South Lamar Neighborhood Association--November/December 2201 Scoop Archive

November-December 2001 SLNA Scoop Archive

12/10/01--Dear Mayor & City Council: Limit Connectivity
This is from an email sent by Bryan King to Mayor Garcia and the Austin City Council:

Hello Mayor and Council,
I have heard that you might be taking up the matter of the connectivity ordinance this Thursday.

Our concern here in the SLNA area is that this ordinance should be limited to truly "new neighborhoods" and should not be allowed to be used piecemeal fashion in pockets within our traditional SF-3 neighborhoods. In the SLNA area there are several large tracts of undeveloped land. Without some limits, these tracts could be considered under this ordinance.

I believe that the ordinance should only apply to areas greater than (at least) 5 acres. This would prevent an existing, say 4 acre tract from having a new road cut in and creating small lots with large lots on either side of it, all under the name of the connectivity ordinance.

I have spoken with Kent Butler, the author of the connectivity ordinance, as late as today, and he believes that the 5 acre minimum has good merit. He told me that city legal has the language crafted and will be checking to make certain that it is included in the latest revision. He favors this limitation also.

Please make sure to include this threshold to protect the character of our existing neighborhoods.

Thank you,
Bryan King
President, South Lamar Neighborhood Association

12/07/01--Southwest Area Commander's Forum Meeting
The Austin Police Department has announced a Southwest Area Commander's Forum Meeting to be held on Tuesday, December 11th. This is a great opportunity to meet your neighborhood officers and to express your concerns and/or your gratitude to our city's finest. More information at: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/police/command1_1201.htm.

11/25/01--December party/meeting! (Who and what are you bringing?) Hello all, Hope you had a wonderful holiday with great food, good friends, some rest, and just maybe a little shopping??? Thinking about great food... Our December party (covered dish) is only a few weeks away, December 20th to be exact! Might be a good time to be thinking about what your special dish might have in it??? I think I'll do the same as last year and get a Honey baked ham and WW rolls...that seemed like a pretty good base to build on... Might be a good idea to sound off here on the jungle drum (the SLNA email list) when you decide what to bring... just so we don't wind up with all of the same thing.... but with this group, that is doubtful...ha! I can't believe it has been a whole year since our last Holiday bash...well, I guess it really hasn't been since we did it in January last year! Although, we'll run with an open house format...we need a quorum at some point to do the 2002 officer elections... so try to be somewhat early. On another note, Jay Culver, City of Austin, PARD Forester, came by to visit with me early this week. I was relieved to find out that none of my live oaks have live oak wilt. (He thought the one I always worry about may have been hit by lightning at some point in its life... he also told me that it is either the tallest or second tallest live oak in Austin... woohoo!) He is a really nice guy and volunteered to help anyone in the hood that wants to "do it yourself" with the Alamo treatment... what an offer! He will be scheduled for the SLNA meeting in February. Mark you calendar for that one. Good information and handouts. I am going to try to put together a video of oak wilt in the hood (hope Bill & Jennifer can help) to show also. Oak wilt moves at a rate of about 100' per year and we have a huge cell of it in our SLNA area! That's all for now, Bryan

11/17/01-Nominations for December Election Hi gang, The nominating committee met last Wednesday night at Patricia's. She forwards their report::

The nominating committee met November 17 at Patricia Fiske’s home to propose new officers for 2002. Attending were: Patricia Fiske, Hilary Dyer, Bobby Hubertus and Bill Stoughton. The following slate will be proposed to the membership at the December meeting:

President - Bryan King Vice President - Marci Roberts Secretary - Hilary Dyer Treasurer - Bobby Hubertus SCC Representative - Kevin Lewis

HITH, Patricia

This slate plus any nominations that are made from the floor will be voted on at the beginning of the December meeting (/party). We can get the business out of the way real quick and then get into the food!

Patricia is making so good headway on the sidewalk committee also. Researching with the city and with AISD, etc. One of the areas of concern for sidewalks is the section of Bluebonnet up to the light on Lamar... the route for kids to Zilker School... with the latest flooding along that section (I hope somebody took some pictures), that might be coupled together with sidewalks and try to cure two problems at once! I contacted the city on Wednesday regarding the overgrown state of vegetation of that strip. The should have that addressed within the next few weeks. Patricia proposed a survey to assess everyone's thoughts about the neighborhood needs in the way of sidewalks. Go Patricia!

Over and Out, Bryan

11/09/01--New SLNA Handyman Database This from another neighborhood group: Seeing all of the plugs flying around for car repair, roofers, etc., I thought it might be a good idea to set up a database for these recommendations. (Some of this is selfish... I lost the e-mails with recommendations for plumbers, and I need one). Get a good job done by a local plumber, roofer, mechanic, etc.? Post your good experiences in the database. It would probably be a good idea to not post any NEGATIVE comments. Leave that for the BBB or the attorney general. I thought it was a good idea so I set up one for us. Here is the link: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SouthLamarNA/database Let's use it for recommendations... not flames. Take the high road, eh? Post away! 11/8/01--Guess What? We Need To Elect New Officers! Hi gang, I think I was having too much fun with Halloween... the elections of SLNA officers passed me by. I happened to read the bylaws and they call for me to appoint a five person nominating committee from the current members in good standing. That group would make recommendations to the group at large at the October meeting..... Ooops! So, I have appointed Patricia Fiske, Carol Gibbs, Bill Stoughton, Hilary Dyer, and Bobby Hubertus to the nominating committee. Any recommendations for nominations that you might have, please forward them to one of them. I think we can make a motion at the December meeting (party) to move this action item to the December meeting and vote then. Sorry for the slip up. Guess I should read the bylaws more often! Attached is the portion of the bylaws... the whole thing can be found here. So.... at the December meeting we'll have a quick vote and then we EAT! Thanks Bryan VI. OFFICERS A. Positions and Terms of Election 1. The officers of the Association shall be elected from the active membership and shall be: President, Vice President, Recording Secretary, Treasurer, and Delegate to the Austin Neighborhood Council and South Central Coalition. 2. These five or six elected officers shall comprise the Executive Committee. 3. Officers shall be elected for one-year terms at the October quarterly meeting and shall assume office at the January meeting. The officers shall not serve more than two consecutive terms in the same elected office. 4. Nomination of officers shall be the responsibility of a five-member Nominating Committee appointed by the President from the active membership prior to the October quarterly meeting. Nominations may also be made from the floor at the meeting.