New Mummy movie entertaining with great special effects

My wife and I went to see the new movie “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” at The Harbor Cinemark theatre last night and found the action-packed movie to be entertaining, with great special effects. It won’t win any Academy awards for Best Movie or best acting or anything like that, but the action raised our pulses a bit when when they open the tomb and our heroes end up chasing the evil emperor. The special effects are terrific when they reveal how the Emperor was cursed, and as good and evil battle it out.

I don’t think that this sequel is quite as good as the previous Mummy movies, but it’s close. The Chinese actresses are all beautiful, and the Chinese theme reminded me that the Olympics just began. Good timing to promote both the movie and competition!

City of Fate experiencing serious growing pains

The City of Fate’s population has grown so quickly since 2000 – from 463 residents to 5,139 – that it now faces a serious problem. Fate just doesn’t have enough revenue to do what it needs to do to keep up with homeowner growth.

According to yesterday’s Dallas Morning News article by reporter Jay Parsons, the capital projects which need to be completed cost eight times the town’s operating budget, so it’s going to require some very creative financing measures by the City’s new mayor, city council and city manager to fund the projects.

Most cities depend heavily on commercial property tax and sales tax, because housing subdivisions don’t generate enough tax revenue to pay for the services they require. But Fate is not attracting new business because business owners would rather open in nearby Rockwall, and because of the slowdown in the economy.

Some of the problems listed:

A less than 3-year-old sewage treatment plant shared with Royse City is running close to capacity and will soon need a multimillion-dollar expansion.

Many older roads built to handle farm traffic are now torn up and too narrow. Deteriorating streets border well-manicured new subdivisions, creating sharp contrasts.

And City Hall – a narrow downtown storefront – is so small the City Council leases a Masonic Lodge with poor acoustics for meetings.

Interim City Manager Trent Petty pretty well summarized the problem:

“We don’t have the revenue to do what we need to do. Even at double the tax rate [now 21.44 cents per $100 of property value], it’d be difficult for the city to meet service needs just for residential growth.”

Quoting Parsons:

“Without more commercial tax dollars, Fate will be hard-pressed to fund capital projects.”

“Fate officials have taken numerous steps to attract businesses but have little to show for it. Mr. Petty said he expects only one new business to open in the next year.”

Newly-elected Mayor Bill Broderick is quoted as saying he’s optimistic and confident that the City will accomplish whatever it needs to, but it will take time to attract businesses.

Quoting Parsons:

Mr. Broderick said the council just wants to get Fate to plan ahead and professionalize operations. Mr. Petty said he’s preparing the town’s first five-year plan, which includes basic infrastructure (roads, drainage and sewer) and facilities (City Hall and fire station).

“It’s a whole lot of catch-up from stuff that’s been allowed to slide,” Mr. Broderick said. “That’s why when I took over and sat down with [Mr. Petty], I just told him, ‘I want the emphasis placed on our city government structure and infrastructure.’ Get back to basics.”

Fate leaders said the town would find ways to fund the projects, perhaps by building small and looking to add on later, though that could cost more in the long term. Mr. Broderick said the council is also considering a 2009 bond election and may tap some reserves.

Maybe former Mayor David Hill just got out while the getting’s good!

Dodie’s Seafood at The Harbor serves great tasting catfish!

Before seeing the new “Mummy” movie at the Cinemark theater at The Harbor last night, my wife and I were in the mood for fish, so we decided to try “Dodie’s Seafood Cafe” at The Harbor, since it was close by and we were in a hurry to make it to the movie in time.

We were very impressed with the great tasting catfish, tartar sauce and french fries, as well as the quick and friendly service! All in all, it was about a “9″ on a 10-point scale!

Because we weren’t real hungry, we just shared one catfish basket – which included two large, lightly-coated pieces of catfish, served over a large portion of delicious battered fries, with tasty hush puppies on the side. But it was plenty of food for both of us. We only drank water, so we can’t comment on drinks. But the catfish was not spicy so we didn’t even need to drink that much!

The hostess was friendly, as was our waitress, dressed in a T-shirt which read “Dodie’s Girl.” All of the young women who work there wear such shirts. Our waitress checked with us several times to ensure we were pleased.

The only mistake they made was not bringing tartar sauce or lemon without us asking for it first. But they responded to our request within less than a minute!

While waiting for our food, we surveyed the menu and noticed a number of dishes we plan to try in the future. Considering the restaurant was full of seemingly happy customers, all of the items on the menu must be pretty good. We had heard some good reports about the eatery, and it does seem to be full or close to it whenever we visit The Harbor.

We recommend that you try Dodie’s Seafood Cafe. To learn more, check out their website and menu here.