Around Huntsville

The Huntsville Item notes the growth around the SHSU as #6 in the top 10 Stories of 2010:

Among the milestones the university celebrated this year: a new president, Dana Gibson, who has said she intends to continue policies and programs initiated by James Gaertner; an increase in campus and online enrollment, growth on its satellite campuses in The Woodlands and Tomball; a basketball team that won the Southland Conference championship, and the grand opening of a performing arts center for its new College of Fine Arts and Mass Communications.

SHSU also has been stepping up its game in research and development as well. In 2010, SHSU patented a potentially life-saving wastewater treatment purification process that university officials hope will save millions of lives.

It also managed to raise $62 million in funds during its first ever Capital Campaign, exceeding its goal of $50 million.

The Hometown USA series of the Los Angeles Times features Huntsville:

The prison system is one of the biggest employers in Huntsville (note to the unemployed: they're hiring), and practically everyone in town falls within a couple degrees of separation from someone who makes a living at a prison.

Still, many bristle at how death row has shaped the identity of Huntsville to outsiders. They point to Sam Houston State University, which has about 17,000 students, and the school's namesake, who was governor when Texas became a state and president when it was a republic.

Also, some information about the containment of Town Creek :

For years now, the City of Huntsville has had staff and City Council members brainstorming on a plan to fix Town Creek drainage issues. A newly received grant may be able to kick-start the process of replacing areas of the Town Creek drainage system that are currently old railroad cars that are rusting and falling apart.

“There are places where it has flooded so much we’re getting holes in the roads,” she said. “Back in the ‘60s, Town Creek was open. They decided to put in decommissioned railroad tanker cars and they welded them together and used rubber from old tires to seal them. Now, they’re starting to rust out.”

Areas along Bearkat Boulevard by the university are well-known in Huntsville as places to avoid during heavy rainfall because of flooding.

“You get one inch of rain and Bearkat floods,” McKibben said. “That’s the problem right there in a nutshell. Every time it does that, it messes with the roads and then we have to go fix the roads.”