Support Your Neighborhood Association and Join the HPWBANA Inside: Monthly Highland HPWBANA Constable Park WestReport Balcones Area
HIGHLAND PARK WEST BALCONES AREA NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION VOLUME 17, NUMBER 04 • APRIL 2021 • WWW.HPWBANA.ORG
The Highland Park West Balcones Area Neighborhood Association News - April 2021
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IMPORTANT NUMBERS Highland Park West Balcones Area
Austin Citywide Information Center... 974-2000 or 311 Emergency Police, Fire and EMS.............................. 911 Non-emergency Police (coyote sighting, etc.)......... 311 Social Services (during work hours)........................ 211 APD REP. - Officer Darrell Grayson........ 512-974-5242
BOARD OF DIRECTORS PRESIDENT Pieter Sybesma......................... president@hpwbana.org VICE PRESIDENT Jason Lindenschmidt............................vp@hpwbana.org TREASURER George Zwicker........................ treasurer@hpwbana.org SECRETARY Dawn Lewis.............................. secretary@hpwbana.org NEWSLETTER EDITOR Pam Keller.............................. newsletter@hpwbana.org WEBMASTER Henry Tang.............................webmaster@hpwbana.org BOARD MEMBERS Bill Hyland...................................... board@hpwbana.org Michael R. Levy.............................. board@hpwbana.org Bill McMillin................................... board@hpwbana.org Rebecca Spratlin............................. board@hpwbana.org
The HPWBANA Board meets on the fourth Monday of each month except December. Please go to HPWBANA. org for our current meeting location or contact president@ hpwbana.org. HWPBANA is bordered on the north by 2222, on the south by 35th Street, on the west by Mt. Bonnell Road, and on the east by MoPac and by Bull Creek Road between Hancock Drive and 45th Street. Mail your membership dues to HPWBANA, P.O. Box 26101, Austin, Texas 78755.
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The Highland Park West Balcones Area Neighborhood Association News - April 2021
Highland Park West Balcones Area
Highland Park West Balcones Area Neighborhood Association Annual Meeting
Monday, November 16, 2020, 6:30 p.m. Via Zoom
Board Members In attendance: Bill
Hyland, Mike Levy, Dawn Lewis, Jason Lindenschmidt, Bill McMillin, Rebecca Spratlin, Piet Sybesma
Absent: George Zwicker New Business: The Program “The National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy and NFPA’s Firewise USA® Introduction” was presented by Chris Vetromile of the Austin Fire Department’s Wildfire Division. Election of New Board Members: This was postponed until January 2021. Discussion and Possible Action on New Listserv: Board Member Lewis recommended that the HPWBANA Yahoo Listserv, be transferred over the Groups.io platform. The Yahoo platform is not supporting Groups anymore, and the Groups.io platform is being used by various other former neighborhood Yahoo Groups. She recommended that we use the premium option as it would be the best fit for our neighborhood and would allow for growth and changes. There will be a cost of $220.00 annually. Board Member Lewis will send out information for the board to review. Meeting Schedule: Postponed to the January 2021 Board Meeting The Board Meeting was adjourned.
The Highland Park West Balcones Area Neighborhood Association News - April 2021
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Highland Park West Balcones Area
Ancient Alligators by Jim and Lynne Weber
Alligator Lizard An ancient and widespread lizard family, Anguidae originated in the Triassic Period, over 100 million years ago. Today there are 67 species recognized worldwide, with 8 found in North and Central America. Members of a large branch of the snake/lizard evolutionary tree that use their strong jaws rather than tongues to draw food into the mouth, Anguids reserve their hard, slightly forked tongues as chemosensory organs used to search for food, mates, and safe refuge. One subfamily within this group is called the alligator lizards, so named due to a vague resemblance to an alligator – a flat, wedgeshaped head, little neck definition, small, thin legs, and scales fairly large and shingled that barely overlap one another. These lizards shed in one piece, much like a snake, turning the old skin inside out as they crawl out of it. They can also exhibit tail autonomy, the 4
ability to shed their tail as a self-defense mechanism to elude a predator’s grasp and allow escape. While they have the ability to regrow their tail over a period of weeks or months, the new tail is often shorter and distinctly different in appearance from the original tail. The only species of alligator lizard in Texas is the Texas Alligator Lizard (Gerrhonotus infernalis). Males have wider, more triangular heads than females, but both can grow up to 18 inches long, including their tail. Ground color ranges from light tan to dark brown, sometimes with a reddish cast, with 7 to 10 black and white flecked bands across the body. Newly hatched individuals look entirely different than the adults, with striking copper-colored heads and boldly banded black and cream bodies that resemble centipedes or millipedes. Generally preferring moist areas of foothills to lowland limestone canyons, staying near springs, creeks, and streams, the Texas Alligator Lizard can even be found in suburban areas near these habitats. They feed primarily on insects, spiders, and small vertebrates. However, they are secretive in nature, hiding under surface cover such as fallen tree limbs, forest undergrowth, and in rocky crevices. They can be pugnacious when caught, often thrashing about and able to deliver a painful bite. When threatened by a predator, they may flee to water as they are good swimmers, or perform lateral undulation by folding in their thin limbs and slithering away quickly like a snake. Depending on the temperature or season, Texas Alligator Lizards may be active by day or night. In spring they are often arboreal as their tails are prehensile and assist in climbing, mating and feeding in vine tangles and other dense vegetation up to 9 feet off the ground. Fall is mating season, with males fighting each other for the right to court a female. Eggs are laid in clutches of 5 to 31 under rocks and in crevices between February and June, with females producing a second clutch if conditions are favorable. Unlike many other reptile species, females will remain with their clutch of eggs for the few months it takes them to incubate. Texas Alligator Lizards are found throughout a few disjunct localities in the Big Bend region and in much of the Edwards Plateau, and are the largest limbed lizards in Texas. While their secretive nature means they often go undetected, it is a special treat to discover and observe one of these ancient alligators! Send your nature-related questions to naturewatch@austin. rr.com and we’ll do our best to answer them. If you enjoy reading these articles, check out our books, Nature Watch Austin, Nature Watch Big Bend, and Native Host Plants for Texas Butterflies (all published by Texas A&M University Press), and our blog at naturewatchaustin.blogspot.com.
The Highland Park West Balcones Area Neighborhood Association News - April 2021
Highland Park West Balcones Area
The Highland Park West Balcones Area Neighborhood Association News - April 2021
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The Highland Park West Balcones Area Neighborhood Association News - April 2021
Highland Park West Balcones Area
Lettuce Recycle! by Dena Houston
Buy Nothing – Junk Day on Juniper Street When I was younger, one of my favorite books was Junk Day on Juniper Street by Lillian Moore. It told the story of how neighbors decided to put the stuff they no longer wanted out to the curb on a designated Saturday and hire the junk man to come by at the end of the day to haul everything away. One neighbor loved a lamp someone set out and took it. Another neighbor saw a table he liked and took it. By the end of the day, the only thing left was an old rocking chair. The junk man looked at it with tired, loving eyes, and sat down in it to rest. He took it home. To me this is the best recycling! The Buy Nothing Project is a global network of community groups that encourages giving away (without selling or bartering) consumer goods and services rather than throwing things away. It is accessed through Facebook and organized by neighborhoods. It is a modern-day version of Junk Day on Juniper Street. For more information on the project, go to https:// buynothingproject.org/. The Facebook page is a private group, but is easy to join. Just go to “Buy Nothing”. My first experience using Buy Nothing was when a neighbor needed a computer keyboard. I had been waiting for the Recycle & Reuse Drop-Off Center to reopen to take an old computer and its components (including the old keyboard). I gave it to my neighbor. He was so happy to get it. I was so happy that it found a real home.
I have been very impressed with this project. During our February winter storm, neighbors were reaching out on “Buy Nothing” to offer food, clothing, charging stations, and many other things someone would need during this stressful event. “Buy Nothing” makes it feel like the old days when neighbors reached out to help each other.
QUESTIONS FROM OUR READERS: IS CELLOPHANE RECYCLABLE? Cellophane is not recyclable. It must go into the trash cart. There is no recycling market for cellophane. HOW CLEAN DOES ALUMINUM FOIL HAVE TO BE TO BE RECYCLED? Recycling contamination is an important concern. Therefore, aluminum foil must be clean and dry to be recycled in the blue bin. Clean means no visible food or grease on the foil. Please be sure to have at least a 2-inch ball of foil before placing it in your blue bin. If you have any questions or recycling ideas, please send them to: recycling@hpwbana.org. Here is a very informative City of Austin recycling website that offers help in finding out how to recycle specific items: http:// www.austintexas.gov/what-do-i-do.
PLEASE REMEMBER, WHEN IN DOUBT THROW IT OUT!
The Highland Park West Balcones Area Neighborhood Association News - April 2021
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Highland Park West Balcones Area 1405 Brandi Ln Round Rock, TX 78681
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The Highland Park West Balcones Area Neighborhood Association News - April 2021