Lighting Gets Final Tune-up

Our contractor tells us that as of Tuesday, all lights were working on the Trail. They replaced some lamps and ballasts, as well as turned on the lighting in the sections from the AAC to Harry Hines and Blackburn to Armstrong because someone had turned the power off. When the power was off, it also impacted the timers, so the lighting wasn’t working when it was supposed to. This has also been corrected.

Keep your eyes on the section from Blackburn to Armstrong. The photo cell that senses when the sun is up is in the bamboo; and it is possible that if it doesn’t get enough light, it will think the sun is down and turn on the lights. If you see the lights on in this section during the day, please let us know.

Bench Cleaning Complete

All the benches on the Katy Trail have been power washed to remove dirt and graffiti, and then sealed with a graffiti-resistant, environmentally sensitive sealant to help make it easier to remove graffiti in the future. The work was done by David Fink of Pressure Cleaning Technologies. Let us know your thoughts on how the benches look now.

Katy Trail Days - Pub Crawl - Tomorrow

The Katy Trail Days Pub Crawl, always a favorite, is Wednesday 6-8 p.m. This year's Crawl features seven different stops in the West Village.

For only $50 ($35 for Katy Trail members), you'll get to be a part of the crawling action. Start at the Fish and then make your way to Cork, Cru, Grimaldi's, PescaBar, Social House and Tom Tom. Ready to sign up? Click here.

Still not convinced that you want to come out and play on a school night? Ok, just for you, we're putting together rockin' gift bags. You'll get a limited-edition Katy Trail Days T-shirt and lots of goodies from the West Village, so come on, register today.

Wow, still haven't registered. You're a tough egg to crack, so we're going to give you some insider information.

Nobody should pay $50 for this pub crawl. Why not? Members of the Friends of the Katy Trail only pay $35. Just call us at 214-303-1180 or email office@katytraildallas.org for the code. Not a member, no worries, you still don't have to pay $50. Take advantage of our special $10 membership offer, then call us for the member discount code, register for the pub crawl for only $35, and you've only come out of pocket $45.

Wait, wait, it gets better. That $10 membership makes sure your Trail stays clean, safe and beautiful, and gives you something to write off when Uncle Sam comes calling in a few months. Like we said, don't pay $50 for this pub crawl.

So do it now. Click here to register and we'll see you on Wednesday night at The Fish.

Lights Still being Tested

The contractor who installed the lights is still troubleshooting the lights. You may notice several lights out in one section, or the lights on during the middle of the day, or an entire section out when it will normally be on. Please be patient as the lights are fine-tuned. They should be working 100 percent by next weekend - just in time for the end of Daylight Savings Time.

PSA Makes Public Debut

Even though Robert Wilonsky of The Observer used his outstanding journalistic instincts to find a secret copy of the Friends PSA and post it on the newspaper’s blog before it was ready for public viewing … it’s now ready.


The 30-second version of the brand new PSA is on the left toolbar of the homepage. Check it out and let us know what you think.

Public Service Announcement

Benches Getting Cleaned

Work started on the Trail today to clean all the benches. This involves power washing the benches to remove the graffiti. After the benches have dried, our contractor will seal them with an environmentally responsible sealant that will help prevent graffiti from damaging the benches in the future and make it easier to remove it when it does happen. Expect to see the workers cleaning and sealing the benches over the next two weeks.

The PSA Rocks

We just got a sneak preview of the PSA today and, we might be a little biased, we're still right when we say it rocks! We'll have it up on our website www.KatyTrailDallas.org this week, so check back later to see it.

Lights Are On

In case you missed the announcement at last Thursday’s member event at La Condesa – you missed a killer party, too, by the way – the lights were turned on for the entire Katy Trail last Friday night.

Right now, the contractor is troubleshooting. He tells us there are less than 10 lights not functioning correctly. Not bad, considering there are more than 140 lights on the Trail.

While there will be some kinks to work out, the lights are designed to come on at 5 a.m. and go off at sunrise, then come on again at sunset and go off at 11 p.m.

Lighting Almost Done

Pressure from the Mayor’s office seemed to have worked. Oncor had both remaining meters installed by the end of day Tuesday this week, and the lighting contractor was able to test all the lights up and down the entire Trail. Of the 140 lights, only seven weren’t working. The contractor tells us he’ll be trouble-shooting those starting Friday.

Speaking of Friday, he told us today he hopes to have the lights working, at least a night, as early as this weekend. So go out on the Katy Trail after dark this weekend and let us know if the lights are working end to end.

It's Party Time

That's right boys and girls, it's time to party with your Friends. We've got our Friends of the Katy Trail member party tonight at La Condesa in Victory Park from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. It's the perfect opportunity to sip on yummy margaritas and hear about what's going on on the Katy Trail.

We'll be there with our closest Friends, so we hope you'll join us. See you at La Condesa tonight!

Lighting – Calling in the Big Guns

Got an email from the Mayor’s office today that they weren’t happy the lighting on the Katy Trail wasn’t turned on yet. When we told them that everyone was waiting for Oncor to install the last two meters, they said they’d “call them today and light a fire under them.” Hopefully that means we’ll get some movement and those meters will be installed sooner rather than later. We’re just glad the Mayor’s office didn’t say they would “make them an offer they couldn’t refuse.”