The Allandale Reporter

It's My Park Day! - Northwest Park Clean Up

It's Park Clean Up Day.. Meet by the pond. We have the neatest, best, most creative park in town! Help maintain it. The more we do, the more we get from the City. They get very excited when we meet, clean, take care of, our neighborhood park. Fence needs to be painted, pond cleaned, we have some plans to make the park better and maybe someday we will have a bandstand, etc.

Scouts - those that are not going on the campout. Come and help. It will go on your community service points. Baseball buddies - those that use the field, come and help. You use the facilities and keep them clean.

See you at the park - Saturday, March 6, 2010 - 9 a.m.

Donna Beth McCormick
Allandale Neighborhood President

Please Leave No Pile Behind -- Poop Pollutes!

 By:  Fido B. Good

Are you guilty of leaving your dog’s waste on your neighbor’s lawn because you thought you were providing free fertilizer?  Perhaps you don’t scoop the poop because you think it’s downright disgusting!  Imagine if all dog owners in Austin didn’t scoop the poop.  Our dogs create an average of a half pound of excrement per day.  With 120,000 dogs in Austin, that adds up to 60,000 pounds of dog waste – equivalent to nearly five dump truck loads – produced throughout the city every day!

Reminders about Trash Pickup

Kent Middleton

The City will pick up non-recyclable trash in its regular weekly service only if it is in a City garbage cart, a bag for additional trash with a paid sticker ($4 plus tax), or a bag without a sticker ($8 plus tax).  A blue cart for allowed recyclable items can not be used for other trash.  Some items are prohibited from garbage carts and bags -- for example, construction materials, TVs, computers, chemicals (including automotive fluids and paint), oil filters, tires, non-alkaline batteries, and fluorescent light bulbs.  See www.ci.austin.tx.us/sws.  (This site also provides information on pickup of yard trimmings and lots of information about recycling options.)

Great Northern Detention Pond Project Update

Here is an update on the Great Northern Detention Pond Project dated December 28th from Darryl Haba, the project supervisor with the City of Austin. The photos were taken more recently. The top photo is the sitting area overlooking the detention pond. The photo below it is the textured spillway. The bottom photo is the walkway heading up to the Far West pedestrian bridge with the newly planted trees on either side:

"We had the Punch List Walk last week to verify that all items have been constructed and to see if anything was in need of any repairs. We did not note any deficiencies and the contractor will finalize all site cleaning including the final tree trimming and ensure the area is sodded and seeded where needed.

Over the past week and this week, the black covering will come off (we kept it covered to prevent any damage until we were complete) and the final touches completed such as installing the plesiosaur replica and removing the orange fencing.

The trees are a variation of oaks and willows with some ornamentals mixed in.  Around the 1st of the year all items should be completed including having it fully accessible to the public again.

We would like to encourage folks not to park along the property off Great Northern as we have shaped this area to drain better, installed 

 a new cable/bollard fence and placed fresh sod.  The area was rutted pretty bad before we started and we would like to allow the sod to get established."

Making a candy cane

 Kay Newell

The Allandale Candy Cane Lane tradition was started in the 60’s by the residents along Bullard. The tradition is to leave the candy cane for the next home owner. You might find candy canes in your attics or under your homes. A fresh coat of paint, and you will be carrying on the Allandale Candy Cane Lane tradition. Enjoy!

Supplies:
2 stove pipe elbows
3 straight pieces of stove pipe
1 spray can of white Rust-Oleum paint (or similar paint)
1 spray can or small can of red Rust-Oleum paint OR 3inch red outdoor ribbon blue painter’s tape—if you plan to paint on the red stripes
4 ft metal pipe or broom handle
string of Christmas lights OR floodlight and extension cord
red outdoor bow

Put the two elbows together to form a hook, and then add it to the three connected pieces of straight stove pipe. You will then have a 6’ candy cane. 

Northwest Park Cleanup Day - Saturday, November 28

The next Northwest Park Clean Up day will be this coming Saturday (11/28 at 9am).  So if you are in town and are looking to work off a little of that Thanksgiving meal, meet us at the North edge of the pond at 9am.  Here is the updated schedule for our clean up efforts:
   A1.  DONE: Nov 21, 2009 - mtg and pond trash cleanup; rockwall vine trimming
   A2.  Nov 28, 2009 - overview mtg, general cleanup, painting, cattail thinning; rockwall vine trimming

   B.  Mar  6, 2010 - Annual PARD It's My Park Day (multiple efforts in various areas of the park)
   C.  May 22, 2010 - prep park for pool opening
   D.  Aug 21, 2010 - painting and general clean up
   E.  Nov 20, 2010 - pond clean up

Have a great week and we hope to see you next Saturday!

Malcolm St. Romain

Jackie O'Keefe's Yard

In October's issue of Allandale Neighbor we introduced you to Jackie O'Keefe, a longtime Allandale resident and natural gardener who premiered her column on native gardening in the Newsletter. As promised, we prepared a photo tour of her backyard that includes captions from Jackie describing the various plants. Click here to see the photo tour. The photos were taken in September 2009. Enjoy!

Do Not Steal the Turtles!

I posted the following from Linnea regarding removing turtles from Northwest Park back in May. There has been some recent discussion on the listserve about someone collecting turtles at the park over the weekend. Tom

Linnea Lemon

Several reports have drifted my way of turtles being removed from the pond in Northwest Park.

I spoke to PARD and Tim Cole of Austin Reptile Service. Both shared the following:

it's Your Northwest Park Day! On Sunday, October 4, 2009 at 9am

Join us for an opportunity to volunteer and keep your neighborhood Beautiful! It's the right time of the year to cut down the cattails from the pond; it'd be great to get the canoes again.  Other volunteer opportunities include: Painting, brush removal from rock wall on west side of pond, trash pickup, edging around pond, removal of debris from island. Cleanup starts at 9:00 a.m. We plan on finishing by 1:00. For more information about Sunday's clean up contact Malcolm St. Romain. See you Sunday!

Is a neighborhood matching program a good idea?

An article in today's Austin American-Statesman reports the City is considering a proposal that would have neighborhoods share in the cost of neighborhood projects. Some people are against the idea. They argue that is why we pay taxes. Read "Proposal: City, residents could team up on area projects. A 'matching program' for sidewalk work, speed bumps would stretch city dollars, officials say," by Marty Toohey and leave a comment to this post (click on comment link below) on what you think about the idea. Allandale residents had some experience with this approach with the Northwest Park tree planting project that volunteers participated in the Spring.