Travis County Commssioners Court
July 29, 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. Kenneth schneider is the first one who signed in to give residents the opportunity to address the court on any matter not on the agenda for three minutes. And ricky link is the second speaker this morning.
>> my name is kenneth schneider, north ridge acres subdivision. I had a heart attack the other day and I'm still going through it anyway, but we're being raped by patrick king who is running the water system out there. This came out in the american-statesman the other day in the Williamson county paper. People have anywhere from 1200 on down, maybe on up. The reason I'm still involved in it because -- I'm hauling water now. You can't ring dring the water. It's unpotable water. People paying 12 and $1,400 for water you can't even drink. Six hundred and $800 for water. That's higher than light bills and rent and everything. Even our trash bill. Which I can't understand how come we're getting raped like this out there. I wish somebody could step in and find out the reason. Now he wants to get a loan and everything and put money in his pocket and everything and not fix the problem. I lost my briefcase. They dug the ditches out there now. We have water lines sitting on top of the ground. They come out there and they put a band-aid on top of it to make it stop leaking theand still leak. We need water and sewer desperately out there. It's been going on 10, 12 years. We've got names of the people out there that has the high water bills that y'all can probably get the phone numbers of and can call them. That's one month, not two or three months. I don't think you can have a 1,200-dollar water bill in a year. But one woman had a water bill for six hundred dollars right next door to me. She moved out. There are about 50 families out there right now without water. They're starting to come out of the woodwork now. Nobody should have to be without water. If they gave me a six, seven hundred dollar water bill, i'd ooid be out of water. I've got to pay over three thousand dollars for one day in the hospital, a heart attack. And I just cannot understand how long we have to be here like this and to be a third world neighborhood and have to haul water. You cannot even take a bath in the water. As I understand at times you don't even have any water. And the water pressure is up and down. And that is not safe. And then you come out and get a water bill. Mine is running right at 80 to $100 right now. This water operate certify making a lot of money off this neighborhood. He's making a lot of money off of it. I know if y'all lived out there, you all would be up here raising cain too, so this is wrong, desperately wrong. Thank you very much.
>> thank you, mr. Schneider. Ricky link is next. And the next person (indiscernible).
>> [inaudible - no mic].
>> all right. Thank you. Then we have trek english there as the last speaker.
>> morning ladies and gentlemen. Before I get started, I would like to on behalf of my family and my neighbors, thank you to have an opportunity to share with you this morning about the problem we have in our neighborhood. The area I'm speaking of is gattis school road that connects to 685. They've ran an extension to our neighborhood. The neighborhood is known as forest creek estates or huntington trail subdivision. I believe maybe everyone has heard about this before. I believe it's been presented here before. I show up today just as a reminder that we're still very concerned about what's going on out there. And I just want to make -- really what's happening is it's the misuse of gattis school road as a local street that serves our neighborhood. It's now been opened up as a thoroughfare, so we're really -- we have lots of problems there. There's three items I really want to address this morning. And the first one is really safety. Before I get to that, though, I understand that miss Karen Sonleitner and mr. Frank limber met I think a couple of weeks ago, and we're real happy about that and very excited about that. What we don't know is what was talked about or what resolutions might be available, but at least we're excited that you all are talking. My first item, 103, is safety. And just for a moment I want to refer to Williamson county subdivision regulations. I could not locate the same type document for Travis County. I could imagine it probably exist and maybe reads the same, but I'm going to refer to section 1 titled purpose, and there's three different items. I want to read from that. It says threes regulations are prepared in general to aid in the orderly development of Williamson county, Texas to provide guidelines which will lead to a desirable environment specifically they have been prepared for the following purposes: to protect the citizens of Williamson county by ensuring minimum subdivision and development guidelines for residential, commercial and industrial subdivisions. In item 1.4 says to provide for the welfare of the public by providing guidelines to the location, design and construction of roadways -- i'll skip a few things here, and other features that provide for the safety of the general public. So the letter and spirit of the law is it's looking to provide safety. So I'm going to quick will you run through a couple of items we're that we're shernsing that are definitely not safe. I know my wife and neighbors and I every morning, everyday have to back out on to gattis school road now, which has a high volume of traffic. I believe Travis County has captured the volume of traffic with some recorders. We know they have that data. We're all at risk every time we back out of our driveways. And basically our neighborhood now has hutto, the city of hutto has access to our neighborhood. Everyone from the city of hutto just runs right through our neighborhood. Some other activities we can no longer enjoy, simple things you would expect in a neighborhood, walking, riding a bike, push a stroller or any type of game you might want to play in the street, things we used to do, we can't do it any more. For some of our neighbors, literally a trip to the mailbox just to reach around the corner to open up your mailbox, you're literally less than two foot away from passing traffic, so you need to wait for traffic to open up your mailbox and get in it. The same is true for when I mow my yard or any of my neighbors mow their yard right along this stretch of gattis school road. If I put my arm out, it will get hit, I am that close to the road when I mow my grass. Bis bis you're about half a minute over, mr. Link.
>> oh, really? I'm sorry.
>> you have three minutes, but you're about three and a half minutes now. Can you wrap it up for us?
>> okay. Number 2 was negligent planning and regulations. Williamson county basically defines collector roads and local streets, and the big thing is our driveways take access to gattis school road, so there in the regulations it states these roads can't be used for arterial roads. And there's even a 1500-foot limit on this -- that's stated in the regulations. And the last thing is facing unfair treatment. Star ranch that now has access to gattis school road, they've done all the things in the regulations for star ranch, section 1. It even states here in the plat for star ranch, section 1, access is prohibited to gattis school road for all single-family lots, meaning none of their driveways can take access to gattis school road. But what about us? Our driveways take access to gattis school road. So that's a major thing that we're right fooiting is the fact that our driveways take access to the road, and it clearly has not held up the spirit and the letter of the law of Williamson county. So we know you guys -- the reason why I bring this document here is this subdivision development couldn't have happened unless there was signature approval from Travis County from them. The fact that I live in Williamson county and many of my neighbors are in Travis County where gattis school road starts to run through. So we believe that a partnership -- this can happen with Travis County and Williamson county to resolve the problem hopefully.
>> judge, if I can just take a moment, we are working cooperatively with Williamson county, Commissioner limmer and i, tom knuckles was in on that meeting and joe gieselman and the other person who platted this on Williamson county and the what precipitated this whole thing. We had a meeting a couple of weeks ago and we have -- we have had in house mr. Gieselman's engineers are taking a look at verious scenarios, and when they're finished with their work, and they are not the question, then Commissioner limmer will get back together and then we will go back out to the neighborhood and see what kind of things we cooperatively can work together on. Mu but I have the pledge that we will work cooperatively on a solution. But I want to repeat this whole thing was reziptated by the platting on the Williamson county side of the line, not what happened on our side. But that doesn't mean that we are no less a partner in finding a solution to this neighborhood.
>> I appreciate it.
>> we'll be in touch as soon as we have something to tell you. Thank you, sir.
>> ms. English?
>> Commissioners, judge Biscoe, my name is trek english and I'm here to speak on the matter concerning waste management. This is why I'm not speaking on item 36. I think this concerns another matter. I'm very concerned about this agreed order, proposed agreed order that was issued by the tceq yesterday or at least it was issued last week, but we didn't find out until yesterday, concerning the violations -- the issuance of violations that were collected during 2002 against the waste management landfill. I was very surprised to find out that the county had been discussing this matter with the tceq and it was a proposed agreement between -- at least that's what it refers to here, the project agreement between Travis County and the Texas commission on environmental quality. I find it quite hypocritical that the whole time we're here discussing things with you, you're over there talking with tceq about what to do with the money. Frankly, all of this smacks of impropriety, even if there was none. I find it strange that waste management, who doesn't have to do so, is giving the county the sum of $119,000 plus, which is almost too close for my comfort to the amount of the contract for the disposal of the solid waste of the county that was awarded to them six months ago. There may not be anything there, but frankly, it doesn't look right. And I am also appalled that the money is being used for -- for the pick up of the illegal dumping sites within a three-mile radius of our neighborhood. To me the illegal dumping is a serious problem all over the county. It's a long-term problem because picking it up once won't result in anything. Within three weeks you will have just as much garbage there. So there's a need for a long-term solution for illegal dumping in this county, and I recognize it, but I don't think it should be done with the money from this particular settlement. Also, awarding money or allocating money to a water project for north ridge acres, which part of it is in Williamson county, the residents are not contributing to your tax base, but we are. I find that outrageous. I am glad that mr. Schneider was here so he can hear me. I'm certainly not saying they don't need the money. I certainly think they do. And that's one of your responsibilities, and I don't think you should use the -- this money from the -- I don't think you should discharge your responsibilities to these people for the water problems they're having at the expense of our neighborhood. That's what I mean. I think that we have suffered enough. There's a serious problem, much more serious than even on onion creek. The erosion on onion week that is not being addressed by the city or the county, and yet there's no money being allocated to walnut creek, and that was being polluted by the landfills for most of the violations. So I would like to at least have some type of understanding between the county and us to where we would at least be told what's going on and whether or not -- I believe that we wrote a letter asking you for suggestions of where we wanted this money to be allocated. However, if we had been asked we could have come up with 10 suggestions, but nothing was ever asked of us. And north ridge acres is 14 miles from our -- from the landfill. I don't see how that is going to help us. We have no trees and the trees that they're suggesting putting in are very small trees. You cannot have a mountain 200 feet being helped by trees that are 10, 15 feet tall. Thank you.
>> thank you, ms. English.
>> trek, let me say something. You know, I did have a meeting with -- with the tceq and laid out what they anticipated doing. I mean, when I found out that that amount had actually been defined and precisely at that number, I probably heard it as fast as you did. I mean, I anticipated that there was going to be, you know, some sort of a fine that tceq was going to levy against waste management, but I had no idea what the amount -- you know, we had heard all sorts of numbers about well, we think it going to be this, we think it's going to be that. I tell you the first thing that came to our mind was do you know what? I'm sure that the northeast neighbors are going to want those dollars spent in their areas. I mean, so that was articulated in our meeting. Now, I certainly didn't feel compelled, nor did I feel comfortable, you know, saying anything to the neighbors about, well, here's this money's going to come this way just -- because azure as I would have said that, something would have happened that that fine wouldn't have been levied or whatever. So I want you to know that I'm not -- I will tell you that you -- I don't know that you will ever get me in a she nan began. I know I like to use that word. I'm not going to do that with you. Once I know something and I know definitively that that's going to be the case, then I'm certainly willing to be open with the neighbors. But you're right, I think that there are a ton of things that that money could be spent in your area. And I think that you're also right about walnut creek. I've seen the pictures that you have given me. And there are a number of things that -- I do think the thing that we talked about with the dump pickup, we honestly thought that that certainly would be monies well spent, and you're right. Pick it up and it only happens in two weeks because our enforcement capabilities are so limited, mainly because of our budget. But I will assure you that I will certainly be willing to sit down with you all and say, okay, how do you -- how can you split this money up and how can you spend it? And I think that there are even -- I don't know, is anybody from tceq here today? But I think that there are some real pretty strict regulations as to what you can spend the money on, but I would imagine that the needs -- these needs far surpass the amount of dollars. Just so you know, that's where it is from my standpoint. So I think now is the time to really sit down and say, okay, that has been, it is public knowledge that that has been fined and there are going to be those dollars. Now I think our next step is to sit down with you and say, okay, y'all tell us where we can get the bang for the buck with this thing. So I'm certainly willing to do that with you.
>> is this money going to be paid back to them to pick up all this? Is that how it's done?
>> I don't know that anything is --
>> there has been zero dollars made -- you are presuming --
>> I'm not presuming.
>> no, actually, you have. You basically have been saying that we've already made decisions about how this money is going to be spent. And --
>> it's in here. It's in the proposed order.
>> what I do is reduce to writing what I think -- any mi understanding is we went to tceq and asked for three or four hundred thousand dollars, not even thinking about bfi or waste manage: we also went to other state agencies and tceq came over and said here's a possible source. But then we spent a lot of time discussing restrictions. I left that meeting thinking they'll consider what we said and maybe there will be a follow-up discussion. I still have not seen the order that you're talking about. But it unfolded in a kind of funny way. This conspiracy that you allege simply did not occur. We are looking at 8 or nine hundred thousand dollars for north ridge acres. And obviously before the Commissioners court would take any action it would have to come back to the Commissioners court. I was surprised by the possibility of using some of the funding, but we looked at some of the other restrikes, the illegal dumping restriction was my idea rather than a few hundred feet from the landfill. But I can do that or we can post the item for discussion if y'all want to do that. I do any citizens communication is not the appropriate time to do it. We can have it on next week if you want to discuss it further.
>> well, I would like to discuss it. I certainly -- I only went by what was written in this agreement or this order. I did not come up with these theories without reading it.
>> but trek, those things are just written -- if it doesn't come to the trition comitioners court, it's just a draft or a proposal. A proposal doesn't mean that it's already been approved by the Commissioners court. I would be surprised that certain decisions are made without coming through the Commissioners court. I mean, that's wait it always has worked that Travis County -- in Travis County government. There are a lot of proposals floating out there, but if it's not on the agenda and not approved by members of the court, it ain't so.
>> well, I would like to have a half a-million-dollar fine. That's what it should have been.
>> they never asked in that meeting, what do you think the fine ought to be?
>> well, I wish they would have.
>> and just a point of clarification, because we are in citizens communication in terms of what is said, there may be a menu of options that are presented to this Commissioners court, but this Commissioners court has not chosen those options. And when I heard in a discussion about north ridge that that might be something that's out there. I said itthen and I will say it, in there's any money coming to Travis County related to the northeast landfills, I think it ought to be spent on the northeast landfills and not to the north ridge acres. I've not changed my mind.
>> but there are tceq restrictions on that, and our lawyers are telling us that we're getting way beyond the citizens communication. We'll post an item for us to fully discuss this next week.
>> we probably need to review the -- the procedures attached on citizens communication.
>> we don't need to review them. We need to enforce them. [ laughter ] kind of like the three-minute time limit. It's hrd hard to enforce basically.
>> I think we all need to be on the same page about that.
Last Modified:
Wednesday, July 30, 2003 12:31 PM