early eclipse
almost fully eclipsedTuesday, December 21, 2010
the lunar eclipse from Woodway
It was a hazy night, and these photos were taken with a standard digital camera without any telescopic equipment. At full eclispe, the moon's image was too faint for my camera to pick up well, since it does not have good shutter speed control.
early eclipse
almost fully eclipsed
early eclipsealmost fully eclipsed
Thursday, December 16, 2010
A great gift idea...
I am trying to spread the word about the most wonderful stories, done in full radio drama style and available very inexpensively. I'm referring to The Chronicles of Narnia audiodrama on CD. This is no boring listen-to-someone-read-a-story, instead you have a full cast of actors, sound effects, music and narration. You have to listen here to appreciate what I'm talking about, which is also where you order. The quality is stunning, but the price is almost as amazing. The set is comprised of 19 CDs (22 hours) for only $19.99. Unlike the recent Narnia movies, this audiodrama version is very faithful to the original books. It is the perfect gift, especially for someone who does a lot of driving. You might find a set locally at Mardel. I also try to keep some around, feel free to contact me (chuckimgarner@gmail.com).
Speeding fines in Woodway
You might be interested to know that speeding fines in Woodway start at $148 ($173 in a school zone). The list of fines can be found here; scroll down to the tables. I'm glad to say that I don't know these numbers from personal experience... but being pulled over on I-35 near New Braunfels last weekend ($116 + defensive driving class) got me thinking about the local fines.
Monday, December 13, 2010
the December 13th meeting
Mayor Bil Weber opened the meeting at 5:31 pm, and I gave the invocation. Councilman Scott Giddings (who is a great asset to the Council) was absent due to family issues.
The first agenda item was a time for visitors. Woodway resident Kevin Draper briefly inquired as to the status of what has become known as the "windmill ordinance" (i.e., rules by which wind generators may be erected). It will be considered at the next P&Z meeting, tomorrow night.
Item two was a budget review. This is a Council-initiated exploration of various aspects of the City budget. There were interesting things to learn. For example, how much do you suppose the City has to pay the McLennan County Appraisal District to assess valuations and maintain tax-related arbitration? ($61k/year, out of about $3.7 million in Woodway property tax revenue) Also, Woodway employee fringe benefits average around 25-30% of salary. Next meeting we will look at the Public Safety budget.
Items 3 and 4 were to discuss and take action on two sealed-bid awards related to the Business Acres well, one to re-drill a new well ($886k) and one to install new pipes and a pumping station there ($364k). These were both approved unanimously.
Note added 1/3/11: I misunderstood items 3 and 4 above. City Secretary Jennifer Canady sent me the following clarification: "Actually, the pump station is one of the two remaining portions of the project that have not even been bid out yet. Consensus was for Mr. Wallace to move forward and begin the process to solicit formal bids for those. What was approved on December 13th was $886,400 for Phase 1A of the project to drill a new well, and $364,379 for the 12” waterline extension."
Item 5 was approval of a property purchase negotiated by City Manager Yost Zakhary. This is located fairly near the Family Center area going toward the new Lazy Acres development off of Estates. This had been part of the master plan, and the vote was unanimous.
Item 6 was the "consent agenda" (items for approval), as follows:
(a) Approval of the December 6th meeting minutes.
(b) Discussion of the "unified destination marketing plan" presented last week by the Hahn, Texas group. There was a fair amount of discussion as to whether this was a good use of City funds, whether there was local talent that could perhaps do a similar job more economically, possible conflicts of interest, etc. The City Manager was well aware of these issues, but "in the spirit of cooperation" with Waco, recommended that we approve this one-time funding of the project. If this leads to further requests for funding, the Council will likely be more skeptical.
(c) Purchase of chlorine for water disinfection for City wells. The City obtained bids for 311 drums of 150 pounds each of liquified chlorine, at a cost of $28.5k. This represents only about 60 cents a pound, and (if I did the math right) that is enough chlorine to disinfect about 60,000 gallons (more or less) of water at around 2 ppm (or 1 cent per 1000 gallons of water).
(d) Discussion on authorizing the City Manager to enter into an interlocal cooperation agreement to transport Heart of Texas MHMR patients to psychiatric facilities using Public Safety officers.
Note added 1/3/11: Woodway Public Safety officers would not be transporting patients long distances. City Secretary Jennifer Canady clarified this for me as follows: "Actually, the agreement authorizes the Heart of Texas MHMR to transport psychiatric patients for the City, through a private vendor they have contracted with, to the appropriate facility throughout the state or wherever. They would transport at the rate of $25.00 per hour."
(e) Discussion on authorizing the City Manager to enter into an interlocal cooperation agreement with McLennan County related to updating the Mitigation Action Plan.
Item 7: all "consent agenda" items were approved in one unanimous vote.
The Mayor wished all City staff and Council a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, specifically mentioning that we should "enjoy what liberties the season provides".
The meeting adjourned at 6:38, making it (I believe) the shortest meeting since the May election.
The first agenda item was a time for visitors. Woodway resident Kevin Draper briefly inquired as to the status of what has become known as the "windmill ordinance" (i.e., rules by which wind generators may be erected). It will be considered at the next P&Z meeting, tomorrow night.
Item two was a budget review. This is a Council-initiated exploration of various aspects of the City budget. There were interesting things to learn. For example, how much do you suppose the City has to pay the McLennan County Appraisal District to assess valuations and maintain tax-related arbitration? ($61k/year, out of about $3.7 million in Woodway property tax revenue) Also, Woodway employee fringe benefits average around 25-30% of salary. Next meeting we will look at the Public Safety budget.
Items 3 and 4 were to discuss and take action on two sealed-bid awards related to the Business Acres well, one to re-drill a new well ($886k) and one to install new pipes and a pumping station there ($364k). These were both approved unanimously.
Note added 1/3/11: I misunderstood items 3 and 4 above. City Secretary Jennifer Canady sent me the following clarification: "Actually, the pump station is one of the two remaining portions of the project that have not even been bid out yet. Consensus was for Mr. Wallace to move forward and begin the process to solicit formal bids for those. What was approved on December 13th was $886,400 for Phase 1A of the project to drill a new well, and $364,379 for the 12” waterline extension."
Item 5 was approval of a property purchase negotiated by City Manager Yost Zakhary. This is located fairly near the Family Center area going toward the new Lazy Acres development off of Estates. This had been part of the master plan, and the vote was unanimous.
Item 6 was the "consent agenda" (items for approval), as follows:
(a) Approval of the December 6th meeting minutes.
(b) Discussion of the "unified destination marketing plan" presented last week by the Hahn, Texas group. There was a fair amount of discussion as to whether this was a good use of City funds, whether there was local talent that could perhaps do a similar job more economically, possible conflicts of interest, etc. The City Manager was well aware of these issues, but "in the spirit of cooperation" with Waco, recommended that we approve this one-time funding of the project. If this leads to further requests for funding, the Council will likely be more skeptical.
(c) Purchase of chlorine for water disinfection for City wells. The City obtained bids for 311 drums of 150 pounds each of liquified chlorine, at a cost of $28.5k. This represents only about 60 cents a pound, and (if I did the math right) that is enough chlorine to disinfect about 60,000 gallons (more or less) of water at around 2 ppm (or 1 cent per 1000 gallons of water).
(d) Discussion on authorizing the City Manager to enter into an interlocal cooperation agreement to transport Heart of Texas MHMR patients to psychiatric facilities using Public Safety officers.
Note added 1/3/11: Woodway Public Safety officers would not be transporting patients long distances. City Secretary Jennifer Canady clarified this for me as follows: "Actually, the agreement authorizes the Heart of Texas MHMR to transport psychiatric patients for the City, through a private vendor they have contracted with, to the appropriate facility throughout the state or wherever. They would transport at the rate of $25.00 per hour."
(e) Discussion on authorizing the City Manager to enter into an interlocal cooperation agreement with McLennan County related to updating the Mitigation Action Plan.
Item 7: all "consent agenda" items were approved in one unanimous vote.
The Mayor wished all City staff and Council a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, specifically mentioning that we should "enjoy what liberties the season provides".
The meeting adjourned at 6:38, making it (I believe) the shortest meeting since the May election.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Agenda for the December 13th meeting
The Agenda for the upcoming meeting has been posted at the City's website here. Items of interest include a couple of well-related authorizations, an authorization to purchase a piece of land near the Family Center, action on the Waco area marketing proposal discussed last week, the purchase of chlorine for water sanitation, and discussion of a proposed agreement between the Heart of Texas Region MHMR and the Woodway Police Department for transport of patients.
Monday, December 6, 2010
A Christmas Greeting
Each year, the Woodway City Council makes a Christmas greeting, courtesy of Time Warner Cable. On November 5th, all seven of your Council members gathered at the Woodway City Hall to film this. You might catch it on TV, but it has also been posted to the City website by Natalie Edwards. To view, go to the Woodway home page and click on the "Season's Greetings" video link on the right side of the page.
The December 6th meeting
Mayor Bill Weber opened the meeting at 5:30 pm; I came in as Mayor pro tem Gil Lillard was delivering the invocation.
The first agenda item was a presentation of a unified marketing plan by Liz Taylor and Jeff Hahn of the Hahn, Texas group. This is a group that works to help cities, or groups of cities, market themselves as tourism destinations. The Hahn group is working on marketing plan for five cities in the Waco area (Waco, Lacy-Lakeview, Bellmead, Hewitt and Woodway), and the planning has been going on for some time. They showed a very clever 3-4 minute video of a "future news report", from the year ~ 2013, describing how tourism in the Waco area (and especially in Woodway) had risen significantly in the past two years because of wise investment and advertising of the area's attractions. The cost of developing a "roadmap" for investment to improve tourism will cost about $118k, of which Woodway is being asked to pay $16k (proportional to our Hotel tax revenue). This will be an agenda item at next week's meeting. I found the group to be pretty impressive, and I think this is a worthwhile project.
The second agenda item was a time for visitors, but there were none this time.
The third agenda item was an executive session (started at 5:59 pm) to discuss the Hwy 84 well rehabilitation (see more below) and the possible purchase of property in the City. This session closed at 6:29 pm.
Agenda item 4 concerned a plan to upgrade the City's communications equipment to meet new federal guidelines. Basically, the government is requiring police radios to use a smaller section of the radio spectrum, requiring new equipment. Complicating this is a recent failure of a City repeater (cost $100k) that will have no place in the new system. So what the City Manager has arranged was a plan to get the new equipment soon on what is basically a lease-to-buy plan at low interest (none for 18 months). The cost is significant ($1.2 million total) but will be spread over three years, and the required switchover was already being anticipated by the City. Many of the nearby cities (e.g., Waco, Lacy-Lakeview) have already made the switch. The Council unanimously voted to authorize the City Manager to proceed with this.
Item five was a report on the Hwy 84 well rehabilitation. The news is generally good: the well has the same output as it originally did when drilled, before problems set in. The calcium level is rather high (about 12.5 mg per liter) and so the water is quite prone to scale formation (calcium salt deposits), but this can almost certainly be controlled by the addition of sodium hexametaphosphate. This well is expected to begin production again in maybe 2-3 weeks. To compensate for a drop in the water table, the Wallace Group has recommended that the pump be placed 100 feet lower than previously, which places it at 1350 feet (1/4 mile!) below ground level.
Item six was a amended set of parking regulations within the City. The changes mainly involved RVs, trailer and boat parking. Basically, this is how it came down: if you have an RV, boat or trailer, on-street parking can only be temporary. Permanent parking must be on the side or behind your home. If the parking is on a natural surface (grass, etc.), the vehicle must be mostly screened from street view. And no inoperative vehicles can be permanently parked in your driveway or on the street. This is just my assessment of the 12-page regulations. I understand that most cities with nice residential areas have ordinances like these. The ordinances were approved unanimously.
Item seven was adoption of a resolution related to our CAPP membership that should allow the City to continue getting low-cost electrical power.
Item 8 was approval of last meeting's minutes. Item 9 (budget discussion) was tabled until next week.
Item 10 was the City Manager's report. (a) There was a brief discussion of whether the City should go to an entirely-electronic (website post only) version of "Woodway Today". Most of the Council favored keeping the printed copy. (b) There was some discussion of the idea of lending Hewitt money with the prospect of better return than we can get otherwise (will be discussed again in January). Councilman Don Baker asked, "When did Woodway become a bank?!" In this bad economy, some cities have begun loaning each other money. (c) There is another unfunded mandate from the federal government, changing street signs to have somewhat more reflective surfaces on all streets with 25 mph or greater speed limits. Someone joked that we could meet this requirement by simply making all the speed limits 24 mph!
The meeting closed at 7:10 pm. The next meeting is just one week away (Dec. 13), so as to leave the Christmas holiday meeting-free.
The first agenda item was a presentation of a unified marketing plan by Liz Taylor and Jeff Hahn of the Hahn, Texas group. This is a group that works to help cities, or groups of cities, market themselves as tourism destinations. The Hahn group is working on marketing plan for five cities in the Waco area (Waco, Lacy-Lakeview, Bellmead, Hewitt and Woodway), and the planning has been going on for some time. They showed a very clever 3-4 minute video of a "future news report", from the year ~ 2013, describing how tourism in the Waco area (and especially in Woodway) had risen significantly in the past two years because of wise investment and advertising of the area's attractions. The cost of developing a "roadmap" for investment to improve tourism will cost about $118k, of which Woodway is being asked to pay $16k (proportional to our Hotel tax revenue). This will be an agenda item at next week's meeting. I found the group to be pretty impressive, and I think this is a worthwhile project.
The second agenda item was a time for visitors, but there were none this time.
The third agenda item was an executive session (started at 5:59 pm) to discuss the Hwy 84 well rehabilitation (see more below) and the possible purchase of property in the City. This session closed at 6:29 pm.
Agenda item 4 concerned a plan to upgrade the City's communications equipment to meet new federal guidelines. Basically, the government is requiring police radios to use a smaller section of the radio spectrum, requiring new equipment. Complicating this is a recent failure of a City repeater (cost $100k) that will have no place in the new system. So what the City Manager has arranged was a plan to get the new equipment soon on what is basically a lease-to-buy plan at low interest (none for 18 months). The cost is significant ($1.2 million total) but will be spread over three years, and the required switchover was already being anticipated by the City. Many of the nearby cities (e.g., Waco, Lacy-Lakeview) have already made the switch. The Council unanimously voted to authorize the City Manager to proceed with this.
Item five was a report on the Hwy 84 well rehabilitation. The news is generally good: the well has the same output as it originally did when drilled, before problems set in. The calcium level is rather high (about 12.5 mg per liter) and so the water is quite prone to scale formation (calcium salt deposits), but this can almost certainly be controlled by the addition of sodium hexametaphosphate. This well is expected to begin production again in maybe 2-3 weeks. To compensate for a drop in the water table, the Wallace Group has recommended that the pump be placed 100 feet lower than previously, which places it at 1350 feet (1/4 mile!) below ground level.
Item six was a amended set of parking regulations within the City. The changes mainly involved RVs, trailer and boat parking. Basically, this is how it came down: if you have an RV, boat or trailer, on-street parking can only be temporary. Permanent parking must be on the side or behind your home. If the parking is on a natural surface (grass, etc.), the vehicle must be mostly screened from street view. And no inoperative vehicles can be permanently parked in your driveway or on the street. This is just my assessment of the 12-page regulations. I understand that most cities with nice residential areas have ordinances like these. The ordinances were approved unanimously.
Item seven was adoption of a resolution related to our CAPP membership that should allow the City to continue getting low-cost electrical power.
Item 8 was approval of last meeting's minutes. Item 9 (budget discussion) was tabled until next week.
Item 10 was the City Manager's report. (a) There was a brief discussion of whether the City should go to an entirely-electronic (website post only) version of "Woodway Today". Most of the Council favored keeping the printed copy. (b) There was some discussion of the idea of lending Hewitt money with the prospect of better return than we can get otherwise (will be discussed again in January). Councilman Don Baker asked, "When did Woodway become a bank?!" In this bad economy, some cities have begun loaning each other money. (c) There is another unfunded mandate from the federal government, changing street signs to have somewhat more reflective surfaces on all streets with 25 mph or greater speed limits. Someone joked that we could meet this requirement by simply making all the speed limits 24 mph!
The meeting closed at 7:10 pm. The next meeting is just one week away (Dec. 13), so as to leave the Christmas holiday meeting-free.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Agenda for the December 6th meeting
The agenda for the December 6th meeting has been posted as a pdf download here.
Also, I just noticed that Woodway Animal Control found a blue heeler, shown on the City website here; anyone you know?
Also, I just noticed that Woodway Animal Control found a blue heeler, shown on the City website here; anyone you know?
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