Travis County Commissioners Court
August 4, 2009,
Item 5
>> number 5 is to approve resolution proclaiming Friday August 7th, 2009 as Travis County history day.
>> steve, should I read the proclamation?
>> sure.
i do have a couple of introductory remarks, do you mind?
>> why don't you do it after I read this.
whereas the fourth congress of the republic of Texas established Travis County in 1840, soon after the small community of waterloo has been renamed Austin and designated the capital of Texas.
whereas Travis County was named after william barrett travis, legendary Texas man who died at the battle of the alamo during the fight for Texas independence.
and whereas Travis County has grown dramatically from a frontier settlement of a mere 854 residents to a booming cosmo policy tan metropolis of nearly one million residents rich in vie brans and culture and with a history of 169 years and whereas this history provides insight into our heritage and ancestry and facilitates an understanding and deep appreciation of the prosperous community in which we reside today and in which Travis County seeks to provide continued opportunities to learn about and celebrate our distinguished past by and through preserving and celebrating our invaluable historic heritage.
now therefore the Travis County Commissioners court does here by proclaim August 7th, 2009 as Travis County history day and encourages all residents to celebrate the proud history and heritage of Travis County, Texas.
and I move approval.
>> second.
>> morning.
>> good morning, judge and Commissioners.
this Friday, August the 7th, is our second annual Travis County history day.
there will be a celebration.
it will be held in the heman marian sweatt courthouse.
we encourage the public and all Travis County employees to join us at this celebration.
you will hear speakers who are experts in our theme this year.
it being the bicentennial of the birth of william b.
travis.
there will be some amazing exhibits.
there will be artifacts.
we'll be introducing our new brochure about his life and how it reflects in our present day.
and there will be some bicentennial video minutes that we would like to show at that time as well.
as you can imagine this is an effort that required quite a collaboration between the public and those of us in Travis County and there are some people we would really like to thank in advance.
those are the Travis County bar, the hispanic bar association, the Travis County historical commission and a few individual members as well.
margie alford, nancy hamilton, barry hutchison from the Travis County historical commission.
they are your representatives to our community.
amelia rodriguez mendoza, who has been an absolute champ on this, as well as her staff, meagan, who is an archivist.
from the administrative operations offices, alicia perez, barbara smith have been fabulous.
chris from its.
from the county clerk's office, dana debeauvoir, gillian porter and robert rez nick.
from fa facilities leslie strickland, kimberly jamail.
and I would like to offer a special thanks to shaun malone from our offices, but especially christine (indiscernible).
she is our archivist for Travis County and I'd like to use just three words to describe her efforts on this.
nights and weekends.
she has just pulled out all the stops for this.
if there's any possibility that both enthusiasm and the amount of knowledge that we've all learned from this endeavor can make a success, this is an example of that.
and so I would like to introduce amelia.
she would like to say a few words to you too.
>> good morning.
i am amelia rodriguez, men mendoza, the district clerk in Travis County and I have been very enthusiastic about this project because it's very close to my heart.
i think when our founders founded this county that hopefully they were envisioning what we just witnessed this morning, where people can come and express their opinions.
and I want to thank all of the members of this community that took the time to do that.
and I also want to acknowledge that alicia was very involved with this project and actually it was her idea to invite ronnie earl to join us as our master of ceremonies buvment I want to speak a little bit about the project itself.
we now have expanded the exhibit to three of the floors in the courthouse.
the main exhibit will be on the second floor.
we will have the exhibit of the Austin bar association on the third floor.
and a courtroom will also have a display of some photos of past courthouses.
and I want to invite all of you to join us.
it's only an hour.
and we have a lot of history buffs that come and join us and really enjoy what we have to offer.
as a matter of fact, last year we moved -- after the project was over we moved the display boards over to the third floor and up until last week people were still viewing those everyday.
so there is some interest out there and I think it's a nice community service that we do.
so I'd like to again encourage you to join us for noon.
and then of course I would like to introduce our very special guest that will be there.
and he will be our master of ceremonies.
our former district attorney, if people don't know him, is ronnie earl, so Ron sni in.
ronnie?
>> thank you very much for this opportunity.
it's nice to be back among friends.
especially when I'm not asking for anything this time.
>> [ laughter ] I want to thank the court on behalf of the people of Travis County for honoring our history in this way.
william b.
travis would have fit in really well in Travis County today.
he was a troublemaker even then.
and it is fitting that our county be named after somebody who was in the forefront of whatever effort for equality and dignity of humanity was ongoing at the time.
really the history of this community is so important because you can't know where you're going unless you know where you've been.
and we've been some glorious and wonderful places in this community and we've got some more to go.
so thank you for honoring our history and our -- who we are in this way.
and I am delighted to be back among friends.
>> that celebration starts on Friday at what time?
>> 11:00, judge.
we expect the speakers to begin at 11:15, but get there early to get your place.
>> thanks for bringing our former da out of retirement.
>> [ laughter ] I can see by his hands that he's been playing plenty of checkers and dominoes.
>> [ laughter ] anything further?
we look forward to it.
all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
mr.
froberg we have a beautiful proclamation for you.
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Last Modified:
Friday, August 7, 2009 3:03 PM
