“While the Town is not under water restrictions at the present time, we thought it was important to do our part during this dry period to encourage our residents and visitors to be aware of the importance of saving water,” explained Deputy City Manager Lea Dunn.

Addison Mayor Joe Chow, met with restaurant owners and managers in May to explain the Town’s program and ask for their support and participation.

“For every glass of water we provide for a guest, it takes two more glasses of water to wash that glass,” he explained. “We can save almost a quart of water by just asking if a guest would like a glass of water. Many times, guests will order another beverage and never touch the water. In meeting with the restaurant owners, I discovered one café that automatically put a pitcher of water out on each table. Think of the water savings his business will enjoy with this new program!”

In addition to the restaurant water conservation campaign, other water conservation efforts have been implemented by Town departments:

• The Park and Recreation Department has installed state-of-the-art technology to control 34 irrigation systems via a weather station that monitors wind speed, temperature, humidity and evaporation to eliminate unnecessary watering.
• Addison is the only community in the country that has constructed a public park using the EarthKind Landscape Management program to reduce water and pesticide usage. By selecting plants that are adapted to the region, adding specific soil amendments and mulching on a regular basis, landscape watering in the park has been reduced as much as 50 percent. Parkview Park is located on Quorum Drive, just north of Addison Circle.
• For the past three years, the department has participated in the Texas Agricultural Extension Services experimental trial rose gardens. The gardens are monitored to determine which rose varieties respond best to the EarthKind landscape management program without using pesticides and only limited watering. The trial gardens are located across from the Addison Athletic Club on Beltway Drive.