Dear Barton Hills residents,

The playground at St. Mark’s Episcopal Day School (2128 Barton Hills Drive) will soon be undergoing renovations to update equipment, improve usability, take greater advantage of the natural amenities, and to bring it up to date with the state of Texas licensing codes.

We are seeking volunteers for this Saturday, August 23, at 9am and on Saturday, Sept. 6 at 8:30am to do hand labor, covering some demolition and site clean up. A construction manager will guide us during these volunteer hours. There will be plenty of work to do for all levels of experience.

St. Mark’s has played a role in so many lives here in Barton Hills, through the church and pre-school, as a meeting hall, and a place for our support groups, music and language lessons, and Scout troops. A few hours of your time on either or both of these days will help greatly in getting the job done and in extending the budget this non- profit school has allocated for this initiative.

Please contact me if you plan to come, as we want to plan resources appropriately. Childcare will be provided on both days, as long as you give me advance notice of your attendance.

Thanks so much!
Sarah Boyd
sarahboyd2020@yahoo.com

Neighbors,

Respecting the motion from our last general meeting, I am calling a special meeting to discuss The Terrace development. The meeting will be held in the cafeteria of Barton Hills Elementary, March 6, from 7 p.m to 8:30 p.m.

IMPORTANT
This is a single-item agenda to discuss The Terrace.
Peter Hess will lead the meeting.
We will not serve food.

Eddie Torres
2008 BHNA President

Dear Neighbors,

In preparation of the upcoming special meeting to discuss the Terrace PUD, I updated the web page with the Terrace PUD documentation, and I uploaded a large number of images since I contacted you last about this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22547731@N04/sets/

There are now three different sets of pictures; all of them include maps:

(1) “Terrace PUD: The Project:” Here, I am documenting the project and its impact on the Barton Hills Neighborhood.

(2) “Terrace PUD: Impact on Barton Creek and Greenbelt:” Here, I am documenting the impact of the proposed site plan (with two 200+ foot highrises) on Barton Creek and the Greenbelt. At the end of this set, I include some 3D views from Google Earth.

(3) “Greenbelt Views (provided by The Terrace):” This section contains projections provided to us by the developers of The Terrace. I just uploaded this set today.

You should be able to see a larger version of each picture, and you will be able to download the pictures as well.

As I am not sure yet if we will be able to make use of a projector at the meeting, I ask you to look at the documentation carefully before the meeting. Eddie Torres, the BHNA president, called the special meeting to discuss The Terrace for Thursday, March 6, from 7 p.m to 8:30 p.m., in the cafeteria of Barton Hills Elementary.

Best,
Peter Hess

Proper pruning
DO NOT PRUNE OAKS during February through June (carrier beetle peak activity season)
Sterilize tools with bleach or alcohol (Clorox, Lysol, etc.)
Employ certified arborists and their firms (avoid scam artists)

Proper wound treatment
Immediately paint wounds with pruning paint or latex paint
Carrier beetles may be attracted within 15 minutes to untreated cuts or wounds

Proper firewood usage
Select well seasoned firewood (unseasoned wood might be contaminated)
Select Oak Wilt free firewood (no fungal mat contamination)

Monitor utility easement clearing activities
Review project with city project manager
Inspect actual work for equipment sterilization and wound treatment

Plant trees other than Live Oaks or Red Oaks
(see “Trees of Central Texas” recommendation listing)

CONTAINMENT TECHNIQUES

Trenching
Digging trench to bed rock
These are major neighborhood projects costing about $100,000 each

Infected tree injection
Recommend contracting with a Texas Oak Wilt Certified Arborist (TOWC arborist)
See http://www.texasoakwilt.org/Vendors/certified_vendor.asp
Recommend “macro injection”

Infected tree removal
Recommend contracting a Certified Arborist or Board Certified Master Arborist
Red Oaks must be quickly removed to prevent fungal mat risk (Austin City Ordinance)

EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES and CONTACTS

http://www.texasoakwilt.org (all your Oak Wilt questions)
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/oakwilt/ (City of Austin Oak Wilt Suppression Program)
http://www.treesaregood.com/ (general)
http://www.isa-arbor.com/findArborist/findarborist.aspx (area arborists)
http://www.texasoakwilt.org/Vendors/certified_vendor.asp (Texas Oak Wilt Certified Arborists)
http://texastreeplanting.tamu.edu/ (tree selection guide)

Oak Wilt Information Line (Texas Forest Service and LCRA) 512 473-3517
City of Austin, Chris Dolan 512 974-1881
Texas Staff Forester, Eric Beckers 512 339-3772
Texas Staff Forester, Jim Houser 512 339-4589