More information will be posted/sent out soon, but a quick note looking ahead at 3 events in april:
April 5 Milwood Spring Yard Sale Day
April 12 It’s My Park Day
April 22 Milwood Candidate Forum and Spring General Meeting
Just in from the developer:
Here’s a brief update of the Enchanted Forest project…
We are about 2 weeks from paving streets, after which we will finalize the project and have it inspected by the City of Austin. All utilities are completed in the project, save an offsite wastewater line which should be completed in the next week or so.
Mercedes Homes has begun marketing the subdivision and contacting those that have placed their names on an inquiry list. Anyone interested in a home should contact Mercedes directly. They have placed signs around the subdivision with contact information.
just in from the city:
Shred Day 2008
Saturday, April 19, 2008
7:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Austin High Parking Lot
1715 W. Cesar Chavez
With the increased awareness of identity theft, it’s important to dispose of personal records carefully. To highlight this, the Association of Records Managers and Administrators and the City of Austin is sponsoring a Free event to help individuals and families with:
• Home records management
• Identity theft protection
• Recycling
Households can bring up to five file boxes of paper records for shredding. Mobile shredding trucks from Austin Shred, a Balcones Resource Company, CenTex Shred and Iron Mountain will be on-site to shred the material.
Restrictions:
• No wet material
• No plastics/binders
• No electronic media
For more information contact Jannette Goodall at 974-9045 or via email at Jannette.goodall@ci.austin.tx.us
Just in from City Hall:
The City of Austin is revamping its Web site and needs your help!
Austin is seeking to create a new standard for open government. You are invited to attend a series of Town Hall meetings beginning Jan. 29.
6 p.m. Jan. 29, 2008 at Austin City Council Chambers, Austin City Hall, 301 W. Second St.
7 p.m. Feb. 4, 2008, at the George Washington Carver Museum, 1161 Angelina St.
7 p.m. Feb. 7, 2008, at the J.J. Pickle Research Campus Commons Conference Center, Building 137, 10100 Burnet Road.
7 p.m. Feb. 12, 2008, at the Ruiz Branch Library, 1600 Grove Blvd.
7 p.m. Feb. 21, 2008, at the Austin Community College Pinnacle Campus, room 1013, 7748 U.S. 290 West.
7 p.m. Feb. 25, 2008, at the Lower Colorado River Authority Headquarters board room, 3700 Lake Austin Blvd.
During the six town hall meetings, City officials will discuss the importance of public involvement in the Web redesign project, present an executive summary of the recent Web usage survey results and outline the best practices embraced by other cities. Austinites will have a forum to offer ideas on what promises to be a new standard for municipal Web sites. More information about these events can be found at www.austingo.org.
This is just a reminder that bulk collection begins January 28th for our area. I’m not sure if it is for everyone, but if you received a blue “Bulk Collection” postcard in the mail from the City of Austin a few weeks ago, then our time draws near.
If you want to double check to see if your house is in this pickup zone call the City of Austin Solid Waste Services.
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/sws/bulky.htm
Enchanted Forest continues to be an item of interest in the neighborhood, and homebuilder Mercedes Homes has released prices and floor plans are on their website. The initial 5 homes have already been released, with the remaining 45 homesites to be released in groups of 10 during the upcoming months in 2008. If you would like more information, the internet/realtor liaison for Meceded Homes is Marina Brown at 733-9797 x242.
Found an updated map that shows the approved stations for the MetroRail line that will be going through our area. If you look at the map you will notice that there are two proposed stops in our area, one off of Braker near the Domain and one off MOPAC between Parmer and Howard.
This page also talks about what is currently ongoing, what’s coming up next, and has some pictures of ongoing construction work.
You can recycle aluminum cans in your curbside recycling bin, or if you’d like to help earn money for Summitt Elementary School, take your rinsed cans to the can collection trailer on the north side of the school. Recycling cans is a big money-maker for Summitt’s Environmental Committee, and they collect cans throughout the entire school year. (If the trailer is locked, place your bags next to the trailer and someone will put them in at the end of the school day; it’s best to leave cans only on school days so that no one takes them over the weekend).
IKEA, as well as several other local businesses accepts old/dead household batteries. It’s best to put them in a plastic bag (or several) since some old batteries can easily corrode.
Bring your cereal boxes, soda cartons, shoe boxes, etc. to Summitt’s blue “anything-that-tears†bin on Wednesdays from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Make sure your paperboard is clean and flattened and remove all cellophane liners. This bin is open only on Wednesdays. Summitt does not earn money from this bin, but since the city currently doesn’t recycle paperboard, this is a great option. (Note: Ecology Action accepts paperboard, and sometime in 2008, Austin will start a new “All-in-One†curbside recycling program which will include paperboard).
Note: If you know a Summitt student, be sure to remove any “Box Tops for Education†official coupons from food packages and pass them along. The Box Tops program is a good fund-raiser for Summitt.
Recycle your corrugated cardboard (cardboard with a wavy middle) in the city’s curbside recycling program. It needs to be flattened and cut or folded down to 2 feet by 2 feet, and tied into manageable bundles with string or twine. You can also take cardboard (big or small pieces) to Ecology Action (www.ecology-action.org). Please do not put corrugated cardboard in Summitt’s yellow and green paper recycling bins.
Take egg cartons to the Saturday morning Farmer’s Market that’s set up in the Texan Mart parking lot at the corner of Amherst and Adelphi. Miguel, an organic grower, is there on Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. He especially likes the grey or brown paperboard type egg cartons compared to the Styrofoam cartons. (If you know other people who need egg cartons, let us know!).
Compact fluorescent light bulbs use about 75 percent less energy than standard incandescent bulbs, last up to 10 times longer, save about $30 or more in electricity costs over each bulb’s lifetime, and produce about 75 percent less heat.
You can take CFLs to IKEA for recycling. CFLs contain a very small amount of mercury sealed within the glass tubing – an average of 5 milligrams, only a tiny fraction of the amount of mercury found in older thermometers. Still, we don’t want any mercury going into landfills or incinerators, so please recycle your CFLs.
FYI: If every American home replaced just one old light bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL), we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars. Learn more about CFLs at http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=cfls.pr_cfls
Hazardous waste is anything that is flammable, corrosive, toxic, poisonous, reactive, or explosive. It can’t be recycled, nor should it go in your trash. Examples include batteries, paints and solvents, lawn care chemicals, household cleaning products and automotive products.
You can take limited quantities of hazardous waste free of charge to Austin’s Household Hazardous Waste Facility at 2514 Business Center Drive (map). The Hazardous Waste Facility is currently open to residents the first Saturday of each month from 7 a.m. to noon and from noon to 6 p.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. For more information, go the hazardous waste link at http://www.austinrecycles.com
Summitt Elementary School earns money by collecting newspaper, phone books, junk mail, magazines, old schoolwork, etc. in the school’s green and yellow “Paper Retriever†bins, which are open every day, even during the summer. PLEASE, NO cardboard, paperboard, glass, plastic or plastic bags in these bins.
Put phone books in Summitt’s green and yellow “Paper Retriever†bins, which are open every day. Or give your phone books to a Summitt student during the January phone book contest.
Just say “no, thank you†to plastic bags! Instead, take reusable canvas bags to the grocery store or go without a bag altogether if you’re just buying one or two things. If you do get plastic bags, make plans to use them over and over and when you’re finally done with them, recycle them in the bins at your favorite grocery store.
Austin’s curbside recycling program takes only bottle-shaped #1 and #2 containers (please remove lids). That means no margarine tubs, yogurt containers, microwave meal trays or produce containers. However, Ecology Action takes any shape container with the #1 or #2 recycling symbol. Or better yet, if you know someone who lives in San Antonio, take your plastic containers down there! The San Antonio curbside program accepts all shapes of plastic containers labeled with the recycling symbol and numbers #1 through #7.
Take Styrofoam packaging (like the stuff that comes with new computers, TVs, or appliances) to Cycled Plastics, 10200 McKalla Place, 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. (From Burnet Road, turn on to Rutland, and then take a left on McKalla Place). Take only clean Styrofoam packaging; no Styrofoam food trays or containers.
Go to www.austinrecycles.com for all the info. you’ll ever want about how to recycle and dispose of stuff. There’s information on curbside recycling, hazardous waste, and a link called “How do I dispose of…?” It’s an A-Z list that tells you how to dispose of practically anything (the link is on the right side if the page under the yellow box that takes you to info. in Spanish). And here’s another link that covers curbside recycling in great detail: http://austin.about.com/cs/recycling/a/recyclinglist.htm
Questions about recycling? Contact Ann Sullivan at: asullivan88 @ att.net