We put the D in D-DFW!

Yesterday, WFAA CH-8 was in town doing live reports from the Square. It is a part of their "covering our community" attempt to ensure that they do not leave out all of the important communities that make up their audience. I wish that I could have gone down there to watch them go live, it would have been cool, but I had other things going on..

While they were here, they interviewed the new Mayor of Denton, Perry McNeil. He was recently elected in May. He told WFAA that the City of Denton has experienced a great period of growth in the last 20 years; 70K people in 1980 to 108K now in 2006.

The City of Denton is also growing in other ways too with a new hospital (Presby Denton), a new retail shopping center on Loop 288 and a new development at US 380 and IH-35. In addition, there have been a lot of new neighborhoods sprouting up across the area which will keep people in our area.

One thing that we are having a problem with is traffic and mobility. This past may, the DCTA (Denton County Transit Authority) of which the City of Denton is a member, has started a bus line that departs from various points in the city (primarily UNT and a stop at Cinemark) that makes stops in Lewisville, Carrollton and has 8 stops in Downtown Dallas. The city is also working on a new train line that will be apart of the DCTA system and will give us with a light rail system that will also connect us with the DART system in Dallas County and with the TRE, which connects Dallas with Fort Worth. The City also has its own bus line, which hopefully will become more popular as we try to reduce the amount of gas being used. It should be noted that the DCTA buses the new biofuel that is made in the City of Denton with the trash produced by the citizens along with the grease from our local favorite restaurants.

One thing that I thought was cool was that McNeil wants to add an additional "D" to "DFW." He said that if we continue on our current rate of growth, we will be the 3rd largest city in the Metroplex. We are no longer a bedroom community, as there are more companies that are opening for business in Denton and more people are living here and also working here too.

I think that it is a great time to be in the City of Denton because we are getting to watch this "small town" grow into a great city. The City Council should be applauded for their great planning with this transition. They are making great strides to make sure that we have the infastructure to be able to handle the influx of new people and new services that are being provided to the community.

For more info on the City of Denton, you can go to their website at www.cityofdenton.com and for the WFAA bustour, go to www.wfaa.com/bustour. Today they are in Lewisville and will be in Southlake tomorrow..