Posted March 17, 2020 | Last updated April 8, 2020

Visit Fort Worth has unveiled a new and improved webpage to showcase Fort Worth restaurants that offer curbside and delivery service during social distancing.

The updated version includes the ability to browse specific cuisines and regions of Fort Worth. The page now also features more than 300 local restaurants and new search filters that include: takeout, delivery, alcohol, groceries, gift cards and cash-only.

Traffic to the page soared in March with more than 50,000 views – more than twice the normal traffic – reflecting the community’s interest in supporting local restaurants.

“We appreciate the support that Visit Fort Worth is showing our vulnerable restaurant community during this time,” said Jon Bonnell, chef and owner of The Bonnell’s Restaurant Group. “Local restaurants are trying desperately to get creative and stay afloat. This is our first pandemic too, and we are all just trying to adjust and survive. The more the community knows about how to safely support their local restaurants, the better chance we have of recovering someday.”

Visit Fort Worth is promoting the restaurants webpage locally through targeted digital ads and social media. The video “In It Together” showcases the restaurant community and is part of the promotion effort.

“We are dedicating marketing resources to help our community during this unprecedented time,” said Mitch Whitten, executive vice president of marketing and strategy for Visit Fort Worth. “Local cuisine is one of the top reasons people travel and we want to support and preserve this important part of our city and visitor experience.”

In addition to the restaurants page, Visit Fort Worth has released 10 blogs to encourage followers to virtually experience Fort Worth during social distancing, a small-business resource page, an events updates page and a creative industry fundraiser in partnership with the United Way of Tarrant County. Links to each can be found on the Visit Fort Worth homepage.

Restaurateurs can submit their information to be added to the page by emailing Austin James.

The city has replaced the Nixle emergency alert system with Fort Worth Texas Alerts.

Residents can register for free alerts, and in the event of community emergencies, an emergency alert will be sent by text or email. Or residents can sign up for optional weather warning alerts via text, email or voice calls.

The city’s Fire Department Office of Emergency Management manages the emergency alert system designed to be one of the tools used to alert residents of hazardous conditions.

https://public.coderedweb.com/CNE/en-US/BF3B0A05197C

UNT Health Science Center is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a new brand identity and logo that emphasizes its commitment to Fort Worth and innovative spirit for the next 50 years.

“This is a transformative moment for the Health Science Center,” UNTHSC President Dr. Michael R. Williams said. “The new visual identity honors five decades of improving health in Fort Worth and allows us to better tell the story of our innovative, entrepreneurial institution that is defining and producing the providers of the future.”

The university partnered with higher education branding expert Carnegie-Dartlet to audit its previous brand and discovered that the prominent use of UNT in the logo caused considerable confusion about whether the school’s location was in Fort Worth or Denton.

After gathering input from faculty, staff, students and community members, a new logo was created emphasizing the letters “hsc” and featuring a new vibrant color scheme and stylized version of the compass rose, which symbolizes the university’s commitment to its values.

The Health Science Center was founded in 1970 as the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine by three Fort Worth physicians determined to help deliver high-quality health care in Fort Worth. Since then, the health science center has grown to six schools training future physicians, physician assistants, physical therapists, pharmacists, public health professionals and scientists to work together as a high-performing team.

More recently, the Health Science Center embarked on an ambitious campaign to instill a mindset of innovation and entrepreneurship in students and faculty in all six schools. Last year, the Health Science Center incorporated entrepreneurship courses into its curriculums and teamed with Fort Worth venture capital firm Bios Partners to create an Entrepreneur-in-Residence program to assist with technology commercialization and entrepreneurship.

UNT Health Science Center is located on 33 acres in the heart of Fort Worth’s Cultural District.

Between March 12 and March 20, invitations to participate in the 2020 Census will start arriving in households in Fort Worth and across the country.

“The Census Bureau is ready for the nation to respond next month,” said Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham. “Millions of Americans are applying for 2020 Census jobs, more than 270,000 local and national organizations are engaged, and in less than 30 days the majority of U.S. households will receive an invitation to respond to help ensure that every person in the U.S. is counted.”

“The 2020 Census is on mission, on schedule and on budget to promote an accurate count,” Dillingham said. “Response is important because statistics from the census are used in distributing where hundreds of billions in funding for school lunches, hospitals, roads and much more. The invitations will remind respondents to include everyone living in the household, whether they are related or not. This includes young children. Your response will impact communities for the next decade.”

The invitation will include instructions on how to respond to the 2020 Census online or by phone. By April 1, most households will have received an invitation delivered either by mail or by a census taker. In areas of the country that are less likely to respond online, a paper questionnaire will be included in the initial mailing to households. Reminder mailings will be sent to households that do not respond, and in the fourth mailing every household that has not yet responded will receive a paper questionnaire.

Once households receive invitations, residents should respond to the 2020 Census by using the provided Census ID. If a household is unable to enter the Census ID, people can still respond, by providing an address. Whether people respond online, by phone or by mail, it is important to respond right away.

Census timeline

Here is a timeline of how and when the Census Bureau will invite households to complete the 2020 Census questionnaire:

March 12-20: Initial invitations to respond online and by phone will be delivered by the U.S. Postal Service. Areas that are less likely to respond online will receive a paper questionnaire along with the invitation to respond online or over the phone.

March 16-24: Reminder letters will be delivered.

March 26-April 3: Reminder postcards will be delivered to households that have not responded.

April 8-16: Reminder letters and paper questionnaires will bed elivered to remaining households that have not responded.

April 20-27: Final reminder postcards will be delivered to households that have not yet responded before census takers follow up in person.

If a household does not respond to any of the invitations, a census taker will follow up in person sometime between May 13 and July 31.

Most Fort Worth residents are satisfied with city services, although they would like to see more emphasis placed on street maintenance and a continued emphasis on public safety services.

Those are the major findings of the latest community survey, conducted last fall by ETC Institute of Olathe, Kan.

The survey’s purpose was to assess residents’ satisfaction with the delivery of major city services and to help determine priorities as part of the city’s ongoing planning process. Of the households that received a survey, 1,820 completed the survey. At least 200 households were surveyed in each of the city’s eight council districts.

Nearly three-fourths of respondents indicated they were satisfied with the quality of life in Fort Worth.

Major findings:

• Fort Worth continues to receive high ratings for the overall quality of life and quality of city services. Satisfaction with the city as a place to live, raise children and work is much higher than most other large cities.
• Satisfaction is high for most city services, but there are some areas where the city can do better. Respondents were most satisfied with fire protection services, parks and recreation, libraries, and water and sewer services. Residents were most dissatisfied with roadway project delivery and street maintenance.
• City employees get high ratings from residents in all areas of the city. The city functions that residents indicated they contact most often were trash, recycling and yard waste services.
• Maintenance of streets, public safety and traffic flow are the top priorities to residents. Residents thought the most important transportation service to emphasize was the maintenance of major city streets.

View the complete survey results here.

A new online streaming service will allow anyone to hear Fort Worth music for free, and Fort Worth Public Library cardholders may download the songs at no charge to their personal devices.

Amplify 817 is a partnership between the Library and Hear Fort Worth, an initiative of Visit Fort Worth. Besides offering free music, the musicians will be paid a fee up front to use their music. Additional musicians and songs will be added through a submissions process.

The combined efforts represent a citywide commitment to Fort Worth musicians, their music and the people who enjoy it.

Sign up on the Amplify 817 website.

The Tarrant Regional Water District is commissioning art on eight large-scale utilitarian structures along the Trinity Trails in Fort Worth. The goal of the project is to create destinations and chance encounters for trail users with art that reflects the beauty of nature, rivers and water.

Deadline for submissions is March 9. Artists should tell why they are interested in the Painting the River project. An artist must:

• Have the ability to understand a locale’s sense of place and design in a context-sensitive manner.
• Demonstrate a successful creative, innovative and effective approach in comparable projects.
• Exhibit proven mastery or skill in large-scale painting.
• Artists will be paid $15 per square foot (minimum 200 square feet).

Learn More

The TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine announced a residency training program with Baylor Scott & White All Saints Medical Center that will eventually train more than 150 physicians annually.

“We are honored to be working alongside a like-minded organization in Baylor Scott & White-Fort Worth,” said Dr. Stuart Flynn, dean of the TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine. “With the combination of both organizations’ available resources and aligned mission, we can create a robust and rich academic environment in the Fort Worth community.”

The residency program — accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education — will select its first cohort of medical school graduates this year. They will then begin their residencies in internal medicine and emergency medicine at Baylor Scott & White-Fort Worth in July 2021, adding residents each year. Adding general surgery, anesthesia, obstetrics and gynecology and other specialties, the residency program is projected to top out at 150 in the 2027-2028 academic year. Fellowship training programs in fields such as cardiology, oncology and nephrology also will be considered.

The residency program will provide much-needed doctors to the Fort Worth area. Texas currently ranks 41 out of the 50 states with 219.4 physicians per 100,000 residents. According to the American Association of Medical Colleges, the national median is 257.6.

Texas medical school graduates have been leaving the state for residencies due to a shortage of programs. And data shows that residents tend to stay in-state. In Texas, 59% of residents remain after training. If they attend medical school and do their residency in Texas, that number jumps to 81%. This new collaboration is an academic-aligned program, allowing for competitive recruitment of top medical school graduates from Texas and across the United States.

Mayor Betsy Price and FWISD Superintendent Kent P. Scribner joined representatives from the Essilor Vision Foundation, Alcon and TCC-Trinity River to reinforce the connection between vision care and literacy.

During the program, fourth- and fifth-grade children created cards explaining why they love their glasses and why vision is important to them. Following the program, Scribner and Price toured the fest, interacted with children and took eye exams.

Elementary school nurses recently gave vision pre-screenings to kindergarten through fifth-grade students. More than 600 children from 32 FWISD elementary schools requiring further evaluation were invited to attend Kids Vision Fest, a mobile vision clinic. About 400 students are eligible for free vision screenings and eyeglasses. If it was determined that a child needed glasses, they could choose eyeglass frames and lens onsite, and the prescription glasses will be delivered to the student’s school within the next several weeks.

Kid Vision Fest is sponsored by Essilor Vision Foundation and Alcon in partnership with Fort Worth ISD. Dallas-based Essilor Vision Foundation launched its program Kids Vision for Life in 2008 to increase access to vision screenings and new glasses for children. Within the last decade, Tarrant County youth have received free onsite eye exams at nearly 100 schools and thousands of pairs of free prescription glasses.

Fort Worth will be honored with a Smart 50 Award for re-engineering a process that led to reduced times for approving ordinances, resolutions, zoning cases and larger purchases.

The Mayor and Council communication (M&C) Collaboration Wizard was developed internally in partnership between the City Secretary’s Office and IT Solutions, and reduces time spent locating, tracking and managing M&Cs through the use of automated workflows and improved collaboration.

Smart 50 Awards annually recognize global smart cities projects, honoring the most innovative and influential work. This year, categories included community engagement, digital transformation, smart mobility, urban infrastructure and urban operations.

“Re-engineering the M&C process has made the city more responsive to its residents by reducing the time it takes to approve ordinances, resolutions, zoning cases and large purchases,” City Secretary Mary Kayser said. “The reduction in time spent to process M&Cs also freed up staff to accomplish more value-added tasks for our residents.”

Fort Worth has embarked on a long-term digital transformation project that’s affecting the development of people, process and culture. This aligns with its goal to become the best-managed city in the U.S.

The M&C digital transformation project enabled 500-plus city employees to achieve improved productivity, cost savings and quality improvements while providing a flexible platform to handle new business priorities. Employees now benefit from an expedited and streamlined process with improved accuracy. The average M&C will realize about four hours of saved time from initial entry into the system to being built into a meeting agenda.

The city has averaged 1,036 M&Cs per year for the past five years. This translates into a savings of 4,145 hours per year, or an approximate savings of $103,625 per year.

The changes effectively eliminated two-thirds of the approval touchpoints and decreased approval times from 18.6 days to nine days. The system is accessible from any browser on any platform, allowing approvals to be processed faster.

The Smart 50 Awards will be presented in April in Denver.

This honor follows on the heels of another prestigious Fort Worth recognition from the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC), a global consortium that creates and contributes to process-related standards. The Award for Excellence in Business Transformation was awarded to the City of Fort Worth last August at a ceremony in Boston. In conjunction with this award, the WfMC also recognized Shaun Campbell, M&C Collaboration Wizard creator, who works in IT Solutions. The Outstanding Business Transformation Team Leader Award recognizes Campbell’s innovation and leadership in driving the digital transformation of municipal enterprise, and for championing Mayor Betsy Price’s mission for Fort Worth to be a technology leader.