Mueller Neighborhood Association General Meeting
Location: Wildflower Terrace
Date: Saturday, July 21, 2018
Time: 10AM to 11:15
Greetings and pleasantries, call meeting to order – Lila Valencia
Welcome new members and ~55 in attendance.
Treasurer’s report – Luke Downs
$17,326 starting balance in June; dues revenue and Egg Scramble expenses, Fourth of July parade/festival expenses, survey and electronic expenses for an ending balance of $15,456 with 347 active members.
City of Austin, Austin Resource Recovery, Composting Program overview, Emily Chancellor.
Pilot program began in 2012 and plan to roll out to all homes by 2020. The city collection trucks take the compost to a commercial composting facility (Organics By Gosh), and about 12 months later they are ready to use in gardens, landscaping, etc. Emily distributed kitchen collectors, compost bags and explanatory materials to neighbors at the meeting. Food scraps, spoiled food, pizza boxes, yard trimmings, branches, shredded paper in a paper bag, animal fur, food-soiled paper products, tea bags, coffee grounds, eggshells and popsicle sticks all can go in. If you have yard trimmings fill up the green cart first before using the yard waste bags. Do NOT put glass, ceramics, treated wood, used cooking oils, pet waste, Styrofoam, wine corks, medical waste and rocks in the green carts. Green carts are collected weekly. 46% of Austin residential trash can be composted, reducing landfill and reducing harmful methane gases. To keep the kitchen collector smelling clean, you can line it with paper or a compostable bag, sprinkle with baking soda, or keep it in the dishwasher or freezer. Keep your composting cart in the shade and closed to control odor. After collection, rinse it out and sprinkle in some baking soda.
Apartments don’t yet have collections, but the city offers free home composting classes which include a $75 home compost system rebate. You can also drop off food scraps at the Mueller Farmers Market.
Visit www.AustinRecycles.com for more information on the composting program including your collection schedule. There are four different sizes of curbside trash containers and you pay less per month for smaller containers. Curbside clothing and housewares recycling is the same day as your regular recycling pickup, every two weeks. All carts go in the alley. Bulk collection is twice a year, and items go on the curb, not the alley. You can drop off packing peanuts at the UPS Store near HEB and Torchy’s. The city collection center will accept large Styrofoam. The Thinkery accepts egg cartons. The city has a Reuse Directory that lists all the organizations the city is aware of that accept items for reuse.
Nicole Nelson Hardeman
Nicole is the new Mueller community manager for the Property Owners’ Association from Associa. She took on the role starting June 18. She’s met with several of the committees, many of the vendors including landscaping and pool maintenance and lifeguarding. Nicole is in the Mueller Central building on weekdays and has an open door policy, so walk-ins are welcome or she is available by appointment. Nicole is originally from Los Angeles, married for 18 years to a native of southeast Austin. Nicole has two sons, 31 and 17, the latter a rising senior at Cedar Ridge High School in Round Rock ISD. She moved to Austin in January 2015 and took on management of a residential golf community, and from there to Mueller. She has been in real estate for 30 years, ranging from managing apartment and townhome communities, real estate sales and leasing, and community association management for the last 7 years. Nicole is focused on improving communication and committing to no more than 24 hours to respond to any inquiry. [email protected].
Q: Does part of the parking meter revenue go back into the community? A: Nicole isn’t certain but will reply.
Q: What precipitates getting a green notification card that your yard needs attention? A: Generally that means there has been a complaint. Associa is also committed to doing property inspection, which Nicole does every Wednesday, but most cards are initiated by a resident complaining.
Q: Are there more poop stations going up? At the new Amli there currently isn’t one. A: Yes, aware that some of the new developments in the community don’t have nearby pet stations, so Nicole has ordered additional stations to be installed.
Lila noted that the positive relationship between the POA and the MNA is very welcome, and the MNA looks forward to partnering with Nicole in her new role. Lila will share the recent neighborhood survey feedback with Nicole.
Q: What’s the difference between the POA and MNA? A: Generally the POA is about the structures and MNA is about the people. More info on the two organizations is available at muellerneighborhood.org.
Joe – update as a residential member of the POA board.
Budget approval comes up in November; not clear yet whether assessments will increase. Currently there are two resident members on a board of 5. At the point where the neighborhood is 90% built out, it will go to majority resident-controlled rather than majority Catellus (developer)-controlled. Nicole mentioned we believe that 90% mark is about 4 years from now.
Michael Jones,Chair of the Mueller commission that advises the City
The committee does not meet in July so Mike has no update this month.
Community Business Spotlight – Drop Inn Daycare
Andrea manages the drop-in daycare at the shop home in Paggi Square at 2104 Robert Browning Street. She has 10 years’ childcare experience and four children ages 19 to 13. They charge by the hour and are open 7 days/week, 8:30-7 p.m. on weekdays, 9-5 on Saturdays and 10-2:30 on Sundays. Every first Friday they stay open till 8:30 p.m. Visit MyDropInn.com to register, and then you can drop your children anytime afterward during regular hours. They are state-licensed and all staff members are trained and administer curriculum-based learning 9-noon each day, including counting, letters, basic ASL and basic Spanish. The site also lists the schedule so you know when, say, it is story time. The schedule combines activities with unstructured time. They currently accept 18 months to age 12, and are looking at the potential to accept 17-months and younger in the future. The hourly rate is $11, and for July have a special rate of $6/hour. They accept up to 11 children. During MNA meetings they offer 20% off and hold a block for us 9:30-11:30 and would like a week’s notice if you plan to bring your child during that time. They opened June 25.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Bill Kirwin and Bill Berman for organizing the 4th of July festival.
Adjourn – 11:10.
Submitted 7/28/2018