Category Archives: Parks, Schools, & Environment

SRCC’s Parks, Schools and Environment Committee is concerned with major public institutions within our boundaries. PARKS is concerned primarily with the general health of our City parkland, from erosion control on the one extreme to beautification on the other. Parklands within SRCC include Little and Big Stacy Parks and pools, the Blunn Creek Greenbelt Trail connecting them, the Blunn Creek Nature Preserve, a wildflower trail between Academy Drive and Drake Avenue, and several discontinuous pieces of Town Lake Park including the Norwood Tract. SRCC is pushing the City to acquire a tract on Parker Land at Windoak Drive for a new, small park east of IH-35. Under the leadership of David Todd, Co-Chair for PARKS, the Blunn Creek Nature Preserve is being transformed steadily from an overgrown thicket back to native habitat.

SCHOOLS is concerned primarily with the health and vitality of the three public schools within SRCC boundaries, Travis Heights Elementary, Fulmore Middle and Magnet, and Travis High. Our schools are challenged continuously by very large issues such as State and local funding, SRCC’s very diverse socio-economic makeup, and demographic trends. These trends have been for 60 years to move to the suburbs when children reach school age. Lately, however, there is a movement back to inner city living all over the country, and this trend is supported by Austin’s City Council. SRCC wants to support and celebrate our schools, and is an available partner; we welcome ideas from parents and other school activists on how we can help.

ENVIRONMENT is concerned with the large domains of land, air and water quality. The members tend toward engineering expertise that helps SRCC interact with public staff as well as private landowners. The tenacity of member Jeff Kessel finally resulted in the City’s addressing the years-long backyard flooding problems of many residents along a small tributary of Blunn Creek, primarily in Sherwood Oaks/Area 5. Others have negotiated long and hard with big time developers Walmart and Home Depot to protect Blunn Creek when their developments went in in Area 8.

PARKS, SCHOOLS and ENVIRONMENT often work together on overlapping issues like the beneficial treatment of detention ponds and potential connecting trails on private and public lands for the preservation of and access to the headwaters of Blunn Creek in Area 8.

Co-chairs:
David Todd (Parks) 416-0400
Sherri Ancipink (Schools) 707-2627
Marty Christman (Environment) 912-0724