Travis County Commissioners Court
February 14, 2006
Item 3
Now, pete, since we have guests here.
>> I was going to ask you --
>> on special items, why don't where he take number 3.
>> okay. Two year for item 38, also.
>> 3, 2, and 38. 3. Consider and take appropriate action regarding the asian gypsy moth in Travis County.
>> last week during citizens communication we received basically a briefing on this issue. We put it on this week just in case there is a -- there is a need for follow-up discussion. And action. Posted for action today, also.
>> okay. Good morning, judge. Commissioners john kuhl environmental officer with t.n.r. Just kind of keeping the southwest Travis County hearts aflutter on valentine's day here with a little asian gypsy moth update. We wanted to just get back to you as a staff and tell what you we have done and remind you that -- that this is still an ongoing pest emergency. What we had committed to do with -- with our staff last week was to do some coordinate coordination with the city of Austin, assisting the usda program in that regard. Put together some information sheets and provide a notice on our website. Those tasks have been accomplished. And we -- you know, we have coordinated, I have coordinated with my counterpart at the city, the environmental officer there, and folks in the wild lands management, I believe the Austin Travis County health department as well. So that's all done. There is a nice little posting on the website that you may have seen. All that we are here to do today, like you said, judge, give you an update, a little bit more information on a public meeting that is scheduled for this coming Saturday. One thing that I would like to say to the residents out there, it's -- you know, all of the ecological information that we have and the usda has suggested that there are no adult moths out at this time of year. Typically not out until the beginning of may. Of this species of the asian begin escapee moth species. For those of you with all of your little jars with moths in them that you are curious about. Probably not going to be asian gypsy moths. George nash with the usda program, he has got something to introduce as well.
>> good morning judge and Commissioners. First off I would like to introduce mr. Larry hawkins, our regional legislative and public affairs officer. Larry's specialty is the media and public meetings. He will be here the rest of this week through the open house meeting on Saturday. I would like to give you all a quick update. We talked about our public outreach program when I was here last week. We have contacted all of the businesses, located in that one square mile west of oak hill. There are approximately 160 private residences in the one square mile. We have contacted 155 of those twice. Of those we have -- we have had 25 that we were unable to get ahold of the residents, we are going to do a direct mailing. The direct mailout for residences who live south of highway 290 went out yesterday. The direct mailing will go out today. We have also done a direct mailing to approximately 40 absentee owners, those went out last Friday. We have distributed 130 of the informational packets to the residences that were home. We have received 36 consent forms back as of this morning, all 36 so far have been yes. The -- the additional 94 that are still pending when we talked to the residences, we are asking them to either attend the open house meeting, which will be at 10:00 a.m. This Saturday at the a.c.c. Pinnacle campus on highway 290 or to mail their response back to us, we provide them with an envelope that is postage paid and addressed. That's where we are. The ad in the Austin paper we had to make a judgment call last Friday. We concentrated on getting the absentee notifications out. The ad in the Austin paper will actually run wed through Saturday of this week. I believe they said it would be in the legal notices section for the public meeting. We are scheduled to go out with mr. John drumgold and take the very brief sound bite for asian gypsy moth that will appear on Saturday broadcast prior to the meeting. That's an update of where we are right now.
>> what time is the meeting on Saturday?
>> 10:00 a.m. To noon. Saturday at the a.c.c. Pinnacle campus. It will be an open house style meeting where people can come and go and ask questions.
>> from 10:00 until?
>> noon, 12 noon.
>> we will stay longer if necessary.
>> yeah. We are going to have a detailed planning meeting with the Texas department of agriculture this afternoon to finalize the meeting setup and we may be getting back with your natural he resources group give us some assistance if we can't line up enough people to answer the questions that we expect to get.
>> when you did first contact with the people saying that you had gotten in touch with -- either I guess through mail or in person, 150 of the 160.
>> we have actually knocked on 155 of the 160 doors out there of private homeowners at least twice. We have 25 of those that we were not able to contact on either visit. We will direct mail to them.
>> outside of the 125 that you did make contact with, did you have anybody that just told you know?
>> no, sir. Nobody has said -- nobody said no. Like I said we received 36 of the consent forms back, all yes. But keep in mind 94 individuals have taken it to research the information that we provided and get back to us and then the absentee owners, some live as far away as north carolina and omaha, nebraska, whether we hear from them at all, receive people who receive this type of information in the mail never send it back.
>> do you interpret that as no or just no answer?
>> I will let you answer that one.
>> I think that we would have to look at those and see if there's at least a preponderance of the number of people who have given us a yes. I don't think that we would want to just discard those as nos that we didn't hear from. We would like to have an overall sense that the residents of that area approve of the action before we move forward.
>> you say preponderance, last week we heard union unanimousty. Which standard is it or is it a combination?
>> I think from our legal staff would like us to have absolutely 100%. That's what we are shooting for. With we have the -- when we have the open house I feel confident that any persons opposed at that point would certainly be willing to let us know that. Then we would have to find some alternative means to deal with the issue.
>> any other questions or comments? You will let john know if there's anything that we can do to help?
>> yes, sir.
>> we would be -- we would be happy to cooperate in any way that we can. This is for those listening now, why is this an important matter?
>> well, the -- the asian gypsy most is invasive, it feeds on different trees, oaks are the preferred host. In addition to the native caterpillars that we have that feed on live oak, post oaks, pin oaks in the hill country, we are going to add another species to the mix that is not native to this environment. You are not going to have a predator base used to feeding on it. The female can clie up to 13 miles and lay up to a thousand eggs per season, it has the potential to shred very rapidly -- spread very rapidly.
>> our goal is to nip it in the bud.
>> it's a case of last week I said where a government agency is trying to be proactive instead of reactive. We would rather get rid of it now than having it become established and having to deal with it over an extended period of time.
>> one thing that I would like to add, judge, as a resident of the oak hill area, we have had just a growing infestation of I suppose the common name oak leave roller, which is basically another species similar species that defoilates oaks and I can tell you from firsthand experience that it will completely defoilate group the beautiful trees in folks' yards and in the wild land areas as well. And this spray that they are looking to use, as far as our research shows and their research shows, completely harmless and actually will have the added benefit of taking care of some of the infestations that we have already had from the existing oak leaf roller, as well as getting rid of this new invasive pest species, there's potentially an added value that those residents in the one-mile radius would receive from this action.
>> okay.
>> how long does it take to determine the course of action when you go through this process? Sooner or later you will have to say well we have done as much as we can possibly do and we have got to proceed because the clock is continuing to -- continually ticking on this particularly encroachment of the hill country vegetation. So I?m kind of concerned that this -- at this point we would have to -- to have some type of answer all systems go. What is that?
>> well, we've -- I?ve been in constant contact with the regional office in fort collins, colorado. They are aware of the 18th of February deadline. They have put a -- put some information in motion to proceed up to the washington d.c. Level. So that the people at that level are fully aware that -- they have been updated detail on what our progress is and the alternative action is -- is the process, the political process has already started. They are fully aware, as of our conference call yesterday, that we need to apply it no later than March 12th to be effective to kill the-- to contain and eradicate the caterpillars. That our alternative treatment, which is the mating disruption, which was in the packets that I presented to you all last week, must be applied no later than the last Sunday in April.
>> last Sunday in April.
>> so the powers that be in washington are aware that if we don't get 100% or close to it, that if we are going to -- if we are going to look at another alternative, a decision has to be made at their level prior to March 12th for [indiscernible] and prior to the last Sunday in April for the mating disruption.
>> for those who need more information, contact any member of the court. Or mr. George nash.
>> yes, sir.
>> at phone number.
>> 512-916-5241.
>> or mr. Hawkins at the same phone number?
>> yes.
>> or john kuhl at --
>> 854-9383.
>> thank you very much.
>> thank you.
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.
Last Modified:
Wednesday, February 15, 2006 11:17 AM