Austin Community College’s Board of Trustees has unanimously approved a new Affordability Scholarship program designed to help enrolled students finish their degrees. The scholarship, which applies to students who completed a credit course in spring 2024, will cover the final 15 credit hours for students who have completed 45 hours toward a degree at ACC. The move is part of a larger plan to make education free for everyone. It is expected to cost $12.75 million and will be funded through existing reserves. “Our student leaders had the courage to come to us and share what their lives are really like. They’re experiencing things like food and housing insecurity more than ever,” ACC Chancellor Russell Lowery-Hart said in a statement to the press. “I’m so proud of this Board, our students, and this college for listening and putting our students and their needs first. With this program, we’re one more step closer to making tuition free for everyone.”  ACC is also working to expand its Student Emergency Fund to $500,000 in order to support students that need help due to unforeseen circumstances.

Austin’s Human Resources Department is recommending expanding the city’s child care assistance program to match a pilot program launched this year. A memo from human resources director Susan Sinz explains that a survey found that 84 percent of city employees cited cost as a factor in finding child care. A study, launched by a City Council resolution, recommends that the city expand eligibility requirements for its child care assistance program and contribute up to 5,000 for care-related costs, financed through the Employee Benefit Fund.

Applications for the 2024 Austin Youth Poet Laureate program are now open to Austin-area residents ages 13 to 18 who care about artistic excellence and social activism. The program aims to identify and uplift young writers and leaders, and the Austin youth poet laureate and finalists will have numerous opportunities and platforms to share their voice, leadership and love of the city. The deadline to apply is Sept. 1, and the Library Foundation is offering a series of free online and in-person workshops to help young poets develop their applications. Applications and more information can be found at austinlibrary.org. The program is a partnership between the Library Foundation, the Austin Public Library and the National Youth Poet Laureate Program led by Urban Word.

Austin Infrastructure Academy, which was formed early this year, has received contributions of $125,000 from Texas Mutual insurance company and $100,000 from Google.org, the social impact arm of the tech giant. The money will fund program design for the academy that was created to help connect job seekers with careers in construction and operations. Training, wraparound services and recruiting will be some of the primary focus areas of the academy that City Council helped to launch in March, with Austin Community College providing a location for the effort at its Southeast Travis County campus. “I am thrilled to see how our community partners, both public and private, are coming together to develop the Austin Infrastructure Academy and provide Austinites direct pathways to meaningful, in-demand, family-sustaining careers,” Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said in a prepared statement. “The Infrastructure Academy will help bolster Austin’s skilled labor force to meet the workforce needs of major infrastructure projects in our area while also improving economic opportunity throughout the community.”

The city has selected its finalists for the Museums and Cultural Programs Division manager position, who will ultimately oversee the operations of the city’s museums and cultural spaces. To further narrow the field, the Parks and Recreation Department will host an online meet and greet (registration here) from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 11, when attendees will get the opportunity to learn more about the candidates and provide feedback.

As part of Austin’s HOME Initiative, the city is looking for ways to preserve its (nonprotected) trees and increase tree planting in the city. And they are looking to residents to help craft recommendations, incentives and planting requirements. Right now, the city is penciling out its recommendations and looking for feedback through a webinar that will take place 11:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. July 16. Registration can be found here. This public feedback will be used in crafting recommendations to City Council in the fall. Additional questions about providing feedback can be directed to dsdcommunications@austintexas.gov.

Effective July 2 and lasting until appropriate kennel space is available, Austin Animal Center is temporarily closing its intake in response to critical capacity issues, with more animals coming in than going out. Intake is functioning on an emergency and case-by-case basis, only for animals with life-threatening injury or illness or those presenting a clear public safety risk. “Between June 24 and June 26, we took in 149 dogs and cats and only 124 left during that same timeframe,” Chief Animal Services Officer Don Bland said. “This has been an ongoing pattern that has led to us having more animals than we have kennels. We started this morning with 24 dogs and 5 cats without an appropriate kennel.” In a statement to the press, the shelter emphasized its mitigation efforts to increase capacity and avoid closing down intake – including waiving adoption fees, publishing an urgent placement list, spending $5,000-6,000 per week to place 24 dogs in boarding and hiring for two temp positions to assist with foster program coordination. For more information on fostering and adopting, visit austinanimalcenter.org. AAC is open for adoption and reclaim 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Sunday, and all adoption fees are currently waived. If you need assistance with an injured animal:

• Call 311 to report that you need help with a sick or injured animal and ask to speak with an animal protection officer.
• Wait for the officer to pick up the animal. Do not take the animal to the shelter.
• If you have found a loose pet that is not injured, visit AAC’s Lost and Found Pet website for guidance.

The city’s Vision Zero program has received $1.3 million in federal funding via the Texas Department of Transportation’s Highway Safety Improvement Program. The money will be used to install new traffic signals, which are historically shown to reduce vehicle crashes by 35 percent. The new signals will be installed on Harris Branch Parkway at Giles Lane (in District 1) and at South First Street and Ralph Ablanedo Drive (in District 2). Since 2020, Austin has received nearly $7 million in HSIP funding to improve traffic safety. According to the latest Vision Zero dashboard data, the city has seen 32 traffic fatalities in 2024, with 5,231 total crashes.

Construction crews working to expand the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center are preparing to install grade beams that will transfer some of the structural load to the spaced foundation of the structure, which consists of reinforced concrete beams at grade level. According to an update from Capital Delivery Services, other recent progress has been made on the project:

• A flow splitter used for stormwater management was installed on the property’s biofiltration pond;
• The pit for a new elevator has been excavated with waterproofing installed;
• Concrete pours for the southern portion’s grade beams have begun, with work scheduled to adhere to city noise ordinances.

Construction of the expansion is set to continue through next summer, with a grand opening in the fall of 2025.

A post on the City Council Message Board showed that Mayor Kirk Watson is concerned about moving forward with a proposed climate bond this November. On Friday, Watson wrote that he agreed with Austin Outside’s assessment that they take the time to move forward in a thoughtful, deliberative and thorough manner. “The Council has discussed a possible climate bond initiative one time—at a work session on May 28th. As a Council, we didn’t give specific direction to the Manager regarding what to bring back as a potential bond proposal. We didn’t identify priorities. We really couldn’t have done so. There was—and is still—insufficient deliberation and information,” Watson wrote. “Anything the Manager’s office would bring to us at this point would be piecemeal and lack the rigor we should want. Even if we decided to just put one thing on a ballot this November, such as land acquisition, we would be doing so without staff being able to answer many of the questions raised at the work session and raised by many constituents who care deeply about this issue and how best to address it.” In his post, Watson also acknowledged that city staff has warned that a large bond election this year would be imprudent and said that, in his opinion, such an election should occur no later than November 2026. As of press time, Watson had at least the support of Mayor Pro Tem Leslie Pool, who added, “The Council does no favors to anyone without properly assessing the work in front of us. We have no second chances these days to get things right. And Austin’s future deserves our focused attention on doing things right.”

The Austin Symphony Orchestra and the city of Austin will hold their 47th Fourth of July celebration this year. The evening is free and will take place at Vic Mathias Shores and the Long Center, with fireworks beginning at 9 p.m. (The event itself kicks off at 4 p.m.) The evening will include food and drink, live music in addition to the symphony performance and, of course, fireworks. Attendees can bring blankets and chairs, but nonservice animals should be left at home. Road closures around Auditorium Shores will be in effect around 7 p.m. to ensure safety. Those closures include sections of South First Street and West Riverside Drive. In addition, roads in the Bouldin Creek neighborhood will be open to local traffic only. There is a road closure map and table of closed streets on the city’s event web page. All roads will be opened by midnight. Lady Bird Lake downtown will be closed to all watercraft from 8 p.m. to midnight. More information and VIP options can be found at starspangledfest.com/july-4.