On Thursday, Oct. 29, the city will hold a public meeting to discuss the Walsh Boat Landing boat ramp on Lake Austin. Specifically, the city intends to zero in on how dock access can be safely and efficiently managed in the face of capacity issues. To that end, the city’s Parks and Recreation Department has held focus groups with stakeholders. Using that feedback, staff has developed a conceptual site plan that will be presented at the upcoming meeting. The meeting will take place at the Lion’s Golf Course Club House from 6:30 until 7:30 p.m.

A familiar face won’t be spending as much time at City Hall soon. Heidi Gerbracht has accepted the position of national program director for Bright Cities, which is part of an innovative new effort called Healthy Babies, Bright Futures. In her new capacity, she will be working with cities across the country on policies and programs that will reduce exposure of children and pregnant women to damaging neurotoxic chemicals. That means Gerbracht will be leaving her position as vice president of public policy at the Real Estate Council of Austin. Prior to RECA, Gerbracht was a long-time City Council staffer, working most recently in Council Member Bill Spelman’s office.

On Monday, the Austin Monitor, KUT and KLRU will launch a cooperative project that takes an in-depth, multifaceted look at the impact our region’s growth has had on Manor, Texas. We look forward to sharing it with you.

Later this month, the Parks and Recreation Department is hosting the second of three public meetings to gather input on improvements to Little Stacy Neighborhood Park in Travis Heights. The first meeting was held in August, and a summary of what happened can be found here. Staff is seeking feedback on improvements to various areas of the park, such as the tennis courts, wading pool and playground. The improvements are intended to address erosion issues and ensure compliance with accessibility standards, among other things. More information is available on the project’s Web page. The meeting will be held Saturday, Oct. 24, from 9 to 11 a.m. at Travis Heights Elementary School.

The Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization – otherwise known as CAMPO – will be kicking off a series of public events next week to gather input on how to spend $96 million in state funding for transportation improvements. The money comes from a portion of oil and gas tax revenues that Texas voters decided, in November 2014, should go to the State Highway Fund. Now it’s time to figure out what highway projects in the Central Texas region most deserve that funding. The first meeting will be a public hearing on Monday, Oct. 12, at 6 p.m., at the Thompson Center on the University of Texas campus. Several community meetings will follow in the weeks to come. People may also give feedback through an online survey or by email (campo@campotexas.org), regular mail (CAMPO, P.O. Box 1088, Austin, TX, 78767), phone (512-974-2529) or fax (512-974-6385). The deadline for public comments is Nov. 6, 5 p.m.

With only 11 Democrats and 20 Republicans in the Texas Senate, serving as chair of the Senate’s Democratic Caucus would not be seen as an easy job, regardless of other circumstances. Moreover, Austin Sen. Kirk Watson always has his hands full defending his city, so he probably didn’t really need this extra job of herding his sometimes fractious colleagues. But he didn’t say any of that when he gave notice on Thursday that he would be giving up his job as caucus chair. He wrote, “I’ve served as Democratic Caucus Chair for two sessions (plus a little time before the first one and now a little after the second one). I’m ready to pass the baton to the next Chair and want to do it so that the new Chair has plenty of time to prepare for the upcoming election year, convention, and then the next session. I deeply appreciate the honor my colleagues have given me letting me serve as caucus chairman.”

Yesterday, it was announced that the city’s news channel, ATXN, and the Austin-Travis County EMS won a Lone Star Emmy Award for their collaboration on a public service announcement about the city’s Shattered Dreams program. That video, which won in the Children/Youth/Teen Program category, can be viewed here. According to a statement about the honor, “Shattered Dreams is a two-day, school-based program that promotes responsible decision-making among high school students regarding underage drinking and impaired driving by showing them how irresponsible choices can end in tragedy. … ATXN Station Manager Keith Reeves, Senior Producer/Videographer Jonathan Uhl and Video Production Specialist James Williams presented Austin-Travis County EMS with their National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences EMMY statuette for their Co-coordinator/Technical Advisor role in the ‘Shattered Dreams’ production filmed during the Vandergrift High School Shattered Dreams Program. EMS Chief Ernesto Rodriguez and EMS Chief of Staff James Shamard accepted the award on behalf of Austin-Travis County EMS.”

How is the new City Council doing? Ask that question, and you will probably get a variety of answers. This summer, Julio Gonzalez conducted a survey aimed at quantifying Council’s performance, and the data he collected is now online, available here. According to that data, the highest number of participants – 25 percent – identified Council Member Greg Casar as the most effective member, followed by Mayor Pro Tem Kathie Tovo, who received the support of 21 percent of respondents, then Mayor Steve Adler, who won 13 percent. Overall, the highest percentage of people (19 percent) gave Council a “1” on a scale of 1 to 10 — “1” being poor, “10” being excellent — with Council getting an average rating of “4”. Gonzalez’s next survey, which assesses the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority, is now open. Full disclosure: Gonzalez is a member of the Capital of Texas Media Foundation’s board of directorsFriends of the Austin Monitor.

This Saturday, City Council Member Ann Kitchen will host a transportation-focused town hall meeting at which she promises “an update on City Council activities, particularly the recently passed budget and coming transportation infrastructure projects” as well as appearances from representatives of the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the city’s Transportation Department and the Austin Fire Department. The meeting will take place Oct. 10, from 10 until 11:30 a.m. at the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders.

During Monday’s board dialogue meeting about the school-to-prison pipeline, Austin Independent School District Trustee Paul Saldaña pointed out that AISD’s teacher demographics do not mirror its student demographics. He said that most students in AISD will not see a minority teacher, and “you can’t be what you can’t see.” Saldaña said there are more than 6,000 teachers in AISD, and fewer than 25 percent are minority teachers. Using a school from his District 6 as an example, he added that 72 percent of the teachers at Paredes Middle School are classified as white, but more than 90 percent of its students are classified as African-American or Hispanic. Saldaña said that the disparity is a specific outcome that the district has control over, and he encouraged diversity among staff as well as students.

It appears that Travis County’s legal battle with a group that puts on an annual outdoor music festival will be more badminton than calcio fiorentino. A source familiar with the case tells the Austin Monitor that Euphoria Music and Camping Festival is no longer seeking separate hearings for an immediate temporary restraining order and injunction against the county’s new policy restricting the event’s hours of operation. Instead, after collegial discussions between lawyers for both sides, the festival operators have decided to pursue only a single hearing for a permanent injunction, to be scheduled on Wednesday, Nov. 4. Until then, it appears that we shouldn’t expect any smash-mouth legal jockeying to draw out the case or otherwise attempt to move it to the court of public opinion. Rats.

Travis County commissioners approved an $80,500 contract on Tuesday for a novel approach to handicapped-parking enforcement. For a startup fee of $8,500 and 12 monthly payments of $6,000, Access Empowerment, a nonprofit corporation, will train volunteers and equip them with a smartphone app that they can use to issue citations to drivers illegally parked in a handicapped space. During previous discussions of the proposal in recent weeks, large numbers of disabled Travis County residents showed up to advocate for the program. Commissioner Gerald Daugherty and Precinct 3 Constable Sally Hernandez are both credited as its leading backers. Just before the unanimous vote on Tuesday, Daugherty commended the county’s attorneys for ironing out the legion of potential legal liabilities in the arrangement. “Let me just say that this has been a long haul,” he said. “But I do think that we’ve done the right thing.”