4th QUARTER FY 2012-2013
Connect through McAllen 311 Mobile Apps
Volunteers from the Valley Initiative for Development and Advancement along with Parks and Recreation Staff work on constructing the Los Encinos Playground.
Encinos Park. Regarding the motivation behind renovating Los Encinos Park, Sally Gavlik, Director of Parks and Recreation said, “We really wanted to find a way to provide playgrounds to as many children as possible. KaBoom! was a perfect choice because they made playground projects a top priority and they had recognized our efforts by designating us a Playful City.” A unique requirement from KaBoom! is to utilize their “communitybuild model”, a process of constructing grants which involves the community in the designing and constructing of the playground. To get design ideas, the Parks and Recreation Department asked children in the after-school program to draw pictures of their “dream” playground. While pictures ranged from the practical to the extreme, some common ideas like a new slide, a climbing structure, and a bridge were some of the most requested features. The Parks and Recreation Department took this to heart and incorporated these wishes into the final playground design. With the project site selected and design completed, the Los Encinos Community-Build took place on the morning of Saturday, August 31 with over 30 volunteers from the Valley Initiative for Development and Advance-
ment (VIDA) as well as, McAllen Parks and Recreation team coming together to help construct the children’s dream playground. The work wasn’t easy but it was rewarding for volunteers and staff alike. Dave Melaas, Deputy Director of Operations said, “This is the first time we’ve ever constructed a playground using the community-build model but judging by the overwhelming positive response of the volunteers we think it’s a great opportunity to engage the community and give the children of the community something to enjoy for years to come.” With the success of the Los Encinos Playground, the Parks and Recreation Department submitted and were awarded another grant from KaBoom! in 2013 to install playground equipment at Uvalde Park. The plan is to utilize the community-build to bring the first playground to Uvalde Park and engage the community with a great project. A tentative community-build day is scheduled in late January and the Parks and Recreation Department could use everyone’s help in making this event even better than the last!
City of McAllen Grant Administration 1300 Houston Ave. or P.O. Box 220 | McAllen, TX 78505-0220
Phone (956)681-1033 | grants@mcallen.net | www.mcallen.net
Story by: Jaime Guzman jguzman@mcallen.net
Scan for more information McAllen 311 mobile app informational video available at www.mcallen.net
Newsletter layout by: Amy Sepulveda, asepulveda@mcallen.net
Playgrounds are an important part of children’s lives. Running, jumping, and climbing all provide children with great exercise while simultaneously building their social skills. The only real problem playgrounds have is their popularity, with people requesting new ones faster than McAllen can build them. Sometimes there is a lack of resources to construct the amount of playgrounds people want but McAllen has made every effort to make playgrounds and parks a top priority. In recognition of these efforts, McAllen has been designated as a Playful City in 2011, 2012, and 2013 by the KaBoom! Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting “play” for children. Building playgrounds is a great endeavor but finding the resources to keep pace with the demand can be challenging. The Parks and Recreation Department knew Los Encinos Park needed new equipment but funding simply was not available. Fortunately, being named a Playful City made McAllen eligible to receive grant funds from the KaBoom! Foundation. With this in mind, the Parks and Recreation Department decided to apply for funding in the amount of $15,000 to completely renovate Los
When it comes to customer service, McAllen always goes above and beyond. On October 1st we launched McAllen 311, both a new Department and a mobile application powered by PublicStuff. The McAllen 311 Call Center is managed by Neo Canales and has three Call Representatives. It was established so that citizens may call (956) 681-3111 with any City-related questions or inquiries. Representatives speak directly to citizens, then route the service request to the right person in the City. The Call Center and City staff use the PublicStuff system not only to receive the information, but also to manage the workflow to assign, track, and closeout the request. “We found a way to leverage our Call Center resources through technology to better serve our residents,” said City Manager Mike Perez. “It was our goal to increase transparency and access to City services by streamlining the process for citizens to receive information.” Available for free in the App Store and Google Play for Apple and Android devices, residents using the McAllen 311 App can submit service requests directly to the City for pothole repair, graffiti removal, overgrown yards, and damaged garbage or recycle bins, among other issues. Residents are also able to attach a photo
with their service request and identify the location. The request is routed to the right person, who is then held accountable for ensuring the service request is addressed. The resident receives an email confirming the request was received, may check the status of the request, and receives updates throughout the progress of the request, including the final notification indicating the issue has been resolved. The service is all done remotely, via mobile phones and through the Web, and it’s all managed by City staff using the back-end software solution. The app also has a variety of widgets that link citizens to Job Opportunities, Metro Bus Routes, Latest City News, a Calendar of Events, an After Hours Contact, and a variety of others. McAllen 311 is also available through the City’s website, which posts a video that informs citizens about submitting requests and provides a general instructional format about the app. However, regardless of whether the citizen contacts the Call Center or submits their service request through the app or the website, status updates are included throughout all phases of the request, ensuring transparency, efficiency, and accountability. Story by: Carla M. Rodriguez carlarodriguez@mcallen.net
FRONT PAGE McAllen is a Citizen-Engaged City ; PAGE 2 Firehouse Subs Opens First Franchise in McAllen with support from MFD; PAGE 3 McAllen Public Library: Making an IMPACT and Make Excel Work for You ; and PAGE 4 Promoting Play in McAllen.
MPL iDiscover program will provide pre-school children with interactive literacy education through the acquisition of e-tablet software.
The McAllen Fire Department was recognized at the grand opening of the City’s Firehouse Subs on Oct. 24 for its support of the franchise, the first Rio Grande Valley location for the nationwide restaurant chain founded by brothers and former firefighters. “This restaurant drew our interest because it was established by firefighters and continues to support local fire departments through grants,” said Fire Chief Rafael Balderas. In 2005, Firehouse Subs established its nonprofit Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation with a goal of providing funding, life-saving equipment, disaster assistance and educational opportunities for first responders and public safety organizations. Since then, the Foundation has awarded over $5.7 million to public safety organizations. Last year, the
Foundation donated $1.8 million to fund items such as K-9 search and rescue dogs, equipment for tactical simulations labs, disaster relief for Hurricane Sandy survivors, all-terrain vehicles, thermal imaging cameras, bunker gear and extrication tools. “The McAllen Fire Department has provided old gear that is no longer able to be used including a helmet, bunker coat and bunker pants,” Balderas said. “We also made our facilities available for pictures which developed the sprawling mural illustrated on the restaurant’s south wall.” As each Firehouse Subs restaurant is designed with a firehouse theme and custom mural, the mural at the McAllen location at Shary Gateway features the City’s Casa De Palmas Renaissance Hotel as well as a past and present McAllen Fire Department engine.
During the grand opening, Franchise Owner Juan Ordaz adhered a plaque underneath the mural in recognition of the McAllen Fire Department’s 100th anniversary celebrated in June. The plaque reads “This mural celebrates the courage and sacrifice of our local heroes. For 100 years the McAllen Fire Department has served and protected our community.” The restaurant’s opening now makes the McAllen Fire Department eligible to seek grant funding from the Foundation, as eligibility is limited to organizations located within 60 miles of a Firehouse Subs restaurant. Based in Jacksonville, Fla., Firehouse Subs has more than 680 restaurants across 35 states and Puerto Rico.
Story by: Claudia Reyna claudia.reyna@mcallen.net
Copying formulas, days, numbers
SAVE TIME BY USING THE FOLLOWING SIMPLE EXCEL TIPS & TRICKS
Hide/Unhide Columns or Rows
Story by: Claudia L. Farias clfarias@mcallen.net
Stay updated with new grant awards by visiting the Grant Administration Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/mcallen.grantadministration
McAllen area only. MPL aims to provide focused, formalized education to parents in order to improve preliterature skills of young children who may not already be receiving early educational intervention. “As early as 18 months, the sheer number of vocabulary words these children have learned may determine their whole life. As a public library, we need to fill the gap of children getting left behind before even starting school,” advised Kate Horan. iDiscover is expected to further capitalize on the need for community driven educational intervention. MPL will focus on reaching out to the community, and will continue towards innovative forms of making literacy more accessible and attractive to its patrons. TSLAC grants are awarded through a competitive process where project funding is focused for support of library services to enhance library patrons’ access to electronic information/materials.
Use Page Setup to your advantage
Copying Formulas, Days, Numbers by dragging your mouse: Simply point the cursor to the small square on the bottom right of the selected cell that you wish to copy, and drag right or bottom. If you select one cell it will copy what is on the cell, if you select two it will copy sequentially. For example: pictured on the left Monday and Tuesday is selected, when you drag down Wednesday additional days will appear as you drag down. The same rule follows for dates, if you select 10/14 and 10/15, the subsequent dates will copy when dragging down. This trick will work great with formulas as well. Simply follow the same steps, the formula will modify for the cells where they are placed. Hiding Columns or Rows there are occasions where you may have a spreadsheet that you might consider deleting columns or rows, however, may need them in the future for reference or to use as for formulas that you don't want to be visible, Excel has a Hide and Unhide option. To hide/unhide columns or rows, right click on the column or row, (in this case the Letter F, pictured on the left) then select hide. To unhide: select the column to the right and to the left of the column that is hidden, right click and select Unhide. Page Setup has many tools to produce a great finished product. Scaling is one great and useful through tool Page Setup. By selecting Fit to: page wide 1, your page will always print down instead of having all those extra pages to the right, by adding for pages tall, your spreadsheets will print down instead of to the side. Print Preview before printing your work, allows you to get an idea how your spreadsheet is going to look. You will be able to see if your spreadsheet overflows. Without wasting any paper you will be able to make the necessary changes for printing an accurate spreadsheet.
By: Amy Sepulveda asepulveda@mcallen.net
The firehouse theme of the new Firehouse Subs restaurant prominently features the McAllen Fire Department, replete with a sprawling mural and bunker gear. With the opening of the local restaurant, MFD is eligible to seek grant funding from the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation.
The Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC) has awarded a $10,000 Impact Grant award to the McAllen Public Library (MPL) for the purchase of 30 customizable content learning Android tablets. The iDiscover Project will provide the growing community with access and support to Internet-connected resources. This initiative is the first of its
kind, as the MPL currently does not provide tablet computers to patrons. The MPL provides residents of McAllen and surrounding communities with the open exchange of ideas through free access to information. To supplement current MPL educational activities and interactions with library visitors, implementation of the iDiscover Project, to take effect in April of 2014, will provide the public with enhanced access to electronic bilingual resources in benefit of its community. “We’ve heard of the ‘no kid left behind’ movement, but now it’s the parents,” suggested Kate Horan, MPL Director. “We get questions from parents, asking us ‘How do I turn on my child’s iPad? What sites should I visit?’ We know the need is there.” The thirty new Android tablets for the MPL’s iDiscover Program will be pre-installed with software of which would allow for educational purpose usage only. This software will also track statistical data on usage and progression metrics of programs being utilized in each tablet. All tablets will be accessible to caregivers of children and library users at no charge. iDiscover will initiate a locally focused program, where likely users will be from the
MPL iDiscover program will provide pre-school children with interactive literacy education through the acquisition of e-tablet software.
The McAllen Fire Department was recognized at the grand opening of the City’s Firehouse Subs on Oct. 24 for its support of the franchise, the first Rio Grande Valley location for the nationwide restaurant chain founded by brothers and former firefighters. “This restaurant drew our interest because it was established by firefighters and continues to support local fire departments through grants,” said Fire Chief Rafael Balderas. In 2005, Firehouse Subs established its nonprofit Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation with a goal of providing funding, life-saving equipment, disaster assistance and educational opportunities for first responders and public safety organizations. Since then, the Foundation has awarded over $5.7 million to public safety organizations. Last year, the
Foundation donated $1.8 million to fund items such as K-9 search and rescue dogs, equipment for tactical simulations labs, disaster relief for Hurricane Sandy survivors, all-terrain vehicles, thermal imaging cameras, bunker gear and extrication tools. “The McAllen Fire Department has provided old gear that is no longer able to be used including a helmet, bunker coat and bunker pants,” Balderas said. “We also made our facilities available for pictures which developed the sprawling mural illustrated on the restaurant’s south wall.” As each Firehouse Subs restaurant is designed with a firehouse theme and custom mural, the mural at the McAllen location at Shary Gateway features the City’s Casa De Palmas Renaissance Hotel as well as a past and present McAllen Fire Department engine.
During the grand opening, Franchise Owner Juan Ordaz adhered a plaque underneath the mural in recognition of the McAllen Fire Department’s 100th anniversary celebrated in June. The plaque reads “This mural celebrates the courage and sacrifice of our local heroes. For 100 years the McAllen Fire Department has served and protected our community.” The restaurant’s opening now makes the McAllen Fire Department eligible to seek grant funding from the Foundation, as eligibility is limited to organizations located within 60 miles of a Firehouse Subs restaurant. Based in Jacksonville, Fla., Firehouse Subs has more than 680 restaurants across 35 states and Puerto Rico.
Story by: Claudia Reyna claudia.reyna@mcallen.net
Copying formulas, days, numbers
SAVE TIME BY USING THE FOLLOWING SIMPLE EXCEL TIPS & TRICKS
Hide/Unhide Columns or Rows
Story by: Claudia L. Farias clfarias@mcallen.net
Stay updated with new grant awards by visiting the Grant Administration Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/mcallen.grantadministration
McAllen area only. MPL aims to provide focused, formalized education to parents in order to improve preliterature skills of young children who may not already be receiving early educational intervention. “As early as 18 months, the sheer number of vocabulary words these children have learned may determine their whole life. As a public library, we need to fill the gap of children getting left behind before even starting school,” advised Kate Horan. iDiscover is expected to further capitalize on the need for community driven educational intervention. MPL will focus on reaching out to the community, and will continue towards innovative forms of making literacy more accessible and attractive to its patrons. TSLAC grants are awarded through a competitive process where project funding is focused for support of library services to enhance library patrons’ access to electronic information/materials.
Use Page Setup to your advantage
Copying Formulas, Days, Numbers by dragging your mouse: Simply point the cursor to the small square on the bottom right of the selected cell that you wish to copy, and drag right or bottom. If you select one cell it will copy what is on the cell, if you select two it will copy sequentially. For example: pictured on the left Monday and Tuesday is selected, when you drag down Wednesday additional days will appear as you drag down. The same rule follows for dates, if you select 10/14 and 10/15, the subsequent dates will copy when dragging down. This trick will work great with formulas as well. Simply follow the same steps, the formula will modify for the cells where they are placed. Hiding Columns or Rows there are occasions where you may have a spreadsheet that you might consider deleting columns or rows, however, may need them in the future for reference or to use as for formulas that you don't want to be visible, Excel has a Hide and Unhide option. To hide/unhide columns or rows, right click on the column or row, (in this case the Letter F, pictured on the left) then select hide. To unhide: select the column to the right and to the left of the column that is hidden, right click and select Unhide. Page Setup has many tools to produce a great finished product. Scaling is one great and useful through tool Page Setup. By selecting Fit to: page wide 1, your page will always print down instead of having all those extra pages to the right, by adding for pages tall, your spreadsheets will print down instead of to the side. Print Preview before printing your work, allows you to get an idea how your spreadsheet is going to look. You will be able to see if your spreadsheet overflows. Without wasting any paper you will be able to make the necessary changes for printing an accurate spreadsheet.
By: Amy Sepulveda asepulveda@mcallen.net
The firehouse theme of the new Firehouse Subs restaurant prominently features the McAllen Fire Department, replete with a sprawling mural and bunker gear. With the opening of the local restaurant, MFD is eligible to seek grant funding from the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation.
The Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC) has awarded a $10,000 Impact Grant award to the McAllen Public Library (MPL) for the purchase of 30 customizable content learning Android tablets. The iDiscover Project will provide the growing community with access and support to Internet-connected resources. This initiative is the first of its
kind, as the MPL currently does not provide tablet computers to patrons. The MPL provides residents of McAllen and surrounding communities with the open exchange of ideas through free access to information. To supplement current MPL educational activities and interactions with library visitors, implementation of the iDiscover Project, to take effect in April of 2014, will provide the public with enhanced access to electronic bilingual resources in benefit of its community. “We’ve heard of the ‘no kid left behind’ movement, but now it’s the parents,” suggested Kate Horan, MPL Director. “We get questions from parents, asking us ‘How do I turn on my child’s iPad? What sites should I visit?’ We know the need is there.” The thirty new Android tablets for the MPL’s iDiscover Program will be pre-installed with software of which would allow for educational purpose usage only. This software will also track statistical data on usage and progression metrics of programs being utilized in each tablet. All tablets will be accessible to caregivers of children and library users at no charge. iDiscover will initiate a locally focused program, where likely users will be from the
4th QUARTER FY 2012-2013
Connect through McAllen 311 Mobile Apps
Volunteers from the Valley Initiative for Development and Advancement along with Parks and Recreation Staff work on constructing the Los Encinos Playground.
Encinos Park. Regarding the motivation behind renovating Los Encinos Park, Sally Gavlik, Director of Parks and Recreation said, “We really wanted to find a way to provide playgrounds to as many children as possible. KaBoom! was a perfect choice because they made playground projects a top priority and they had recognized our efforts by designating us a Playful City.” A unique requirement from KaBoom! is to utilize their “communitybuild model”, a process of constructing grants which involves the community in the designing and constructing of the playground. To get design ideas, the Parks and Recreation Department asked children in the after-school program to draw pictures of their “dream” playground. While pictures ranged from the practical to the extreme, some common ideas like a new slide, a climbing structure, and a bridge were some of the most requested features. The Parks and Recreation Department took this to heart and incorporated these wishes into the final playground design. With the project site selected and design completed, the Los Encinos Community-Build took place on the morning of Saturday, August 31 with over 30 volunteers from the Valley Initiative for Development and Advance-
ment (VIDA) as well as, McAllen Parks and Recreation team coming together to help construct the children’s dream playground. The work wasn’t easy but it was rewarding for volunteers and staff alike. Dave Melaas, Deputy Director of Operations said, “This is the first time we’ve ever constructed a playground using the community-build model but judging by the overwhelming positive response of the volunteers we think it’s a great opportunity to engage the community and give the children of the community something to enjoy for years to come.” With the success of the Los Encinos Playground, the Parks and Recreation Department submitted and were awarded another grant from KaBoom! in 2013 to install playground equipment at Uvalde Park. The plan is to utilize the community-build to bring the first playground to Uvalde Park and engage the community with a great project. A tentative community-build day is scheduled in late January and the Parks and Recreation Department could use everyone’s help in making this event even better than the last!
City of McAllen Grant Administration 1300 Houston Ave. or P.O. Box 220 | McAllen, TX 78505-0220
Phone (956)681-1033 | grants@mcallen.net | www.mcallen.net
Story by: Jaime Guzman jguzman@mcallen.net
Scan for more information McAllen 311 mobile app informational video available at www.mcallen.net
Newsletter layout by: Amy Sepulveda, asepulveda@mcallen.net
Playgrounds are an important part of children’s lives. Running, jumping, and climbing all provide children with great exercise while simultaneously building their social skills. The only real problem playgrounds have is their popularity, with people requesting new ones faster than McAllen can build them. Sometimes there is a lack of resources to construct the amount of playgrounds people want but McAllen has made every effort to make playgrounds and parks a top priority. In recognition of these efforts, McAllen has been designated as a Playful City in 2011, 2012, and 2013 by the KaBoom! Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting “play” for children. Building playgrounds is a great endeavor but finding the resources to keep pace with the demand can be challenging. The Parks and Recreation Department knew Los Encinos Park needed new equipment but funding simply was not available. Fortunately, being named a Playful City made McAllen eligible to receive grant funds from the KaBoom! Foundation. With this in mind, the Parks and Recreation Department decided to apply for funding in the amount of $15,000 to completely renovate Los
When it comes to customer service, McAllen always goes above and beyond. On October 1st we launched McAllen 311, both a new Department and a mobile application powered by PublicStuff. The McAllen 311 Call Center is managed by Neo Canales and has three Call Representatives. It was established so that citizens may call (956) 681-3111 with any City-related questions or inquiries. Representatives speak directly to citizens, then route the service request to the right person in the City. The Call Center and City staff use the PublicStuff system not only to receive the information, but also to manage the workflow to assign, track, and closeout the request. “We found a way to leverage our Call Center resources through technology to better serve our residents,” said City Manager Mike Perez. “It was our goal to increase transparency and access to City services by streamlining the process for citizens to receive information.” Available for free in the App Store and Google Play for Apple and Android devices, residents using the McAllen 311 App can submit service requests directly to the City for pothole repair, graffiti removal, overgrown yards, and damaged garbage or recycle bins, among other issues. Residents are also able to attach a photo
with their service request and identify the location. The request is routed to the right person, who is then held accountable for ensuring the service request is addressed. The resident receives an email confirming the request was received, may check the status of the request, and receives updates throughout the progress of the request, including the final notification indicating the issue has been resolved. The service is all done remotely, via mobile phones and through the Web, and it’s all managed by City staff using the back-end software solution. The app also has a variety of widgets that link citizens to Job Opportunities, Metro Bus Routes, Latest City News, a Calendar of Events, an After Hours Contact, and a variety of others. McAllen 311 is also available through the City’s website, which posts a video that informs citizens about submitting requests and provides a general instructional format about the app. However, regardless of whether the citizen contacts the Call Center or submits their service request through the app or the website, status updates are included throughout all phases of the request, ensuring transparency, efficiency, and accountability. Story by: Carla M. Rodriguez carlarodriguez@mcallen.net
FRONT PAGE McAllen is a Citizen-Engaged City ; PAGE 2 Firehouse Subs Opens First Franchise in McAllen with support from MFD; PAGE 3 McAllen Public Library: Making an IMPACT and Make Excel Work for You ; and PAGE 4 Promoting Play in McAllen.