Travis County Commssioners Court
March 25, 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 1
Number 1 approve a resolution declaring April as keep Austin beautiful month and committing the county to sponsor and participate in clean sweep and other cleanups throughout the year. Good morning.
>> good morning, judge Biscoe, I'm charles williams, conservation coordinator for Travis County, iris guzman is to my left. The director of keep Austin beautiful. The month of April is designated at keep Austin beautiful month. Travis County promotes and supports these cleanups efforts. Look at two of the over 100 cleanups -- look at just two of the 100 cleanups, the Lake Travis parks cleanup and the Travis County parks cleanup, which is around after memorial day, these -- these events have saved Travis County over $58,000, we have picked up 5.5-tons of debris and put them in the proper location. Travel and leisure, a magazine, did an online survey of u.s. Cities, rated those who travel to these cities, Austin ranked number 6 for cleanliness, that's what we are all about. Trying to keep Travis County and the city of Austin clean. That's what this is about, starting these cleanups with this month as being keep Austin beautiful month. At this time, I would like to turn this over to irene and accept the resolution with her, of course.
>> good morning, judge Biscoe and commissioners.
>> good morning.
>> I'm irene guzman nainl, keep Austin beautiful, I visited with many of you quite a few times, you all are familiar with what you do is keep Austin beautiful. We don't have your t-shirts this morning, we will have them after the big event coming up on April th 5th, Saturday at town lake. Kxan recently did a special on volunteer efforts. In that special, they talked about several things that I thought were interesting. Despite the your honor certainty of times that we live in, volunteers are very, very critical to the support of our community, not only to get people out there and have a good time. What is really critical at this time is volunteer management and management of resources. If a non-profit has volunteers, then it's critical that they use and leverage the funding that they get from entities in a very responsible manner. Keep Austin beautiful does that. For every dollar that we receive from the city, county, private sector, we get almost $22 for every dollar contributed. During this time, when budget cuts are taking place across the board, it's very, very critical that people realize the importance of organizations like keep Austin beautiful. And how that organizations like ours are going to pick up the slack where budget cuts are made. In terms of keeping our communities clean and beautiful, and charles stole my thunder, but this report that just came out by the tourism magazine that rates us as 6th as one of the cleanest places to live in our country is a testament to the fact that we are doing a good job in our community. So we want to ask for your continued support as you have always been supportive of our events. At this time we would like to make sure that you all mark your calendars for April as keep Austin beautiful month. Thank you so very much this morning for giving us your time.
>> thank you. In your resolution we resolve as commissioners court to officially participate in keep Austin beautiful, inc.'s, clean sweep 2003 on April 5th, and that's for everybody to go volunteer, right?
>> that's correct.
>> and other county cleanups throughout April, may and June, to include the Travis County parks cleanup and other cleanups throughout the county and the commissioners court declares April as keep Austin beautiful month and I move approval.
>> second.
>> thank you, we appreciate it very much.
>> let me just ask you one quick question. A question that -- that's in the listening audience, but even on television, we would like to participate as far as volume tear, would they be able to do that?
>> absolutely, you know, we have a very small office staff. We only have three people that work at our office. I will give that number out in just one moment. But the amount of impact that we have on this community is really incredible. For the Lake Travis County cleanup last fall, we had thousands of people volunteering. And I just want to add that these events are put on by donations from the corporate community. And it's all in-kind. We need all of these thousands of people. When we can, we give them t-shirts, door prizes make it a fun events. I want you to know that we really have a tremendous impact on this community. The number to call if you would like to volunteer for such an event throughout the year is 974-2533. And we also have a very comprehensive, we just had a complete makeover on our website which is www.keepaustinbeautiful.org www.keepaustinbeautiful.org at that site you can even fill out a registration online for volunteering for any of our events. Thank you for asking that important question.
>> thank you very much for your participation, thank you, all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. We do have a couple of proclamations for you here.
Last Modified: Wednesday, April 2, 2003 10:25 AM