Travis County Commissioners Court
February 20, 2007
Citizens Communication
Citizens communication is next and three citizens have signed in. Sherri flemming, deborah britain, the first two, followed by james --
>> good morning, sherri flemming, executive manager for health and human services, I would like to provide my three minutes to ms. Britain.
>> good morning, judge and Commissioners, deborah britain, community services director, health and human services and veterans services. I just wanted to advise the court of some really excellent news. The Austin community was designated as one of the 100 best communities for young people. This is -- this designation is -- is provided by the -- by the america's promise aalliance and -- and in January of this year, there was a national announcement by the chairwoman of -- of the alliance, alma powell. We held a press conference last Thursday at webb middle school to make the local announcement. But the significance of this is because Travis County's contribution to after school programming. This -- this proposal was submitted by a saint john's trischool community which is comprised of the three schools in the northeast area, pickle elementary school, web middle school and reagan high school. I would like to commend the court's effort in providing that much needed funding in that area and for making this possible. If you all recall, we started launching this after school program, we had to search far and wide throughout the community looking for those communities that exhibited best practices. And I have to report now that because of the excellent work that we have been able to do, other community is not considered one of those communities that exhibit those best practices. America's promise looks for those -- for those qualities in programs that -- that center on five promises. Four of which they consider essential for the healthy development and successful outcomes of youth in our community. Those include caring adults, safe places, a healthy start, and effective education and the opportunity to help others. So congratulations to you. The community did -- did provide a certificate thanking you for your efforts. I have a copy for everyone that I would like to provide to you. So thank you again for all of your support.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> the other piece of this award entitlements the community now to -- entitles the community to apply for $100,000 in federal funding that the community has indicated that they hope to secure and use for additional after school programming. So ...
>> way to go, thanks.
>> congratulations to all involved.
>> mr. Von wallsky.
>> jim von wa lski, I couldn't ask for a better lead in. Right now wentworth is at the capitol trying to suck more water out of the fawrks. I am proposing that we follow oklahoma's lead and look at a cedar tree eradication. If you are familiar with the bamberger ranch, 5500 acres, that man bought that land so poor you couldn't graze a billy goat on it in 1969. Now there are natural springs just gushing outs of the land. Much more flora and fauna, golden cheeked warbler is very happy there. If you are not familiar with it, I would love to get you introduced to this. There are other experiments. Ana dale, took off cedar trees, wells getting nothing but dust out of them. Now there's so much water they don't know what to do with all of it. I talked to sierra club briefly, they are focusing all of their energy on stopping the coal plants. Just briefly yesterday I looked at the water resources board, their energy is focused on dam, but I think cedar trees are a county wide, area-wide problem that can be handled that way. Don't need a federal program, don't need a state program. But certainly people are in a position to work with san sanantonio's and our other state legislators to to co-to a better solution than just squabble over who gets the water out of the edward's aquifer. Switch gears. Texas dot tonight is having a hearing on managed lanes. That the knot going to help anything. Awhile ago they closed a bunch of the get on get off ramps, that didn't help i-35. No trucks in the left-hand lane science didn't help anything. Now they are tryinged to having managed lands. You are trying to get three quarts of stuff into a two quart pail. Austin wants $61 million of txdot money to build a build a museum, a music museum and put sidewalks at seaholm. $61 million. If you would have taken that money and bought all of the houses along mopac and built a decent road out of that thing. I would like Commissioners to get in on that, refocus back. Let's get enough right-of-way to do the roads right. Last thing is the mayor's plan for -- for 0 carbon footprint and energy and announced about a week ago it's going to back fire. The reason is that that is going to cost people about $5,000 to bring their house up to his standards. A lot of people won't be able to afford it. There will be a mass exodus of ordinary people moving out of the city of Austin. Yet still commuting in, which is really going to plug up the roads. Then you have people in south Austin having to take a job in north Austin, yet they can't afford to sell a house and move up here, they will be blocked into their commute. North side to the south side. Thanks for your time. I will be more than happy to steer you towards any of these projects.
>> thank you so much for coming.
>> 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 21, 2007 8:00 AM