law” city subject to laws enacted by the Legislature.

City Hall, of course, cannot campaign on behalf of this project. State law prohibits local governments from spending public money on political campaigns. That leaves the campaigning for this project up to a citizens panel.

My best advice is for the campaign committee to zero in on the annexation myth that — according to some City Hall observers — simply refuses to die.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Population sign already obsolete

Whenever they get around to posting these signs at the Princeton city limits, the city and the Texas Department of Transportation will have to consider replacing them with fresh signs … and numbers.

The 2020 Census puts Princeton’s population at 17,027 residents; the 2010 Census had our once-sleepy little town at 6,807 individuals. The increase has nearly tripled between those two Census periods. 

However, the 17,027 figure already is old news. I can tell you that without a doubt there are many more people living in Princeton at this moment than there were when they stopped counting for the most recent Census.

If I were in charge of keeping track of that number, I would go dizzy trying to catch up with the rapid growth that is occurring along our stretch of U.S. 380 in Collin County, Texas.

I’m just sayin’, man.

For sure, our city is far from alone in this exercise in frustration. McKinney is exploding, as is Plano, Wylie, Farmersville, Frisco, Allen, Anna, Prosper, Melissa and many other North Texas communities. 

When you see the 17,027-resident figure whenever they post the next signs at the edges of our city, just know that the number doesn’t mean a thing. The real number of residents no doubt is far greater.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Princeton takes major step forward

The city my wife and I now call home today took a major step forward with a wind-swept ceremony welcoming the opening of its new municipal complex.

Princeton, Texas, has for a few weeks been operating its city government out of a shiny new complex just east of Princeton High School on the north side of U.S. Highway 380.

They cut a ribbon today, listened to some music from a local band, and served some finger food and assorted treats to those of us who came to the event.

It’s a big deal! Check that … it’s a very big deal!

As City Manager Derek Borg noted, the city moved from its cramped 3,400-square foot city building on Main Street into a rented site on U.S. 380 about two decades ago. Then a landowner donated some property to the city, which then floated some certificates of obligation to pay for construction of what they unveiled officially today.

The complex today comprises about 60,000 square feet — or about 20 times the size of the Main Street office. It will serve the city “for decades to come,” Borg said.

To be clear, they aren’t yet finished putting all the finishing touches on the property surrounding the complex. They’re still laying down sod and are sweeping the dirt off the paved walkways around the wetland next to City Hall.

I just have to tell you, though, that the new complex is beaut.

Mayor Brianna Chacon and Borg both have stipulated that the city hall design featuring lots of glass is meant to symbolize the city’s intent to govern in a “transparent” fashion. Given that I still am new to Princeton, and I lack institutional knowledge of how the city has run until now, I will withhold comment on Princeton’s governmental history.

However, I will offer a word of hope that the symbolism expressed by the design of the municipal complex translates to actual transparency as the city spends the investment we taxpayers are making.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Rainbows shine a light of peace

First, an admission: I didn’t take this picture; it showed up on my Facebook feed and I grabbed it to post here.

Someone who lives in my neighborhood snapped it. However, I just want to offer a brief comment on it.

The rainbow came after two hailstorm bursts that pounded our North Texas subdivision. The rain is moving east. It caused a bit of uproar around here. Hailstones the size of medium-sized marbles forced a few of us to move our vehicles indoors; we moved our pickup (most of the way) into our garage.

However, the rainbow after the storm just seemed so refreshing and hopeful to my eyes, given all the distress that bombards us these days.

I just had to share this and hope we can some more hopeful signs of light and peace.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com