Highland Park DPS held their annual “Drop Off Your Medication Here So You Don’t Flush It Down The Drain And Create Mutant Hermaphroditic Fish” drive this weekend, to what I can only imagine was rousing applause.

Parkies dropped off 89 pounds of pills, according to Sgt. Lance Koppa, which is about, oh, I don’t know, probably 200 million pills?

Anyway, good job. And as for those hermaphroditic fish? I was serious.

(Update: According to Steve Mace, the University Park drive brought in 210 pounds of pills. So that’s (does quick math) 472 million pills. Exactly 472 million pills.)

Town services director Ronnie Brown, water department Employee of the Year Jose Reyes, Mayor Bill Seay. Photo: Courtesy of Highland Park

Okay, so they were announced in April, but better late than never, right?

• Martin Almanza, Water Department Employee of the Year
• Jose Reyes, Parks Department Employee of the Year
• Kirk Smith, Building Inspection Employee of the Year
• Janice Burke, DPS Civilian Employee of the Year
• Jeff Hightower, DPS Officer of the Year
• Marc Rossini, DPS Supervisor of the Year

Congratulations to all the winners.

Highland Park’s lacrosse program will try to bring home a pair of state championships this afternoon in Georgetown.

The Divsion II team will take on Klein at 1 p.m. The Division I team will then face St. Mark’s at 3:30 at East View High School.

Fridays are slow around here, like every office. We call sources, they rarely call back.

That leaves us with a decent amount of time to scour the websites of the municipalities, schools, and other groups we cover. Today I took to Highland Park’s site.

On the front page is the tab “Construction Updates.” I clicked through, hoping there might be some updated town hall renovation figures. I clicked again, through to the “DPS and Town Hall Renovation Project” link. Last updated? January 5.

But wait, there’s a light. “Check out the latest updates on our blog!” Helpful, I thought.

I clicked through to a Blogger site, complete with elevations drawings, slide shows, the works. The only problem? It was last updated in July 2011.

Town officials have said they’re planning on sending out brochures and information to area residents affected by the construction. Maybe they should turn to their website as well.

Highland Park's David Allen will be walking on at Georgetown. (Staff photo: Chris McGathey)

Highland Park senior basketball player David Allen hopes to continue his playing career at Georgetown University. He will be joining the team as a walk-on. Allen said he visited the Washington, D.C., campus a couple of weeks ago and played with the team.

“I really enjoyed it,” Allen said. “I know coming in I probably won’t be expecting to get a whole lot of playing time my freshman year, but I’m going to work for it. I’m going to try to get out there.”

Allen, who averaged 23.2 points and 5.3 rebounds, was last season’s District 10-4A Most Valuable Player. Allen was suspended for the playoffs after being arrested for an alleged DWI.

“It was always something I wanted to do,” Allen said of playing Division I basketball. “For a little while, I thought it was something that wasn’t going to happen. But then this just came up and they stuck with me.”

Highland Park takes on Carrollton Creekview tonight. (Staff photo: Chris McGathey)

The Highland Park baseball team will take on future district rival Carrollton Creekview in a one-game bi-district playoff at 7:30 tonight at Grand Prairie’s QuikTrip Park.

The Scots (22-10-1) have won eight straight games and 10 of their last 11. After beating McKinney, 6-4, to close out the regular season last Friday, Highland Park finished tied with Rockwall at 10-4 in the District 10-4A standings. The Scots beat the Yellow Jackets, 3-2, in a playoff for seeding on Saturday.

The winner of tonight’s game will take on the winner of the Spruce-North Dallas series next week.

When I walked up to University Park City Hall yesterday for the city council meeting, I was stunned by the number of campaign signs for Sam Tamborello and Joel Williams III. The two are running for the Highland Park mayorship, but this was University Park.

Ten signs filled the public right-of-way at University Boulevard and Williams Parkway, but when I walked inside city hall, I realized why: early voting. Both UP and HP early votes are cast at UP City Hall.

In UP elections news, council candidate Dawn Moore was in attendance during last night’s meeting and three of the other candidates were in their seats as city councilmen. Candidate Raquel Ibarra was not present, to my knowledge.

At Monday’s Highland Park Town Council meeting, we were in and out in about 20 minutes. Short and sweet, two traits I attribute exclusively to Mayor For The Day Ben Soong, a third-grader at Bradfield.

In those 20 minutes though, there were a few town hall project nuggets:

- Bids on the project were due Wednesday, and project manager Gallagher Construction will review them in the coming weeks. Council will have the bids on their desk to approve by May 20, said DPS Chief Chris Vinson.

- Prep work concluded on the town’s temporary office space on Lemmon Avenue last week. AT&T is now heading in to install the fiber connections. The town expects to move into their temporary digs by the end of May.

- Town officials are creating informational materials to distribute to neighbors regarding parking, staging, and traffic routes. Expect them soon.

Early voting for all University Park and Highland Park precincts will be conducted at the University Park City Hall, located at 3800 University Boulevard. The dates and times are:

Monday, April 30 – Friday, May 4 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Monday, May 7 & Tuesday, May 8 7:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.

Sarah Howley receives her gold medal following Saturday's Class 4A title game. (Staff photo: Chirs McGathey)

Four Highland Park girls soccer players earned spots on the Class 4A All-State Tournament Team.

Championship game Most Valuable Player Sarah Howley, Kelsey Bass, Megan Gittins, and Katie Martin all earned spots on the squad.

Highland Park capped its 28-1-2 season by beating Northwest Byron Nelson, 1-0, in a shootout, in the finals. The Lady Scots also beat Waco Midway, 5-2, in the semis.