Travis County Commissioners Court
November 7, 2006
Health Facility Development Corporation
Now let call to or the Travis County Health Facility Development Corporation, one item, and that is to consider and take appropriate action on a resolution authorizing the negative investigation and execution of an agreement with pb Austin ridge llc and mf Austin ridge llc, to partially release the lien held by Travis County health facilities development corporation and the city on approximately 5.076 acres in the city, that means city of Austin, right? Acres of property located at 8509 fm 969, formerly vision village site, and before that, what state hospital is that? Travis. Travis state school. For those trying to figure out what that is. In exchange for pb Austin ridge llc and if fm Austin ridge llc agreement to contribute land and a building for the center for child protection. And our lawyers did not get carried away. They simply thought we ought to have a come prehñncive agenda item, I'm sure. Good morning.
>> good morning. Harvey Davis, manager for the corporation. I'd like to turn it over to the bored members of the center for child protection. This is rusty parker, making to -- michael torez, sandra martin and marriy will born, who are all board members and they will explain their request.
>> okay.
>> go ahead.
>> thank you so much. We're back having made quite a bit of progress, although it has taken us a long time to make that progress. And we're here to, I want to refer to the memoranda of an understanding that we had when we were last before you in which we committed to provide the following services. I think that's exhibit about about. If you have something before you. Do they? All right. And just to refresh, I think our meetings, we met with Commissioner Sonleitner and all of you, with office space for the emt and fire man cad et program, inclusion of cassettes in fire pro--cad et in fire protection training. We do that already and it's part of our mission, expanded provision of medical services to children at rits, the design for two additional exam rooms in our construction drawings, and we have signed that construction contract. Provision and volunteers to support cad et training on center for child protection issues, free on-site training for center for child protection shun related matters for Travis County sheriffs office and district attorney's office employees, ongoing as a part of our mission. Continued provision of forensic interviewing for child victims, that too on ongoing. Designation of a clinic exam room is the Travis County room and that's certainly in our plans as well. Identification of a grove of trees. There are beautiful trees on the property and I have not forgotten that in memory of christopher wallers and the other child victims who have died at the hand of abusers in Travis County. Provision of space and supplies for Travis County law enforcement and prosecutors while using our building. And we are prepared to do that. I might add that since we were, I believe, before you the last time, we have signed interagency agreement agreements with all of the law enforcement jurisdictions in tract, and and--in Travis County and are seeing more and more children referred from those outlining jurisdictions, as well as seeing children from the university of Texas police department and Austin independent school district. So rusty, if you would talk about what we are doing now in terms of our specific sites.
>> sure. And judge and Commissioners, I'm russell parker. The reason we are here today I've been involved so far on the building committee for about two years now. So I don't have all the history. I know in the last couple of years it's been very interesting getting to this point. During that time frame we have taken it through the process to get a site development permit through the city of Austin. We have developed a set of plans that again meet these items that sandra mentioned. And have taken that through and have a bulling permit ready to issue at the city of Austin. We have worked through some of the history on the property as it relates to liens and easements and getting all those things cleaned up. And the loons that the developer--liens that the developer has purchased. He has released the five acres and the leasements to go along with that. The city of Austin has passed a resolution to allow the city attorney to work with our attorney and eventually the county attorney as far as any releases for this five acres acres. The lien that you all currently have, going back a little bit, is on a full 170 acre site owned by peter barely and manning. What we are asking for today is the release of five acres so that the center can move ahead with their building d over that last two years, they have completed the fundraising efforts and you correct me if I'm wrong, but they are somewhere in the neighborhood of four million already in the bank the begin the project. The reece is pledged. We have a negotiated price with patrick flynn, a commercial contractor, to billed the building. We're--to build the bulling. We're currently in budget. One of the things we're concerned about now, even though gas prices have leveled out, we still see construction costs because central Texas is so busy right now continue to go rise. So one of the things we want to do is to be sure that we can lock in our costs and get that going. We dealt with carol falkner and went through the site development process with the city of Austin. Again, those items are complete i. We are down to one item, and that is the release of this five acres. So that's why we're here today, to ask your consideration of the release of the five acres in the easement to serve. Those easements would be utility access, overflow, water overflow, et cetera, et cetera. In any event, that's what we're here for, we're here to answer any questions that you might have.
>> I do appreciate the conversation that you and I had, kind of extensively here a few days ago.
>> yes, sir.
>> very informative. I didn't ask you this question during that conversation. The question is, with everything on the table, and also Commissioners court hopefully approving the release laying on this particular property so you can go ahead and start your construction, what do you envision as far as the beginning and ending date for that construction? In other words, you begin construction and then the completion date. Have you thrown that out as far as when we could expect everything to be on board as far as operation and stuff like that ?
>> Commissioner, I don't have the actual critical path. The start date. We're going to have a ground breaking ceremony.
>> when ?
>> on November 15.
>> November 15. What time ?
>> ten a.m.
>> ten o'clock in the morning.
>> and all of you should have invitations to that by now. We worked with some of your assistants to make sure that we got you invited.
>> anyway, ground breaking and then as far as completion, there is no--
>> yes, there is. We have entered into a contract. It's 365-day building contract with patrick flynn of flynn construction.
>> 365 days.
>> 365 days from the beginning date of construction.
>> okay.
>> and it's forecast to be completed fall of 2007.
>> fall of 2007 ?
>> yes, sir.
>> okay.
>> we have actually in this 9.1 campaign have raised over 87 percent of that. Just to remind you, the billed anymore will change to the kozmetzki center for child protection.
>> remind me where that is located on the largest tract.
>> it's located as you go in the entryway to the old state school and you come past a little pond and up a little bit of a rise. We are triangular piece of land right at the beginning entranceway, basically, into the flat part of the land.
>> this is where decker lane dead ends.
>> you enter the property, go straight ahead, past a little pond, straight ahead or slightly to the right.
>> actually straight ahead and to the left up a rise.
>> okay.
>> you will come to, actually the road splits and right at that triangle is where the property is.
>> if you recall, judge briscoe, there will be a new billed be of about 30,000 square feet. In back of that is an existing billeding that we will use for training-- training--building that we will use for training and team meetings. And this is the building that we would offer to the cadets.
>> okay.
>> for the public, again, because this issue has not been discussed before this court in a while, for a while, but for the interests of those looking at us this morning, could you basically just tell the public what we are talking about here. And also, even though we are talking about child protective services, but there is an extension of a lot of other services that will be rendered and offered at this construction site. Could you basically just tell the public briefly.
>> I'd be glad to do is that.
>> who else would be involved and what we are really doing here this morning. Thank you.
>> well, as all of you know, the center for child protection is a nonprofit but we have a signed inter interagency agreement with law enforce, child protective services, the district attorney's office, Travis County sheriff's office, all of those surrounding jurisdictions, and children's hospital. This model has been so successful in working with child victims of violence that the Texas legislature has actually placed some description of all of this into the Texas family code. We are available 24 x 7 even though we are a nonprofit and we are seeing a dramatic increase in the number of children coming after hours. Our employees interview children who have been victims of sexual assault and serious physical injury. We provide some court ordered training, parenting for parents who have had children removed. But we also do more healthy parenting aimed at putting boundaries around. We provide counseling, emergency funds for children that might avoid them having to go into foster care. All of our services are free without waiting lists. The good thing about where we're going is, we're currently limited to the children. For example, last Friday we had six cases and had to wait and stagger those children. We're seeing about a five percent increase so far each year. At our new site, we'll be able to offer services to children from birth to, actually, 18, all of those service there. And we're negotiating our partner agencies, sheriffs office, district attorneys office, is negotiating with the developer in renovating and leasing a building that will place them about 200 feet from us. So that will facilitate parents not having to go to different places but to do one-stop shopping at our center and have police officers and other public employees come and meet their needs there.
>> thank you.
>> two and a half years ago or so we did hear a description of the project and pretty much we bless the it.
>> yes, sir.
>> and so, you have been doing fundraising since if trying to put the details together. And so your appearance today indicates that you think you are far enough down the road to go ahead and start implementation.
>> yes, sir.
>> there's really two things being asked for. Number one is to enter into a partial release of the lien that's actually on this five acres, and then also there will be some type of subordination agreement. I saw a draft of it yesterday evening. I haven't had a chance to completely review it. But because we will still have the lien on the balance of the acreage, including the road, there will need to be some subordination of our lien for utilities and I think maybe a drainage easement.
>> ew tilth access, et cetera--utilities access, et cetera.
>> real two things being asked for approval. I think the partial release is probably final, I blerve the other document will be final in the next day or so. We will have it next Tuesday for final after , the actual documents.
>> being able to deal with those couple of caveats, you're fine, and harvey, we're okay with this, are we not ?
>> yes.
>> that the why I move approval.
>> second.
>> that's for bringing me the minutes of the April 27, 2004, meeting. I was really smart back then then.
>> we all were.
>> thank you so much.
>> anymore discussion? Let's get this vote before we get too happy.
>> before we leave, is there any way of the information that is being discussed here today, of course, a lot of folks may not know where this is, but this is at the old Travis County mental health school out there. And also the vision village site, the acreage right at the intersection, 969, which extends to martin luther king, and decker lane, 3177, at the t there. Of course going into this property. My question now though, is there any way possible that any related information that we discussed in here this morning, and there as the public is watching us here today, is there a number somebody can call to get more information than what the been disclosed here this morning ?
>> certainly. We would be glad.
>> can you give that number please to the public.
>> excuse me. We would be glad tor them to call the center for child protection. And that number in Austin on east 32nd street is 472-1164.
>> thank you.
>> all in favor. That passes by unanimous vote. Thank you all very much.
>> thank you all very much.
>> thank you all.
>> second? All in favor. That passes by unanimous vote also.
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:
Tuesday, November 7, 2006 10:11 PM