Travis County Commissioners Court
June 27, 2006
Item 19
[One moment please for change in captioners]
(First minute of video was uncaptioned)
>> intoxicated persons would not be allowed in the parks. Visitors who become intoxicated will be removed from the parks and alcoholic beverages are prohibited at the del valle youth fields. We would like to see this changed to public display of a consumption of alcoholic beverages is prohibited, sale of alcoholic beverages is prohibited in any park and intoxicated persons will not be allowed in the parks. Visitors who become intoxicated will be removed from the parks and alcoholic beverages are prohibited at youth events. The other item we would like to see changes in is in regard to pets. Basically keeping pets under the direct control of the owner and attached to a person or fixed object at all times, but at least not to exceed six feet in length. Currently pets were allowed off the leash at webberville and pace bend parks. We're asking this to be in all parks.
>> does this cause a little problem for us, pets running loose and infringing on the rights of others?
>> attacking other pets as well.
>> especially a park like pace bend park gets a lot of visitation, even webberville, they get a lot of visitation and you get people with their dogs off a leash and naturally you have a conflict there especially if a dog is not well behaved, it's just good public safety sense from the campers' perspective.
>> we have signs that say dogs must be on alicia? Leashes?
>> right.
>> if they've been running free in the past, that changes pretty soon. So do we allow like a 30-day public education period?
>> typically we do. And actually that 30-day may extend even longer because of the visitor may not come back in 30 days, so they may be a new visitor, not aware of the new rule.
>> other changes to in the pet area is currently we have pets not allowed in the preserves. We would add pogue springs preserve. Also we ask that horses that are currently allowed at pace bend park and webberville park, we would like to add northeast metropolitan equestrian areas, for special groups area, coggins is a disease known to horses, and prior approval is required. And then adding other pets and animals such as ban yard animals, exotics, lamas, donkeys, goats, and what would be considered a wild animal will not be allowed to be brought into any park. And the last item that we have is metal detectors are prohibited in any park.
>> if you lose jewelry or something like that, we would give special permission to try to find it?
>> yes, sir.
>> on the consumption of alcohol thing, we scaled back the wording a little bit at my behest there. I think what we were aiming for is if you consume excessively to the extent that you become intoxicated is what we are aiming for, plus the kind of overt display of alcoholic beverage containers is what we're trying to discourage because it's gotten out of hand. So we leave in place language to control that. When I chatted with our people, I had no idea that it could be so bad some weekends.
>> there's a recommended rule that we have published. Is that what we're going to?
>> it's a little different. Can you read that public display language again?
>> let me read it one more time. Public display of the consumption of alcoholic beverages is prohibited. The sale of alcoholic beverages is prohibited in any park. Intoxicated persons will not be allowed in the parks. Visitors who become intoxicated will be removed from the parks and alcoholic beverages are prohibited at youth events.
>> read that sentence about the sale. How did you spell sale, sell or sale?
>> it appears to be sell here.
>> not sale?
>> that is correct.
>> thank you, Commissioner. Some people forget your time at the washington post. [ laughter ] move approval. These make sense to me.
>> second.
>> and I guess my concern, though, and second of the motion, is that I'm really concerned about how we're going to infiltrate the public to allow them to have knowledge and notice that Travis County is making some rule changes, folks. And here they are as far as policy in Travis County parks. And I know there has to be, and I know you mentioned earlier that there is a time line, a 30-day grace period, whatever you like to dough note that as, but somewhere along the line, notification of all of these things I think would have to be in place. And the question to me, staff, is how are we going to address that concern to the public that will be using -- that use our parks?
>> there are several avenues. Signage is one way. Especially in the parks that we have -- we charge entry fees, we put the rules on the back of the permits that we sell them and then through public contact, the park staff interacting with the public, they'll educate the public every time they see a problem. And it takes time. It's a combination of signage, information that you hand out either through brochures or through the permit process and then intersection. Interaction with park staff is the best way to educate the public. It's more informative and ensures better compliance.
>> some folks come here from out of town and they use our park system a lot. And I guess they say, well, here we come -- we're going to Travis County. We're going to wherever parks that are available and it appears that they can know that by keying in on to what phase that there has been some changes as far as rules are concerned. It appears to be the way to do it and place notice there of the changes. So if we can go in that direction, I'll definitely support this motion, judge.
>> those who want to see copies of the new rules can contact our parks department, be sent an executive summary similar to what we received.
>> absolutely and we can get it posted up on our website fairly quickly. So we'll have several avenues for the public to be able to access this information.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote? Thank you very much.
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, June 28, 2006 12:01 PM