Travis County Commssioners Court
June 15, 2004
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Citizens Communication
We have citizens communications next and several citizens have signed in. This item gives residents an opportunity to address the court for up to three minutes on any matter not on the agenda. And as I call your name, please come forward. If you have testified during one of the public hearings, this is not supposed to give you second opportunity. [indiscernible] floyd number one. Barstow, number five. Hopefully we don't have a two, three or four. And don hamilton.
>> mr. Hamilton is on --
>> john david lipscomb has testified too. John craddick was here also.
>> good morning.
>> it is truly an honor to be here today before this esteemed group of Commissioners. The honorable judge Biscoe, Commissioner Gomez and the other esteemed members of this panel. I am here in regards to the welfare and safety of my community, [indiscernible] farms at kb homes subdivision located south of highway 71 and mf 973. The subject is fireworks. For the past two years, the birdhall community has been experiencing a large volume of fireworks being discharged within the community. This discharging includes bottle rockets, Texas park rockets, and missiles. These are some of the items that I pulled from my roof of my home. The community is like a war zone during the 4th of July and the first of the year. And the smoke from the discharging of fireworks is so thick that it causes the fire detecters in homes to go off. I have spoke to the fire chief of fire and rescue, e.s.d. 11, mike hurley. He is a man I deepry respect for his involvement in the community and the surrounding community. And he has also expressed his concerns in this matter. About this problem which threatens the prevention of property damage and bodily injuries was important enough to bring before this panel. I would like to place this problem before the Commissioners and ask for assistance.
>> thank you, mr. Floyd.
>> yes, sir.
>> citizens communication gives us the opportunity to hear from citizens. The law prohibits our interacting, but we do have your phone number and address. We'll see if we can help.
>> thank you.
>> thank you, sir.
>> mr. Barstow.
>> I am inmate number I don't know what with a beautiful floor and side picture in black and white prison stripes recurred over the weekend. I知 very angry. I own a public park, windy point park. The lcra granted me an easement to go through your neighboring land that you lease from them in order to do these things from my park. To cross the adjacent lcra land on foot or by any means of reasonable transportation. To reach anyplace where the land touches is water's edge and once there to enter the lake over the entire length of the water's edge. I may take boats and place them in the public waters. Now, you leased that land knowing about that easement. And you leased that land subject to that easement. I own the easement. I manage the easement. I allow the public, I volunteer for the public to use the easement. And your park rangers harass and have harassed for 20 years these people. In my park business. And you've tried to put my out of business for 20 years and you've failed. I知 still there. I知 going to be there for a long time. And if you are thinking that I知 74 years old, if you are thinking this problem is going to go away when I die, let me tell you this. That property is going in trust to continue as a public park operation privately owned. And it's going to stay that way and you are not going to get your hands on it. Now, there's only one way to get this problem solved and I知 going to continue to use my property rights. I was using them when this event occurred. I知 charged with evading arrest and resisting arrest, and as I understand it, I was on a jet ski running between the mainland and the island where you put the -- the peninsula where you put a channel to get in and out and it's behind the buoy line that restricts more boats. I can't get there without using a motor boat. As I understand what happened is that I was enroute there to tie up my boat so that I could have the public rent our jet skis. We're in the jet ski rental business as well as the public park business. I want to read this letter from john dilley over here. It's on behalf of bob Moore over here and on behalf of you, Commissioner. You can launch from the mainland since that is your only choice if you intend to use your ease many, but you must paddle out since this is a no-matter zone. -- no-motor zone. I don't know how many of you have experience with 8-hundred pound boats and a little paddle, but jet skis don't have any paddle. I couldn't get anywhere and I couldn't get any customers to do that. Now, let's talk about that no motor boat zone a little bit. That was put in without my consent. It was put in at the request of Travis County, and it was put in to protect Travis County swimmers from my boats. Nevertheless, the lcra conveyed the deed to that easement to me intending that I use it as a public park and intending that I use it with boats. And that's no part of your leasehold. The lcra has a financial interest in [indiscernible] with you, they are a joint venturer with you in that park. Now, I don't believe they have authority to grant a permit to put buoys out there to put me out of business to protect their financial interest and that's what they've done. Furthermore, the constitution of the united states still says that if you take my property, you got to compensate me for it. Now, you are going to continue to uses my property rights, you can throw me in prison over and over again and if your concept is throw me until I知 finally in prison, which those are two class b prison offenses which could be prison offenses, that's one way of getting me out of the way, but it's certainly not very american. Now, two ways to get this problem solved. It's been going on for 20 years. No one has ever solved it before. We came close to it once before Karen Sonleitner, you came into office. The county and I were knowing for them to sell me their land. And get out and make one owner. I'll hurry, judge.
>> you are out of time.
>> i'll be happy to agendize this if you want more than three minutes to discuss it next week or the week after. I知 afraid on the agenda we don't have the three-minute time limit to worry about.
>> can you finish up --
>> there's been a court case, judge and I would not want this to be agendized.
>> i'll put it on the agenda if mr. Barstow wants it on the agenda. It will give us more than three minutes. It doesn't say take three hours, but three minutes isn't that long. We're four, four and a half minutes into it all right. I'll be happy to put out the agenda unless you want to conclude right now.
>> well, I知 going to try to conclude it very quickly, but probably I will conclude it quicker than I might otherwise so let's put it on the agenda.
>> let's put it on the agenda then. Next week or the week after.
>> all right. Let me just say this to get things going and we'll conclude. It was a wrongful action that was a harassment. I知 going to beat it. There's no further negotiations going on that was between the Commissioner Daugherty and me to resolve some of these issues for to buy the use of these properties so we don't have these dangerous issues in the water. That's over with. The way these problems are normally solved in the business world is, and it's no different in the government world, one party buys the other party out or one party gives up their project. They have that option before they went into this. They knew with their eyes open that there's a resist title problem. They ignored it. The solutions are still there. I知 not going to sell it to you. Your options are file condemnation proceedings to take it away from me or cede management to me. That's the only thing that is a permanent solution. And let's put it on the agenda.
>> thank you, mr. Barstow.
Last Modified: Wednesday, June 16, 2004 8:02 AM