Travis County Commissioners Court
August 21, 2007
Item A1 & 24
Item A-1 is next.
>> [one moment, please, for change in captioners]
items A1 and 24 were taken up together. Captions are not available for the first two minutes of this clip.
>> ...we would also establish two debris collection centers for things like refrigerators and propane tanks at our satellite s offices, west service center, and hamilton pool road. County staff could collect and transport there safely we also recommend a one-day hazardous materials collection at west side service. Did receive from charles william this morning the tcq has said we need a 90 day notice. We will try to get that waved.
>> notice for what?
>> hazardous chemicals collection.
>> okay.
>> this would all be done through a voucher sick. This is not a public collection. What we are trying to do is target those who have been flooded so we don't be overwhelmed by hazardous material from all over the county. So we will send out coupons to those that we know have been flooded in the lake area, and that will enable them to bring these hazardous materials to the county. We will have to contract with a certified contractor to pick up the hazardous material and dispose of them, and that is in part what is going to cost the county some money to do that. Otherwise we hope to be able to use either the county road and brick crews to pick up the debris from the right-of-way around dumpsters, and then also the dumpsters themselves will be an expenditure. I think what we are trying do is tar guess those --target those areas where we know there's an I also allow people to bring the site rather than transport all e y we become a transfer stfor them. We believe this will mete a need. The may not meet all the needs around the entire lake but I it's a good-faith effort on the part of the coty to help out.
>> have we been able to get any landfill operators to partners
>> not yet.
>> we are in the process of or hait bre
>> no, we a this time?
>> we're currently estimating 89 000 totalel. Cash expenditures would be approximately 34,000.
>> we have that in the tnr budget.
>> we can certainly do the 55,000. 34,000 I do not have n --contractor rdll i--materials. We will just have to not do something else.
>> we can have an appropriate item on the agenda next week if we need do that.
>> (inaudible)
>> we would send out vouchers to the 122. Additionally we would take requests from other affected residents. You have to understand it's more than just home structures that flooded. Stuff has flooded off from the lake. Home structures may not have flooded but still ended up with propane tanks from barbecue pits. It could be as much as 500 people.
>> (inaudible)
>> yes.
>> what is the latest on what we anticipate the lake doing with last week's rains and the river coming into the lake? Is it up to the 788, 790?
>> what is the lake up to from that?
>> I believe it's at 686 right now we did have a little snafu are the dumpsters. We had to get them out Saturday. The lake was expected to go do 690. The high pint on our property is 690. The lake is going down.
>> are we waiting until this weather clears before actually doing this or are we going to keep going?
>> we are going to keep going. The lake is not expected to raise when the next couple weeks barring additional rainment but we can get the dumpsters out within a day if need be.
>> any other questions?
>> I have a couple.
>> okay.
>> (inaudible)
>> here is the tricky part. If the structure flooded, they can make a flood insurance claim. They can use that, those fund for debris removal. They could also apply for a fda loan and use those funds for debris removal. But if the structure didn't get flooded there's really nothing out there.
>> (inaudible)
>> yes.
>> (inaudible) (.
>> we have done that in previous flood events for waiving permit fees. It is extremely arduous for staff to determine them. I think the main point why the county would want to come in and collect some of the debris is we're going to collect it anyway. It tend to end up in our right-of-ways in large illegal dump piles that quickly become health hazards. This is what we hope to prevent by providing this service to these flood victims.
>> (inaudible) delete.
>> it's in the county right-of-way, right? The picture we saw--was partly in the right-of-way and partly on private property. Without the permission of the property owner.
>> people were just ridding themselves of this debris by taking it there.
>> right.
>> partly in the right-of-way. Some of these items are just smal--small waste items. You're talking about small and large.
>> that's true. Several propane tanks, refrigerators, washers and dryers, sheetrock.
>> they become health hazards again if you don't address. To the extent private property owners can take care of their problem, we ought to expect them to. In the meetings we ought to try to communicate that. In the end, though, seems to me that we will have to do something. The only question is how much. But I would try to work all the landfill site waste operators to give them an opportunity to assist if they will. And I would make the ask.
>> and we do expect to also ask lcra for some assistance as wel.
>> okay.
>> is there any type of enforcement regarding the illegal dumping?
>> no. Not that I know of, no.
>> simply with a happens--simply what happens, is private person starts putting, a the will of times, a sizeable amount of debris out. And before you know it, the neighbors think, oh, this is where you put everything. Then before you know it, you've got a little pile that becomes a bon fire. Because everybody says, oh, that is where to put it. It's really pretty frustrating, I mean, to our staff, I mean, because it is one of those things that if you go out and talk to folks, I mean, either they just go, oh, I didn't do that, or, well, I thought that was what we were supposed to do. It continues to be a question that we have of what we do about graveyard point when you know that people are living in an area that it is inevitable that this is going to happen to you. I think the landfill operators are probably more than willing to help us. We've been trying to wait to determine exactly how we were going to go about this. We did get word that the lake was coming back up. I don't think that we can use assume that we're out of the hunt with regards to what kind of water issues we have even though dean is not coming in here, the little disturbance that came on the Texas coast is what has called oklahoma and all the mess up there. So you have a sit --situation where we could have a devastating amount of water get into the southwest area in the hill country and do this all over again. So it's typical of what we have to deal with where you go down, if you talk to people you think they are going to be pretty reasonable but some people you could not pry out of there with a crow bar. They are just going to stay there. Then, quite frank ly it's one of those things where people want to know what you are going to do from a government standpoint and the e-mails start flying and I'm not really interested in that if you are going to use tax dollars because people have been told time and time again not to do that. So as the county we really are between a rocks and hard spot as to how to deal with this. Obviously when something gets to the point where you have to go out there and get something done because if you don't you're going to have people shooting each other, and that's quike frankly, what you do have. Unfortunately, sara, that zip code is one that people would probably question whether or not you need to be helping that zip code. But I will tell you that not everybody on graveyard point has you know, a ton of resources.
>> (inaudible) (need microphone add adjustment).. . . . .
>> is that the same plan we' proved last time?
>> I would just create a new target areament besides graveyard we'll expand to a second area for dumpsters. We'll open up--
>> can we just give you directions to do it?
>> sure. I only thing I think I would need is to come back next week with regard to the hazardous materials spending.
>> I would ask for a discount on that too. If the court needs to sign a simple letter asking for partners, there's got to be a good public relations here if we get on it the word that you are out here helping usyeah.
>> rather than asking for free may as well ask for discounted service am we can make it easy, we're sort of collecting all of it anyway. And if we can just say okay, we got it all collected and you can however long it takes you to pick up x number of contains, go ahead and do it, there's got to be some efficiency built in there. If the court needs to sign a simple letter, then I think we can.
>> I'm talking about the hazardous materials.
>> I'm talking about that too. On the hazardous material side, whoever does that kind of work, I would chas with them. If we can get a discounted rate, would ask for it.
>> okay.
>> if they turn you down, it's the sale as turning down the court. Some would enjoy that, some will not. Are you directed. Thank you all.
>> we do need to do a 1, that is a separate issue. This concerns a potential for floodplain buyout.
>> all right.
>> the reason we're bringing this to court, we usually don't bring our notice of intent to Commissioners court. We will bring the grant application to court for approval. But there are some significant policy issues here. Mainly graveyard point. There is a 25 percent match on these grants. Graveyard point has been an area identified in our hazard mitigation plan for buyout specifically. There are three properties that we would like to include in this grant application.
>> are we posted?
>> yes.
>> posted enough to get that done in a 1? I did not appreciate that that was that specific. You're looking for graveyard point, there is federal money available, what is the county match?
>> 25 percent. This also includes five properties in thorough bred farms neighborhood which is in precinct 4.
>> county match is approximately 378,268. We are basically asking for pe mission to submit a notice of interest letter. The application will come much later.
>> what is the deadline?
>> 24th. This week.
>> we are just now finding this out as far as the deadline.
>> if you are actually talking about purchasing the properties at this point in time as opposed to just making an application for the money that relates to the flooding issues, I think that you are right. But if all they are doing is sending in a letter indicating an intent to make an application for money, the posting is adequate.
>> it's a matter of policy really on whether or not to even launch, do we have any interest. It's a probing of interest, policy interest on whether the county wants to acquire properties in graveyard point. Because there's been some consideration about whether or not we should even go there with graveyard. The other is whether or not we should buy anything other than single family homes. So it's an overarching interest, express on the --expression of the court.
>> let's just do the notice and have the policy consideration posted for next week.
>> okay.
>> three or four issues there.
>> we will certainly be bringing an application back.
>> let's indicate our interest.
>> that's all this isi would.
>> I would like to make this point. These are strictly volunteer positions.
>> absolutely.
>> I think when folks hear the word buyout they may be thinking that it's obligatory with the county coming down on folks but that is not the case. These folks are volunteeringto be bought out.
>> .
>> it is totally voluntary on their part to accept an offer on the part of the county.
>> do you think there's any case where somebody may get bought out for more money than what it cost had them to buy their property?
>> well, yeah, I mean--
>> might we be paying somebody more money--
>> than what they originally bought for the property? Yes.
>> do you know how that goes over in this community where somebody knowingly, I mean do we suspect that there's any of these three people that had no idea that they were moving onto a piece of ground that routinely goes under water? Do you think there's any of those three?
>> hold that answer until next week. We will have an item posted. There are probably three or four subparts that we need to list in the agenda item. I agree. Serious policy questions here we need to address and land on them. This motion is simply to give notice of our interest in the program.
>> and the application will be completed at a later date and brought back to the court.
>> if the court approves.
>> if the court approves.
>> all right. I can hardly wait until next week, but I can. All in favor. That passes by unanimous vote. Thank you all very much. Keep up the good work.
>> thank you.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, August 22, 2007, 18:30 AM