The Burleson Animal Shelter now has a simple tool that can save the lives of four-legged family members and help educate adults and children alike on just how hot it can get in a vehicle during a Texas summer. That tool is a temperature gun with an infrared laser. Animal control officers can put the temperature gun up to the cracked window, or up to the glass if the window is not cracked, and measure how hot it is inside the vehicle. An air conditioned vehicle can start out at 70 degrees (on a 90-degree morning) then with the air conditioning off, climb to well over 110 degrees within 10 minutes, even with the windows cracked. A dog's normal body temperature is 100.5 to 102.5. A dog with a body temperature of 103 degrees is abnormal. At 104 degrees, heat stroke can set in. Read News Release 

Temperatures are expected to be in triple digits all week so please check on your elderly and homebound neighbors. Tarrant County Public Health is advising residents to not leave children or animals in parked vehicles; maintain adequate ventilation/air conditioning; avoid overexposure; avoid dehydration; and watch for signs of heat injury. Some people will turn off their air conditioning, don't run it long enough, or may not have access to fans or other means to help circulate cool air. This puts them at risk for a heat-related injury. Signs of heat injury include heavy sweating, muscle cramps, weakness, dizziness, nausea, a weak but rapid pulse and headaches. For the rest of the Tarrant County Public Health's hot-weather checklist, go to When It's Hot as Heck, Do This Check.

The City's street department has completed the mill and overlay work on six streets and a City contractor will start work on micro surfacing 10 streets on Aug. 7, weather permitting (see News Release). For the next two weeks, street crews will be redoing the pavement markings on Southwest Thomas Street at the approaches to intersections and for traffic at Hughes Middle School. Watch for City crews in this area as they work to finish the marking project prior to the start of school. The contractor on the micro surfacing will be posting door hangars today, to let residents know about the upcoming work. Traffic will not be able to travel on these roads for up to six hours once the micro surfacing begins.

CivicPlus, the company that redesigned the City's website in September 2010, has asked Burleson to participate in a national research survey to determine how citizens use the government website. The Citizen Usage of Government Websites Survey  is short and can be accessed on the City website. Two other surveys, one for the City's code compliance division and one for communications, are also on this page. The national survey will remain online through Aug. 24. The results will be provided to the City of Burleson to help in providing better online services through the website.