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.
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