Travis County Commssioners Court
June 24, 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 residents an opportunity to address the court on any matter not on the agenda. Any matter not on the agenda. Number 1 is charles e. Williams. Number 2:00 is dale harrington, and number 3 is kenneth snyder.
>>
>> good morning, judge Biscoe, Commissioners. I知 transportation coordinator of t.n.r., I have with me [inaudible - no mic] scpekt active director of keep Austin beautiful. We are here this morning to boast and talk about our 18th Lake Travis parks cleanup, which was a tremendous success. This was a -- June the 14th, two weekends ago. We worked very hard on this one this time. We looked at about 10 parks that we cleaned up, plus around that perimeter of the lake and we had over 300 people that attended, which was a fantastic number of volunteers. We also have a homeowners association competition. We tried to get the homeowners out there to compete with how many volunteers they had and the winner of that was comanche trails with about 23 volunteers. So a tremendous success. While irene does the rest of the story, as paul hardvy would say, I知 going to pass out the t-shirts.
>> at the risk of sounding repetitive after each one of our cleanups, I would like to stress the fact that we really are making a difference in our community. Organizations like ours that are volunteer driven are very critical to keeping our community clean and beautiful. I don't need to let you of all people know that having a clean and beautiful community is critical to economic development, it's critical to lowering the crime rate, and it's also critical to keeping our real estate values intact. I hope that I don't become known as the t-shirt lady, because I know that I come all of the time and give you all t-shirts. Today you will notice there's an extra treat. We at keep Austin beautiful have ordered much better quality shirts than just t-shirts. We hope and ask you to wear those yellow t-shirts with the "keep Austin beautiful" stitched in with pride in our community. Keep Austin beautiful is a very stable and -- an organization with an excellent reputation and who doesn't want to keep our community beautiful, so that-- that's an extra special gift to you our county Commissioners and judge Biscoe from keep Austin beautiful and hopefully we will see you out and about in the community with that nice yellow shirt on. Thank you for your support throughout the year and particularly during the great Texas trash off and keep Austin beautiful month in April, we look forward to continuing our good work in the community, thank you so much.
>> thank you.
>> how much -- let me ask you, how much debris is picked up in the cleanup efforts, do you record it.
>> we picked up 775 bags of trash.
>> 70?
>> 775 bags of trash.
>> pluwe will have the aluminum recycling there from Travis County, I don't know exactly how many pounds because we haven't weighed it yet, we did get quite a culmination of aluminum with the truck there.
>> we had a group of young boys from big brothers, big sisters. We are very happy and proud that many members of our community are realizing the value of our combine tee service and keeping our community clean and beautiful. Thank you so much.
>> thank you all.
>> dale harrington is next.
>> judge, may I approach the give to give out a handout to make itlearer what I知 going to talk about.
>> yes, sir. Give Commissioner Gomez all of them, she'll pass them down. Thank you. I would like to -- I would like to thank everyone for the opportunity to speak before the Commissioners court. I知 speaking on a matter that I think Karen Sonleitner is aware of, but I have come here for a specific purpose, I知 get to that in a moment. We have issues developing in our neighborhood. Recently Williamson county, split between the county line, that pink line on both of the two drawing, Williamson county recently added a road, you know, to one of our stub roads which ended in a cul de sac, basically rerouting arterial traffic through our neighborhood. Becoming an issue considering that we directly access the road, our neighbors back out, we no longer walk along the road. Some of us with build lines as little as 10 feet off this road. Somewhere between a 10 and 20 times traffic. That's not a number I知 making up, it's from Travis County's study. I think joe hall did that. The issue here is that the future for us is we found out after the fact is that s.h. 130 is coming and our road is going to be one of the three toll ramps in the area. We are just seeing the tip of the iceberg. We have a dangerous situation today but a worse one tomorrow. We are here to look at options. I think continuing to put this traffic straight through our neighborhood is a bad option. Frankly I think it's against common sense. The way -- the red line and I think the idea is to basically redirect all the traffic to our neighborhood. What we have here to talk about is a way around our neighborhood because this is really going to become a real problem. There's barely enough right-of-way to get four lanes in, much less turn lanes. I don't think this is ever going to be a safe situation for the residents passing through nor the residents living in here with the growth out in hutto, in that area, this is basically a crushing situation for our neighborhood. If you look at the second drawing, I have already talked to the Commissioner frankie lindburg of Williamson county, he's open to discussing the loop around our neighborhood. I知 basically here to see if we can get cooperation between the two counties before this option closes off. Right now, the -- though not perfect, I think the green line is an option can be taken today. If we wait later on it's not one that can be taken if the developers fill up the land around us. Basically, you know, we feel that our -- with this coming, it's no less than a defamation of our liberty and life. We can no longer walk, our kids can no longer play in the front yards. Our citizens have to back out on this busy thoroughfare, becoming busier every day as we speak. I would like to ask that Travis County put this on the agenda and look at correcting the situation because Karen -- as Karen said, we inherited the situation. We didn't inherit the problem. I think what we inherited here is a poor solution from Williamson county but it was the only solution to do without your cooperation because the county line. But I think basically the traffic problem is both travis and Williamson county problems. We recognize that there is a problem, we want to work with a solution for you and Williamson county to make sense for both us and the people that will be passing on this road to keep it a safe situation. I think it needs to be addressed before it becomes a much more dangerous and explosive situation. We are in a very high growth area. We would like you to consider that and hopefully put this on your agenda and look at a solution to protect our neighborhood, protect the citizens of travis and Williamson county. Thank you.
>> thank you.
>> can you tell me what Commissioner you are working with in Williamson county.
>> frankie lindburg, he's open to discussing this. We would like that to happen if possible.
>> Commissioner I can update you on what's going on here. I met dale and folks from his neighborhood after the last campo meeting. Judge, this was one of the things brought forward as citizens communication. The following Friday I drove out there with a member of my staff and we looked at it from every single angle. I知 convinced that there is a solution. There's absolutely a solution. I am convinced that there is a solution that goes around your neighborhood.
>> so, you know, we want to see that happen before it's too late and we are land locked.
>> as last Thursday, I visited personally with Commissioner limmer and basically said how are we going to work together to fix this problem because the answer is not cutting through that neighborhood.
>> that's great, I知 glad to hear that.
>> we are pulling together a meeting and it's basically we are going to put our heads together, but the counties are going to work together to get this one resolved. I look forward to bringing this forward to the Commissioners court with a solution because what was thrust upon this neighborhood is incorrect. It was a situation thrust upon tm by the platting done and approved by Williamson county. But its impacted the Travis County side and I drove it there's just no way. So, dale, I visited with mr. Hall. He came to see me as well. So we are on top of it. We are getting that meeting together. The next couple of weeks. We will absolutely keep you updated on progress but I知 convinced there is a solution that goes around your neighborhood.
>> basically when you communicate with me, I can communicate with most all of the neighborhood by the e-mail, let us know and we will get it out.
>> we are already working on it.
>> thank you, ma'am, appreciate it.
>> thank you --
>> kenneth snyder is next.
>> this is the Round Rock leader, I gave you all a copy of it. This latest ad, corrosion, [indiscernible], black and white, run out of ink. But this is stuff they are going to take a half million water line down to leave the same sitting out here. [indiscernible] I cannot understand how we got to be discrime nateed against so bad at in north ridge acres, to haul water. You can't use water out of the top because there's so much sewer going through this. We need water and sewer both. Actually the sewer is worse than the water. We have a water operator raping us out there. A lady with a $647 water bill, one month, the next bill 80 something dollars for one month. He's not there no longer, now it's up for sale. This lady here is trying to sell her house about a ditch that you can drive a car down the middle of it. With all of the corrosion and everything. They went out there and looked at it, said they ain't no way. Said I can stock fish in that place. Have a lake and a swimming pool. Kids get drowned in there, when they get drowned there's going to be a big lawsuit against Williamson county. We have in Williamson county and Travis County. Karen Sonleitner is our Commissioner. I do appreciate mr. Daugherty, he's the only one that's been out there, took an interest in it everything. There is problems out there to fix this problem. We don't have to be like this here. Kennedy ridge is getting their problem fixed, we can get our fixed. They said they couldn't work with the neighborhood years ago and everything. Now they got the state to work with. We don't have any say over anything, the state runs the water system out there. Take this off of one fire hydrant, put it on another one and run through conduit for water. This water operator wants to keep this thing, taking 10, 15,000 a month out of this thing every month to pay -- to pay his relatives that's running the system out there. And raping us and he knows if we get this in here, water and sewer both, everything up to city standards, the city of Austin told us that they will take it in and do the building and maintenance for us. So he ain't going to do anything to get it up to standards on account of that very reason. Sure he wants loans. You know. He gets loans, he get the money all up front. You get grants, dish it out, you don't get it out, you have to answer for every dime that goes through there on grants. They get contractors to do the stuff like finishing it up. Contracting it up, getting finished. Four or five years, that's the reason he wants to do it that way. It's all got to be fixed immediately, a disgrace. Water operator, we need a good water operator running the system out there. Needs to be set up as a utility company to get the thing and keep the thing going like it should. We need a utility company. This thing here still leaks, put a sleeve over it, wrap it down, still a leak in it. Conduit, you can't fix conduit permanently. You put wires through this kind of stuff. Sitting out in an open ditch on the side of an open ditch with corrosion [buzzer sounding] since they dug it out. How would you like to see that in front of your house. I know you are worried about your trush bills, I have a 600 water bill [indiscernible] you better make it right the first time or you are inside of that ditch, I have been in it a couple of times. How people got to live like this, it's disgraceful, it's a rape. It's a disgrace. All water like this here, drinking water for you, your puppies, also taking a bath in it. I don't think this water is safe enough to take a bath in. When you turn it out, Daugherty was out there, I think I showed you the pressure on it, four or five pounds coming out of the pressure. 99% of the time you do not have water, you do not have water. In the richest area there is around, right across the street from la frontera, 10 miles down the road, can't get the counties together to fix this problem. It's a disgrace.
>> you are a minute over, mr. Snyder.
>> well, the people dying everything, we will get something done. 90% hispanic out there.
>> thank you very much.
>> thank you, mr. Snyder.
Last Modified: Wednesday, June 25, 2003 9:52 AM