Travis County Commssioners Court
August 12, 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. Two citizens have signed in. The first is our own charles e. Williams. Good morning.
>> good morning, sir.
>> good morning, charles.
>> judge Biscoe, Commissioners, I'm charles williams, coordination counselor for Travis County. I have with me carol knapp the director of wild base sip. Wild basin and Travis County partnered to present a two day environmental camp for 22 fourth, fifth, sixth graders from the del valle schools. They were there to learn about waste management. We called the camp waste mania. We had two fun days of learning about landfills and how to manage our waste streams. We learned the benefits of recycling, reusing, rebuying. We did an environmental art contest and the winner got their drawing on the t-shirts which I'm going to hand to you all in a moarjts it's fantastic what they d. These children were enthusiastic and went away with a better understanding of what happens to our trash and how they can change the future. When I hand out the t-shirts, carol has a few words. Here's the t-shirt with the winning poster contest.
>> great.
>> you will notice that that very creative poster, the kids had a lot of fun creating these posters. We presented it to the school as a concept that they might want to address in the classroom earlier in the school year. In the process of doing that, they brainstormed a lot of very creative ideas of different ways to not only recycle, but to reuse, rebuy, reduce as well as compost, that was the main focus of the program during the course of the two days that we were doing this. They had -- they came into the classroom at the morning at wild basin wilderness, totally, really unaware of what they were going to be doing. By the end of the day, they were problem solving, coming up with some very creative way that's they might be able to reduce and to rebuy and just do a lot of very creative things such as a community garden, not necessarily a community garden, but a community compost that all of the people in the neighborhood could contribute to and that all of the people in the neighborhood could use. And that would then be a way to reduce. These are fourth graders. They came in again not really having a lot of knowledge, but by the time they left at the end of the day, they were all working together and having some really great ideas. I thank everybody for, you know, allowing us to do this and -- to do this, it was a lot of fun for everyone.
>> thank you.
>> this is the first group we have done this with. We plan if we can to try to make it a yearly event. We are going to work with the schools, the schools were very participating this year, we are going to try to get a few more kids out next year, hopefully around 50, try to grow it year to year.
>> thank you all.
>> thank you, judge.
>> thank you.
>> that's all we've got.
>> thank you.
>> start 'em young.
>> that's right. Jimmy castro is next.
>> good morning, judge Biscoe and Commissioners. [indiscernible] leads to show you this morning. I'm here to speak on my own behalf. Also a foreman board member of the Austin council of pta's. I'm here to remind everyone that Monday, August 19th, marks the first day of school for the 78,000 students of the Austin independent school district. This first slide shows all the preparations that have been underway for the anticipation of the Austin independent school district's first day of school on Tuesday, August the 19th. There have been in-service training for the 5,400 teachers and especially the 500 new teachers of the Austin independent school district. The office employees have been helping with preregistration. The classified workers have been making sure all of the school facilities and buses are ready to roll. And the teachers have been working, all of the decorations in the classroom in which the teachers have paid for with their own money. All drivers need to remember, the speed in the school zone is 20 miles per hour. And failure to observe the school zone speed may result up to a $250 fine. All drivers need to remember the school bus law, which states to stop while school buses are loaded and unloading students and failure to observe the school bus law may result up to a $1,000 fine. Among the most obvious, but often forgotten items in the back to school list is making sure your child's immunizations are up to date. The Austin Travis County health and human services combined with the Texas department of health is offering the shots for tots programs. Keeping in mind vaccines are the greatest public health achievement of the 20th century. Another annual event is the Austin independent school district Marching band jamboree set for September 9th at the burger center. One of the participating schools will include the anderson high school Marching band and drill team. Families are encouraged to join all the band parents in attending this Austin independent school district event. Which will include some of the top-rated bands, state-wide. Thank you, judge and Commissioners.
>> thank you.
>> thank you very much.
>> anybody else for citizens communication?
>> judge, this is not so much communication as announcement because it's easier than calling everybody. We are very proud to tell everybody that gretchen my assistant delivered her baby yesterday afternoon. Mother, father and daughter are doing very well. Six pounds, three ounces, 18 inches, please don't call. So -- [laughter] anyway, thank you.
>> congratulations.
>> natalie maria.
>> great.
>> we may have an unannounced citizens communication. Ma'am, are you kathy sexton.
>> I am.
>> kathy was part of county government a while back. Actually, she and the county judge worked together six years for the state and --
>> yes.
>> -- four years in the precinct 1 Commissioners office.
>> three.
>> three years. Seemed like four. She was so productive. But many say that she really is responsible for the progress of the county judge. In spite of the many good qualities that she instilled in him that he has since abandoned. Welcome to you, is that little joel to your right? [inaudible - no mic]
>> okay.
>> welcome.
>> are you with the boy scouts now?
>> boy scouts. We are here on -- trying to earn a merit badge.
>> well, they came to the right place.
>> welcome.
>> welcome. Good to see you.
Last Modified: Wednesday, August 13, 2003 7:52 AM