Greenbelt Guardian Work Day, Saturday, June 6 at Gus Fruh

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Hello Greenbelt Fans,

You have an opportunity to join a large improvement effort on the Barton Creek Greenbelt on Saturday, June 6, to celebrate National Trails Day. Our Greenbelt Guardians volunteers will be working at our adopted Gus Fruh trail, 2646 Barton Hills Drive, from 8:30 – 12:30. We will be weeding the entry trail, continuing work on the stone retaining wall by the swimming hole, removing the invasive ligustrum and nandina along the creek trail, and forming windrows for erosion management. We’ll also clean up trash. We can keep at least 30 volunteers productively busy!

There will also be lots of other trail improvement activities at the 360 access to Barton Creek, to mark the first phase of the “Walk-for-a-Day Trail” that envisions connecting trails all the way from Austin to Kyle. The trail heading south out of Austin will branch off of the Barton Creek trail system between the 360 and Mopac/Twin Falls access points.

This National Trails Day Service Project is a joint conservation effort made possible through a partnership of American YouthWork’s Environmental Corps, the Austin Parks and Recreation Department, the Austin Parks Foundation, the Hill Country Conservancy, and Austin-area REI stores. The Greenbelt Guardians, Central Texas Trail Tamers, Central Texas Mountaineers, and Austin Ridge Riders are joining the effort by providing project leaders and helping with the recruiting.

There will be generous rewards for your volunteer efforts! From 12:30 – 2:00 there will be a ribbon cutting and celebration PARTY at Zilker Park, with parking at the Polo Fields. A picnic style lunch will be provided by the Salt Lick, plus there will be music, beer, free t-shirts, and free swimming all day at Barton Springs.

So come put in some productive sweat equity, and then party, eat and swim with other dedicated, green-loving people at Zilker Park and Barton Springs!

To register to work with the Greenbelt Guardians at Gus Fruh, please RSVP to this email, AND sign up on the Austin Parks Foundation Website page (required to get an entry wristband for the Zilker party celebration). The web address for registration is: http://www.austinparks.org. Sign up under the heading Volunteer Opportunities for National Trails Day, June 6, 2009 for the project described as “Wall Building, Trail Work and Invasives Removal at Gus Fruh with the Greenbelt Guardians”.

We’ll look forward to seeing you there,

Glee Ingram
Greenbelt Guardians Coordinator

April 28th General Meeting Agenda

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NEXT MEETING

Tues. April 28th, 6-8 p.m.

Join us at St. Mark’s Church (corner of Barton Skyway & Barton Hills Dr.)

Everyone is invited! Pre-meeting social hour! at 6 pm. Italian dinner for $6.

All are welcome!

Agenda

7:00 Call to order/Welcome

7:05 Administrative Business

7:15 Proposal to support BHE Odyssey of the Mind team

7:30 Update on Rolling Stones school park projects

7:50 Greenbelt Guardians Update

8:00 Garden Club Update

8:10 Committee on Area Development Update

8:20 Neighborhood Watch Update

8:30 Adjourn

Survey Results-Most Important Issues

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As promised, here are some survey results from the Barton Hills Neighborhood Association survey. Please keep in mind that the survey ended at 100 responses, which is approximately 30% of listserv members, and that respondents were able to check more than one answer so the percentages don’t equal 100%.

How important are the following neighborhood issues to you?

Very important
Greenbelt safety and sanitation 79.8%
Quality of Barton Hills Elementary 68.4
Greenbelt maintenance 66.7
Success of local businesses 66.2
Traffic patterns affected by new development 59.6
Graffiti 57.1
Lending a hand to neighbors who could use help 51.0
Litter 50.0
Getting to know my neighbors better 47.0
Additional yellow signs and crosswalks 37.8

What else, if anything, do you want to tell us about living in the neighborhood or about the neighborhood association?

-I wish that that participation in the process that result in development rules for the neighborhood were truly more open to the neighborhood…when I attend meetings, a few people are in control and not much is accomplished.

-Trying to change the traffic pattern of cars blocking traffic Barton Hills while waiting for their kids to get out of school. Not only does it block traffic but I almost got hit on my bicycle when an SUV veered into the bike lane to avoid the standstill of cars on Barton Hills. Can’t they stage on Homedale?

-Maybe some organized/pick-up soccer game in the park? The 13 year population is getting tired of playing soccer in the ditch.

-Keeping the area in line with city and subdivision restrictions.

-Sidewalks.

-I would like to see our neighborhood make a coordinated effort to become more green by setting some energy or water usage goals.

-Doo poo clean-up at the park. There are signs and bags but no one uses them.

-Property owners, including St. Mark’s, taking responsibility for street-side areas such as trimming low-hanging branches and cleaning up garbage and leaves.

-Quality, lowrise development on South Lamar.

-Overall safety.

-Speeding cars on Barton Skyway and Barton Hills Drive.

-Increased traffic due to development and Zilker Park events. Why can’t the city route traffic to Lamar instead of through our neighborhood?

Stay tuned for more results, including What Can You Do to Help BHNA? and What Can BHNA do better?