The city will be closing its administrative offices and municipal facilities in observance of the upcoming holidays on Friday, Dec. 23, Monday, Dec. 26, and Monday, Jan. 2. Most Parks and Recreation facilities, including recreation, cultural arts, nature and senior centers and museums, are also closed on those dates, except for Barton Springs, Bartholomew, Big Stacy, Deep Eddy and Springwoods pools, which will be open on Sunday, Dec. 25, for holiday hours and regular hours on Monday, Dec. 26 (if temperatures are above freezing) . Find more info about specific holiday hours of PARD facilities here. Austin Public Library will be closed Friday, Dec. 23, through Monday, Dec. 26, in observance of Christmas, and Jan. 1-2 for New Year’s. Trash, recycling, compost and yard trimmings collection will not be affected and pickups will take place on their usual days. The City Utilities Customer Care Call Center and City Utility Customer Service Centers will be closed Friday, Dec. 23, through Monday, Dec. 26, and Saturday, Dec. 31, through Monday, Jan. 2. Austin Public Health’s Shots for Tots clinics will be closed on those same dates. The Austin Animal Center is closed Dec. 24-26 and open for regular hours on Tuesday, Dec. 27.

Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s special holiday service goes into effect for the holiday weekends. All Capital Metro services will be reduced on Sunday, Christmas Day, and Sunday, New Year’s Day. There will be no rail service. All patrons are invited to ride Capital Metro at no charge on New Year’s Eve, Dec. 31. Rides will be free after 5 p.m. on all services. Bus service ends at 11:30 p.m. Rail will run late, until 2:30 a.m. Find out more about Capital Metro’s holiday schedule here.

Barbara Shack, who has served as Mayor Steve Adler’s executive assistant for nearly eight years, told the Austin Monitor that she’s joining the staff of Austin’s next mayor, Kirk Watson, when he takes office in January. She said she expects to sit in the same spot for the next couple of years, adding that she would like to get a new chair. Shack served as executive administrator at Ballet Austin before joining the mayor’s staff. She has a lifelong commitment to the arts and is a member of the board of the nonprofit art promotion group Collide Arts.

With freezing temperatures in the forecast, the city will be opening several warming centers this holiday weekend despite the fact that city facilities would typically be closed. According to a press release from the city, warming centers will be open Friday-Saturday, 8 a.m.-7 p.m. at:

• Little Walnut Creek Branch Library, 835 W. Rundberg Lane
• Terrazas Branch Library, 1105 E. Cesar Chavez St.
• Turner-Roberts Recreation Center, 7201 Colony Loop Drive
• George Morales Dove Springs Recreation Center 5801 Ainez Drive

Up-to-date information on warming shelters is available online, and those unable to pay for transportation will be accommodated by Capital Metro, if requested. In addition, the city and partner agencies will be operating cold weather shelters for at least four nights, overnight, Dec. 22-25. According to a notice from the city, “Registration for shelter will take place each evening between 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. at One Texas Center, 505 Barton Springs Road, which will act as a central embarkation point from which people will be transported to a cold weather shelter, located off-site.”

Photo by Barras, made available through a Creative Commons license.

You know how to keep yourself warm in extreme cold weather and you’ve learned how to protect your home. But what about your furry family members? With an Arctic freeze coming our way this week, it’s a good time to review the Austin Animal Center’s winter safety tips for pets. The tip at the top is the most critical yet often the most ignored: Bring them indoors. Dogs and cats left outside in freezing temps can suffer from hypothermia and get frostbite on their paws, ears and tails. If you see a dog left outside in the cold, contact an animal protection officer by calling 311. Another reminder is to bang the hood of your vehicle before starting it, to warn any cats who may be taking refuge in your warm engine block. And if you have community cats living in your neighborhood, help them out by providing shelter – here’s an easy DIY cat shelter made out of a plastic tub.

In a move that paints a clear picture of Austin’s erratic winter temperatures, city pools will be closing due to freezing weather on the way. The Parks and Recreation Department will close its year-round pools from Friday, Dec. 23, through Saturday, Dec. 24. Regular holiday hours are expected to resume on Christmas Day and normal operating hours will recommence once temperatures are above freezing, expected to be Dec. 26. Pool schedules are also available online.

A lot of people were surprised by the very close race for mayor, with the results on Dec. 13 showing that former Sen. Kirk Watson had 57,346 votes and state Rep. Celia Israel had 56,460 – just 886 fewer votes. Israel won Travis County by 17 votes but Watson won Williamson and Hays, giving him the job. However, when the provisional ballots for Travis County were counted and the final results posted on Dec. 20, Watson was 30 votes ahead of Israel in his home county. The final count in Travis County was 55,262 for Israel and 55,292 for Watson, proof once again that every vote counts. Neither campaign responded to a request for comment by the Monitor’s deadline.

Santa Claus isn’t the only thing that’s coming to town later this week; Austin is also due to be visited by a bitter Arctic freeze, with temps predicted to dip as low as 16 degrees on Friday night. The city’s office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management urges community members to do whatever’s necessary to be prepared in advance. As HSEM Director Juan Ortiz said in a news release, “The most important gift you can give your family this season is to get prepared in advance of anticipated chilly temperatures. As you prepare for time with your loved ones please make sure you included winter weather preparations as part of your holiday weekend plans.” Before you do anything, sign up for Warn Central Texas, which sends emergency alerts to your smartphone in the event of, well, an emergency. Then put your emergency supply kit together – here’s a handy checklist. And download Austin Water’s winter weather preparedness tips, which tells you how to winterize your home. For more tips on winter preparedness, visit ReadyCentralTexas.org.

Friends and family gathered Sunday to honor the life of Shudde Bess Bryson Fath, one of Austin’s best-known and hardest-working environmentalists. She died at the age of 106 on Dec. 9 after more than 40 years of service to the community. One of her longtime friends, Bruce Elfant, who is Travis County’s tax assessor-collector and voter registrar, told the gathering that Shudde managed to cast her ballot early in the recent mayoral and City Council elections. Congressman Lloyd Doggett said Shudde and her husband, Conrad, supported him starting with his first run for the Texas Senate in 1972. He quoted a statement she made during an interview several years ago that briefly sums up her philosophy: “You can get discouraged by a lot of things, but if you keep on trying, good things will happen.”

The Other Ones Foundation is seeking donors to help it complete its $400,000 campaign to build the fourth neighborhood at the Esperanza Community in North Austin. The new neighborhood of small homes and shelters for those experiencing homelessness will help house 50 people and provide basic hygiene and support services for those living in the community. The nonprofit, which helps manage Esperanza and provides low-barrier employment opportunities to the homeless, has raised just over $160,000 and hopes to complete the fundraising drive by the end of the year so construction can finish next year. Thus far, the Other Ones Foundation has helped 50 former residents of the site find stable housing. After construction concludes, up to 250 people will able to use the transitional shelter complex at peak times. For more information and to give, visit toofound.org/cbn.

Meals on Wheels Central Texas is in “urgent need” of new volunteers who live in the greater Austin area and can help deliver lunchtime meals – and a smile – to homebound older adults on weekdays. Volunteers may choose the meal pickup site that is most convenient to where they live or work. The first step to becoming a volunteer is to fill out an application form and then attend a brief online volunteer orientation. The total training takes just one hour. Over 5,000 seniors in Central Texas rely on Meals on Wheels for a midday hot meal five days a week. The organization says volunteering just an hour a week can “make a world of difference” in people’s lives. Find more information and a list of delivery routes here.

Motorists driving along East Riverside Drive may notice crews from Austin’s Public Works Department working in the 800 block, making “safety improvements aimed at decreasing serious injury and fatal crashes in the area,” according to the Transportation Department, which is collaborating on the project. The collaboration came out of a Vision Zero analysis of five years of crash data from the area, which found several crashes “in which vehicle drivers crossed into oncoming lanes of traffic. In recent years, multiple severe crashes on this stretch of East Riverside Drive have caused a fatality and serious injuries.” The safety enhancements will include “new crash attenuators, or materials that absorb the impact of a vehicle to reduce the severity of a crash, as well as new guardrails.” In early January, the crews will be moving to the east side of the road to finish the project.