News from around town
By Brandi Hart
McKinneyUpdate.com editor
McKinney aviation news
Cutter Aviation, which is the fixed based operator for the Collin County Regional Airport in McKinney, is considering relocating its maintenance facility from the Dallas Executive Airport to the CCRA, said Airport Director Ken Wiegand. The CCRA still has an 80 percent chance of securing Honda Jet to be housed at the CDRA for Honda Jet to build a sales center at the McKinney airport, Wiegand said.
"We're excited because that's one of the very light jets thata's able to get off the ground. It's not certified yet because of the Federal Aviation Administration and we anticipate that Honda Jet will get its certification sometime in 2010," Wiegand said.
Development news
The multistory Valliance Bank building located at northwest corner of Lake Forest Drive and State Highway 121 is expected to be completed and open for businesses possibly sometime in June, said John Dugan, Senior Vice President of Valliance Bank, which is a new bank in Texas that is based in McKinney. Valliance Bank is currently housed out of an office along Eldorado Parkway, just west of Craig Drive until the bank's office building is complete.
Construction work continues on the McKinney Dr Pepper StarCenter at Craig Ranch. The ice hockey rink is being paid for by taxpayer dollars and is expected to open in October.
 IESI, the local trash and recycling company based in McKinney, is also constructing its Materials Recovery Facility that will be a Leadership in Engineering and Environmental Design, or LEED, sustainable building which will greatly increase IESI's recycling capabilities. Currently, IESI collects close to 1,500 tons of recycled material per month from residential routes and its processing capacity is estimated at 1,800 tons per month.
The MRF building will be located on the existing IESI property south of the airport at 2138 Country Lane. The building is expected to cost $5 million.
Pictured on the left is a rendering of the IESI MRF building that is being constructed on the IESI property south of the Collin County Regional Airport.
The city of McKinney is also currently in the design phase for Fire Station No. 7 to be built in Craig Ranch. The fire station will serve southwest McKinney and areas west of Custer Road. As previously reported on McKinneyUpdate.com, the city has entered into an agreement with the city of Frisco for the Frisco Fire Department to respond first to a fire in southwest or far west McKinney if Frisco firefighters are closer to the location of the fire than McKinney firefighters. McKinney firefighters are also sent to the scene. This is the first time the city of McKinney has effectively established a joint agreement to provide first response fire coverage with an adjacent city.
The city has also installed the new public safety radio system, which will help ensure that all antennae are working throughout McKinney for any 9-1-1 calls. The city previously had problems in some areas, mostly in southwest McKinney, with reception.
McKinney Economic Development Corporation news
The McKinney Economic Devlopment Corporation board approved a $400,000 incentive in its March board meeting to be paid annually for four years to the Tru Brew tea company to relocate from another city in Collin County. Tru Brew would have to build an 80,000 square foot building and the building that Tru Brew is located in would have to have a taxable value at least $15 million, excluding land, said Jim Young, Director of Business Development for the MEDC.
Tru Brew had not accepted the offer as of May 15, Young said.
The MEDC board also approved a $150,000 incentive in its April meeting to be paid to the owners of a building located on Couch Drive that Dick Dill, Bob Tomes and Dale Carraway are owners of, to help them in rennovations to make the building more atractive to an undisclosed Fortune 500 company that is slated to move into the building. The MEDC incentive is contingent upon the building have a certified taxable value of at least $2.5 million in new business property improvements, or real property improvements, in addition to what the current property is valued at as of Jan. 1, 2010, Young said.
McKinney green and sustainability news
S & S Custom Wood Moldings in McKinney is in the final stages of getting LEED certified and the company will be the only LEED certified hardwood floor manufacturer in the United States, said Jim Young of the McKinney Economic Development Corporation at the MEDC's last board of director's meeting in April.
The city of McKinney is also installing a geothermal heating and air conditioning unit at the John and Judy Gay Public Library that is being built along the south side of Eldorado Parkway, just east of Custer Road, near Gabe Nesbitt Park. The library is expected to open in October, said City Manager Frank Ragan.
The city also recently created the Office of Environmental Stewardship, which houses Julie Smith, the city's Green Programs Manager and another employee who oversees water conservation and green education for the public who previously worked in the city's Public Works Department.
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