It’s just not an election without the traditional ploys of Austin’s suburban detractors in the Circle C Homeowners Association. Led by steering committee chair Ken Rigsbee, the group is opposing Austin Community College‘s request for more money via a property tax increase — 5¢ per $100 valuation over the next four years. Voters go to the polls Nov. 2 to decide on this and 17 constitutional amendments. Lest we forget the Shadowridge Tract controversy of 1996, the anti-vote effort from the southwest is payback for ACC’s decision to scrap its plans to build a new campus on the environmentally sensitive Shadowridge property in Oak Hill. While ACC’s Pinnacle campus is located in Southwest Austin, residents out there complain that it is overcrowded and structurally outdated. “Rubbish!” sniffs longtime South Austin advocate Betty Edgemond, “They want another Taj Majal like Bowie High School.” Edgemond, who coordinates the Far South Austin Community Association, an umbrella group of Deep South Austin neighborhoods, says an unidentified caller (a Circle C resident, she presumes) left a message on her answering machine urging her to vote against the tax increase. Edgemond says she, too, would love a new ACC campus, but her preference would be in the I-35/Slaughter Lane area.
For now, though, the ACC board is more concerned about making do with its existing facilities. As for southwesterners getting their wish for a new campus, that ain’t going to happen, says board member John Worley, who notes that the board last year approved a new facilities policy promising no new construction over the aquifer. “The board acquired a greater environmental consciousness as a result of Shadowridge,” says Worley. For more election info, see the Chronicle‘s endorsements
While we’re in the neighborhood of South Austin, let’s revisit the Longhorn Pipeline controversy, which is now in its 30-day EPA public comment phase since a recent environmental assessment study deemed the aging pipeline fit as a fiddle. Longhorn wants to use the currently inactive line to carry gasoline from Houston through South Austin, over the Edwards Aquifer, and west to El Paso. Bottom line: The city of Austin doesn’t want it, the LCRA doesn’t want it, and South Austin sure as heck doesn’t want it. More than anything, they don’t want an active pipeline running — literally — through their backyards. So in keeping with the season, they’re holding a “Nightmare on Dittmar Street” rally at 3pm Saturday at the Dittmar Rec Center/ Park, 1009 Dittmar …
If you’re a line-item reader of your utility bill, you may have noticed some format changes in this month’s Austin Energy bill. The changes are not to be taken lightly. The new billing system is the product of a long, expensive, angst-ridden, overdue project that had every Doubting Thomas in town betting on its failure. Alas, the system finally came into being this month, although word from the inside is that when officials flipped the switch for a test run, some glitches caused a fair amount of top-down yelling and cursing. In the end, they finally got the darn thing to work. To celebrate, staff cleaned the blood from the walls and headed off to the Hyatt for drinks all around …
Was the Matthew McConaughey arrest a setup? That’s the prevailing thought in Tarrytown as neighbors wonder who among them would have phoned APD with a noise complaint against their friendly neighbor. Funny thing is, APD doesn’t know either, because the anonymous call was made from a cell phone …
This article appears in Carol Keeton Rylander.
