NACA MONTHLY MEETING
Thursday June 18, 2015
North Austin Community Recreation Center
1000 West Rundberg Lane
Introductions:
Randy Teich called the meeting to order at 7:02pm
Announcements
The May meeting minutes were distributed and approved with four corrections.
Treasury Report: Brian stated as of today NACA has $2,093.38 in the General Fund and $10,650.96 in
the Beautification Fund. At the end of May we have 189 members. Brian made a motion to purchase 50
neighborhood meeting signs by utilizing $200 from funds generated by the Membership Committee. The
motion was unanimously approved.
President’s and Neighborhood Announcements:
Conservation Corps Austin Texas is managed by Leadership Austin, AISD and the City of Austin to
generate public input on major issues in the area. Monthly meetings occur at a different location each
month. Google search Conservation Corps Austin Texas for more info.
Susie Milam identified and thanked the volunteers who have participated in the monthly street clean ups.
Thanks were also given to Brian and Gina Almon for their consistent cleanups of the Parkfield and
Rutland area.
Ann Teich stressed that people call or utilize the 311 website to register complaints about high grass,
graffiti, and trash accumulating on properties.
Restore Rundberg Update: Presentations were made on the count of homeless people in the area. 70
have been identified in the area.
Membership Committee Update: Carol Pazera discussed things we could do to increase awareness in
the neighborhood. A survey was distributed to prioritize five different potential activities to increase
volunteer participation. Activities included: participating in National Night Out; organize educational
outreach; promote volunteerism by identifying existing non-profits in the neighborhood; participate in My
Park’s Day; and to have a large garage sale.
Another topic was to get a business in the area to partner on paying for items (for example, pens, hats, tshirts) which would have both of our logos and contact info.
There was a discussion of placing NACA literature and info at the YMCA/North Austin Community Center.
Randy stated that it was against YMCA policy to hand out any literature but that we could place
newsletters in a kiosk or man a table at the center to hand out info.
Digital Inclusion Initiative: The main goal is to have every Austin resident engaged in digital society.
They have an annual grant project. In 2014, a tech assessment revealed 8% of Austinites do not use
computers at all. In the 78753 zip codes there were 2016 non internet users. The main reason was the
high expense. Other reasons include no one to instruct them and privacy concerns.
She is looking for digital advocates in the neighborhood who can stress the importance to City Council
people. She can be contacted at Kirby.Aull@austintexas.gov
NXNA Garden Tour Update:
Two gardens in NACA (Almon and Monnich residence) were included with 20 other locations. There are
16 artists involved in this year’s tour. 225 tickets were sold. Over $3,000.00 was raised. Improving the
retaining wall at McBee Elementary was recommended for utilizing the funds. Artist Stewart Wallace is
doing a roundtable discussion on Thursday July 16 at Little Walnut Library at 7pm. August 17th is next
Garden tour meeting to include a discussion about an August kickoff event for the next Garden Tour
event in April 2016.
Ann Teich discussed the $300,000.00 W K Kellogg grant which was awarded to AISD. This is a one year
grant to help schools in the NACA area increase parent engagement at local elementary schools.
Wooldridge, McBee and Webb Elementary would have a group or think tank who would conduct home
visits and arrange activities to increase parental participation. This effort started in March 2015 and will
last until the end of February 2016.
District Four Parks Meeting Update: Caro Dubois stated there are six parks in the NACA area:
including Cook and Wooldridge Elementary park areas; Ron Rigsby and Heron Hollow pocket parks;
YMCA and Quail Creeks. Improvement projects in District 4 are planned at Gus Garcia and Bartholemew
Park; St Johns pocket park. Georgian Acres Park off of Powell Lane is being developed.
An update on the Cook Elementary Park renovations was given by Brayden Jones, outreach director for
Greg Cesar. As of today, Austin PARD asked it to be reopened by the end of this year.
IH 35 Mobility Meeting Update: Caro stated this large project goes from Dallas to Laredo. A section from
Rundberg to 290 East was in the planning discussion including redesigning the one lane flyover from IH
35 to northbound Highway 183. Go to www.my35.org for more info and to provide input. Final design will
occur in 2106.
Neighborhood Partnering Program Bridges Project: Brian Almon asked for help on 23 bridges and
walls in the NACA area that need refurbishing and painting. You can adopt a bridge to assist cleaning the
graffiti. Seven of the bridges have been adopted. Brian also asked for volunteers to help design and paint
the bridge. The deadline is October 1st to submit the application with the City of Austin. We must get 60%
of the residents who live around the bridge to approve of having it painted. After the bridge is painted, we
need residents to adopt the bridge to remove graffiti periodically.
A motion was made and seconded to approve of NACA endorsing this project and was approved with one
vote in opposition. A motion was made and seconded to approve utilize $500 from the NACA
Beautification Fund to help fund this project. This motion was unanimously approved.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:35pm.