A city landmark highlighting the entrance and exit to downtown Amarillo for more than 20 years will add to the bright lights of the city as the Center City Gateway Arches officially light up Tuesday (May 20). Thanks to collaborative funding between the City of Amarillo, Center City and Center City Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone 1, a restoration project for the Center City Gateway Arches began in September 2024. The project includes LED lights which will allow the arches to display a wide array of colors – for example, red, white and blue lights during the July 4 holiday and red and green lights during the Christmas season. “We are so excited for the Amarillo community to see this new and colorful version of the Center City Gateway Arches,” said Center City Executive Director Beth Duke. “Countless cars pass by these arches every day. The restoration project adds a completely new element to what has become a downtown landmark.” The Center City Gateway Arches will officially light up with a public ceremony:

The City of Amarillo (COA) is providing current, timely and beneficial data for city playa lakes via a unique and brand new website – the COA Playa Lake Level Monitoring site. The site is available at: https://www.amarillo.gov/drainage-utility/ The site includes an abundance of data for eight playa lakes – Bennett Lake, Lawrence Lake, Martin Lake, McCarty Lake, McDonald Lake, Playa 7, T-Anchor Lake and Willow Grove Lake. “We wanted to provide accurate, thorough and up-to-date information regarding city playa lakes that can be shared with the public,” said COA Director of Public Works Alan Harder. “There is so much information available on the dashboards, and we encourage the Amarillo community to use this new site as a valuable resource.” The COA Drainage Utility Division recently installed monitoring stations for the purpose of determining current playa levels (identified as percent full) for playa lakes owned or maintained by the city. Levels are provided in 15-minute intervals. In addition to monitoring the real-time level of each playa lake, monitoring stations also include rain gauges and cameras.  Residents can view photos of each playa lake taken every hour and monitor current and past rainfall data at each site. To see the recent presentation to city council regarding the COA Playa Lake Level Monitoring site, go to Item 9D on the video index of the May 13 city council meeting: amarillotx.new.swagit.com/videos/342545

The City of Amarillo Animal Management & Welfare Department (AAMW)has shifted to summer hours of operation. AAMW summer hours are: For more information contact City of Amarillo Media Relations Manager Dave Henry at 806-378-5219 or by email at david.henry@amarillo.gov. ###

City Council will have a special meeting at 2 p.m. Tuesday (May 13) to canvass the results of the May 3 election and to order the Place 3 runoff for June 7. In addition, four councilmembers will be sworn in for a new two-year term. The special meeting will be in council chambers, Room 3400 at City Hall. Mayor Cole Stanley, Les Simpson (Place 4), Don Tipps (Place 2) and Tim Reid (Place 1) will be sworn-in to the new council. There will be a reception for outgoing Councilmember Josh Craft (Place 1) following the ceremony. Craft did not run for reelection. The runoff for Place 3 between David Prescott and Councilmember Tom Scherlen will be June 7. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Early voting will be May 27-30 and June 2-3. Polling locations will be announced on the City of Amarillo website and the Potter County/Randall County websites when available. Scherlen will continue to serve in Place 3 pending completion of the runoff election. The regularly scheduled meeting of city council will begin at 3 p.m. in council chambers. For more information contact City of Amarillo Media Relations Manager Dave Henry at 806-378-5219 or by email at david.henry@amarillo.gov. ###