03/24/2006
Chamber on a roll with Ten Pin Challenge
Cy-Fair - Northwest Houston business professionals and residents will have an opportunity to combine fun and a good cause at the Cy-Fair Houston Chamber of Commerce Fifth Annual Bowling Tournament on Tuesday, May 30, from 6 to 9 p.m. at Copperfield Bowl , 15615 Glen Chase Drive. A portion of the p roceeds from the event will benefit Cy-Fair College scholarships.
All bowlers will receive dinner and goodie bags. Trophies will be awarded for the first-, second- and third-place teams, and there will also be prizes for most spirited team, best-dressed team and high game for men and women.
A wide variety of sponsorship opportunities are available. To become a sponsor or to reserve your spot call Sherri Padalino at the Chamber Office at 281-955-1100.
“Sponsorship is a great way to get your company’s name in front of the community because we sell out each year,” said Brenda Angelini, who is chairing the tournament for the fifth time. She has led the fundraising efforts since the tournament’s inception. “We all have so much fun at the tournament, including the spectators who cheer for their favorite teams,” she added.
Cy-Fair College President Diane Troyer said she is grateful for the Chamber’s on-going support of the college and its students.
In addition, the Auction Committee is looking for all types of donations including sports memorabilia and tickets, restaurants, hotels, airline tickets and much more. To make a donation to the auction call Jennifer Ellis at the Chamber Office at 281-955-1100.
The sponsors to date are Caldwell Watson Real Estate Group, Carl’s Bar-B-Q, Comfort Suites, Cy-Fair College/NHMCCD, Executive Inn & Suites, Hewlett-Packard Company, Houston Community Newspapers/1960 Sun, Jersey Meadow Golf Course, Members Choice Credit Union, Motel 6, Oceaneering International Inc., PBK Architects Inc., Retriever Payment Systems, Signs Now, Sterling Bank and Wal-Mart #1040.
For more information call the Chamber at 281-955-1100 or visit www.cyfairchamber.com.
3/22/2006
Cy-Fair College stands to benefit from bond issue
Cy-Fair College, which has seen explosive enrollment growth since it opened in 2003 and has already run out of space for program expansion, is among the campuses that stand to benefit from a North Harris Montgomery Community College District $249.6 million bond referendum to be held May 13.
Ray Laughter, associate vice chancellor for external affairs, and Dr. Diane Troyer, president of Cy-Fair College , presented an overview of the bond issue on March 21 at the General Membership Luncheon of the Cy-Fair Houston Chamber of Commerce, held at the Crowne Plaza-Brookhollow hotel.
Last month, the college district reached another milestone in enrollment, passing the 45,000 mark, Laughter said. Between 2000 and 2006, the district grew by 50 percent.
“Our growth puts a tremendous strain on all of our resources, particularly our facilities,” he said. “Our board of trustees, along with our chancellor, said that we need to make sure our facilities have the capacity to deal with this growth, because we’re not expecting this growth to stop.
“I want to thank the board for having the vision to say we need to step up and look at this issue before it becomes a problem.”
Laughter noted that the decision to hold the bond referendum was preceded by a nine-month facilities study that concluded that 89 percent of existing district buildings are in good condition, with the remainder in fair condition.
He also noted that unlike universities, no state funds can be used to build community college facilities; all funding must come from local taxpayers.
Perhaps the best news for those taxpayers is that the bond issue would not increase the tax rate, which is lower today than it was 10 years ago.
“We have an incredible financial stability,” Laughter said. “We have had bond rating increases that have helped us get as prime of a bond rating that you’ll find in almost any institution of higher education. Therefore, we can borrow money more cheaply.”
According to Troyer, enrollment at Cy-Fair College has increased 8 to 18 percent during each semester since the main campus opened in 2003. The rapidly growing Cypress-Fairbanks school district, which is the third-largest district in Texas, and a bevy of new housing developments are fueling the college’s growth, she said.
To respond to the growth, the college is offering a number of nontraditional course options, including distance learning, flex classes (some classes are conducted via the Internet), 6 a.m. weekday classes and weekend classes. Nevertheless, the college is out of space.
“In our third year, we have no more evening space and no free classrooms during prime morning and afternoon hours,” Troyer said. “We are at 101 percent capacity at our Fairbanks Center . We don’t want to turn students away by not being able to offer more classes. We are not in a position now to add workforce programs, and that really concerns us.”
Troyer noted that the bond referendum includes $44.1 million for Cy-Fair College . That amount includes:
A new, three-story classroom facility that would include 95,000 square feet of space and house 40 classrooms and 16 laboratories along with faculty space. A parking lot would be constructed adjacent to the building.
- Expansion of the college’s one-stop enrollment center to 30,000 square feet from the existing 10,000 square feet.
- Renovation of the commons area to provide more study space.
- New laboratories for health occupations, sciences and other technical programs.
- A loop road to connect the main campus to West Road and provide access from the west.
Early voting for the bond election will be held May 1-5 and 8 and 9 at all NHMCCD locations.
03/02/2006
No silver bullet to solve traffic congestion, Texas A&M researcher says
If you had 3.7 billion hours to spend, how would you spend it?
If you’re like most Americans, one way you help spend the time is by sitting in freeway traffic jams. According to Dr. David Schrank of the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI), traffic delays totaled 3.7 billion hours in 2003.
Schrank was in Houston on March 2 to present an overview of TTI’s 2005 Annual Urban Mobility Report to members of the Cy-Fair Houston Chamber of Commerce Transportation Committee. The report is a nationally known study of mobility and traffic congestion on freeways in 85 U.S. cities. The study measured trends from 1982 through 2003, the most recent year for which data is available.
Congestion on freeways is getting worse and is costing Americans $63 billion a year, he said. Among the problems are traffic jams, unreliable travel times, long waits at traffic signals, navigating through construction zones, accidents and relatively few viable travel options other than driving on the freeway.
“The problem is getting worse,” Schrank said. “The number of urban areas with more than 20 hours of delay per peak traveler has grown from five in 1982 to 51 in 2003.”
In Houston , major freeway construction in the 1980s and 1990s has resulted in a slower growth of congestion than that of several other major metropolitan areas in Texas , he said.
Traffic congestion is a fact of life that won’t go away as long as Americans commute to and from work between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., Schrank said. But he added that reducing congestion to a manageable level is possible.
“If we can have our system be reliable, we would be happy with that,” he said. “Reliability is the buzzword. We are not necessarily willing to live with the congestion that is out there now.”
But there’s no silver bullet for solving the problem.
“We can’t build our way out of it,” Schrank said. “We have only been able to build 40 to 42 percent of the road capacity we need to solve the problem. Carpooling and public transportation are also not the entire solution, but they are part of the solution.”
HOV lanes have been an effective method of helping to ease the traffic burden, he said.
“HOV lanes carry a lot of people and do what they need to do,” Schrank said. “ Houston is a prime example of how they can work.”
The Chamber has long been an advocate for a variety of mobility solutions and has been instrumental in such projects as the underpass on FM 1960 at Texas 249. Currently, the Chamber, through its 290 Passenger Rail Coalition, is leading an effort to bring commuter rail to the 290 corridor – a project that Schrank praised as being a proactive effort that could become part of the overall solution to reduce congestion on U.S. 290.
One traffic management tool that has been proven effective in studies but is only lightly used in Houston is metered freeway entrance, he noted.
The solution is everything – multi-modal and managing everything very aggressively,” Schrank said. “We can’t stop the growth of congestion, but we can improve reliability and provide more options.”
The entire mobility report is available online at mobility.tamu.edu.
The Transportation Committee of the Cy-Fair Houston Chamber meets on the first Thursday of each month at 8 a.m. at the Chamber office, 11050 FM 1960 West, Suite 100 . All interested members of the public are invited to attend. Call 281-955-1100 for more information or visit cyfairchamber.com.
Archived News
02/08/2006 Raveneaux Country Club is the Site of the 2006 Spring Swing
02/02/2006 U.S. 290 plans are advancing, TxDOT engineer tells Chamber committee
02/02/2006 State legislator reports on gross receipts tax
01/05/2006 Chamber Transportation Committee sets priorities for 2006
01/05/2006 State Legislator proposes ideas for reducing School Property Taxes