Travis County Commissioners Court
April 19, 2005
Citizens Communication
Let's get to citizens communication, one citizen signed in. Then we will go to the item no. Two, the -- the employee recognitions. Citizens communication gives residents an opportunity to address the Commissioners court on any matter not on the agenda for up to a full three minutes. And bob barstow has signed in this morning. Good morning, mr. Barstow. I知 barstow. As you know, the barstow family owns and manages windy point on Lake Travis. You are very hostile to our operation there because you operate a park, bob wentz park next door to us. And unfortunately I own an easement to go through your park for my customers to use the lake from your waterfront. And you compete with me from under the easement and you know that's just not right. It doesn't work. It shouldn't work. You won't address it. Now, i've been in the park business for 25 years now. And the public -- in the public park business. I知 just as much a public park as you folks are. The difference is I hope to make a profit so that I can continue to keep my land in public service. The last three years, I have lost money. And i've had to subsidize the operation of that park out of my own pocket. Now, I知 not willing to continue to do that forever. And I知 suggesting that we need, if you want to keep my land in public service, and it's the most beautiful piece of land on Lake Travis, then we need to get together to figure out some way to get this problem solved so that I can get profitable. And I want to call your attention to Texas parks and wildlife department policy that -- that used to be called the Texas outdoor recreation plan, it's expanded that name now. And they are interested in doing some of these things and I suggest that you follow these guidelines and I have took -- extracted this from -- from the plan last night. Texas parks and wildlife department will work to create markets to increase correctationnal activities -- recreational activities on private land which normally occur on state parks. The department will explore programs and strategies aimed at increasing public access to private land. Tpwd will explore the development of pilot programs with landowners that increase recreational opportunities which normally take place on parks such as river access, boating, fishing and wildlife viewing. Tpwd will continue to provide information on the economic benefits to private landowners for opening their lands to other forms of recreational use such as wildlife viewing, hiking and camping. Of course we do all of that on my land and I知 squarely within -- within their goals. They go on further to say, when they get to conservation recreation priorities for water, create new opportunities, improve access, tpwd will develop new strategies [buzzer sounding] and create new opportunities for urban texans to recreate on rivers and in their communities. Listed under that is tpwd will explore strategies in which landowners can generate revenue for allowing public access to rivers and streams on their land. Goal: improve public access to the outdoors, objectives: one of the objectives is investigate and report strategies for increasing recreation on public land. Now, i've -- i've done all of those things on my land for 25 years and you've been hostile to it for 20 years when he leased your land next door and did not realize that I had an easement to go through your land to use the lake from your waterfront. You have never resolved that problem. It's time to get at it or you are going to find out that -- that sooner or later I知 not going to continue to subdies this park operation. I don't want to take my park out of public use, but I知 not going to continue to fight this battle and be accused of the things that I知 accused of and have to put my money in it to do what you should be cooperating with me and I want your hostile action to stop and I want you to help me keep this property open to the public. It's the most beautiful piece of land on Lake Travis. It's 25 minutes from the capitol. I've been doing a public service and in response for that, you people have been savaging me and my reputation.
>> minute and a half over, thank you, mr. Barstow. Now, this is for meals on wheels. They deliver meals daily to elderly and disabled homebound Travis County residents. They are now short of volunteers to service 66 routes and this is the highest vacancy that they have had in years. And it's having a devastating impact on their meal delivery program. So the request is for those interested in helping out to phone meals on wheels at 476-6325. This is for meals to be delivered during the lunch hour. And a lot of Travis County employees participate already. They want me to let employees know if you cannot deliver each and every day four weeks a month, then you may be able to team up with three or four other county employees to divide up the monthly days. So if there are four of you, then each of you could deliver say one week. So each month you deliver one week. These are seniors and disabled homebound Travis County residents so please consider helping out and you may receive an e-mail from the county judge that says just that, as a county reminder, and to have that phone number available.
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Wednesday, April 20, 2005 10:34 AM