The Allandale Reporter

Coach Honeycutt dies

An article posted on statesman.com Saturday morning reported that Pat Honeycutt, longtime coach of McCallum High School, died Friday night. Coach Honeycutt has coached a number of family members of Allandale residents over the years. He will be sorely missed. Here is a link to the article, "Pat Honeycutt, McCallum football coach, dies," by Danny Davis, here. Here is a link to the article about coach Honeycutt in Sunday's Sports section.

What follows is a posting to the Allandale newsgroup:

From: Kristina <tranquilkneadsmassage@yahoo.com>
Subject: [brentwood-na] Important McCallum Update
To: brentwood-na@yahoogroups.com
Date: Saturday, January 31, 2009, 8:51 PM

Dear friends, students and staff at McCallum High School,

Our dear friend and Athletic Director Coach Pat Honeycutt passed away Friday evening. You may pay your respects at his viewing this Sunday, from 6-8 p.m., at the Cook-Walden Funeral Home on North Lamar (see address and link below).
Coach Honeycutt's funeral will be held this Monday at 3:30 p.m. at the Delco Center (see address and link below). We appreciate your thoughts and prayers during this time of mourning.

Cook-Walden Funeral Home
6100 North Lamar
Austin, TX 78752

Delco Center
4601 Pecan Brook Dr
Austin, TX 78724
http://www.austinisd.org/schools/details.phtml?id=120&#12296;=

Ronnie Franke, PTSA Vice President
MacKnightly News E-Newsletter
McCallum HS PTSA
Austin, TX

Capital MetroRail Open Houses

Capital Metro welcomes you to five open houses at stations along the MetroRail line this February. Come see the train, pick up a schedule, learn to use the new ticket vending machines, and get all of your questions answered about riding the train.

The open houses are free, come-and-go events, open to the public. Except for the Leander open house, parking will be limited. Riding the bus or carpooling is encouraged.

Sign Language interpreters for the Deaf will be available, and other reasonable accommodations can be requested at least three days in advance by contacting Nancy Crowther at (512) 389-7583 or nancy.crowther@capmetro.org.

Capital MetroRail Open Houses:

Leander Station – Saturday, Feb. 7 

10 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Hwy 183 north of FM 2243

Austin Energy Interactive Town Hall Meeting

Austin Energy will be holding the 6th in a series on Town Hall Meetings related to the Draft resource plan. (See austinsmartenergy.com ) on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 at 6:30pm. It will be held in the Council Chambers at City Hall at 301 W. Second St.

 

If you are not able to attend in person, you can watch Channel 6 and participate by calling in your questions to 974-5597 or emailing them at austinsmartenergy.com any time this week. Click on Contact Us and fill in the blanks.

 

Please reply to this email or contact Paul Smolen at 512-619-5314, if you have additional questions about the process.

 

Thanks,

 

Paul N. Smolen

Vice President

Fox, Smolen & Associates

Office     512-322-9090 x. 102

Mobile    512-619-5314

H-E-B RESPONDS - EXPANSION A POSSIBILITY

Leslie Lockett, Director of Public Affairs for the regional H-E-B office returned my call Friday afternoon after two attempts to contact her earlier in the week. She said H-E-B is exploring their options with regard to expanding the Allandale store but no decision has been made. "H-E-B will make a formal announcement when a
decision has been made." As for now, they are only in the exploration stage. She did confirm there is a serious interest in it but there are a number of considerations. It takes awhile to get the design work done and determine the project costs. Like everyone else they are cautious about taking on any construction with the current state of the economy. H-E-B will also have to work through an agreement with the landlord to move forward on an expansion.

Burger Stands

Hil-Bert's Burgers closed on Lamar south of 35th back in September after 35 years to make way for a P. Terry's Burgers. Some may think that's bold of the new kid in town. Hil-Berts has a good reputation. Hil-Berts is not going away though. They will be opening on Burnet Rd soon. The P. Terry's on Lamar will be the second location for the company. They have a small burger stand on Lamar just north of Barton Springs Rd. In case you can't wait for Hil-Bert's to open in the neighborhood or are wondering what you've been missing, the restaurant has a couple of other locations, one on W 35th and the other on Cameron Rd.  They will be opening at 7211 Burnet Rd in the former Taco Bell building. According to an article on austin360.com, the owner, Hilbert Maldanado is excited about the move. With Top Notch far away we will be a burger-rich neighborhood. 

Allandale Resident Dies in House Fire

Last night's house fire on Greenlawn Parkway resulted in the death of the elderly woman who lived there according to a report on statesman.com, Elderly woman dies in house fire. The name of the victim was not included in the article.

HEB at Allandale Village Expanding?

HEB at Allandale Village is expanding. At least that is according to big hot pink and green signs in the window of Kids n Kats that say: "Due to HEB's expansion plans we're moving Jan 31".  There is also a big moving sale sign hanging along the parking area in front of the Kids n Kats store.  Looks like the expansion is going absorb the Jackson Hewitt space as well. On Tuesday a crane was moving the Jackson Hewitt sign from its current spot next to Kids n Kats to the vacant space next to Supercuts.  Kids n Kats is not leaving the center though. It is apparently relocating to the vacant spot to the right of Supercuts. This is according to a sign in the window stating it is their new spot in the center. The HEB store is not commenting about the expansion. They refer inquiries to their public affairs department at their regional office. To date, the office has not returned our call. Looks like work on the expansion will be getting underway soon. 

Good Turnout for Tree Planting

The turn-out for the tree planting along Northcross Drive on Saturday was great -- I estimate 40-50 people total showed up to help (total of Crestview and Allandale volunteers).  All volunteers worked on both sections -- both on St. Joseph (the continuation of Northcross on the other side of Burnet) and on Northcross Dr.  We finished around 11:15 am. The trees and the planning and coordination for the project was supplied by the City of Austin. Volunteers supplied the labor. Emily King, City of Austin Forester, worked with Paul Smith and Allandale's Beautification Chair, Linnea Lemon in coordinating the event. The Treefolks organization helped out.  They had a number of volunteers there to help coordinate the project, and brought coffee, oranges, and bananas for volunteers. Nine native and adapted tree species were chosen for the planting. 

Photo 1 - The gathering at the Post Office to organize the group. Photo 2 - Tree Folks instructing the Crestview and Allandale neighbors on the correct planting methods. Photo 3 - Picture of the planting actually taking place on one side of the median as the city trucks deposited the mulch on the other side. Photo 4 - Linnea, Allandale's Beautification Chair, offering encouraging words to Laura DiCarlo, Allandale's Neighborhood Safety Coordinator!

2008 Allandale Crime Statistics

 Crime in Allandale was down in 2008, but not by much. The best that can be said is it's not on the rise. To really understand what's going on with crime in the neighborhood you need to dig into the details. This is simply a summary of the detail made available through the Austin Police Department's Crime Viewer.

The total number of crimes in Allandale in 2008 was 1,202 compared to 1,232 in 2007 and 1,258 in 2006. The table above shows only the top 25 crimes reported in Allandale from 2005 to 2008. It does not show the totals. You can see that Theft is consistently at the top of the list. If you look at the detail, you'll see most of of the thefts are from businesses along Burnet and Anderson. This is similar to what the stats tell us in adjoining neighborhoods. Theft and Burglary of Vehicles are the top crimes. Here's a link to a comparison of reported crimes in Allandale, Brentwood, Crestview, North Shoal Creek, and Rosedale. The number of incidents for most of the crimes is higher in Allandale simply because Allandale is larger than the other neighborhoods, not because crime in our neighborhood is more prevalent.

I delved into the detail on Burglary of Residences for Allandale, because for most people that ranks high on their list of worries. Is someone going to break into my house? There were a total of 42 burglaries in 2008, up from 33 in 2007. You can see from the map, there does not appear to be any single month where the number of crimes is particularly high. The color balloons in the map indicate the month of the year. Burglaries are spread out more or less evenly across the year. To fully understand the map, click here where you will see the blocks and block numbers of where these burglaries took place. What the map indicates is there is higher incidence of burglaries south of Hancock.

Just a reminder that in the past year, Allandale has put together a solid block captain structure under the coordination and efforts of Laura DiCarlo. To learn more about becoming a block captain, email Laura.

Volunteers needed for tree planting on Northcross Drive

Please join us this Saturday, January 10 on Northcross Drive for a tree planting. Work will start at 9am.

The holes have been pre-dug by the city, and shovels will be provided. The more volunteers the better - the work will go more quickly -- and we'll demonstrate our commitment to green spaces. 

(This is important, and will help us get additional city support for other proposed projects)

Bring work gloves and a water bottle. Tools and supplies will be provided.

You can park in the back of the post office parking lot, or across the street behind The Allandale condos.

Drop me a note if you have any questions.

See you there!

- Linnea
Allandale beautification Chair