If today is Thursday and it’s early enough in the day, there could still be
some opposition discourse underway in the board room of the Lower Colorado
River Authority. At issue is the LCRA’s proposed $4 million acquisition of the
water/wastewater system of FM Properties’ developments on Barton Creek. Neither
the Sierra Club’s Austin Regional Group nor the Save Barton Creek Association
fancy the notion of the LCRA getting intimately involved in FM Properties’
wastewater system, particularly given the system’s (and the corporation’s)
prior history as a polluter. Kind of ironic, since the LCRA champions its role
as the guardian of water quality in Barton Creek and the Colorado River. In a
letter to LCRA General Manager Mark Rose, Sierra Club Chair Steve Beers warns
that such “wheeling and dealing could infect the LCRA Board with corrupt
temptations” from land speculators and developers. Watch this one closely…
Clang, clang, goes the… RegioSprinter? The name doesn’t exactly inspire
song, but what the rail car lacks in charm, it makes up for in public transit
technology, or so we are told. At any rate, Capital Metro is bringing the
RegioSprinter to Austin next month for an eight-day trial run between downtown
and Cedar Park. All aboard for a free ride Feb. 14-21. The diesel-fueled rail
car has been debuting in several European and North American cities. Last
month, Boise, Idaho, signed a $100,000 demo deal with the rail car’s
manufacturer, Siemens Transportation Systems Inc., of New Jersey. Austin, no
doubt, is being courted heavily for a similar try-out. Not all demo cities turn
out to be takers, however. Calgary, Alberta, Canada, took RegioSprinter for a
five-month spin but, in the end, decided not to buy…
We’ve all heard the anti-electroshock rhetoric; now there’s proposed
legislation that would outlaw the treatment in Texas. Houston Rep. Senfronia
Thompson, along with co-sponsor Reps. Dawnna Dukes of Austin and Gilbert Serna
of El Paso, filed the bill Tuesday. The measure would stop treating patients
“like lab rats,” says Thompson. The effort is spelled out further at
http:www.banshock.org…
Some Austin locales will provide the backdrop Friday for a documentary about
the CIA. Under the Flag, with executive producers Richard Linklater and
Anne Walker McBay, will recall the CIA at its most frightening moments — as
told by former agents themselves. Austin-based Silence Films is producing the
piece and has sold television and limited theatrical rights to Turner Original
Productions … — A.S.
ARCC Head Quits
Surprising few who have followed current events at the Austin Rape CrisisCenter (ARCC), Executive Director Ginger Eways has resigned her post to head
another local non-profit, the Central East Austin Community Organization
(CEACO). The resignation comes at a heady time for ARCC, which is under
consideration for a possible merger with the Center for Battered Women. In the
last two years, ARCC has experienced financial problems, internal political
troubles, and constant restructuring. Some ARCC observers say that Eways
inherited the financial crisis, while others say that she created it. In either
case, her tenure has been fraught with the challenges of shoring up a sinking
ship.
Evidence of the ARCC crisis became even more apparent two weeks ago when the
center and CBW began discussing merging their operations. Eways’ resignation
was tendered a week before ARCC’s problems came to light in the
Chronicle (Dec. 20), prompting some to regard her resignation as an
attempt to escape the spotlight. Her resignation only recently became public.
In an open letter to ARCC staff and volunteers, Eways describes her departure
as an effort to “follow my bliss.”
Some of Eways’ detractors were not sorry to see her go. “I think it’s
fabulous that she’s gone. Unfortunately, I think it’s a little late,” says
Laura Lyons, ARCC’s 1995 volunteer of the year, who says she intends to return
to the center. Paul Garlinghouse, former prevention program director at ARCC,
echoes Lyons’ sentiments. “I think she knew just when to jump ship,” he says.
Jamie Avila, who has moved up quickly through the ARCC ranks from long-term
volunteer to Eways’ special assistant, will temporarily take the helm until
ARCC’s future is more certain. ARCC board member Laura Wolf says the board will
not look for a new executive director until July, at the completion of a
feasibility study on the possible merger of ARCC and CBW. One merger scenario
would have only one director overseeing the two agencies, thus eliminating the
need to search for a new ARCC director.
The organization Eways will now head, CEACO, provides emergency assistance to
East Austin residents and houses an HIV/AIDS prevention program as well. At
press time, Eways could not be reached for comment. — K.V.
Tunnel Vision
For nearly a decade, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) hasplanned to dig a mile-long wastewater tunnel in South Austin that will be big
enough to drive through an 18-wheel tractor-trailer rig. TxDOT says the tunnel
is needed to drain the planned interchange at I-35 and Ben White. But for South
Austin residents, particularly those who live along Williamson and Onion
Creeks, the tunnel means flooding and pollution.
In a January 15 letter to TxDOT commissioners, the Southeast Corner Alliance
of Neighborhoods (SCAN) asked for a delay in the tunnel’s construction. SCAN
President Diane Sanders asked that the project be delayed pending a public
hearing to consider the environmental impacts of the proposed action. But so
far, Sanders says, TxDOT has not responded. She says TxDOT officials told her
and other residents that the agency doesn’t have to worry about environmental
impact on the community “because the tunnel is not over the Edwards Aquifer.”
The tunnel will have an effect, however, on McKinney Falls State Park, which
is located downstream of the proposed tunnel. The park reopened for swimming in
1993 after a sewage treatment plant located upstream of the park was closed.
“We finally got McKinney Falls suitable where people can swim in there,” says
Sanders. If the tunnel project goes forward, she fears, the park may soon be
closed again to swimmers.
Although it is unclear what role, if any, the city could have in the tunnel
controversy, Mike Heitz, the director of the city’s drainage utility, says he
has “concerns on the pollution impact.” Members of Heitz’s staff have looked
into the proposal to see how it might affect flooding in the region. But Heitz
says it may be too late for the city to do anything about the tunnel. “The time
to negotiate this issue was some time before now,” he said. “The state already
has a contract on the project and is ready to move forward.”
TxDOT has said that it conducted a public hearing on the Ben White expansion
in 1987 and has no plans to hold additional hearings. Calls to Robert Stuard,
the agency’s director of planning, were not returned. Sanders says that if SCAN
doesn’t get a satisfactory response from TxDOT, they will take the fight to
court. — R.B.
Ain’t Misbehavin’
City taxpayers have paid nearly $39,000 to lawyers who handled the lawsuitstemming from Mayor Bruce Todd’s attempts to shush up outspoken activists Karen
Hadden and Neal Tuttrup at council meetings. Todd, who has been angered by the
pair’s outspoken behavior, barred them from speaking at council meetings last
spring. Drawing on the maxim that actions speak louder than words, the
activists responded with a federal lawsuit against Todd.
The case settled out of court last October and the city agreed to pay the
plaintiffs’ legal fees, which amounted to $3,663 for James Harrington of the
Texas Civil Rights Project. Defending Todd and the city required a bigger chunk
of change, however. Attorney Wade Porter with the law firm of Dallas-based
Haynes & Boone, and Bruce Bennett, a partner with Baskin Bennett &
Komkov, billed the city $35,000 — $20,387.44 for legal fees; the rest for
“expenses and services.”
The end result of the lawsuit? Tuttrup and Hadden can speak to council once
again (Hadden has since decided to run for a council seat). But the city feels
it scored a victory, too. Attorney Porter said the pair promised to “behave
themselves” at council meetings. — R.B.
S.O.S. for S.O.S.?
After weeks of salivation by the environmental community, the numbers arefinally coming in on the Save Our Springs Ordinance, and they’re less than
encouraging for S.O.S. supporters. Following an October request by
Councilmember Daryl Slusher, city staff has finished a 23-page report on
pending development applications in the Barton Springs Zone.
The report had to be compiled by hand — requiring more than 300 staff hours
— because of the city’s outdated computer system. Perhaps for that reason, the
study is disjointed and difficult to interpret. A preliminary computer analysis
by environmentalist Frank Belanger reports that applications in the S.O.S. area
— the 90-mile portion of the Barton Springs Zone located in the city —
comprise 6,015 acres. But of that number, only 30%, or 1,740 acres, must comply
with S.O.S.
That’s because in 1995, the Lege passed a bill allowing development
applications to be reviewed under the ordinance in which they were filed —
effectively moving the development applications out of S.O.S.’s purview. As
many as seven ordinances determine development rules in the area, some as old
as the 1980 Barton Springs Zone Ordinance. Belanger also reports that 1.4
square miles of yet-to-be-constructed commercial development has been approved
over the sensitive aquifer. “We have to question whether S.O.S. is reality, or
just a piece of paper,” says Belanger.
As to the council’s decision in December 1994 to repeal the S.O.S. ordinance
after a Hays County jury ruled it invalid, staff reports that only 210 acres of
proposed development were re-filed under the weaker replacement ordinance.
Environmentalists had suspected the number to be much larger, and had wanted
the refiled development applications to fall under the stricter S.O.S. after a
state appeals court upheld the measure and the council reimplemented the
ordinance last summer. If the amount of acreage is indeed that small, there
will likely be no attempt by Slusher, who was already skeptical about the
legality of such a move, to reimplement the S.O.S. during its year-and-a-half
hiatus. — A.M.
This article appears in January 24 • 1997 and January 24 • 1997 (Cover).