By HARSHITA AVIRNENI
Four Points News

The 23rd annual Lake Travis Cleanup takes place Sunday, Sept. 17, and is the largest scuba diving and shoreline cleanup in Texas. It has been growing over the years since 1994 when it was originally founded by scuba divers, and to date 114 tons of trash has been collected.

“Lake Travis supports the greater Austin area through flood control, water supply, electrical power generation, and recreation,” said Shaun Auckland, conservation coordinator Travis County Transportation and Natural Resources. “This cleanup is a way for the greater community to demonstrate their deep connection to the lake by removing marine debris.”

Last year alone, 5.17 tons of trash was removed from Lake Travis during its annual cleanup. Common things such as plastic cups, glass beer bottles, and sunglasses make up most of this load.

Through the years, outrageous items like a prosthetic leg and a generator full with gasoline have been found.

“Lake Travis is a beautiful watershed we can all enjoy,” said Jennifer Idol, scuba diver and volunteer. “Over time, I’ve observed increased trash, decreases in wildlife population, and an increase in chemicals in our water. I want to leave a positive contribution. Helping improve some of these problems helps us continue enjoying our natural resources. It is something we can all do.”

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The Steiner Ranch Master Association board of directors meeting on Aug. 29.

By LYNETTE HAALAND
Four Points News

The Steiner Ranch Master Association board of directors has scheduled two town hall meetings to update residents on their progress regarding Steiner Ranch community management transformation options.

Leading up to these two meetings, information was posted on social media in late August about the possibilities of outsourcing community management and the potential of hiring and firing of community staffers.

At the Aug. 29 board meeting, the board vaguely discussed some of these concerns, saying that some of the information was confidential and too premature to disclose.

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The Steiner Ranch Master Association board of directors meeting on Aug. 29.

Read at the Aug. 29 board meeting at Towne Square

Dear SRMA Board and Fellow Owners,

As a homeowner, and former Board member, I came to (the Aug. 29) meeting to express my opinion on the recent communications regarding the HOA’s consideration of changing management structures. In the various communications that I have seen regarding the change in management structure, the communications from the SRMA Board appear to be misleading, and seemingly attempt to hide what the Board has done and continues to do in non-open sessions.

First, to those who don’t know, whether to change the management structure was put forth to last year’s SRMA Board and was soundly rejected. Without speaking for the rest of last year’s SRMA Board, my opposition was based on the lack of a clearly stated need to change the management structure, the poor comparables to any other similarly-sized community, and failure to survey the community-at-large to understand what service levels the owners expect from the SRMA.

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Brigid Shea

By LYNETTE HAALAND
Four Points News

The proposal to build a secondary road to Vandegrift HS is located in Travis County and goes through the Balcones Canyonland Preserve, and Brigid Shea, County Commissioner Precinct 2, said she doesn’t see how the road can happen under the current laws.

Shea said that the Travis County Commissioners, at the time Leander ISD was interested in purchasing the land in the mid 2000s, indicated that “it was not an ideal location (for a school) because of the preserve land around it could not be developed.”

A school was originally not intended for the site, Shea said. The landowner had residential or commercial development in mind at that time of the original proposal with the county.

A deal was struck with that land. “The landowners had to set aside permanent mitigation land in exchange for the land they wanted to develop,” Shea said.

By law, when land is set aside as mitigation land, it is in exchange for the approval to develop other land, Shea said.

“(LISD) purchased land for the school knowing full well that was permanent mitigation land for the preserves and could not be developed,” Shea said. “It was clear at the time, the county staff had those exact communications with staff at school district,” she added.

“The road they want to build through the preserve is permanent mitigation land declared in freeing up land where VHS is now,” Shea said.

Shea does not see how that deal can be undone.

“The swap has been made. Once you make the swap, you cannot go back and undo the swap,” Shea said.

LISD’s reason to buy the land

“In 2006, LISD had an option to bus kids to Cedar Park High School or to build a new school,” said Dan Troxell, superintendent of LISD. He gave the background at the public forum hosted by LISD at VHS on May 30.

LISD made the decision to build a school in the south and 100 acres were needed. The district was considering purchasing the site where Concordia University Texas now sits but the property sold. Continue reading →