Committee Reports

Bobby Hubertus – treasurer. Bobby reported that there are 41 paid members in 2002, compared to 36 in 2001. There are 133 people on the email list.
Carol Gibbs – newsletter distribution. Carol reported that there are still 2-4 more people needed to cover routes to distribute the newsletter. The next newsletter will come out in October.
Kenny Nash – APD district representative. Kenny was not at the meeting but Bryan reported that at National Night Out (last week) the police were still encouraging people to keep items in their cars out of sight of would-be burglars. There are still many incidences of car burglaries in the neighborhood. Many of these can be prevented by keeping car doors locked, and keeping valuables out of vehicles when parked.
Bryan – park project. Bryan reported that the vacant lot at the corner of Cinnamon Path and Del Curto is being looked at as a site for a “pocket” park. There is approximately 10000 sq ft of space. The neighborhood could help with maintenance and fix up. Bryan is continuing to work on this.
Bryan – nominating committee. Bryan and Marci both are hitting their two-year term limit in the president and vice president positions. Bryan asked for volunteers to serve on the nominating committee for 2003.
Patricia Fiske – sidewalk committee. Patricia asked for more volunteers for the sidewalk committee. There is approximately $3Million available statewide for “Safe Routes to School” program.

Yard Parking Ordinance

There is a new revision of the car park ordinance, rendering the prior SLNA vote on this null and void. The final reading by the city council is scheduled for August 26, 2002 and SLNA needs to report their vote.
A new vote was taken with 12 voting to support the “spirit of the ordinance” and 4 against. Voting for the spirit of the ordinance avoids having to vote on each revision separately given that this is now the 9^th revision, and the changes are not severe.
The current version of the ordinance is available on the city council’s web site. http://www.main.org/parking/Ordinance_Drafts/
There was some discussion of the pros and cons.
Several people were not allowed to vote because they either were not currently members or had not been members for at least 10 days as stated in the bylaws.
Copies of the bylaws were available at the meeting in print.

There were two programs on the agenda – monorail and wildlife

Monorail

Michael Dibrino with the Austin Monorail Project spoke. The group showed about a 15 minute film to explain monorail and discuss the benefits and arguments for considering a monorail system in Austin. For more information see the group’s web site at http://www.austinmonorail.org

Wildlife Rescue

Ellie Fleegel and Karen Davis with the Bill Hicks Foundation for Wildlife spoke

Purpose is to advise and educate about living with wildlife
Use “exclusionary tactics” to get the animal life to go where you want them to go
Web site is http://www.billhicks.com/main/wildlife/
Wildlife Rescue has a 24-hour hot line 472-WILD (472-9453)
Currently receiving a lot of calls about small birds out of their nests. Small birds are getting more mobile this time of year, as are rabbits and possums, so a lot of these are normal occurrences.
Advised to bungee cord garbage can lids so raccoons cannot get in garbage
Contact Wildlife Rescue if you can help with

Manning the phone line and taking messages
Donate sheets, towels, etc. for cages
Building materials for cages
Food and other items for animal care
Land area to release rehabilitated animals

Other neighborhood news was discussed

Bryan called for a vote on getting flowers for the Unity Church for letting us meet here. The cost would be about $45. The motion was seconded and the vote passed.
The Diamond Shamrock building has a new owner. There has been talk of a beer store. A zoning change is required.

There doesn’t seem to be any activity on the storage site at Kinney/Lamar. The Dallas consultant has not been around apparently.
Russell’s Bakery is still trying to open the site at Bluebonnet/Lamar but is having trouble with the city and zoning.
Trammell Crow has apparently pulled out of trying to develop the area around Maria’s.
There was some discussion of mosquito spraying. Information on mosquito spraying can be found on the city’s web site: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/news/02/mosquito_fight.htm

Send any additions or corrections to these meeting minutes to hilary@texas.net