Monday: Update

An update: For those of you who want to contact state representatives about HB 4536, the sale of Texas State Cemetery Annex, the people to contact are: 

• Representative Elliott Naishtat (District 49; capital phone: 463-0668; www.house.state.tx.us/members/dist49/naishtat.php)
  
• Representative Valinda Bolton (District 47; capital phone: 463-0652; www.house.state.tx.us/members/dist47/bolton.php ; Ms. Bolton is on the House Land and Resource Management committee that is dealing with the bill)
  
• State Senator Kirk Watson also represents our part of the world, but the bill has not yet reached the Senate floor.  (District 14; capital phone: 463-0114; www.senate.state.tx.us/75r/senate/members/dist14.htm)
  

From what I can tell, HB 4536 will reach the House floor this Wednesday, April 1, between 8:00 and noon, in Room E2.012 in the Capitol building. Again, if you want to updates on the bill from the Legislature's Web site, you can sign up for alerts at MyTLO (My Texas Legislature Online), available at www.capitol.state.tx.us

Also, Laura LaValle, a regular and long-time Dog Parker with her dog Fiona, has contacted a friend who is a lobbyist. If you are interested in learning more about her efforts, again, please e-mail me and will forward her contact information and e-mails on the topic. 

By the way, courtesy of Carl Helmshoth, below is the description of our beloved Dog Park land that appears in the most recent General Land and Office report. (I've corrected the misspellings, natch; all itals are mine):

"This site is [c]urrently a vacant property and is underutilized as a proposed state cemetery. It is under the management and control of the Texas Cemetery Commission with a restriction designated by the Legislature for state cemetery use only. [ . . . ] The surrounding properties include uses as residential and commercial development, medical, government, and business offices, the Austin Memorial Park Cemetery, and Camp Mabry. 

"The appraisal indicates the highest and best use for this property is to develop the site as a single residential tract. The tract is located in a highly desirable residential and mix[ed]-use area in Austin. It is estimated the site will not be needed as a cemetery in less tha[n] 30 years[,] with some estimates at twice as long. This site was presented in the 2007 Report to the Governor and was approved with conditions being the removal of the statutory restriction for cemetery use."

The description appears on p. 97-98 of the Report. If you'd like the link to the entire report, please let me know. 

--zia