Dear Neighbors,
Just over a year ago (October 19, 2010), our association passed a resolution to submit an application to the City of Austin Neighborhood Partner Program for sidewalk repair in our neighborhood, and to allocate up to $20,000 of our funds for this project.
Over the past year, the NSCNA Board of Directors has followed that directive. We’ve asked our Traffic Committee to prepare a prioritized list of locations and obtain cost estimates from the city. At our general meetings, we’ve given updates to our members about the status of that effort.
During our September general meeting, we shared the list of locations that we’d sent to the city for cost estimates. At that time, I said we expected to have a response from the city before our November meeting.
Over the past year, the most common concern we’ve heard from members is whether we’d get a “good deal” for our money, especially in light of all the repairs the city made around the neighborhood last December/January. The board discussed this issue and wanted to make sure our membership was still in support before committing the funds to this project.
Therefore, at the September general meeting, I announced that we would have a vote during the November general meeting to reconsider authorization of the project. A “vote to reconsider” is the way for a parliamentary body to review a decision it has previously made. That is how we could determine, once we had a more specific idea of what would be feasible with our funds, whether the neighborhood still supported this project.
As expected, the City of Austin has responded, and we will report that information at our November meeting. Members will have an opportunity to discuss and ask questions. Then we will have a vote to reconsider authorization. This will give members a chance to say whether they want to proceed with this program, or stop and save the association’s funds for something else.
The Board of Directors discussed this information during our meeting last Wednesday. After consulting with city staff, we do not believe we would get good value for our funds. We unanimously passed a resolution recommending that members reconsider authorization for this project.
I hope everybody who has an interest in this topic will be able to attend our meeting Tuesday evening (November 1), at 6:30 pm at Pillow Elementary. I’m confident that if everybody concerned has an opportunity to participate, we’ll reach an outcome that is positive and widely supported.
You will need to be a registered NSCNA member to participate in the vote. Dues are just $15 per household. You can join right now at https://www.nscna.org/join or in person at the Tuesday meeting.
Chip Rosenthal
President, NSCNA
