Four. Go ahead and start this month's regular meeting
of the parks and recreation board. July 27th, 2026.
and I will take role. Um, so stephanie bison chair.
I'm present. Uh, board member becker.
present. Board member orm.
board member villalobos. Present board member merit
board member kelly. Present board member
abara. Present board member zoster.
present board member taylor.
board member franklin. Present. Board member
eubanks. Present. Alright. Thank you. Everybody there being
quorum. We'll go ahead and move to the next portion of our agenda. Um,
this will be public communication general. This is for the first 10 speakers signed
up prior to the meeting. Mr. Beck? Yes.
chair. Our first speaker during general public comment will be katie robard,
followed by aubrey rudder, and then patricia bobbeck.
you'll have three minutes from the time you begin speaking.
all right. Good evening and happy parks and recreation month. Um, we're thankful for your service
and also, uh, to work with austin parks and recreation department. I'm
katie robard with austin parks foundation. Um, and I'm here today to share
a few updates on some of the work and programming that a pf is doing.
uh, first off, I'll highlight rosewood neighborhood park. Um, we
recently celebrated the completion of the playground renovation and the pavilion,
new pavilion with the summer campers from dolores duffy rec center.
the project included a new pavilion, uh, shaded, uh, playground,
um, new native shade trees and irrigation. The project
that was identified as a playground in need of replacement by the parks
department. And so we took on the project. During the community engagement,
the community expressed a desire for a pavilion in this area of the park, and we
were able to help with that as well. Um, in close collaboration with the parks department,
a pf was able to design, permit, manage the construction, and fully fund the
improvements. Uh, the budget was just a little bit over $500,000
and it was in, completed in late june, um, and is
providing much needed shade and play for the community at rosewood. Next
slide, please. Um, and then grand meadow is a park that a pf
has been involved in for quite some time. In 2022, we began working with the,
the friends of grand meadow park, um, to help them develop a vision plan
for this 10 acre, uh, park in district two.
um, by providing design services and community engagement,
um, we were able to ensure the community voices were heard and a pf was able to provide
plans and documentation necessary to, to get approval
and official adoption of the plan. In 2024, our team worked
close to about a year to get the full site development permit for
this project. And, um,
construction on phase one started last fall. Um, it's still under construction, but this
phase includes improved access to the park, um, a pavilion lighting
open play field, um, improved native grass and wildflower
meadow, and the framework for the community garden and, and the, uh, much desired
food forest. Um, like all projects, we work closely with the parks department
every step of the way. This project is a great example of collaboration, not only
between a pf and a pr, but with the neighbors and other partners,
like friends of grand meadow park and fruitful commons. Um,
a pr funding was, uh, close or is still ongoing, but, um,
it's close to 600,000 of, um, parkland dedication
funding and also a pf contributed $1.2 million.
um, we are looking to schedule the official ribbon cutting in
september, so be on the lookout for that, and we're excited that the park is opening soon.
the next slide, lastly, I'll highlight yoga in the park every
friday morning at 7:00 am in zilker park. This is free programming,
um, that we're offering, and we've seen average attendance
of two to 300 people per session. So it's been super popular
and we just, it's free and open to the public and we invite you to join in. Thanks so much.
thank you. Our next speaker will be
aubrey rudder, followed by patricia bobbeck and then chris flores.
good evening board members. My name is aubrey rudder. I serve as director of rental operations
at the austin rowing club. Tonight, I debated what I wanted to speak about
this evening because the summer has been filled with a lot of positives for a rc.
we've expanded our community outreach, continued our partnership with a pr rec
centers, and launched a new initiative over 4th of july to promote responsible
recreation by encouraging visitors to help keep lady ladybird lake cleaned.
while I'm proud of those accomplishments, I felt it was important to speak about the recent waterway
ban and some of the challenges we experienced during its implementation. First,
I wanna be clear that safety is always and will be our number one priority. When
the waterway ban was issued, a rc immediately complied. We closed our rental
business because we believe the conditions presented a legitimate safety concern.
the other permitted concessionaires did the same. Although closing during one of the, the busiest
times of the season had sin significant impact, financial impact, we didn't
hesitate because protecting the public comes first. The concern I'd like
to raise today is not about the water ban itself, it's about how it was implemented and enforced.
while per the permitted concessionaires followed the rules and remain closed,
numerous non non-permanent operators continued conducting business on ladybird
lake. They were still sending out customers onto the water. While
those of us who have contracts with the city are expected to follow its directives and remain closed,
that raises an important question. Who is responsible for enforcing the ban? If a waterway
closure is issued in the interest of public safety, it should apply equally to
everyone. Otherwise, the businesses that comply with the city requirements are put at a competitive
disadvantage. While operators who ignore the closure continue operating without a
consequence, communication was another significant challenge.
extensions to the waterway ban were often issued just 45 minutes before
the previous order expired. And sometimes as little as 15 minutes beforehand,
that simply isn't enough time to notify customers, adjust staffing, or make operational
decisions. We had employees arri arriving for work and guests already on their way
to the boathouse without knowing we would if we would be open. It
created unnecessary confusion for our staff, our cu customers and our partners.
there was also very little communication to the general public. There was no signage at the public
boat ramps indicating a waterway, a waterway ban was in effect.
many people launching their own boats had no idea that there was an active closure. If
the purpose of the is public safety, then public notification should be just as
much of a priority as concessions are. We support the measures that keep our
waterway safe, and we appreciate the difficult decisions that sometimes have to be made. However,
we also believe there is an opportunity to improve the process through a more timely
communication, clear public signage and consistent enforcement for
everyone that uses the lake, not just those who have contracts with the city.
thank you for your time and everything you guys do for parks. Thank
you. Our next speaker
will be patricia bobbeck, followed by chris flores and then
piper lemoine.
you'll have three minutes from the time you begin speaking.
good evening board members. As always, thank you for your service to the
citizens of austin. First, I would like to compliment zilker park for getting
the food trucks out of the barton springs pool parking lot,
and for not allowing food vendors to set up stands tonight.
we wanna bring your attention, bring to your attention evidence that fishermen
invade barton springs pool at night last week while snorkeling,
I saw a 12 inch bass with a fishing line and a lead weight hanging
out of its mouth. It gradually got weaker for a few days before
it disappeared. I imagine his carcass will eventually
release the fish hook and lead weight into the pool.
I also found a piece of plastic in the pool
that a lifeguard identified as a fishing lure.
lifeguards tell me that last week, a fish hook punctured a swimmer.
imagine a child encountering a fish hook and imagined a fish hook
in the eye. Other patrons have talked about an individual who gets
fish outta the lake and throws them into the pool. Last friday
for the first time in my 50 years of swimming in barton springs, I saw
a two foot long asian carp, a big fat blue
fish in the deep end of the pool. This species was
supposedly introduced into texas water bodies to eat vegetation
and has now started eating other fish. This activity seems incompatible
with the presence of the federally protected salamander.
in light of these activities, I would like to propose at barton springs, either
hire security guards to control the pool perimeter from 10:00 pm to 5:00 am
not in vehicles or install cameras to
detect these individuals. In both cases, the perpetrators should be
prosecuted. Second item of business.
can the board provide information on when the bar spring snack bar will reopen
to sell food? It was closed, it was demolished in 2016,
reconstructed at a cost of almost a million of my tax dollars completed
in 2020 and has been vacant since then.
in the interest of swimmer safety and lifeguard sanity, alcohol
should not be sold at the snack bar. Third item of
business. I speak for a number of tax paying citizens who
would like to be able to swim in bartlet springs year round. In recent years,
semi-trailers have moved into zilker park area in
september to set up for acl and obstruct traffic to the pool until the end
of october. Heavy equipment, no doubt, adds unnecessary stress to
the barton springs road bridge and probably adds to the sentiment to
replace it with a concrete monstrosity. The austin
city limits festival can be proud of its success and growth over the last 20
years. Now it's time to recognize that the festival has outgrown
its britches and needs to move to a modern facility that has toilets,
astroturf, and parking. Thank you. I'll stop there. Thanks so much.
our next speaker will be chris flores, followed by piper lemon.
uh, good evening, um, parks board members. My name is chris flores.
I am in district 10. I'm speaking to you tonight, uh,
speaking to you tonight to ask for additional information to be added to the parks
department's website. This item is not on your agenda.
um, I brought pictures from a july 4th walk. I took around the
lake trail. First, I was delighted to stumble on a fixed up
walkway down to my favorite tree on the lake. In my marathoning
years, I nicknamed it capitan. I can confess now in my old age,
I pruned back the thorny brambles to be able to get down to that water and
the tree and hug and hug it. Um, the new stone
stairs are solid rock. The craftsmanship
is superb. The custom minimal steel railing, amazingly
perfect for that spot. The modernist corten steel sidewall,
again, impeccably crafted zero plastic.
it's fabulous. The walk down was safe. I could hold
the rail and focus on hundreds of butterflies and flowers on the way down to the tree.
this walkway garden is a destination. People could get married there.
it's that beautiful. Um, compared to the before,
sliding down on one's bottom in brambles and mud, it's
a fantastic transformation. I tried to research how
much did this cost, this project, who were the crafts people and
the designers, what bond funded it, which government and nonprofit contributed
the dollars? But the sign did not reach this level of detail.
a search of the parks projects online via the parks department's website
has great info. Eight pages of big projects, but no
info on small trail amenities like the path to el capitan.
can there be a section on the parks and recreation projects,
uh, web webpage that features the things that are being
added to the lake trail? Um, uh, here's
another trail garden I want to speak about. But before I move on
to that, let me show the slides. So I want you guys to see what I saw.
this is from the top looking down. This was never clear and open. You
just have to get on your butt and slide on the mud down. Next slide.
this is the cor 10 wall, uh, steel wall, uh, along the
stairs. It's just beautiful. Look at that railing. You can see the plants. You barely see
the railing. Next slide.
next slide. Oh,
it's the tree. No, no, that's, that's a different topic. Um,
well, I guess the tree didn't make it. Anyways. It's the largest
tree on the lake. A tall cypress that's probably, I don't know,
two, 300 years old. Anyways, um, there's another trail
garden on the pfluger, uh, pedestrian bridge. It's overgrown
with vines. It used to look like pruned, like a japanese garden.
there are remnants of a plastic outdoor art installation that looked dystopian
today. Um, I would like to learn about who owns
that maintenance and when was it billed? How much did it cost?
same things. Thank you very much.
thank you very much for your time.
our next speaker will be piper lemoine.
very good. Yeah, just about.
all right.
can everybody hear me? Oh, there it is. Okay. Got it all. Good evening everyone. My
name is piper lemoyne. I am from rancho leray, a homegrown 5 5 0 1
c3 grassroots nonprofit dedicated to preserving and promoting junto music.
we finally recovered from our three day whirlwind celebration of junto music at the iconic
doris miller auditorium. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, to anybody with an earshot.
being able to present junto music on the same stage that hosted little richard chuck
berry, uh, count basey, edit james. And so many more is a dream come true for us
every day. I'm thankful that the city owns that building because its history is unmatched
in a town that is regularly tearing down privately owned music venues. But I
come to you tonight with a proposal since acme was formed last year and includes several
parks and rec staff and departments. I have a suggestion that we'll take advantage of this
consolidation of city functions. Increase the reservation time period for city
grant funded projects like ours. We were funded through elevate, through acme,
um, from six months to one year. I suggested during the listening
sessions while acme was being formed, but I completely understand
if it was deprioritized or put in a parking lot as the department found its footing
and rolled out new grant programs. As a software developer myself, I un I
also understand that there's a reservation system that may need some kind of code change to accommodate
this. But this simple change can really help the stability
of annual events presented by grassroots groups like ours, in particular,
with a longer reservation period and a date much further down the road. It gives us time
to find sponsors and other funding to supplement the city of austin award. Most
corporate sponsors want at least six months notice, for example, for sponsorships.
um, it, it gives ticketed events even more time to sell advanced tickets.
uh, promotion can begin much sooner allowing tourists to make their travel plans and
specifically book hotel rooms. Uh, it gives events that book nationally. Touring
artists even more of a selection six months ahead of time is usually too short of a time
for artists of that caliber whose calendars are already booked up.
it gives smaller organizations with, with annual events like ours. We've done 11 of these
over the last 15 years, and we're the only large scale tejano junto
event, exclusively tejano junto event. Uh, a chance to be
included alongside the big events in city pr and other touristy communications
like the free events in austin calendar, for example, and perhaps
actually grow in whatever way makes sense for each organization. It also includes
en encourage. It also encourages grant funded organizations
and projects to use city facilities for their events. And while this suggestion may
seem modest on the surface, it could really have a major impact
for a lot of grantees who get their funding through thrive elevate or
other city, uh, funded, uh, grant programs through acme.
so, I appreciate your time and consideration, and I also wanna give a shout out to the dolores duffy
recreation staff, lewis and julie and the whole crew over
there. Fantastic facility and we love the doris miller auditorium. Thank
you. Thank you.
is there anyone else present that would like to address the parks and recreation board
during general public comment? That
is the end of general public comment. Okay. Thank you so much. That being our last
public communication. We'll move to agenda item number one, which is approve
the minutes of the parks and recreation board. Regular meeting of june 22nd, 2026.
take a moment to review the minutes if you haven't already.
and I've already shared with mr. Beck that I was here was a ghost to close
out the, uh, the meeting. So we're making that adjustment.
okay. Board members, any changes that need to be made to the meeting minutes,
it doesn't appear so, so I'll move that we approve the minutes of the parks and recreation board.
um, meeting of june 22nd, 2026. Is there
a second? Second. I have a second from board member abu amara.
all those in favor, please raise your hand. 3, 5, 8.
all right. Motion passes. Eight zero. Thank you so much. Board members.
all right. We'll now move to agenda item number two, which is the presentation,
discussion and approval letters of support for golf staff who
completed the restoration of ponds at roy kaiser and jimmy clay golf courses.
good evening. Uh, parks board. Um, lucas massey, assistant director.
uh, excited to be able to come and talk a little bit about, uh, our golf
courses. And one of the restorations we've been able to do, um, on, on our
ponds. Um, we're in a budget season and, and oftentimes
we're, we're golf is an enterprise fund and we're making fund
transfers from, from golf over to cip to to do this type of work.
um, and it, it, you know, so all the, all the money used for this project comes from the
golf fund. Um, just excited to talk about it a little. And
steve hammond's here to kind of run through the presentation. Uh,
good evening parks board members. My name's steve hammond. I'm the operations manager for, uh, golf
a tx in the city of austin parks, uh, golf department.
okay, so what we're gonna do is we're gonna talk about our roy kaiser pond reestablishment project. Uh,
roy kaiser is in district two, um, in southeast austin. It was built in
1994. It was built off of a, out of a, uh, decommissioned water treatment
plant. Um, this was a great use for that piece of
property 'cause it did not have a great deal of vegetation at the time. It was a lot of concrete and steel.
um, and it, we turned it into the first link style golf course,
uh, in the greater austin area. Um, link style, meaning it did
not have a great deal of trees. It had a lot of, a lot of bunkering and rolling hills.
so it's a, it's a beautiful piece of property, and we'll see that in some of the pictures that we show today.
um, one of the things that made it so popular amongst locals
is, is the water features on the gulf course covering approximately 60 acres
throughout the property. Um, it has become a fan
favorite of the, uh, local audubon enthusiast, where it's home
to 120 migratory and non migratory
bird species. Now that right there is a count that was
done, um, during the christmas bird count, but we have over
225 documented species of, uh, waterfowl or,
or birds in general that have been on that property, and 769
different, uh, documented life forms on the property. So, um, our
responsibility to the environment and to the, to those that share the space is,
is something that we take seriously. Um, but at the same time, we currently, uh,
service over 65,000 rounds of golf. So we take those folks pretty serious as well.
um, so we talked about the 60 acres
of ponds. We had very significant noticeable leaking of those ponds in 2016.
and essentially we were flushing water, um, down the drain, um, which
also, uh, cost us money. Um, our cbc bird count
in 2022, uh, excuse me. And, and the, it was unreasonable to, to, to,
to continue to flush that water and try and fill those ponds and
maintain them at an acceptable level. So they, they started to drain and, and
leak water. And of course, everybody knows our drought situation. Uh, our
christmas bird count was down to 45 species in 2022.
and because the golf fund was, uh, in a, in a healthy situation, we started to formulate
a plan to, uh, reestablish these ponds. And we started on
that in 2024 and work started. Um, we funded it,
uh, in 2025, and then work started, uh, here in 2026,
um, sometime around march 1st, I believe. Our solutions that
we investigated. We talked with austin water, we also discussed poly
lining, all of that, um, everything, uh,
in the construction industry right now is being sold, sold by the square foot
and poly lining the, uh, acreage that we needed to do. It became incredibly,
it, it was, it was cost prohibitive. So the parks department has
done a great job, uh, over the last, uh, seven or eight years
in, in having a construction contractor, um, on
contract. And they do a lot of our playground work and construction work throughout the parks department. And,
and paradigm construction was introduced to the project in 2025.
through discussions with them and other general golf course contractors. We
determined that be night was gonna be to be night. These lakes, which is a,
um, powder substance, uh, used to bond soil together, that was going
to be what was the most cost effective and, uh, the
best solution that we could come up with and we can afford to, um, seal these
lakes out. So that work was started in march of 2026.
it began with the removal of a significant amount of vegetation
that had grown in these pond floors, um, over the last
few years where they were dry. Um, we rep, we repaired all
of our compromised weirs, and we'll show you a map in just a second on, um,
the lake structure, the lake's structure, and how they work out and weave throughout the golf
course. Um, so we repaired all of these weirs. Um, we have done an
application of bed night. We have a recirculating pump,
uh, that we can, we can show you where that, uh, goes from and
to, to, uh, uh, continue to aerate the ponds.
and we also, uh, provided some, we put some fountains in the ponding as
well to, you know, provide oxygen to the water, keep us from having bad
algae blooms, and, uh, and create a great environment in there. Right
now, we're, we're north of 70% complete. We're actually closer to
80% complete. Um, on this project. It has been
a very large undertaking. We have been impacted significantly by rains, um,
weather delays. But overall, uh, it's just been a,
a, a, a great project to watch it take shape. Um, up
on your screen, you'll see what it, what the design of this golf course in the pond system
looks like. We don't, we don't really talk about pond number e,
uh, pond, uh, e because that is one of our irrigation ponds, and it holds water.
but we started work on pond number a. And if you see where pond a
drains into b, um, there's an elevation change right there in which there
is a weir going from a to b. And then if you'll see
at the north side of b and the south side of b, you'll see another weir
that drains into c. And uh, c also
shares, uh, uh, elevation with pond d. Um,
if you'll also notice inside of pond d, you'll, you'll see a white area that
is not shaded in blue, that is an island. Uh, this spring
we put in a two and a half acre butterfly garden, um, on that
island, or a pollinator garden, essentially is what it was. Um,
and it took off just very, very well. So, to
date on this project, we have a, b, and c completed, and we are currently
filling, uh, pond number d
and pond g, which is at the top of the screen. That will be done with a soil flocculent.
it won't be, it won't be the full be night process. Uh, the banks are too
steep on the walls, and so we'll have to do a soil flocculent in there, in which,
uh, it's a two part, uh, application, which will bond with the, uh,
soil and help seal those off. We talked about the weirs.
if you look on the left, this is a picture taken. I'm gonna go ahead and
assume, uh, early march. It was nice and chilly outside. Um,
and those were being under the, the, all of our weirs were undermined, and
the, uh, uh, mortar work was cracked on that. So you'll
see a completed version there on the right, uh, where those, those gentlemen are working on the left
and a completed version and filled version on the right. Um, when
we talk about vegetation removal, if you'll see on the left, that
is an, that should be an, uh, a pond. Um,
but with the lack of water, we, we had to remove all of that vegetation so
we could begin work. And that's what it looks like after the vegetation has been removed.
um, when we talked about the application of bags, the bed night comes in one
ton ba bags and is ferried out onto the golf course by tractor.
um, it is dumped, leveled out, and then tilled back
in. Um, I wish I had the, uh, geometry
on how much one bag covers, but I, I, I really don't they, but they, um,
the contractor, uh, basically did a grid on
everything, um, and applied one bag per grid square to
a, a guarantee even treatment. Um, and then this
is, you know, this is early on in the refilling process. You can see on
the right hand side, um, that, uh, you know, those banks
still have be night exposed, uh, as, as that pond is,
is filling up. We're gonna show you some of the benefits of what we have. Of course, we have
a spoon bill on the left, and those are always fun to look at. But on the top and the bottom pictures
on the right, um, it, it, it looks like
a similar picture, but basically that picture is taken from the exact same spot,
and you can see the surface area in which we increased,
um, the ability to maintain water. And, uh, what really got gathered
my attention is, as you're looking at that, you're looking at
pond, uh, a I believe, yes,
pond a, um, on the bottom picture, and in the top picture, you
can actually see pond c in which you cannot see pond c in the, uh,
in, in the, uh, top picture. So that's, that's, that just shows you the
kind of surface area that, uh, we were trying to cover here.
um, you can look the steepness of the banks, uh,
up there on the top right hand picture of the, the work was slow.
uh, it took, it has taken longer than what we anticipated, but, uh, overall,
um, it's, it's turned out to be a very, just a wonderful project. And,
uh, tho those, the egrets there and the coutts, those are, those are
things that are very common to, uh, the, those golf courses. Uh, we've
got a couple of, uh, uh, juvenile
hawks on the left, uh, on our number three teen ground. Um,
another picture of us refilling, you can see that blue tarp where we
have the water coming from, uh, pond b into pond
c, that blue tarp's just to keep erosion from coming. Um, as the water rushes
in, we're just gonna have a series of pictures of what we see out here. I, I,
I, it doesn't matter what the presentation was about, you got a picture of a bald eagle. I'm gonna go ahead
and show it to you. Um, so that was really cool, um, that, that showed up, uh,
one rainy day in march. But this project is not
just about waterfowl, it's about everything that, uh, shares that space with
us. This is a more detailed picture of the before and after that we had earlier
take any questions that y'all have regarding this, but we, we really appreciate the, uh, opportunity
to feature, uh, this golf course, to feature, uh, the work of our golf
division and, uh, our men and women, what they're, what they're putting in. I, I can't
tell you, I've been at this property since 1996.
um, 1995 is when I started working at this piece of property. Uh,
I can't tell you how great it is for me to actually see this project come,
come all the way around, um, and get these things filled back up and return the
golf course to what it, uh, what it used to be way back when. Thank y'all.
yeah. Quick question for me. Um, I know that often projects go a little
bit longer than, than expected to take a little bit longer, but you did mention that this was slower
than anticipated. What added to that being a slower process
than, oh, we, the rain that started
in march really set us back. Everything that we
were doing is we were trying to dry out areas, make the applications,
and then refill back up. And that, that largest pond that we
had, we were very close to being ready to fill it. That was pond
c. We were very close to being ready to fill it. And then, uh,
a rain came that put us back three weeks, and then
we were one workday away from filling it. Um, and
I can't remember what the date was on this, but we got a call from the contractor. They
said we were going to work all day saturday and all day sunday. And if
we would not have worked on sunday, we wouldn't be done with pond sea yet. But that's when that
very large rain came. And it wasn't the july rains, but it was sometime in
june that if they wouldn't have worked that saturday and sunday, that would've set us back another two or
three weeks right there. So all of our, all of our problems have been weather
delays. This hasn't been equipment or anything like that. I appreciate that. Thank
you. Thank you. Board members, thank you so much for the crash
course on ceiling ponds. I, uh, started building a little bit
and, uh, um, definitely, uh,
ai is in agreement with you about, uh, bento not being, um, more cost efficient
for such, uh, uh, uh, huge volume. Uh, so,
uh, but one, one thing I I saw is, um,
uh, bentonite can be challenging on, on
larger slopes and, um, and it might,
like pulley liners can, are the ultimate in, in
ceiling a hundred percent, although they can be prone to punctures and stuff like
that. But bentonite still, you can have some seepage, uh,
when you use it. Is, is that, is there like risk assessment
on, um, um, if, if that can fail at
some point or, yes. Um, it's, it's a, it's a very legitimate concern.
and so because we haven't had grass growing down into the
waterline this entire time there, there was a very large concern about our
more severe slopes. So what we did is once we
got the bed night established into those sloped off areas,
um, it was critical to get those ponds filled as soon as possible. But at the same time,
we ran a 36 inch, uh, strip of sod that we stapled
to the banks all the way around to minimize irrigation, water runoff,
rain runoff, and, uh, try and keep the erosion
from happening at a, at a very large scale. Okay. Thank you so much. You bet.
all right. Anything from our board members online?
oh, that was a, uh, great presentation and thanks for all the hard work. I do want to
come back in and, and thank uh, uh, golf course superintendent scott young, for
all of the documentation that he has done on, and
like real documentation, not like, oh, I saw this the other day. He's has
real documentation on all the species that we have out there. It's really impressive.
alright, we'll go board member kelly, and then board member eubanks,
and then we'll come back here. Okay, go ahead. That was my question. How will you all are
documenting these species? And so is that just at the golf course or is this individual
tracking? No, this, um, scott has a, an inaturalist account. Um,
he's pretty much the smart, smartest person I've ever met, but, uh, he, scott young
has an inaturalist account, and that's where he has all of his
documentation on the different sightings, the rare stuff, the number of sightings.
um, and by, by hobby, he is an incredible bird enthusiast,
uh, to begin with. And that has morphed into all nature. Dragon flies, plants,
larvae. Well, when you all have an updated count, we'd love to hear it an updated
count from, I I saw the decline in birds in 2024, so oh, oh, you bet.
we're, look, we are very much looking forward to having the christmas bird count come in
this year. 'cause they are, they were a little bit upset last year, uh, a couple years ago.
we are very excited about having the cbc come in this year and, and give us a new count.
thank you. Okay. Board member eubank, um,
have you all looked at, um, what sort of wetland vegetation
you might put along the orders of at least some
of those ponds? Have you talked with du people like that
about what might be appropriate and still would, uh, fit
in with, um, golfing? Well,
the, so whenever the, whenever the golf course was built in 95, and then
in, in, in about 97, we did put in some recommended
wetland vegetation, and I am not very well versed on this. We put in some wetland vegetation
and it basically overtook the circumference of every
pond, um, out there because it is so aggressive and because, uh,
it really enjoys wet feet. And we were keeping our pond levels high. Um,
we have had discussions, and this can always be done later, we have had discussions on
what we are going to do down the road, um, regarding putting
in, uh, wetland vegetation. We want to be very cautious on what we introduce
into this, um, to this new construction. But at the
same time, there's a reasonable concern of the stuff that we have had there, the, the,
the species of plants that we have had there, um, returning and coming
back. We still have a significant amount of cattail reed, um, and,
uh, lily pad inside of pond b because pond b did not get
treated all the way, uh, around or all the way down to the bottom.
so the, what we are going to do is yet to be determined.
um, I'm gonna probably go out on a limb and say that the natural vegetation
is gonna come back, uh, more aggressive than we want it to anyway.
well, certainly the tfa will, I promise you. Yeah. Unless you've got
it dug out, . Um, but I'm talking about
appropriate wetland, not aggressive wetland plants
like tfa, like the various li water
lilies, et cetera. We have not, we have not had a discussion on reestablishing
vegetation in there. Okay.
okay. Board member of omar, uh, piggybacking off
what commissioner kelly was talking about that reminded me in the presentation, you said that
earlier there were like, uh, am I understanding that correctly, that there
used to be 125 species of birds and that went down to 45?
is that, uh, yes. On the, on the christmas bird count, um, uh,
area audubon society comes in and does a christmas bird count one day in december because
we are a large migratory waterfowl destination. Um, that,
that christmas bird count had been down to as low as 45 in 2022.
do they come with reasoning for why that might be happening?
surface area of water was surface, area of water was down to about probably 20%.
um, I see because the, of the picture that I showed you of all the blue,
um, out there, that, that equals 60 acres and we were down
to approximately like 18 acres of water. I
see, I see. Okay. Emphasizing the importance of this project.
yeah. Okay. Thank you so much. Okay.
thank you. Board members. We really appreciate, um, the presentation. I'll
read our letter and then ask for a motion from the board. Um, so our letter dated
july 27th, 2026, read steer golf a tx team.
on behalf of the austin parks and recreation board, we would like to recognize and thank golf
a tx and its team for its leadership, its dedication and restoring
the roy kaiser pond. This project addressed a longstanding
infrastructure challenge while improving habitat for migratory and resident wildlife
and enhancing one of boston's most well used public golf courses. Roy kaiser
golf course serves more than 65,000 rounds of golf annually,
as we heard in your presentation. And so the improvements benefit a large number of park
users and the pond restoration also supports, uh, environmental stewardship
by restoring habitat for waterfowl. We got to see that bald eagle today, um, and
many other species as you shared as well, which we are very grateful for. The
board appreciates the thoughtful planning, collaboration, and your commitment to finding
a practical cost-effective solution that will benefit both citizens
and the natural environment for years to come. Your work reflects the parks and
recreations department, uh, their commitment to responsible stewardship of public
resources and to providing high quality recreational spaces for the
austin community. Thank you so much to the golf a tx team,
the project partners, the parks and recreation department staff for your continued dedication
to austin parks and our public golf facilities. Very grateful at
your parks board. Thank you so much. Thank y'all for having us.
thank you. Yeah. Nice fancy paper too. Thank you. We have a lot of,
um, exciting questions. So, um, more to come on that board members,
um, is there a motion to approve our letter? I make a motion.
I make a motion. I make a motion to approve letters of support for golf
staff who completed the restoration of ponds at roy kaiser and jimmy clay golf courses,
which both added challenge to course play and created habitat for
waterfowl. Alright, we've got a motion on the floor from board member villalobos.
do we have a second? I second. We have a second from
board member abbu amara. Um, any additional comments or questions,
board members? All right. Hearing none will go
ahead and take a vote. So all those in favor of approving the letter, please raise your hands.
alright. And it passes unanimously eight to zero. Thank you so
much. Thank you again for that presentation. Alright, moving
right along. We are moving to item number three, which
is approved the parks and recreation board, annual internal review and report.
do we have any speakers on this item, mr. Beck? Okay. Alright,
we'll, um, go give you a moment, uh, to review this as it came
in late. Um, I do wanna note that I'm going to strike something,
um, from section b. It's on page six. Um,
so it'd be page six under june, 2026. That's
the I 35 cap x that was not approved by the board.
um, that was a, um, mistakenly put on the
report. And so we'll strike that and I'll give you
a moment to review
everything underneath that. Yeah, I'll, I'll clarify
that. So, um, so it's just the, let me go back to
page six. It's just the ih 35
all the way to the, the total mitigation to be paid out. So that one paragraph below
it, and then we start with c and that's all correct.
no problem.
board members keep, um, feel free to keep reviewing. Um, we've,
we lived all of this in the last year and so you'll,
um, recognize quite a bit of this as as you're reviewing. But, um, if
there are any questions, I can take those questions now. Sure. Board member
avo. Uh, yeah, question on starts at the bottom
of page eight. Um, board has prioritized the following goals.
do we have an opportunity to revise or add some language in here?
sure. Which one, sorry, we're on.
so the bullet points that are on page nine, we can make
some revisions to that. These are, they're more general in kind of areas that
we've looked at, um, previously, but I'm happy to entertain a revision. So
I, I, I feel like the parks department has done, um,
a great job since I've been on the board and I've been more in tune and recognize
to improve accessibility. Great. Um, and I would like if we
could add at least something about equal, uh, we do have,
uh, equitable access, but if we can put something, maybe use
the word accessibility, um, or equal access
or something like that in maybe bullet two.
would it let, let me read bullet one where I think it might work and
if not we can look at bullet two. Okay. Um, expand equitable access
and accessibility to yeah, that works. Parks recreation program.
is that alright? Okay. Yes. Thank you. I'll accept
that as a friendly revision. Thank you. And
I got really excited on my bullets. I don't know. They came
out large in this print. Anything else? Board members? Any
other questions? Alright, we'll have time for discussion, but,
um, we'll go ahead and ask for a motion at this
time. I
move to approve the parks and recreation board, annual internal
review and report with the amendments. All right. We
have a motion, uh, on the floor from board member villalobos
with the amendment. Do I have a second? Second. We have a second from board member
kerns. Oal. All right. Any discussion board members?
all right. Oh, board member franklin, was that
a raised hand? Okay, just making sure. Alright.
um, seeing none, we will go ahead and call for
a vote. All those in favor? Um, please raise your hand.
all right, we've got eight hands raised, so that passes unanimously. Thank you so
much board members, I appreciate your time. Okay, we
will move right along to our staff briefing, staff briefing on parks
and recreation department, community engagement events, planning updates, development updates,
maintenance updates, program updates, and administrative updates.
good evening. Um, it's not seven o'clock yet. I'm not sure
what to do. It's a little early today.
don't say it. I know, I know. Well, good evening. Thanks for thanks
for the opportunity here. I'll go through. So the regular report, I, I will apologize
ahead of time. I don't believe that this, uh, presentation has any spoon bills
or, uh, bald eagles, but it's got a lot of great pictures of people and some great projects. So,
um, this is our july, 2026 update. Um, and,
uh, in our recreation services, we continue investing in meaningful experiences for
our youth and families. Watershed protection partnered with us to to do a
backpack giveaway at doughty jordan summer playgrounds providing, uh, some
school supplies as well as some education about water. Uh, we also wrapped up the totally
cool totally art summer program, uh, showcase, uh, celebrating
teen creativity throughout the theater, film and visual art. And I believe one of those projects
made it into one of the photos we'll see later. Uh, and importantly, dody jordan hosted
its first inclusive kids night out, giving children a welcoming evening of activities
and providing parents with much needed respite, uh, on the community
recreation side of things. Uh, summer program continues in full swing, even
though we're getting towards the end here. Um, menez recreation center held its
annual teen fishing derby, which is a fun way for teens to enjoy the
outdoors. Uh, our partnership with heb continued a couple of our centers with
the banana block party at virginia brown and the banana blitz at the austin rec center.
and these events really support families with fresh food, uh, activities and community connection,
helping address, uh, childhood food insecurity. During the summer break,
our natural resources, uh, division worked on continuing
the really small museum traveling exhibition, uh, this time
showcasing ceramic art that was created with clay from the blunt creek nature preserve. And
you can see that in the photo. We also welcome, as we've talked at the last meeting,
uh, greater greener, um, and, and several attendees, uh, participate
in nature tours, including kayaking on lady bird lake birding walks with our park rangers,
uh, and it was just an opportunity for these tourists to highlight our commitment, equity education and stewardship
across, uh, austin's natural spaces. On the aquatic
side of things, uh, sare, several major facilities improvements were completed
at colony park, bartholomew, barton springs, and deep betty. Uh, as we
continue to ensure a more safe and reliable operations at all of our facilities,
uh, we're proud to report, uh, that our lifeguard staffing surpassed 1000 lifeguards
for the summer, which is a significant operational milestone. It ensured that all of
our pools could remain open and safe. Uh, our youth programs remained strong with high
participation in the junior, junior lifeguard program and regional swim meets, uh,
exceeded our, uh, turnout from last year.
our architectural development group, uh, hit a major milestone this month with the start of
construction of the historic zilker boat, excuse me, clubhouse. Uh, this full
restoration project, uh, which was funded through the historic preservation funding includes upgraded
utilities, a da compliant restrooms, new gathering areas restored main masonry,
and improved signage. Uh, and we're also fully restoring the lookout point nearby,
uh, construction for that began in july 13th. And, uh, over the next year, this
1934 facility will be re renewed and restored for generations to come.
our park development group, uh, is nearing completion of the new synthetic turf fields at
craig field. Uh, this upgraded multi-purpose field will support year-round programming
with two soccer fields, a da accessible pathways and parking and secure
fencing. Uh, so we're in the punch list phase here and looking forward to opening,
uh, with the ribbon cutting soon. Um, and we've
talked a little bit about how july is parks and recreation month and just last week, on july 23rd,
city council issued an official proclamation celebrating the vital role of parks and
recreation, uh, by declaring national, uh, parks and recreation month here
in austin. Uh, recognizing the role that we play in community health and
quality of life. And this was just a great reminder of all of the work that's done
by our staff, our volunteers, our partners, including all of you, all as well on our boards and commissions
to help create strong, vibrant and welcoming spaces across austin.
and not just during july, but every month we encourage everyone to get out to enjoy a trail,
uh, visit a pool, or spend some time in one of our many centers and really celebrate
the power of parks and recreation. So that is the
report. I'm happy to entertain. Any questions?
any questions, board members? I
have a couple of questions for staff and follow up to the public comment period. Is now a good
time or I can follow up? We, we'll have to follow up
at a different time. Okay. Thank you. Um,
any other questions related to the director's report?
okay. Alright. Oh, yes. Board member,
uh, you mentioned a junior lifeguard program. What is that lucas?
you wanna talk about it? And congratulations
by the way, on, on reaching a thousand lifeguards for the summer.
that is awesome news. Good.
thank you so much. Uh, junior lifeguard program. It, it is just a, a
as as stated kind of a program to get lifeguard, uh, students in
up in speed ready to lifeguard. It's a, a program we often run during
the school year in conjunction with, um, a isd. It's a little muffled
your speaker.
um, so it, it's a, just just as a sense it's a, a program
intended to get some of our, our junior students and swim team up, up and go
in and, and ready to move on to the next stage of, of swimming careers
if they're so, so choose. Do you have data on,
uh, is this the first year that we've done junior lifeguard, um, that,
that it's an ongoing program and then I can certainly get you guys some more data
on the program if you're interested. Yeah, I, I'd be interested to know how many kids
that participate as, as junior in the junior lifeguard program actually
transition when they're age 15, right? Yes. And become
lifeguards. Oh, okay. For the city, it, yeah. I, I have, uh,
two lifeguards, two of my children were lifeguards. And so yeah, I,
I know in the past it's been difficult, um, but I think you guys have done a
great job recruiting, increasing their pay, um, you
know, making the lifeguard red cross training available.
um, so I think, I think it's great. Thank you. Sm we've, we've put a lot of work into,
into navigating a, a bunch of different avenues and that's just one of them. Okay, very
good. Thank you. And such a great first job for
kids. Um, it really is. Yeah.
okay. Um, thank you. Any other questions?
board members online line? Okay. Thank
you very much, director. We very much appreciate it. Bald eagle next time. Alright,
we'll work on it. , were there other questions? Uh, not from the report that
are you gonna entertain any of those questions? I'm happy to try to respond to any of them, but
I was just curious about, um, uh,
what are you all, let's see, so we heard about, um, unauthorized
activity at barton springs overnight. What have you all heard about that?
yeah, um, there is a lot of activity that happens in, in
and around that pool and in the park. Uh, obviously when the pool is not open,
uh, we really are not able to control who tried to, who jumps in the over the fence or
who tries to, to restock the water with, with rogue fish.
um, uh, you know, certainly it is a concern in terms of making sure the folks don't jump in
and, and end up hurting themselves. And unfortunately, uh, it tends to be folks
who often is, uh, who are under the influence of some sort. So, um,
it is, it is a concern. I know there's, there's been questions around security guards
and cameras, et cetera. We do have, as part of the renovation of the bathhouse, some
cameras that are installed in the building itself, but not throughout the whole pool. Yeah.
and, and those cameras face outwards not. Yeah. Yeah. Understood.
yeah. And then on the, the non permitted
operators entering the waterway, what, what recourse, if any, do
we have for yeah. Um, you know, there there's not much that we can do. We don't patrol
the lake per se. Uh, obviously a pd and, and certainly during the water we've
been, our partners at the fire department will keep an eye on things in watershed protection. We're, we're
trying to encourage folks to get off the water. Um, it's, it's a perennial problem.
uh, we appreciate the compliance that our, that our permitted concessionaires,
um, continue to, to adhere to, but it's just really difficult for
us to keep an eye on those. We do have park rangers that when we get reports, we send them out to
try to engage with folks. Um, but it's a pretty, pretty tough thing to do.
thank you. Yep. Board member , um, follow
up question. The comment about signage. Yep. Like people that had
their own, you know, paddle boards, whatever went out, didn't realize that, that there
was a closure. Is there anything that you guys can do to improve that
communication to the general public through signs, through, I don't know, social
media text messaging? Yeah, absolutely. And, and you know, I, I, I think, I think we,
we learned a lot from this ban and, and part of it was trying to just, uh,
set a, a consistent criteria. So obviously this is, this is a coordinated
effort between us emergency management, watershed protection, austin water,
and lcra. So there's a lot of, you know, alphabet agencies involved trying
to understand the standard when austin water opens the floodgates. I think we're trying
to land on whenever the floodgates open, we're gonna stop that to, to help with that messaging.
but, you know, we pushed that out in our social media. Um, but, but I think we could
do better about communicating and certainly signage where possible. Um, it's,
it's really difficult for us to put signs all over the place, but certainly getting the word out on social media
and, and then we certainly send out press releases, et cetera. So, but it's,
it's definitely something we need to continue to work on. I'm not,
I'm not trying to be a stickler, but we, um, I
feel like we're deviating and I don't want our board to get in trouble. We're deviating from the posted agenda item.
yeah. Um, okay. We are going to move on,
uh, to future agenda items. This is for, and thank you. Thank you director. Uh,
this is generally for items that are ready to be presented. So if you'd like to
request a memo, if you have follow up questions about different things, those can be sent
to staff, um, for you to get additional details. So this is future
agenda items that are ready to move forward and be presented.
I'll take a moment looking like none. Um, okay.
um, thank you so much. We, um, are now at 7 0 3
and without any objection, I'll adjourn the meeting of the parks and recreation board.
we're done. I.