August 2006 Archives
Gerald Daugherty is on the CAMPO Board so we can probably assume that these proposed routes will be presented to CAMPO for consideration. Campo is currently holding public meetings for folks to voice their opinions and there is also a CAMPO online survey where residents can provide more input. Speak out and take advantage of these avenues for input!!
Go to the Hill Coutry Alliance website for more info. www.hillcountryalliance.org
The public meeting in Austin is on Sept. 18th. The survey is offered on the CAMPO website but it is also on the Hill Country Alliance site.
DO IT!
The Southwest Travis County Mobility Corridor Map doesn't seem to make much sense if the goal is to ease current traffic problem areas. What it looks like it will do is cut through the homes and property of our neighbors and encourage and promote development in SW Travis County.
This map and another route proposed by Lakeway (which cuts through the Shield's Ranch and BCP land from Southwest Parkway to 2222) were hatched after a meeting on July 19, 2006. Those present at the meeting were:
Gerald Daugherty
Bob Moore
Blanchard- Lakeway
Steve Jones- Lakeway
Steve Swan- Lakeway
Bill Gunn
Don Walden
Hank Smith
Pixie Howell
Joe D. (?)
Keegan Archer
Scott Dukette
Lauren Doss- Bee Cave
As you can see those present were Lakeway and Bee Cave staff and officials, developers and engineers. It looks like they forgot to include residents or members of the community.
Gerald Daugherty's office has said that the Commissioner is not ready to speak to the Hill Country Alliance about this and the Village of Bee Cave has suggested a Public Hearing.
We'll keep you posted~
Commissioner Daugherty is seeking his revenge on the Hamilton Pool Road residents who oppose his bought-and-paid for plan to pave our countryside. He and and his master, Bill Gunn, developer of Sweetwater, reportedly are cooking up this boondoggle.
Check out his stealth "mobility plan":
Yup. That's a buncha new highway cutting swaths across land on either side of HPR, from -- yep -- pretty near Sweetwater on 71, eastward to Thomas Springs Rd and southward to Fitzhugh Rd, which becomes a major thoroughfare. The roads manage to require condemnation of the homes of pretty much any landowner who opposed the LCRA waterline scam. Masterful, Gerry! And paving over Rocky and Barton Creeks is a nice touch!
Finishing off my ride this morning, I turned left off of 12 onto HPR, heading to the house. I noticed the new Hamilton Market parking lot full of cars with bike racks. Hamilton Market may centralize the area bike parking activity, and that would be a good thing. I hope, when they open, they will welcome the parking -- it's in their interest after all, to sell cyclists sugar water and all the crap you buy before and after a ride. They probably ought to stock 700x23c tubes!
Until now, you may have noticed the odd car parked by the side of the road. Just a few of the good little nooks are: McGregor and Fitzhugh (NE corner), RR12 and Fitzhugh (SW corner), and my personal favorite, by the little telephone patch box at HPR and Bell Springs Rd (SW corner). That's where I used to park years ago, when I had to drive out here. I liked it so much I moved a half mile away.
Helmet laws save lives. Because most people drive cars, many more people sustain head injuries in auto accidents than in bicycle accidents -- many of them becoming burdens to the taxpayer, and drooling on you. We MUST pass a helmet law for automobile drivers before another life is wasted.
On Wednesday evening I spotted a big semi tractor and not the usual (LCRA/Key) folks standing around on my corner at Cueva and HPR.
I went to investigate and found an LCRA employee and an LCRA tractor- no trailer (yet), and Rep.Patrick Rose and his aide.
They were waiting for an HEB tanker of potable water and Mr. Hammet (?) the Deer Creek developer.
My understanding is that Rep. Rose put together a deal to get water to the Deer Creek subdivision via HEB and LCRA. Rose was out there with no media, in the heat, making sure that the donated HEB water tanker and the donated LCRA driver and tractor connected up with Hammet who needed to be there to let them into the dry Deer Creek water facility.
This morning I met up with that same HEB water tanker and LCRA driver filling up with water from a hydrant on Cueva. He told me that he had been making runs to Deer Creek filling up their tanks since he saw me two days ago. He thought this run would be the last.
We could point a dozen fingers at whose to blame for the abysmal lack of planning, lack of protection, greed and squandering of our water resources but this morning I prefer to see a good deed....an elected representative of the people, a local business and a quasi-state utility agency working together donating their resources and getting water to those in need.
(~~~While explaining to me what was going on, Rose said, 'when you really need to get something done don't ask government...ask HEB!' )
As Deer Creek well dries up, and those of our Fitzhugh Road neighbors, up here on the Shingle Hills we are grateful our five year old deep well is flowing.
Kaila and I wandered around Reimers park today, and we ventured down the ravine that is hard by the parking area. It's a marvel. Even in this drought it oozes moisture. Delicate maidenhair ferns grow out of the cracks. Easily it's ten degrees cooler in there. Trickles seep into little pools that get deeper as you further down the ravine. It's a cross section of the aquifer you can explore in a quarter mile, between the road and the river.
This water is emerging 500 feet below our house, about five miles west of us. This gives you an idea where the water table lies. The water emerges into the Pedernales and joins the lake water to become property of the Lower Colorado River Authority.
From here on in Deer Creek is going to be getting its water from LCRA one way or another: the water line or the tanker. Utimately, this whole booming region will get its water from the LCRA.
But how much water is there really? During drought times like this, the entire basin's water supply comes from seeps like this. LCRA owes Austin 50 years worth of water, and Austin's growth story is predicated on that availability. And then there's the growth they're promoting in our area and westward, and then there's San Antonio.
The story from LCRA has to be that our water supplies are unlimited, or else the corporations and builders who form their constituency get cold feet over making capital investments here. Is anybody checking their math?
What's happening to our wells, this year, could be happening to the Colorado River during our next 50-year drought.
State Parks Sell-OffLast week I discussed the sell-off of some of Texas' most precious parks and wildlife properties. Later that day I had Glenn Smith on the radio to talk about exactly what was being done at the state level and if it could be stopped.
Here's the podcast.
