Here is what is going on in Lakeway.
Lake Travis Community Library Art Display
Through May, visit the library’s meeting room to view an exhibit by local artist Julie Schmidt.
Aloha Pool Party
On Saturday, May 28, 5-8PM, Lakeway Swim Center will host an evening of fun in the sun at. Enjoy luau games, learn to dance the Hula from a Kona Hawaii instructor, dine on Chick Fil A with Polynesian sauce (from concessions), and more. Plus, the leisure pool will be open for swimming. Luau attire is welcome. Free admission with summer membership pass; otherwise, drop-in rates apply. https://www.lakeway-tx.gov/1835/Aloha-Pool-Party
Memorial Day Service
Lakeway’s Memorial Day observance will be held on Monday, May 30, at 10AM, at Church of the Resurrection of the Lord, Emmaus Catholic Parish, 1718 Lohmans Crossing Road. The guest speaker will be 40-year Lakeway resident Brig. Gen. Richard T. Drury, USAF (Ret.). Lakeway’s Sing Along group will provide patriotic music. Go here for details: https://www.lakeway-tx.gov/1511/Memorial-Day-Ceremony
Summer movies in the park
Fun family entertainment kicks off on Friday, June 3, with a showing of The Parent Trap at 6PM in City Park (502 Hurst Creek). Bring blankets and folding chairs to get comfy on the lawn. No pets or alcohol allowed at this FREE event, with treats, music and yard games provided. Movies are also planned for the first Fridays in July and August.
4th of July celebration—parade theme is SHE’S A GRAND OLD FLAG
—Parade registration deadline is June 21. Event details and a link to register to participate in the parade are here: https://www.lakeway-tx.gov/718/July-4th-Celebration
—Volunteers are needed. City of Lakeway Parks & Rec is looking for volunteer helpers for the 4th of July Celebration taking place Monday, July 4 (including prep work that weekend). Needs include Shuttle Cart Drivers, Photographer, Golf Carts & Drivers, Convertible Vehicles & Drivers, Staging Volunteers, Parade Route Volunteers, Decoration Volunteers, and Banner Holders. To volunteer, call 512-314-7532 during business hours, email paradechair@lakeway-tx.gov OR complete the volunteer form found here: https://www.lakeway-tx.gov/FormCenter/Administration-5/City-of-Lakeway-Volunteer-Form-83
GIVE BLOOD
As always, I had a great experience donating blood today at the Activity Center. It was well organized, clean and friendly; I was done and out the door in under 30 minutes. It is an important cause and helps countless people. Plus—FREE JUICE AND COOKIES! The group We are Blood is at LAC every 2 months. Some other locations nearby are Rough Hollow Yacht Club and BSW Hospital in Lakeway. Once you get started, it is super easy to be on the schedule for regular blood donations at the location of your choice. You can see upcoming dates and make an appointment to donate by entering your zip code here– https://weareblood.org/donor/schedule/
COUNCIL met on May 16.
RESULTS in ALL CAPS
ITEM 4: Recognition and honors for: Councilmembers Laurie Higginbotham and Steve Smith, and Police Captain David Crowder. ONLY SMITH WAS IN ATTENDANCE, receiving a commemorative glass sailboat.
ITEM 5: Swearing in newly elected Councilmembers. MASTRANGELO, SZIMANSKI AND BRYNTESON WERE SWORN IN.
ITEM 12: Financial Report: REVENUE WAS AHEAD BY $470K (with 99% of the year’s property tax collected, with sales tax collection 9% over projections, and with $200K excess sales tax now expected to be collected by year-end). EXPENDITURES WERE $185K LESS THAN PROJECTED.
ITEM 13: Appointment of a Mayor Pro Tem. GRETCHEN VANCE WAS NAMED MAYOR PRO TEM.
ITEM 14: Citizens Participation. 1 PERSON SPOKE (suggesting Lakeway’s spike in population means we should change to districts for Council elections, as opposed to all members being elected at large).
ITEMS 17 and 18: Annexation of 29 acres off Highlands Blvd. in Rough Hollow and rezoning the tract as parkland, in accordance with the approved consolidated preliminary plan. UNANIMOUSLY APPROVED.
ITEMS 19 and 20: Annexation of 16 acres south of Tomichi Trail and east of Rough Hollow Elementary School in Rough Hollow and rezoning the tract as R-1 (although the only allowed use is for water quality ponds and a greenbelt, with no construction of homes), consistent with the approved consolidated preliminary plan. UNANIMOUSLY APPROVED.
ITEM 22: Revising the ordinance covering outdoor storage of lawn and home items, including accumulated refuse and junk, as well as portable storage units. UNANIMOUSLY APPROVED.
The 3 Executive Sessions were moved up in the Agenda:
ITEM: 24: Executive Session on Lakeway MUD property request.
ITEM: 25: Executive Session to discuss pending litigation and other confidential matters with the city attorney.
Item A1, added to the Agenda, on May 13: Executive Session to deliberate the appointment, employment, evaluation and duties of a public employee or officer, per Texas Government Code 551.074.
Council left the room at 8:01PM, returning at 9:29PM. NO ACTION WAS TAKEN, during Executive Session or later in the meeting, as to the 3 items.
ITEM 23: Revising the Home Occupation ordinance to allow some home businesses to operate while protecting residential neighborhoods. ZAPCO recommended numerous restrictions, including no more than one employee not living at the dwelling (and that employee is limited to 4 hours per day and 20 hours per week), no more than 3 customer-related round trips per day, and (for daycare businesses) no more than 4 unrelated children and no more than 6 total children. [NOTE: The city is currently being sued for disallowing, per the current law, a daycare business to be run from a home on Vanguard.]
Council reviewed the proposed changes line by line, making minor changes. Citizens Participation was surprising scant—only 1 resident spoke, other than the daycare operator who is suing the city and her 2 Washington, DC, attorneys. Subsequent discussion on the dais revealed all Council members favor a total ban of employees on site. In addition, there was disfavor toward ZAPCO’s suggestions limiting customer trips to 3 per day and limiting the number of children allowed in a daycare business. Various members indicated the issue was balancing the rights of homeowners to use their property as they see fit, with the rights of neighbors to peaceful enjoyment of their property purchased when local law prohibited businesses in residential neighborhoods. Creating a separate ordinance governing daycare businesses was discussed. UNANIMOUSLY VOTED to postpone the matter until the JUNE 21 MEETING, with staff instructed to use the evening’s feedback to further revise the ordinance.
ADJOURNED 10:57PM.
Go here to watch the Council meeting online: https://lakewaytx.new.swagit.com/videos/173819
The Meeting Packet is here: https://www.lakeway-tx.gov/archive.aspx
Council’s Transportation Work Session
Council is hosting a special work session on transportation issues on Monday, June 6, 6:30PM, at City Hall. Residents who attended the April Transportation Town Hall will be familiar with our many current transportation issues, including replacing decayed culverts, adding needed sidewalks, widening Serene Hills, connecting Birrell to Lohmans Spur, the much-delayed Main Street expansion, the city’s cost share of expanding 620, and more. The work session will explore options for the most pressing issues, prior to summer budget meetings and in anticipation of putting one or more municipal bonds on the November ballot for resident consideration.
Texas Elections
The Primary Runoff Election is on Tuesday, May 24, 2022. Vote at Lakeway Activity Center, 7AM-7PM. Other area locations include Bee Cave City Hall and Lake Travis ISD Educational Development Center.
Democrats vote in races for Lt. Governor (Mike Collier vs. Michelle Beckley) and Attorney General (Rochelle Garza vs. Joe Jaworski ).
Republicans will vote for Attorney General (Ken Paxton vs. George P. Bush).
Ballots for both parties will have contests for Land Commissioner, with Democrats voting for Comptroller and Republicans voting for Railroad Commissioner. Democrats living in District 21 will have a US House race on the ballot (Claudia Andreana Zapata vs. Ricardo Villarreal). Republicans living in several area districts will have US House races and state House and Senate contests (including Ellen Troxclair vs. Justin Berry on Lakeway ballots for those living in District 19).
Go here for more info: 2022 Texas primary runoff election: What you need to know before voting 5/13/22 https://www.kvue.com/article/news/politics/vote-texas/2022-texas-primary-runoff-election-may-24-voting-austin/269-c051cebd-182f-4ab7-a0cc-a60e2732e841
Also, League of Women Voters has an excellent voters guide online. Go here and scroll down to select “Click here for Voters Guide”: https://lwvaustin.org/voter-guide#gsc.tab=0
Daring Mighty Things
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft had a successful launch via an Atlas V rocket last week, soon docking with the International Space Station and carrying a test dummy and station supplies on board. After failure of 2 previous test flights, this uncrewed flight is key to Starliner’s mission of ferrying astronauts to and from ISS, as an alternate to the ongoing SPACEX flights. Starliner is scheduled to return to Earth next week. Liftoff! Atlas V Clears the Launch Pad with Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner Spacecraft 5/19/222 https://blogs.nasa.gov/oft-2/2022/05/19/liftoff-atlas-v-clears-the-launch-pad-with-boeings-cst-100-starliner-spacecraft-2/
NASA has imaged the black hole at the center of our galaxy. Turns out, it looks like a Halloween doughnut. 1st image of supermassive black hole at the center of Milky Way galaxy revealed 5/12/22 https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/12/world/milky-way-center-black-hole-image-scn/index.html
Back to me….
The fabulous thing about losing the Council race is that I can return to my normal life. Most importantly–the cats are getting their lunch served on time again. All is well….
The FAWNS ARE HERE! Drive carefully. Dozens of fawns are hit by cars in Lakeway every spring, and every time is just tragic all around. If you see a doe, assume there is a fawn with her; if you see one fawn, watch for another.
Here are some recent photos of our deer herd, including one of a newborn fawn on Sunfish; Mama was watching from the next driveway.
The Coronavirus
Worldwide, 11.8 billion shots have been given, with 60% of the planet’s population fully vaccinated.
Testing has dropped up to 90% worldwide, compared to a few months ago. Some countries have all but stopped testing due to Covid fatigue. In other countries, testing is of little use because anti-viral drugs are not available for anyone testing positive. Lack of testing means no screening for new variants and thus no warning of what may be on the way as Covid’s next ugly surprise.
South Africa is having its fifth Covid surge. Positive testing rates are over 40%.
In China, Shanghai’s lockdowns continue, with no end in sight as the government persists in its zero-Covid mentality. The populace is becoming more militant as restrictions tighten.
In what is supposedly its first Covid outbreak, North Korea announced an Omicron surge on May 12. In response, it declared a “severe national emergency” and went into full lockdown of its entire population (25 million). Over 2 years ago, the secretive nation closed its borders as the sole protection against Covid. Testing has long been scant in North Korea, and reportedly NONE of its population is vaccinated.
New Zealand plans to fully open its borders in July. The island nation with 5 million residents closed its borders in March of 2020. It eventually achieved a high vaccination rate and reports one of the lowest death rates (17 deaths per 100,000 people). On May 16, the country’s prime minister announced she had tested positive.
In the US, in the last 2 weeks, cases have increased 53%, hospitalizations are up 30%, and deaths decreased 19%. We are averaging 108,000 new cases per day. 24,000 Americans are currently hospitalized with Covid, and the death rate averages 300 people per day.
The nation swings from struggling to cope with the milestone of 1 million dead to trying to ignore it. It is legitimately hard to grasp loss on that scale, particularly as the death toll could have been drastically reduced in so many ways. For instance, half the deaths occurred after vaccinations were widely available. Also, the deaths were NOT evenly distributed. Age was a huge factor, with 75% of the dead age 65 or older; 20% of the dead lived in nursing homes. Hispanics died at 4 times the rate of whites; blacks died at 3 times the rate of whites. Essential workers were also fodder for Covid. Among regions of the country, the south experienced the highest death rate—nearly 400,000 people, largely due to poor vaccination rates, lack of quality medical care, and high levels of underlying disease. Worldwide, the US had more Covid deaths than any other country. To bring the overall loss of 1 million Americans into focus, Covid-19 killed more Americans than died in TWO DECADES of car crashes. Also, the Covid death toll is higher than our dead in ALL wars combined. This interactive article is a stunning account of how the unthinkable happened. How America Reached 100 Million Deaths 5/13/22 https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/05/13/us/covid-deaths-us-one-million.html
With cases and hospitalizations rising again, across one-third of the country and especially in the northeast, the CDC is advising people in those areas to wear masks indoors in public spaces, yet again.
New York City is experiencing its fifth Covid surge, largely caused by Omicron progeny BA.2.12.1. New daily case totals are over 4,000, even with most testing done at home and not included in official totals. Hospitalizations are rising moderately.
Remember getting FREE test kits in the mail, twice now? Round 3 is now available. The White House will send Americans eight more at-home tests. Just go here to place your order for 8 FREE test kits: covidtests.gov
Omicron’s many variants are increasingly able to reinfect people who had an earlier version of Covid-19, even recently. This surprises most experts, who assumed infection would grant some degree of immunity for at least several months. Instead, people are getting infected 2-4 times a year. For those who are vaccinated, the infections are generally mild, but each time routines are interrupted and work is missed; plus, the variant spreads to other people. Each infection brings the possibility of long Covid—having debilitating symptoms for months or even years. And, every infection is a fresh opportunity for a new variant to evolve. So far, experts can only recommend updating the vaccines as frequently as possible to cope with the latest variants and getting boosters multiple times a year.
Congress is reluctant to keep funding the pandemic response. As a result, the Biden administration is having to cut back on everything from vaccine production to testing and anti-viral medications.
On May 16, the FDA issued a warning about counterfeit over the counter Covid tests kits. The counterfeits mimic Flowflex COVID-19 Antigen Home Tests and iHealth COVID-19 Antigen Rapid Test Kits. Results from these tests cannot be trusted. More info is here, including ways to identify the counterfeit test kits: https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/coronavirus-covid-19-and-medical-devices/counterfeit-home-otc-covid-19-diagnostic-tests?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery
As for vaccinations in the US, 66% of the entire population is fully vaccinated (no change in the last 6 weeks). Average shots administered per day decreased to 366,000. About 102 million booster shots have been given.
The CDC is now recommending all adults over age 50 get a SECOND booster (4 months after the first booster). Prior to the current surge in cases, a second booster was recommended for those 65 and older.
On May 19, the CDC authorized Pfizer booster shots for kids age 5-11, 5 months after receiving the second shot of their original vaccination.
In Texas, the positivity test rate is on the rise, currently 13%. In the last 2 weeks, new cases increased 31%, hospitalizations rose 8%, and deaths fell 6%. We are averaging 3,500 new cases and 10 deaths daily. As of now, there are 1,200 Texans hospitalized for Covid-19.
Only 62% of all Texas residents are fully vaccinated.
Recent Covid articles I recommend
A Better Understanding of Long Covid 5/20/22 35 minute podcast https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/20/podcasts/the-daily/long-covid-symptoms.html
The C.D.C. recommends Pfizer-BioNTech boosters for children 5 to 11 5/19/22 https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/19/health/pfizer-vaccine-booster-kids.html
Over 75 Percent of Long Covid Patients Were Not Hospitalized for Initial Illness, Study Finds 5/18/22 https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/18/health/long-covid-hospitalization.html
How Often Can You Be Infected With the Coronavirus? 5/16/22 https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/16/health/covid-reinfection.html
The Lost Americans 5/14/22 https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/14/us/covid-one-million-deaths.html
How America Reached 100 Million Deaths 5/13/22 https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/05/13/us/covid-deaths-us-one-million.html
What if Delaware disappeared? 1 million Covid-19 deaths explained in 4 charts. 5/11/22 https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/11/1-million-covid-deaths-00031142
White House warns of Covid surges in the winter 5/8/22 https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/08/white-house-warns-of-covid-surges-this-winter-00030901