Holiday season has officially (officially) begun in Austin, and starting tonight through Dec. 31, the Zilker Holiday tree will be on display nightly. The tree will be lit from 6 p.m. until midnight. If you are only interested in seeing the tree, visitors can access roads after about 11 p.m. (depending on traffic). The Trail of Lights will close the roads throughout December. Ticketing and schedule information for the Trail of Lights is also available online.

For (at least) a few years now, affordable housing has been a primary focus in Austin. At the moment, the Neighborhood Housing and Community Development Department has opened a public comment period that is an opportunity for Austinites to weigh in on (basically) how the city has used federal Department of Housing and Urban Development funds, as detailed in this annual report. The comment period is open until Dec. 7, and comments can be emailed to NHCD@austintexas.gov or mailed to Neighborhood Housing and Community Development; Attn: FY 2016-17 CAPER at P.O. Box 1088, Austin, Texas 78767. More information on the report and the process can also be found on the city website.

Austin Public Health is now accepting applications for mini-grants of up to $2,500 to fund projects aimed at making a lasting difference in the prevention of chronic disease in Austin and Travis County. Projects must be focused on one or more of these target categories:

• Active living
• Tobacco-free living
• Healthy eating
• Community gardens
• Healthy food pantries
• Breastfeeding support

In addition, projects must be targeted at helping local populations with higher rates of chronic disease, such as minorities and people with lower incomes. Groups that are eligible to apply include nonprofit organizations, faith‐based organizations, government organizations and neighborhood associations, as well as schools and child care centers, as long as they are nonprofit. Organizations can apply with multiple project ideas; however, only one project per organization will be funded. Find the application, and more details, here and some answers to FAQs here. Stephanie Helfman at (512) 972‐5222 or Stephanie.Helfman@austintexas.gov is also available to answer questions and help with the application process. The department will be accepting applications until Jan. 12 at 5 p.m.

This Thursday and Friday, the Austin Monitor will be taking a minute to celebrate Thanksgiving. We’ll return to our normal publishing schedule on Monday, and wish all of our readers a safe and happy holiday weekend!

This week, city administrative offices and municipal facilities will be closed on Thursday and Friday in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday. Those closures include all City Council offices. Administrative offices and municipal courts will close Wednesday at 3 p.m. through the weekend. All library branches will close Wednesday at 6 p.m. and reopen on Saturday, as will city recreation, cultural arts, nature, history and senior centers. Deep Eddy, Big Stacy, Springwoods and Bartholomew pools will be closed on Thanksgiving Day, though Barton Springs Pool will remain open (without lifeguards!). And, there will be no trash collection on Thursday. That will be pushed to Friday, with Friday collections pushed to Saturday. Questions? Call 311 to find out what will be open and what services will be offered during the Thanksgiving holiday.

Every year the city’s Parks and Recreation Department presents the Environmental Commission with a financial overview of the concessions in Butler Park (formerly Town Lake Park) with which it holds current contracts to determine whether to continue or terminate the existing agreements when they come up for renewal. This year at its Nov. 15 meeting, the Environmental Commission voted to continue the contracts with the current concessions – with one notable caveat. The commission directed staff to investigate if the acquisition of watercraft could be limited within contracts. For concessions along Lady Bird Lake that rent and use watercraft, the number of boats has doubled since 2013. The commissioners expressed concern regarding the potential overcrowding this could cause if this increase continues. “If there’s ever an emergency and the rescue boat must go, there’s going to be a lot of wake,” said Commissioner Pam Thompson. She explained that a lot of wake being pushed into the lake filled with people could be more dangerous than beneficial. Patricia Rossett, the business process consultant for PARD, assured the commissioners that the department would seriously consider implementing this limitation when boathouse contracts are subject to renewal.

Yesterday, Art in Public Places announced it will be commissioning a professional artist (or team) to create permanent public artwork for Colony Park District Park, which is located between Loyola and Decker lanes. According to a press release about the project, which has a budget of $39,500, “the park is being developed in partnership with Austin Parks Foundation and St. David’s Foundation, with planned improvements including a multi-purpose field, nature-based play area, pedestrian bridge and other amenities. The selected artwork will reflect the unique history and values of the neighborhood and serve as a visual marker to help identify Colony Park District Park.” The deadline for artists to apply is Jan. 4. Information about the project application process, which is open to artists 18 years or older who reside in Williamson, Travis, Bastrop, Caldwell, Hays, Burnet and Blanco counties (with some restrictions), can be found online here.

Alas, Travis County Commissioners Court is getting a head start on the Thanksgiving holiday by forgoing its regular Tuesday meeting this week. The good news is that the commissioners will return to regular business on Nov. 28. An agenda for that meeting has already been posted and includes several compelling items on upcoming bond-funded projects, appointments to both Central Health and the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, and a mysterious interlocal agreement with the Village of San Leanna. If there’s any reason to look forward to getting Thanksgiving over with, other than leftovers, truly this is it.

The Tax Assessor-Collectors Association of Texas has named Bruce Elfant the 2017 Tax Assessor-Collector of the Year. Elfant, who has been Travis County’s tax assessor-collector since 2012, was recognized at a luncheon last Tuesday where Linda Bridge, the association’s vice president, said that he “embodies the spirit of excellence in public stewardship and consistently demonstrates a deep devotion to public interest, civic duty and social justice.” Elfant was recognized for his innovation in being the first to adopt the Property Assessed Clean Energy Program, which provides businesses and nonprofits with low-cost long-term financing for projects involving energy conservation. Other accomplishments he garnered kudos for were an online mapping service showing the county areas with the fewest registered voters and the fact that Travis County was the first county to fully pilot WebDealer, the online titling and registration service for the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles. Elfant is also an active volunteer, and has held leadership roles in numerous community committees such as Austin/Travis County Family Violence Task Force, U.S. Census Complete Count Committee and Community Action Network Community Council. He has received many awards in his career with Travis County, including in his previous position as constable, however, he still spoke graciously of the “special honor” of receiving this particular distinction at the luncheon. “In this age of political rancor and divisiveness, the state’s tax assessor-collectors, who are elected Democrats and Republicans, are a shining example of how people from different parties can work together,” he said. “We can engage in healthy debate on issues that impact our offices, but we respect each other and are always unified under a singular goal to deliver exceptional customer service to the people we serve in our counties.”

Community Not Commodity is now calling for an independent audit of the CodeNEXT work done by Austin city staff, Opticos Design, and Fregonese Associates. A press release from the group notes that payments to consultants working on CodeNEXT are now at nearly $8.5 million. “Yesterday the City of Austin announced that the next CodeNEXT draft will be delayed by at least two-and-a-half months, a move which likely will lead to further cost overruns – and with no assurance of a better product,” states the press release. The group’s head, Fred Lewis, said, “It’s time to pause the CodeNEXT process so that taxpayers can take a close look at city staff, Opticos Design and Fregonese & Associates, their shared work, and their ties to special interests and influential land developers …. The affordability, livability, and safety of our neighborhoods are too important to be left to a broken process dominated by special interests. It is time for the Austin City Council to step up and do something about this train wreck.”

According to a memo from Parks and Recreation Department Acting Director Kimberly McNeeley, changes are coming to Hancock Golf Course. Though McNeeley assures Mayor Steve Adler and City Council that the department has every intention of continuing operation of the historic course, her Nov. 15 memo explains that “while recent changes have improved the course’s overall operations, revenue continues to fall short” – to the tune of about $125,000 annually. She writes that to reduce costs, the course will implement automated pay stations Monday through Thursday, with the pro shop open only on weekends and holidays. Going forward, “The Department will continue to monitor this operation change and look for other revenue generating opportunities to improve the overall health of the Golf Enterprise Fund.” McNeeley notes that no full-time city employees will be impacted by the change, but “every effort” will be made to use temporary workers impacted by the change at other parks facilities.

The city appears to have made an important step in a years-long effort to legalize busking by musicians in public places. A partnership with Trammell Crow Co. developers will fund the ATX Busking Pilot Program and allow for street performances at designated points on the Green Water Development property. A $150,000 payment will support guaranteed pay for musicians from March 2018 to 2021, and the city’s Music and Entertainment Division hopes through the program to develop best practices that can be used to expand the program to other areas of the city. The performances will be scheduled and curated through the music office, rather than open to all hopeful street performers. Busking, or the public performance of unamplified music in a public space, is illegal in Austin because the city’s legal department interprets the practice to conflict with peddling and panhandling ordinances. Music proponents and several members of the city’s Music Commission have tried multiple times in recent years to craft a law that will allow busking, which is seen as a valuable tourism and cultural attraction in major cities like London, New York, Seattle and San Francisco.