Travis County Commssioners Court
March 18, 2003
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.
Item 7
7. Receive presentation regarding 2002 activities for the Travis County historical commission.
>> good morning, how are you doing this morning?
>> thank you.
>> looks like you all have been real busy.
>> goodness gracious.
>> I gave my copy to the clerk because she does need to have a copy.
>> I will get one made for her. I didn't bring an extra one, I'm sorry but I will. I just thought of five. What you have before you this morning is some of the activities of this last year, some of the information that has been requested and that individuals wanted in their offices. So I have compiled it all. I want to thank judge Sam Biscoe, commissioner precinct 1, Ron Davis, commissioner precinct 2, Karen Sonleitner, and commissioner precinct 3, gerald daugherty, and commissioner precinct 4, Margaret Gomez for letting me represent Travis County for the last several years as the chair. I will be leaving as the chair and working on other things in the commission. What you have before you today is our annual report. The report to end of year report to the historical commission. We are working on the certified local government program. Visionaries and preservation program. I have a list for you of all of the historical markers in Travis County. All of the one that's are on the national register listing. The by laws that you will need to review because we need to add a number 5 under article 5 officers and committees, if we are going to work on the clg, the certified local government part. With that I will talk a little more about it in a minutes. The 50 year preservation from the Texas historical commission, there's a Travis County courthouse brochure that we have made. Our ethics history, you have our book of this last year with the kids working on their ethnic history to preserve history in the county, this covers all schools. Home schools, deaf, blind, individual schools, private schools, all of the independent school districts in the area. The list of the 31 ranches or farms in the same family for over 100 years in Travis County. The list of 38 rural black schools in Travis County that were working on the history. Have got those listed. So if you know anybody from any of those schooling we are still trying to finish that particular history. Now, our report, I'm going to mention some of the dedication or markers that we are working on this year. The maverick miller house, robert teague cemetery, ... Blackshear, german preschool, robin martin house, union lee baptist church, king tier's funeral home, robert stanley house, william wag gel house, andrew zilker, Austin presbyterian theological seminary ... Then we are still working on the robert stanley house trying to work on the payment for that. Mill brook [inaudible] house, steven f. Austin home. Some of these like the stephen f. Austin hotel. Will still be a dedication. Cemeteries has become a -- really a large issue in the area. And we have -- we have done dedications or markers or certified as cemeteries as the ones listed. Ethnic history essay, we are working on it again this year, inviting you to come when we do our public presentation, which is usually standing room only because the parents, grandparents and everyone comes out. What's been great on about that, that is in past years, one mother said she had never known this information about her mother and her great -- or her grandmother until her daughter did the essay contest and in there she got information and it was two weeks later the individual passed away. She said if it hadn't been for that, they would have lost that history. There are over 300 historical markers in Travis County. But we have a lot more markers to do. We miss a lot of the areas in the rural areas of of the county. So we want to make sure that you do not forget that there is something historical that we are notify and we can work on that for the area. By February 2004, we plan to have the research and the book complete on the black rural schools, so you can tell we need a lot more help on that. We get phone calls on a daily basis of various things not only in our county, but in other areas, and throughout the nation, to research history in this area. Betty baker, which most of you know is one of our greatest history inventories on our commission, received the kathryn drake award for all of the preservation that's she's done. Also another thing that is part of our commission is we do a recommendation to the commissioners court on Travis County, naming of Travis County buildings. We have made a manual this year, which we have never have before for our new members which listed the bylaws, how do you do the refurbishing of a historical marker, because you will see some that are dirty. Especially you that are out in the county that we might not see, they have graffiti on them, faded, let us know, we will be able to refurbish them they look just like new. That was one of the things that we did in the last year, couple of years. Then we have all of the duties for all of the different committees because it's always been hard to get someone to serve on the committees. We are always short members. If you have anyone in your area that would like to participated in history, be sure to let us know, that's very critical. We want to make sure that we always preserve the history in our county, because it is also a very good economic issue in the area because a lot of people come to see historical markers and review them, because we get the -- we get feedback all of the time on that. Also a presentation of some of the things that might happen in one month, you can see we keep pretty busy there as volunteers. We did about 1622 volunteer hours last year, that amounts to probably about $25,000 in -- we were excited about that to make -- to preserve history. You can see the reports. One thing that I want to mention a little bit, on our clg, I visited with judge Biscoe on this, is that since we are already a commission and a government entity, the -- one of the main things that we need to do is change the bylaws and add that number 5 as a clg. There are a lot of areas that have more ... Because we are already under a governmental body. We are working on visionaries, this Thursday, if anyone would like to come at 4:00 at the Austin history center, we have invited all the towns in Travis County from rural to wherever to be with us so that we can do a total preservation package to the Texas historical commission. You will see our application guidelines in here on that. I believe that kind of covers most of the things that we have been doing. We have been very busy. And if you have any questions, I will be glad to answer them.
>> I would just like to congratulate you and Travis County historical commission. In past years, in fact in recent times, the dedication and rebuilding of the historic marker at blackshear elementary school, which is really a real big event off of east 11th. Then of course the work that you have done on getting the historic marker at bethany cemetery, right across the street from sims elementary school over at 12th and springdale road. So it's been a lot of things that you all have done all throughout the county. I appreciate your work. I really do. And it does mean a lot to the community to say, hey, this is historic, we want to work with our history, that is really important. I think that you all have done an outstanding job. I really appreciate that.
>> thank you very much.
>> appreciate that. And new chair that will be chair coming up is bash about a hanks in, she's been on our commission for a while. I want you to give her the same support. I will be spending a lot of my time working on the clg and the preservation of Travis County so that -- we will take a lot of time for that, too.
>> we do appreciate your hard work.
>> thank you.
>> for residents who see this show and haves history they want to share with us, is there a p.o. Box for you or should they just contact any member of the commissioners court to get information to the commission?
>> I'm sorry, I didn't hear you?
>> if the residents have information of a historical nature, should they send it to the members of the commissioners court or do you have a p.o. Box.
>> just whoever is chair or whoever's number they can get. We are on the Travis County website, too. So it goes to various one, we disseminate the information.
>> we appreciate the dedication and hard work.
>> thank you.
>> thanks a lot.
Last Modified: Wednesday, April 2, 2003 10:25 AM