Milwood Neighborhood Assoc.

The City Parks and Rec Department is conducting a citizen survey to determine recreation priorities and incorporate long-range recreation planning into their master plan. Take a minute to fill it out here:

Survey Link

Please plan to attend our General Neighborhood meeting on April 24th in the Milwood Library at 7pm. We'll plan to have about 15 minutes on updates on our neighborhood association and upcoming business, then have at least two speakers starting at 7:15.

Andy Pastor from the Domain will attend to talk about what is on tap in that development, and Molly Scarbrough from the City will speak to what we can expect from the North Burnet Gateway plan. I'll be trying to get a representative from TxDOT to attend, and will invite some of our local electeds if they want to attend.

It should be an informative evening, and your presence demonstrates that Northwest Austin neighborhoods want to participate in these discussions. Please try to make it out!

Another city of Austin service you might not be aware of (I wasn't). Austin and Travis Count residents may drop off home chemicals, such as paint, pool chemicals and motor oil – at the Household Hazardous Waste Facility. This service is free for up to 30 gallons, and is a great way to deal with those half empty paint cans that multiply in your shed mysteriously over time. Remember to bring a current utility bill.

The facility is open noon to 7pm Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 2514 Business Center Drive, which is at approximately Ben White Blvd and south I-35.

Last Saturday for It's My Park Day we had 40+ people, with lots of neighborhood people and two large groups from a high school group and the local UVA alumni group.

One major accomplishments were filling and cementing an extremely large hole in the trail by the waterfall that was pretty dangerous if you came over the hill not knowing it was there.

The picture to the right is one of two water diversion projects done to improve creek flow during floods. The trail was overwashing in two significant areas making the area impassable after rains.

Thanks to all who came out!

As a followup to our article on Oak Wilt a few days ago, I asked the Tree Tender Nickey Bishop to drive with me to the known spots in the neighborhood with Oak Wilt. Nickey has done work for me before and I trust his judgement on trees. He graciously took over an hour and a half as we drove around looking at the neighborhood trees, stopping several times to get out and take a closer look and talk to homeowners.

The good news is that the vast majority of the oaks in the neighborhood look great. The challenge is that there are clearly oak wilt instances in three areas of the neighborhood, and homeowners in those areas should be aware of what that means to them. This is not atypical of any Austin neighborhood; Oak wilt is unfortunately an issue that affects all of Central Texas.

The other good news I took away is that treatment of trees near centers works if done as a preventative measure. We saw several examples where trees that had been treated were in good shape even near trees in distress.

As a next step, I've asked the city arborist to reconfirm one area and help me pull together a rough set of addresses that should be invited to an information/discussion session. We'll plan to do that actually in one of the centers so people can see examples. We'll schedule that in the next 2-3 weeks. At that meeting we can also discuss potential ways to act collectively.

In the meantime, please be aware that for at least the next several weeks, the beetles that can spread the disease from infected red oaks to live oaks are still around and active. Pruning wounds, wounds from construction, limbs rubbing on other trees or on your roof, or even lawn mower scrapes on large surface roots can create the sap and the opportunity that draws these beetles. This goes for everyone, regardless of whether you are near an instance or not. Don't prune without sealing, and be aware of rubbing branches or accidental gashes and seal them as well.

Note that we didn't see any infected red oaks, but that certainly doesn't mean there aren't some within beetle flying distance. If you for some reason become aware of an infected red oak (see the picture from below) please let us know.

Current Police representatives for the APD Northwest District

District Rep. Sgt. Gena Curtis
974-5570
Gena.Curtis@ci.austin.tx.us

District Representative Officer Joe Maciel
974-4289
joe.maciel@ci.austin.tx.us

APD prefers that we actually start with our district representative, so feel free to contact Officer Maciel with issues.

We've been asked about code ordinances before, and so there may be some interest in the following brochure from the APD Northwest District Representatives. It lists how to research city code yourself, and included specific cites of some of their most common calls. It is a good document to review.

City Code Ordinance Brochure