Travis County Commssioners Court
May 20, 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.
Citizens Communication
Citizens communication is next. This is to give our citizens an opportunity to address the court on any matter not on the agenda. For up to -- to three minutes. Two citizens have signed in today, jimmy castro is first, trek english is second. If you are here under citizens communication but did not sign in. Please come forward as we will take you third.
>> good morning, judge Biscoe and Commissioners. My name is jimmy castro, I do have slides to show you this morning. I am here on speak on my own behalf, i've also been a former board member of the will wood neighborhood association. This shows that I would like to remind everyone of children's miracle network telethon to benefit the children's hospital of Austin Saturday and Sunday, may the 31st and June the 1st. All money raised during the celebration will be earmarked for the children's hospital of Austin. The children's hospital is staffed by physicians and a team of dedicated professionals who provide medical care for 65,000 infants, children and teens for a 46 county region. The Austin medical education program offers a well-rounded training experience for our country's finest medical school graduates. The pediatricians of tomorrow, medical students and residents, play an important role in caring for children. In 2002, the rrj department provided 40,000 visits. Projected to increase to 59,000 by 2005. When patients are referred to children's e.r. By their own doctor, they can count on a comprehensive medical care. The pediatric intensive care unit is staffed 24 hours a day, by especially trained team of doctors, nurses and respiratory therapists. The childhood cancer blood disorder center is staffed by onologists and homologists with here's of training and experience in caring with these diseases. The children's hospital foundation of Austin raises funds to support the children's hospital of Austin. The neonatal intensive care unit provides the most comprehensive care in the state for newborns and infants with medical or surgical problems. The new dell children's center creates space for onsite radiology and ultrasound capabilities. The expanded children's surgery center is the only one in central Texas dedicated exclusively to children. The specialty care center hosts over 16 programs in different areas of specialized medical care for children. The children's regional heart program has a long and distinguished history of service in the patients throughout the state and the world. Finally, what really makes children's hospital of Austin different is people. People who want to be challenged and to grow professionally. People who believe in and foster teamwork. People who can leave work each day knowing they have made a difference in the life of a child. This is what makes children's hospital of Austin distinctive. This is what makes children's hospital of Austin a classic. Thank you, judge and Commissioners.
>> thank you, jimmy.
>> thank you.
>> ms. English.
>> good morning, my name is trek english. I just thought that I would come and talk to you a little bit about what occurred last week. I -- on Thursday I attended the function at the barr mansion. I had actually gone through just to help with taking pictures. And so I was quite surprised when I arrived that -- that it was actually the organic fair and trade show. And they were holding a barbecue, Texas barbecue, organic barbecue for this particular convention. And I was just really shocked because when I arrived there people were coming in bus loads, there must have been 700 people, in fact I think there was over 700 people attended the function. I will send you pictures if you are interested. But while I was there, I met premise from great britian, germany, belgium, venezuela and of course from several states in -- in the united states, several [indiscernible] I will remark that the people from vermont were having a rough time with the humidity. But not everybody -- everybody else was really enjoying it. Telling me, actually, I also met someone from albania and we were discussing the price of produce in their country versus this -- the price in Austin. And a lot of these people have corporations in the united states and travel abroad on a monthly basis to do business. They were quite impressed about the area. And how beautiful it was. And how close to town the facility was. It was all this -- this -- this lack of -- of urbanization around it. And I really couldn't bring myself to tell them what was going to happen within the next year if the landfills have their way. And so I wanted to ask you to give something back to this quadrant of Austin. There was quite a bit of money that came in this weekend. A lot of the people were using a lot of the hotels downtown. I think the macafees did a great job of bringing people to Austin and having the barbecue at their location. It was quite beautiful. And on Saturday waste management entered the expansion and all that you could hear is beepers all day long. And I just thought, well, I have to go to Commissioners court and ask them for some relief. I just cannot see where -- where expanding a landfill vertically and another one laterally is going to make our lives [buzzer sounding] any better in the future and I certainly think that it will destroy the ambience at the barr mansion, which was really quite nice to -- to watch and see that you could have a normal life without having downtown landfills right next to you. So I -- I am hoping that you will spend some time thinking about it and I wish that I had known about it or I would have invited you and I wish -- I told them I wish that we had invited them owe this is a big industry, not a bunch of hippies, 20 to $25 million or billion dollar industry. It was a lot of money that came to northeast Austin and I am hoping that you will consider this and perhaps give us a break in -- in -- for the future expansion of these landfills. Thank you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
Last Modified: Wednesday, May 21, 2003 3:52 PM