Around Town in Garland

Remember The Tin Lizard on Walnut Street? It is permanently closed, and the space has  been vacated. Happily, a new business will be moving in and opening soon. That new business is an Ice cream shop, something the area has been missing. Will it be set up as an old fashioned soda fountain, or will it be more like the modern marble slab? If the place is clean, the ice cream is good, and the service is friendly, this place should be a hit. 

The abandoned building at Broadway and Duck Creek that once housed Long John Silver has been purchased and will soon undergo complete restoration and upgrading. It will reopen in a few months as a new Burger King drive-thru and dine-in. That redevelopment project will bring new life to that busy corner. Another redevelopment project is taking place at I-30 and Bobtown Road. The abandoned Exxon station will soon emerge with a fresh new look and a Sonic Drive In. New owners emphasize that there will be no overnight parking area for trucks, but there will be a limited refueling accommodation for the 18 wheelers. Jerry Nickerson, representing District 3 at the March 16th city council meeting, wanted to be sure this detail was duly noted.

Snowvid Hit Hard!

After one solid year of shut downs for indoor dining, curbside pickups and food delivery, those amazing Downtown Garland independent restaurants are all still in business! In February a snow storm and deep freeze from a polar vortex did very serious damage to properties around the state. Those downtown businesses were forced to closed for a few days during what we have come to refer to as “Snowvid”, but there was a thaw, they reopened, and on they go. The area surrounding the downtown square is on a “critical” circuit, and did not suffer power outages.

Montclair Estates, a senior living facility with small apartments on three levels, was the site of a disaster during Snowvid. I was told by Patrick Abell, a volunteer on the scene, that there was water flowing down from one level to another, due to flooding from broken pipes. Due to the lack of electricity and heat, water was actually frozen on the floors of at least a few of those apartments. An elderly male resident took buckets down to the swimming pool, filled them with water and distributed them so that residents could flush their toilets. Mayor Scott LeMay and a handful of volunteers got the situation under control, with the help of the Garland Fire Department. Water vacs helped clean up the mess, drinking water was distributed in bottles and electricity was restored throughout. One of the residents wrote thank you notes, stating that residents had feared that had been forgotten until ordinary citizens arrived on the scene and called for emergency assistance. Hopefully, things have returned to normal at Montclair Estates. 

Nancy Ghirla

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