PfCONA NewsFLASH: Let's be Able to Say that Pflugerville VOTES! (pass this candidate info on)

Click here for Council Candidates Question & Answer (Q&A) and click here for School Board Candidate Q&A, both sponsored by Pflugerville Pflag, PfCONA, and Creekside NA.

Click here for School Board and Council Candidate bios compiled by Greater Pflugerville Chamber of Commerce.

The dates/times for the next City Council Candidate and PISD School Board Candidate Forum airings on Cox Ch. 10 will be:

Saturday - 29th: 9:00 am - CC, 1:00 pm - PISD
Sunday - 30th: 2:30 pm - CC, 4:30 pm - PISD
Monday - May 1st: 11:00 am - CC, 2:00 pm - PISD
Monday - May 1st: 7:00 pm - CC, 9:00 pm PISD
Tuesday - May 2nd: 11:00 am - CC, 2:00 pm - PISD
Wednesday - May 3rd: 7:00 pm - CC, 9:00 pm PISD

Early Voting and Election Day Polls
If you live in the city of Pflugerville or in PISD, you will vote in the same location for the city and school board elections on May 13th from 7am to 7pm:

Precinct 200, St. Elizabeth Catholic Church, 1520 N. Railroad Ave

Precinct 201, Richland Hall, 18312 Cameron Rd

Precinct 202,209, Murchison Elementary School, 2215 Kelly Lane

Precinct 203,206,226, Brookhollow Elementary School, 1200 N. Railroad Ave

Early voting:
North Lamar Albertson's
HEB Parmer Lane
Travis County North Office on Foothill Farms

Vote early May 1st-May 9th at the North Travis County Office behind Lamb's Tires off 1825 & Foothill Farms Drive. If you need any info on the issues, ask a neighbor or go to reference material noted above and view videos, which are also available at Pflugerville Library.

Please tell your neighbors, family and friends to vote & pass this E-mail to their buddies. Remember, many local elections are decided by only a few votes so every single vote really does matter! The more people that vote the more city, county, and state government officials pay attention to what an area has to say.

DEMOCRACY CHALLENGE FORUM on May 8th

Please go to the following link to register (RSVP) for May 8th PfCONA Town Meeting:
http://www.texasforums.org/index.php?option=com_events_sessions&task=view&id=14 featuring Democracy Challenge Forum. Click here for challenge forum flyer that you may wish to share with others.

The Texas Forums team (affiliated with LBJ Library), who will be moderating this May town meeting.

Note: If you have trouble with link above, go to http://www.texasforums.org/ and go to right hand side of page to "Register for Events" section. See "Democracy's Challenge Forum - May 8".

_____________________

E-mail is in relation to PfCONA's Pflugerville VOTES! project, which has involved hosting and videotaping candidate forums*, working with Pflugerville Pflag and Creekside NA on Candidate Q&A, sharing candidate bios and contact information via E-mail, meetings, and website, distributing Pflugerville VOTES! signs that signify early voting and voting days, and hosting Democracy Challenge Forum.

*Creekside NA co-hosted Council Candidate Forum and Creekside NA and Association of Texas Professional Educators co-hosted School Board Candidate Forum. City of Pflugerville is airing these forums on Cox Cable Ch. 10. School district provided forum locations and video equipment was purchased by PfCONA video an AT&T Exelerator grant pursued by Pfriends Pfor Pflugerville's Pfuture (Pf4).


http://www.pfcona.org/
info@pfcona.org

Fwd: Candidate Forums [on Cox Ch. 10 (forward to residents/neighborhood leaders)]

Below is the preliminary schedule of the City Council and School Board Candidate Forums (4th annual forums sponsored by PfCONA and Creekside NA*) schedule provided by City staff. See Cox Ch. 10 for future times, which may be E-mailed out as well. Two copies of each forum are also at library for those without Cox cable.

Candidate bios compiled by Greater Pflugerville Chamber of Commerce are being posted on PfCONA website (http://www.pfcona.org/) and Q&A of both School Board and Council Candidate will be E-mailed and posted. Q&A was done in conjunction with Pflugerville Pflag and Creekside NA. Flyer with candidate contact info/links will soon be posted as well. Forums and information is part of PfCONA's Pflugerville VOTES! project. Get your neighbors the information and get them out to the polls.

-PfCONA Communication Committee

*School Board candidate forum was also sponsored by Association of Texas Professional Educators (ATPE)

Note: School Board Forum ended up being taped with only one out of two cameras that were being utilized due to a cable connection problem. Sound, video, and lighting equipment used was acquired as a result of grant from AT&T Exelerator grant program applied for by Pfriends for Pflugerville's Pfuture (Pf4).

Kathy Ellis <kathye@cityofpflugerville.com> wrote:

Subject: Candidate Forums
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2006 14:58:19 -0500
From: "Kathy Ellis" <kathye@cityofpflugerville.com>
To: "Rod Reyna" <rodreyna@sbcglobal.net>, <cleben@swbell.net>,
"Helen Mary V. Marek" <hmvmarek@tfi.com>
CC: "Brandy Foster" <bfoster@pflugervillepflag.com>,
"David Buesing" <dbuesing@cityofpflugerville.com>,
"Charles Simon" <charless@cityofpflugerville.com>,
<jgarrett@impactnewspaper.com>,
"Karen Thompson" <karent@cityofpflugerville.com>

The first tapes of the Candidate Forums have been scheduled to run. The schedule is as follows:

City Council Forum:
11:00 am - Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, Monday

7:00 p.m. - Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, Monday

PISD:
1:00 p.m - Friday, Sunday, Monday, Wednesday

8:45 p.m. - Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, Monday

We will change the schedule next Tuesday to allow the showing of the Council [meeting] tapes.

Thanks for your patience.

K

Kathy

Kathy E. Ellis

Information/Community Development Coordinator

512-990-4363

512-990-4364 (fax)

www.cityofpflugerville.com

PfCONA NEWSFLASH: COUNTY PARKS PLAN AND POSSIBLE CDBG GRANT UP FOR PUBLIC REVIEW

Pflugerville area residents have the opportunity to provide input on these two county level items (County Parks and Open Space Plan and use of a possible $2.5 million CDBG Grant):


***TRAVIS COUNTY PARKS AND OPEN SPACE PLAN UP FOR PUBLIC REVIEW***

Travis County is distributing its proposed "Parks and Open Space Plan" for public review, and would welcome your input (written/spoken). A draft of the plan may be viewed online, accessed from the County's home page at www.co.travis.tx.us/ or click here to go to drafts directly. The County's proposed "Conservation Development Ordinance" may also be accessed at this site.

The purpose of this plan is to set policy regarding the development and maintenance of a wonderful system of parks and natural areas. Land acquisition (particularly as funded by the 2005 bond election), protection of river and stream corridors, and development of greenways are key areas of concern. This plan will also be submitted to Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) for approval as a "locally prepared master plan", a designation that makes Travis County more competitive in the TPWD grant review process.

A public hearing is scheduled for the Travis County Commissioners Court session on Tuesday, April 18, 314 W. 11th St. so the public may speak directly to the Court.

A public meeting is also scheduled for Tuesday, April 25, 6:00 p.m. at the Satellite One Office in eastern Travis County, 9301 Johnny Morris Road. Comments will be received until May 3, 2006.

Comments may be sent to by E-mail to (wendy.scaperotta@co.travis.tx.us), telephone (512/854-7655), or regular mail (P.O. Box 1748, Austin, TX 78767).

Contact:

Wendy Scaperotta, AICP
Senior Planner, Planning and GIS Program
Travis County Transportation and Natural Resources
P.O. Box 1748
Austin, TX 78767
(512) 854-7655 Fax:(512) 854-4648
wendy.scaperotta@co.travis.tx.us

***COUNTY SEEKING PUBLIC INPUT ON POSSIBLE $2.5 M. GRANT USE***

In accordance with Federal Guidelines and in order to best serve the community, Travis County officials and staff are seeking input during a series of scheduled public meetings (April 17th, 20th, 22nd, 26th, and 27th) from residents of the unincorporated areas of Travis County regarding the most effective use of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Federal Funds. Click here for meeting info and locations/dates. This information will ultimately be incorporated into the County’s Consolidated Plan.

CDBG Staff are taking comments from the public for one week on the Citizen Participation Plan. Please contact Christy Moffett by E-mail(christy.moffett@co.travis.tx.us) or by phone at 512-854-3460.

Initial meetings at Commissioners Court will be held in the traditional public hearing format, with opportunity for Citizens to come and voice their views, opinions and concerns. In addition, citizens will be asked to take a short written survey of their perception of public service needs in their communities.

Hearings in each of the precincts will be structured as an information session regarding the uses of CDBG, with facilitated discussion and decision-making for meaningful, comprehensive input from participants regarding their housing, community development and public service needs.

Travis County was recently designated eligible to receive $2,449,337 from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Affairs, Office of Community Planning and Development, in the form of a CDBG.

HUD awards these types of grants to communities to carry out a wide range of community development activities aimed at revitalizing neighborhoods, economic development, and providing improved community facilities and services.

Reminder: Tonight is PfCONA Neighborhood Leaders Roundtable

***REMINDER***NEIGHBORHOOD LEADER ROUNDTABLE***REMINDER***

If you are a key neighborhood leader contact, we invite your participation (or someone in your place) for tonight's Neighborhood Leader Roundtable from 7:00 pm to 8:30 p.m. at Pflugerville Justice Center at 1611 E. Pfennig Ln. Click here for tonight's agenda with many important items that your input is needed on, not too mention taking away information for you to share with your neighborhood, and a chance to ask questions of one another and your local city officials. Besides neighborhood leaders, the public is invited to participate as well.

Purpose: A representative of each of the 40 homeowner/neighborhood/property owner associated organizations (PfCONA) affiliated with Pflugerville Council of Neighborhood Associations is asked to attend in order to review and make recommendations on pertinent city and organization issues as well as dialogue and network with one another.

***REMINDER***PFCONA TOWN MEETING ON DEMOCRACY***REMINDER***

Come to May 8th - PfCONA Town Meeting on Re-engaging Citizens in Public Life (Democracy Challenge) from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. (or so) at the Pflugerville Justice Center at 1611 E. Pfennig Ln., for an evening with Texas Forums (from LBJ Library) moderators. This is the chance to get Pflugerville citizens discussing how to their voice is important and encourage leaders to listen to the voice of the community.

This event is free and open to the public and is one of a series of forums on the issue “Democracy’s Challenge” in the greater Austin area. Click here to RSVP for this particular PfCONA Town Meeting via the Texas Forums website. At www.texasforums.org you can also learn about the various resources on this subject.

Note: Some current and past PfCONA board members have been through Texas Forums moderator training and are volunteers for Texas Forums. Click here for info on The Deliberative Democracy Handbook. Click here for Richard Harwood book, Hope Unraveled: The People’s Retreat and Our Way Back.

Click here to participate in online forum. Click here for Podcasts with views of what it means to be a citizen (playing an active role/having some responsibility).