Texas — One person is injured after a collision Saturday afternoon around 4:15 p.m a car collided with a motorcycle on FM 969 and Hunters Bend Rd Travis County ESD 12 was also on the scene of the accident ALSO:One person dead after auto-pedestrian collision near Creedmoor life-threatening injuries to Dell Seton Medical Center No other information is available on the incident our very survival depended on hunting things — nuts The era of the hunter gatherers is behind us teams of seekers convene around the world to put that impulse to another use: the annual Christmas Bird Count “I tell people if you were into Pokémon as a kid you should get into birding!” Sofia Bautista said with a laugh at one of the first Central Texas bird counts of the season Bautista and several others gathered at the Hornsby Bend Bird Observatory on Saturday to conduct the count, the longest running citizen science project in the country and one of the longest running in the world, according to the Audubon Society. volunteers return to the same area every year to conduct a point in time census recording the number and variety of birds they can find and identify The bird counts started in 1900 as the conservationists’ answer to an earlier tradition participants counted not how many birds they found John Bloomfield, the board president of Travis Audubon, said there are all sorts of apps and new technologies that now help people track bird populations But the data collected during these annual counts remains an important resource “You can look at [bird population] trends over a long period of time,” he said “So it's very valuable from that standpoint.” Those trends paint a troubling picture. Bloomfield said bird counts, when combined and counted together, show “about 30% of the total bird life has been lost since the 1970s” in North America though most are human caused and could be mitigated through changes in human behavior Locally, birders believe extreme weather has recently taken a toll. “I’d definitely say that the [2021] winter storm that we had here that definitely knocked down some species for a few years,” said Vincent O’Brien “I'd say the large majority of birds [I find] when I walk through the woods are just heard only,” said Caleb Helsel at the Hornsby Bend count He said he got a lot of practice identifying birds at Hornsby Bend during the early days of social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic “I asked my parents to drop me off here on Saturdays,” he said “I’d get picked up again once I'd seen a hundred species So I just walked around the whole property.” he called the group’s attention to a faint sound a few minutes later an Osprey flying off in the distance that they soon also identified with binoculars Other species spotted on Saturday included a caracara also known as a “butcher bird,” for its practice of impaling its prey on thorns or barbed wire to store for later consumption Many participants also enjoyed finding more easy-to-spot species my favorite bird is the great tailed grackle even though they’re super common,” Bautista said Christmas bird counts take place between Dec. 14 and Jan. 5. You can find a list of Bird Counts happening in Central Texas and how to participate on the Houston Audubon website. HORNSBY BEND — The questions about water in one eastern Travis County community don't seem to go away For more than a decade residents of Hornsby Bend — a collection of unincorporated suburban developments 10 miles east of downtown Austin on FM 969 — have asked their water provider to improve the quality of their tap water or “hardness,” which they say corrodes pipes which can dwarf those of neighboring water services such as Austin's has announced plans to raise their rates by 20% is intended to fund improvements addressing customer complaints about hardness and match inflation since the area's last rate increase in 2017 more than three dozen residents discussed filing protests to force the Texas Public Utility Commission to hold a hearing on the proposed rates A large-scale organizing effort appears necessary for residents indignant at what they believe to be an incongruency between price and quality "It would have to be 120% better for us to say you can justify this rate change,” Hornsby Bend resident Richard Franklin said Hornsby Bend residents have long blamed the TWU's for-profit nature for its high rates TWU is Texas' second largest investor-owned utility and a subsidiary of what is now Nexus Water Group The service area's current base water rate for residential customers That's about four times higher than Austin Water's rate and $10 to $15 higher than adjacent nonprofit water providers Manville Water Supply Corp TWU's current starting water usage rate of $7.18 per 1,000 gallons is about twice as high as Austin Water's and Garfield's TWU has said its rates reflect operational costs and investments Company Vice President Tim Williford previously told the American-Statesman that TWU is a regulated company and required to charge rates that have been approved by Texas' Public Utility Commission "and are fair to all customers." Some of that recent investment has been in response to the water hardness complaints, which residents have said adds an extra layer of water costs: damaged property Betty Araya of Chaparral Crossing said she paid more than $6,000 for a water softening system to avoid calcium buildup in her house after she had to replace a washer earlier than expected Maria and Rodolfo de Leon of Forrest Bluff plan to spend $1,000 to replace the water heater in a new home they bought three years ago when they moved from East Austin also spend to buy drinking water from a store Maria de Leon estimated this costs the household of five more than $100 a month “If you would ask how many people in the community drink this water the answer you would get is almost none,” Araya told the Statesman Water hardness is created by minerals such as calcium carbonate It's common in groundwater wells in hard rock areas like the local limestone-rich Colorado River alluvium where TWU sources the vast majority of its water Environmental Protection Agency not to have adverse health effects argue that they have noticed health effects In October, residents shared these complaints with local elected officials in a meeting organized by neighborhood groups and the environmental activist group PODER (People Organized in Defense of Earth and Her Resources) Texas Water Utilities doubled the amount of softer water from Burleson County that it was feeding into the Hornsby Bend service area in an effort to dilute the hardness Williford told the Statesman that the injection of softer water has allowed the company to lower water hardness rates from about 400 parts per million to 280 ppm at the system's highest end often at locations farthest away from the soft water's entry point on FM 969 He said the goal was to bring the rate down to 200 ppm The U.S. Geological Survey lists all water with more than 180 ppm of calcium carbonate or other minerals as “very hard." Williford said that the improvement might not be noticeable to residents in taste but that it should lessen the calcium "plaque" buildups they notice on their home appliances is working to ensure that the improved water quality is felt throughout the community by using flush valves to distribute the softer water away from its entry point some collected contacts and others volunteered to collect protest forms from residents and mail them or drive them in as a group Franklin suggested that residents knock on the doors of their immediate neighbors to limit their exposure to the summer's heat The community will have to work through its at-times fragmented nature each of the developments has its own homeowners association with its own leadership communication network It can be hard to make sure information gets out “We are divided,” Araya said of her community’s geography But "we’re also a community of people here that care about each other and our problems.” Texas — One adult was pronounced deceased on the scene of a motorcycle collision near Hornsby Bend early Sunday The collision took place just before 1 a.m Austin-Travis County EMS responded to a reported collision involving a single motorcycle with one person involved CPR was administered to the victim after officials arrive to the scene but the victim was eventually pronounced deceased ALSO:One dead after S Austin auto-pedestrian collision Extended road closures were in place near the scene EMS left the scene of the crash before 2 a.m This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Texas — One person is dead after a reported rollover collision just after midnight Sunday the collision took place at 7501 E Parmer Ln ALSO:One person dead after motorcycle crash in East Travis County near Hornsby Bend The adult victim was pronounced deceased on the scene of the crash; the collision caused traffic delays in the area Texas — A 3-year-old child and her father were killed in a hit-and-run collision involving an ATV and another vehicle late Friday night in East Austin,according to a Texas DPS report Austin-Travis County EMS responded around 10:01 p.m in the 5500 block of Delta Post Road with Bigelow Drive in the Hornsby Bend neighborhood ALSO| One person seriously injured following boat crash on Lake Austin west of Pennybacker Bridge According to a preliminary investigation by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) a 2010 Chevrolet Silverado was traveling south on Delta Post Drive when it failed to give one-half of the roadway and struck aKawasaki Brute Force 300 Utility ATV head-on The Kawasaki was occupied by a 26-year-old man and his 3-year-old daughter The driver of the Chevrolet fled the scene of the crash Anyone with information regarding the suspect or the crash should contact Texas DPS at 512-997-4188 Central Health is opening its new Hornsby Bend Health & Wellness Center on Saturday the first of several clinics the local health district will soon launch in Eastern Travis County The new health center is located in the Austins' Colony neighborhood of Hornsby Bend around 25 minutes outside of Central Austin It will provide primary care and behavioral health services to people enrolled in Central Health’s Medical Access Program which serves low-income residents who do not qualify for Medicare or Medicaid The facility will also be a community gathering and education space with an outdoor play area for neighborhood kids the 10,000 or so people who live in and around Hornsby Bend had to travel a minimum of 12 miles by road to get to any doctor which a lot of people with low incomes and chronic conditions simply can’t manage,” Mike Clark-Madison a communications representative for Central Health about 2,500 people in and around Hornsby Bend lack health insurance So it’s a community where a center [like this one] will make a huge difference.” services have been provided out of a temporary site off Webberville Road services will begin their transition to the permanent building at 3700 Gilbert Road purpose-built medical facility and resource center developed with guidance from the Hornsby Bend community.” The new health center will hold a grand opening Saturday from 10 a.m Medical staff will offer flu vaccines at the event along with a Teddy Bear Clinic for kids who bring their stuffed animals There will also be live music and dance performances by students from Hornsby Bend’s Gilbert Elementary School This clinic’s opening marks the first milestone in Central Health’s Healthcare Equity Plan, a seven-year undertaking to add clinics and services the organization believes will close critical gaps in local health care availability which Central Health hopes will reduce long wait times many MAP members face for specialty care the public agency that connects low-income residents in Travis County with health care will begin construction of two centers in eastern Travis County.  As part of its strategic plan, Central Health has been looking at health equity in Travis County and gaps in coverage which is why it identified the Hornsby Bend and Del Valle areas as sites for new health centers.  we also talk about who has access to resources," said Mike Geeslin The strategic plan "identified significant gaps in care that exist," said Dr "We need to do something to eliminate those gaps." will replace and expand existing services in Hornsby Bend and Del Valle Central Health has one other permanent center the Southeast Health & Wellness Center on Montopolis Drive manages the Medical Access Program in Travis County to provide health care for people at or below the federal poverty level and other programs for people at or below 200% of the federal poverty level It serves about 147,000 people with more than 500,000 clinic visits a year Focus on health equity: Austin Latino, Black populations remain hardest hit by COVID-19. Advocates demand action Most of that care is done at 167 clinics run by federally qualified health centers such as CommUnityCare Lone Star Circle of Care and People's Community Clinic CommUnityCare will operate the primary care clinics at the new Central Health centers and lease space from Central Health.  "Our plan will strengthen the impact of high-quality health and wellness services on the most marginalized." Social determinants of health: Kids in Travis County have 60% higher rates of asthma events, Dell Medical School study finds The Hornsby Bend Health & Wellness Center will replace a modular building Central Health opened in 2020 Ground will be broken on the 7,800-square-foot space at 3700 Gilbert Road near FM 969 and Texas 130 with a public celebration Saturday.  The center will open next spring and is estimated to be a $5 million project.  Maternal health equity: Austin collaborative receives $1 million grant to improve health of pregnant women of color It will have a primary care clinic as well as integrated behavioral health specialists space for telehealth visits from specialists community gathering spaces and a play area.   Central Health estimates that 12,700 people live in the unincorporated area of Hornsby Bend and 21.4% of the area's residents are at or below 200% of the federal poverty level compared with 13.8% for all of Travis County The federal poverty level is $27,180 for an individual and $55,500 for a family of four Need for more mental health care: 'Collective trauma of COVID:' Pandemic has taken mental health toll on all of us Del Valle centerThe second center in Del Valle will replace one that operates out of the Travis County Employee Wellness Center It will be 18,900 square feet at 7050 Elroy Road just east of Texas 130 and north of Circuit of the Americas The Del Valle Health & Wellness Center will open in summer 2023 and has an estimated cost of just over $10 million.  That center will have a primary care clinic as well as dental care mental health care and a retail pharmacy.  About 21,600 people live in unincorporated Del Valle About 35.6% are below 200% of the poverty level.  The projects are being funded by Central Health reserves that have been set aside by its board in recent years Central Health is funded by property taxes. For the 2021-22 fiscal year homeowners will pay 11.1814 cents per $100 property valuation It shows up on their property tax bill as Travis County Healthcare District A third center is being planned to replace the Northeast Health Resource Center and Mobile Health Clinic in the Colony Park neighborhood Central Health is seeking community input from neighbors before planning that center Each center is being built based on feedback about what that community wanted as well as what wasn't readily available "We're taking what we've learned to better serve the community," as well as looking at it through a health equity lens "This gives us the building blocks to amp it up and take it to the next level."  These centers also will have space for Central Health employees to connect the community to resources from local nonprofits and other government programs.  there aren't many nonprofits operating Central Health's senior director of community health and wellness initiatives "It will be a place where we can connect them," she said.  Flex office space will allow nonprofits to come into Hornsby Bend to help provide services to the area "Every community looks different," Marrero said residents' feedback let Central Health know that they didn't have access to food banks It is creating a community garden but also hoping to bring a food bank service to the center The community also didn't have a convenient playground that wasn't attached to a school residents let Central Health know that they didn't have a convenient pharmacy nearby That center will have a drive-thru pharmacy.  Two years of COVID-19: 'You have to pivot:' What Austin's medical community has learned from COVID More information: centralhealth.net 1.210.564.6900 askme@virtualbx.com Feature Illustration: Google satellite view of a section of the Hornsby Bend Biosolids Management Plant Austin(Travis County)— A local civil engineer was awarded a construction contract for the Hornsby Bend Transfer Pump Station and irrigation system improvements project by the City Council last week The city authorized PGC General Contractors LLC to construct the project in the amount of $15,875,000 plus a $1,587,500 contingency for a total contract amount not to exceed $17,462,500 LLC had the lowest bid of the three bids received at a total of $15,875,000 Belton based Matous Construction Ltd came in second at a total of $16,647,000 and Austin based Flintco LLC came in third at a total of $16,983,170 Project improvements will include a new transfer pump station a new precast electrical and control building approximately 650 linear feet of 16-inch to 24-inch gravity suction pipe approximately 14,500 linear feet of 6-inch to 16-inch pressurized distribution pipe a new electrical load center and conveyance lines across the Colorado River by horizontal directional drilling The Hornsby Bend Biosolids Management Plant (BMP) facility is situated on 1,200 acres of land along the Colorado River about eight miles east of downtown Austin and is the primary wastewater sludge processing facility for Austin Water The site for the project is predominately on plant property The project is adjacent to the Hornsby Bend Bird Observatory Construction activities will require a lane closure and detours for birdwatchers A portion of the work is south of the plant on Austin-Bergstrom International Airport at Crozier Lane which may require occasional traffic control and lane closure The objective of the Hornsby Bend BMP is to take wastewater sludge and process it by screening Water from the dewatering process is further treated in a sidestream wastewater treatment plant and is stored in an on-site system of lagoons or ponds Hornsby Bend BMP is permitted by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality as a non-discharge treatment facility all water from sludge processing that is stored in the lagoons must be retained in storage and disposed of on-site by means of irrigation or transferred to another treatment facility The construction of the new transfer pump station and rehabilitation and expansion of the existing irrigation system will provide additional irrigation capabilities and the ability to transfer excess flow to the South Austin Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant This project includes the following six allowances: This contract will include award of the three following alternate bid items for the replacement and expansion of irrigation equipment and the removal of the Hyacinth Building which is no longer utilized for process treatment: In compliance with the city’s Minority Owned and Women Owned Business Enterprise Procurement Program the project has a goal of 33.38% Minority Business Enterprise and 0.95% Women Business Enterprise (WBE) participation LLC scope of work provides for eleven areas of subcontracting opportunities where the project specific goals to meet the enterprise program are stated at 0.40% African American; 4.71%Hispanic; 1.17%Native/Asian and a 0.91% WBE The construction contract allows for 540 calendar days for completion of the project and was recommended by the Water and Wastewater Commission on Nov VBX Project ID: 2020-6287 Following a substantial decrease in demand Travis County has announced that March 26 will be the last day Mansfield Dam Park will serve as a drop-off location for storm debris Winter Storm Mara created an outsize need for debris disposal at the beginning of February after it snapped tree limbs and downed power lines throughout the county Travis County residents also should be aware of  the pending closure of a county drop-off site at Northeast Metropolitan Park both Northeast Metropolitan Park and Mansfield Dam Park are open from Friday to Sunday “Residents should be advised Northeast Metro Park and Mansfield Dam Park staff will not be able to assist with unloading not next to them in loose piles,” the county said in a statement adding that demand for brush disposal has steadily decreased since the first round of brush pickup “The drop-off sites will only accept tree limbs or other non-vegetative debris will not be accepted.” But even after the closures, residents still can use Austin Water’s Hornsby Bend Biosolids Management Plant to drop off brush the county said contractors currently are working on removing brush from the western portion of the county saying it anticipates a second round of pickup in unincorporated areas the county had announced that debris collection was expected to take multiple weeks “due to a high number of service requests and the high volume of fallen branches caused by the historic storm.” the county said that it could help with brush disposal in any accessible roadway in the county and we haven’t accepted it for road maintenance in our system we can certainly haul brush from the right of way if it’s open to the public,” said Cynthia McDonald head of Travis County Transportation and Natural Resources The city of Austin also takes part in brush collection twice a year with the Austin Resource Recovery program “Information on TNR’s service areas for pick up, directions for preparing for pick up, and minimizing fire risks can be found on the Travis County Office of Emergency Management’s winter storm recovery page,” the county said in a press release Additional information about the recovery from Winter Storm Mara in available here And we’re honored you look to us for serious You know a strong community needs local and dedicated watchdog reporting Now will you take the powerful next step and support our nonprofit news organization Caldwell County Commissioners Court: The governing body for Caldwell County The Austin Monitor thanks its sponsors. Become one See which district you live in The Austin Monitor is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit and nonpartisan news organization We are fully-local and cover the important issues and key decisions at the intersection between the local government and the community Residents in east Travis County are evacuating their homes near Hornsby Bend as a precaution while firefighters work to put out a two-alarm wildfire The Austin Fire Department and Travis County Emergency Services District 12 are fighting the brush fire near FM 969 and Gilbert Road The fire was about 80% contained at 4:15 p.m. according to Travis County Emergency Services STAR Flight is providing air support and the Travis County sheriff's office is helping with evacuations Evacuees are being temporarily housed at Joseph Gilbert Elementary at 5412 Gilbert Road This is a developing story; check back for updates A persistent fire smoldering amid the 25 acres of compost material at Hornsby Bend Biosolids Management Plant in Southeast Austin likely will continue to smoke for up to three more weeks has transformed the neat windrows of yard trimmings and sludge into something looking like primeval planet Earth With trapped organic material capable of gathering tremendous heat Small blazes are not unusual at compost sites; this one began innocently enough on Feb compost and biosolids reuse manager for the city of Austin but then then the winds picked up,” he said the composting site was aglow with fire — a volcano atop a concrete pad A perfect soup of drought and wind is to blame for the fire’s spread and persistence Compost fires are hard to put out because hosing down a large pile with water may intensify reactions caused by the bacteria deep inside the piles around the time the Hornsby fire broke out firefighters from 10 different departments were called to help extinguish flames at a mulching facility in Fort Bend County In the San Antonio suburb of Helotes in 2007 it took firefighters three months — at a cost of $5.5 million — to put out a massive compost fire that reached temperatures of around 2,0000 degrees Austin officials say the Hornsby Bend fire won’t spread beyond the concrete pad After the Austin Fire Department deemed the Hornsby Bend blaze contained a painstaking process involving the dismantling of months worth of yard trimmings and other materials that were destined for Dillo Dirt wastewater regulatory manager at Austin Water Utility “So much work had gone into preparing these materials.” Officials could not estimate how many tons of potential compostable material were now unusable but to the naked eye it looked like enough material to aide gardeners in thousands of homes had been charred authorities say the smoke hasn’t reached unsafe levels Stifling the fire enough to stop the smoke could take two to three more weeks Texas regional manager with OMI Environmental Solutions Hill said the city has tried to keep residents businesses and schools in a 5-mile radius apprised of the situation The sewage treatment facility stretches for more than 3 miles along the Colorado River and historically has attracted a variety of birds — and bird watchers. However, while crews fight the fire, Austin Water has closed the site to the public, including the Platt Lane entrance, at least through Sunday. Updates are posted on the utilities website, www.austintexas.gov/water “I’ve been working outside so long this doesn’t bother me,” he said AUSTIN, Texas — Tesla is celebrating the end of construction of their newest factory just east of Austin but for homeowners in Austin's Colony and Hornsby Bend their life with their new neighbor is just beginning The neighbors had to change their children's school schedule for a day to accommodate Tesla's celebration The arrival of Tesla so close to suburban subdivisions in eastern Travis County is expected to attract more businesses and more traffic to this quiet area the early dismissal of the class was not a good sign Middle school parent Sean Linton reacted with a laugh and on Thursday middle schoolers ended their school day at 12:45 p.m so the buses wouldn’t get caught in the expected traffic for the Tesla event RELATED | Travis County Sheriff's Office says to expect traffic delays near Tesla Gigafest event Other parents are looking forward to the economic development and jobs a major employer like Tesla is expected to create but Linton worries their neighborhoods aren’t built for this “It seems to be like this is going to be more congestion less consideration of school hours as you can tell and I don’t see any kind of economic investment into this particular community,” Linton said And she’s also upset the factory’s closest neighbors weren’t invited to the Tesla gala And now their newest neighbor is wondering what the future holds in his new community “It’s possible it might get a little more lively,” he says I know there’s a lot of houses for sale in the area Editor’s note: This story was updated after its initial publication to include responses from Texas Water Utilities It was also updated to reflect that the water does not contain high levels of lead HORNSBY BEND — In the seven years since Keree Brannen bought a newly built house in Austin’s Colony — a string of developments in the Hornsby Bend unincorporated community in eastern Travis County — she has had to replace her sink fixtures “The water smelled like stagnant water,” said Brannen The crust on her toilet “was like plaque” on a “mouth that isn’t brushed.” as many Central Texas residents prepared to watch the eclipse Brannen and more than three dozen others crowded into a small community center meeting room to explore a difficult question — how to approach a neighborhood concern of more than a decade over water quality and pricing Residents' frustrations stem from the “hard” quality of the water  Texas Water Utilities, a subsidiary of the national for-profit SouthWest Water Co., provides the area with water. Its most recent Drinking Water Quality Report indicates that the water the company provides to the area meets state and federal standards Other concerns in Travis County: Fear in New Sweden: Residents fight back against concrete plant plans in heart of Texas many residents said they experience regular inconveniences due to the water: irritated scalp and skin; staid water scents; intermittent water discolorations; broken water heaters washing machines and pipe systems from corrosion; plaquelike calcium crusts that form in their toilets bathtubs and sinks and are difficult to clean Texas Water Utilities is aware of those hard water conditions magnesium carbonate and other naturally occurring minerals in groundwater vice president of operations at Texas Water Utilities Magnesium and calcium do not have harmful health effects or affect water safety "Hard water is not unique to our Hornsby Bend system and is commonly found in cities that utilize groundwater as a drinking water source in Central Texas," Williford said in an email to the American-Statesman "Delivering clean water is our business and Austin’s Colony drinking water continues to meet or exceed the water quality standards established by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the U.S Frustrations extend to what residents say are high base fees from provider SouthWest Water Co. which start at $92 a month but can grow $40 or $50 higher even without use “People go on vacation and come back to a $150 bill,” longtime resident and retired businessman Richard Franklin said Texas Water Utilities is required to charge rates that have been reviewed and approved by the Public Utility Commission of Texas "and are fair to all customers." relatively low housing costs and the location — Austin’s Colony is about 10 miles east of downtown — have attracted many to scattered unincorporated communities east of U.S Brannen chose Austin’s Colony because she found it advertised by developers as an area where she would qualify as a first-time homebuyer Resident Nicole Clark moved to Austin’s Colony in 2001 from Northeast Austin because mortgage payments and taxes were lower Franklin came at about the same time because of the rising rent on the city’s southwest side These factors are part of what has made Austin’s Colony a diverse area. More than 4 in 5 residents are Black or Latino, according to the most recent census numbers is increasingly put at risk by the indirect costs of living with their water provider numerous residents told the American-Statesman Clark said she has spent more than $8,000 on three water softener systems three water heaters and two toilets during her two decades as a resident does not include the extra $50 a month she spends on drinking water and the $10 to $40 she spends on the salt or magnesium she needs to keep her water softener working said the agency has "an open line of communications" with homeowner association representatives about planned system improvement projects and community service activities in the area Those representatives have not voiced concerns about water quality and costs of service Williford said in an email that the Texas Water Utilities system in Hornsby Bend invested a total of $5.5 million in infrastructure in 2022 and 2023 Those projects included upgrades to a wastewater treatment plant lift station and planning and design for a wastewater treatment facility expansion to meet projected growth in the area If Texas Water Utilities receives water quality complaints operations staffers are sent to the address to check for chlorine residuals The agency can also flush the neighborhood lines if those checks deem it would be helpful Residents discuss next stepsMany neighbors echoed Brannen's and Clark’s experiences Saturday morning The broad consensus was that ditching SouthWest Water would be ideal Many would like to apply for permission to join Austin Water Yet residents remain divided on the question of annexation into Austin and on the feasibility of applying for an exemption from SouthWest Water’s state-designated jurisdiction a move they saw Tesla maneuver for its nearby gigafactory in recent years hefty funds would be required to attempt such a legal battle “We’re a cash cow for a private water company,” Franklin said organizers from the East Austin-based group People Organized in Defense of Earth and her Resources and the neighborhood group Hornsby Bend Alliance surveyed community opinion for next steps Many said they would like to start a working group that looks for federal dollars for which it may qualify The community’s quiet nature has often been one of its selling points but that means its problems are often overlooked Franklin said he hopes the neighborhood stays “hot” about the issue so that residents can prove they will demand more than the minimum standards “There are a lot of people that think that as long as we’re OK with the standards the way they are what you’re doing right now is not enough.’”  The fire that burned for nearly a month at a huge composting facility in Southeast Austin will cost the city about $9 million mostly to remove as many as 12,000 truckloads of charred debris transforming the neat windrows of yard trimmings and sludge at the Hornsby Bend Biosolids Management Plant into something looking like primeval planet Earth with a haze of smoke hanging steadily over an ashy landscape The Fire Department and a contractor hired by the city extinguished the fire in late March the City Council approved paying $3 million to the contractor for work already done on an emergency basis because of “the threat of public calamity.” required specialized firefighting skills and equipment,” according to a June 7 memo to the council from Greg Meszaros The utility plans to ask for another $6 million for the cleanup which will involve removing 10,000 to 12,000 truckloads of charred materials Small-scale fires sometimes break out at composting facilities because the organic material trapped in the piles can gather tremendous heat and spontaneously combust that happened when the heat generated by composting was paired with high winds and low humidity Most of the composting facility has been closed since the fire requiring Austin to divert compost to a previously closed landfill off FM 812 The Hornsby Bend facility received a $31.8 million federal stimulus loan in 2009 that paid for numerous upgrades including doubling its composting capacity The city plans to reopen composting operations July 1 the water utility’s assistant treatment director His memo says the water utility is “reconfiguring the size orientation and spacing of compost windrows to improve fire breaks and mitigate wind-induced fire risks.” The city also plans to beef up the irrigation system look into specialized fire suppression equipment and purchase water cannons I don’t think my initial reaction to Victor Emanuel was out of line who was giving a reading at the Texas Book Festival Plimpton beamed as if the president of the United States had just sauntered in “Ladies and gentlemen,” he bellowed “Victor Emanuel!” If memory serves Plimpton tried to get the audience to applaud I leaned over to a colleague sitting nearby “He’s a birding expert,” she said My response was something along the lines of “Who cares?” Emanuel has gone birding with a wide variety of high-profile clients Nobel Prize–winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann He has traveled with the famed naturalist Peter Matthiessen for many years and appears in Matthiessen’s books The Birds of Heaven and End of the of Earth Bush was on the campaign trail in Cleveland and told the crowd about an epiphany he had had after inviting Emanuel to his ranch in Crawford “You know what you ought to do?” Emanuel had told him “You ought to go down and look at the birds.” Bush had replied That’s all I’ve done as a kid—you know I shoot ’em.” On that occasion he gave voice to a sentiment that has been expressed by many people no doubt with a hint of bewilderment: “So I went birding with Victor Emanuel None of this is to imply that Emanuel is a birder to the stars; he’ll bird with anybody in birding circles it is Emanuel—not the company he keeps—who is the star who was part of the first expedition to climb Mount Everest by the West Ridge route “I have a fair bit of notoriety in mountaineering operates one of the oldest ecology tour companies in the world that alone doesn’t account for his renown Nor is it the intensity of his obsession with birds that draws people to him; many other die-hard birders are just as obsessed Emanuel can bombard people with statistics and avian trivia but that isn’t the source of his appeal either There’s something about Victor Emanuel that will cause a random hiker to approach him and say there is a pygmy owl about a hundred yards back up the trail and it would mean so much to me if I could show it to you.” And then brag that he went birding with Victor Emanuel Despite some hearing loss that occurred in childhood who wrote and illustrated a widely read series of birding field guides once suggested that Emanuel and another Austin tour guide have “the sharpest eyes in Texas,” capable of identifying a bird at a glance that Emanuel is simply so familiar with the landscape that he just knows where a certain bird is likely to be “Victor has a superb memory in regards to all the rivers and all the birds and all the people he has met,” said one friend he will remember that there’s a bend in the road just ahead with a fence post that’s ideal for One day last fall he and I patrolled an Austin park with a half-moon of white hair hugging the back and sides of his head He walks at a good clip and dresses as if modeling for an REI catalog A few minutes into our tour he spotted a flash in a tree “Ruby-crowned kinglet up there,” he said “That tiny thing flitting around up there is a bird that may have come from Canada One of the things it eats is spider eggs.” I looked through my binoculars and saw a grayish-yellow bird that resembled a sleeker version of a sparrow If you learn the behavior you don’t even have to look at it Nervous little bird.” I tried to follow the bird as it moved around Emanuel continued watching it without his binoculars under the feathers on top of its head is a brilliant red pom-pom like you stuck a piece of red cotton on its head When it gets angry or upset or wants to say this is my area,’ it puts up its red pom-pom That’s why it’s called ruby-crowned.” I put my binoculars down too “Wow!” He can be tranquil one second and animated the next he interrupted our formal greetings to shout “There’s a Cooper’s hawk outside my window—I’ll call you back!” and hung up He will bring a car to a screeching halt and run through the brush to get a better look at a bird he has seen through his windshield—mosquitoes he was once so excited to see penguins swimming five feet off the shore in a little bay in the Galápagos Islands that he ripped off most of his clothing and strode into the water “There used to be a term in the early days: ‘bird lovers,’” he told me as we walked giving a quick overview of the nomenclature “‘Bird lover’ sounded a little bit drippy Then there were ‘bird watchers’ and then we had ‘birders’ and that—” he halted abruptly There’s our state bird.” He paused to get a good look through his binoculars before the mockingbird flew into a nearby bush don’t just watch birds,” he continued “They try to see as many as they can Though we can assume reciprocation is out of the question it’s uncanny how the birds seem to reward his dedication Emanuel was standing in the front yard of Austin author Lawrence Wright when a bird called “Did you hear that?” Emanuel asked telling Wright it was a yellow-billed cuckoo and that it sounded as if it had a caterpillar in its mouth Victor Emanuel was probably the type of kid whom adults call “wise beyond his years.” It’s a description that doesn’t usually bode well for a child’s social life most boys in Houston were interested in sports or comics; they weren’t impressed with the color of red cardinals on green moss or the murmur of a hummingbird feeding on mimosas But Emanuel wasn’t alone in his pursuit for long When a fellow Cub Scout told him about the Outdoor Nature Club the nine-year-old showed up for a meeting and realized he had He soon dropped out of his Cub Scout troop even though most of his new friends were decades older than him During Emanuel’s first few years with the club he spent enough time in the field that he learned to differentiate between the loud ta-wit tee-yo of the hooded warbler and the trilling twe-twe-twe-twe of the pine warbler He began to notice which birds soared and which flapped their wings continuously He taught himself to swiftly pop his binoculars in front of his eyes so that he could get the best view of the quick chimney swift and the vermilion flycatcher whose red coloring is so brilliant that it appears to be glowing He’d keep an eye out for the chickadees and ruby-crowned kinglets hopping on branches in the water oaks as he walked to school each day he’d page through Peterson’s Birds of Eastern North America and examine the book’s glossy plates with bright colors and stripes and patterns and weird Some had mohawks or plumage shaped like soft-serve ice cream on their heads the peculiar details of the world’s birds have undeniable appeal The hoatzin in South America smells like manure The helmeted hornbill in Borneo laughs maniacally Cassowarys have been known to kick (and even disembowel) people Peregrine falcons can dive at speeds of up to 200 miles an hour the more he noticed that even ordinary birds—a rock pigeon he didn’t have to travel far; he was born in a birder’s mecca a diversity of landscapes—the Panhandle Plains and Gulf Coast—offer cover to a wide variety of species Northern Plains birds meet Mexican varieties along the Rio Grande; eastern birds meet western along the hundredth meridian There are about twenty North American species that can be seen only in Texas The state also boasts a large population of migratory birds passing through “If I had been living in the Panhandle it wouldn’t have been the same,” he said His pursuit did not thrill his father (also named Victor) a sports editor for the Houston Post who sometimes freelanced as a campaign manager for Democratic politicians was somewhat more sympathetic.) The elder Victor’s appreciation for nature began and ended with reading his son The Jungle Book at bedtime and visiting the zoo he worked hard to instill in his son a passion for politics He introduced young Victor to luminaries such as Sam Rayburn and Eleanor Roosevelt when they came through town showing his son that there was no reason to be nervous around famous people “Here was this son who was different from the other boys and what would this lead to?” Emanuel said “My dad would have been much happier with a son who was a baseball or football player.” Emanuel tends to inspect coincidences closely How did two of his friends happen to know each other one of his mentors in the nature club happened to mention that the coastal area of Freeport was rich with gulf birds and bottomland woods This information started a chain of events that would change Emanuel’s life he founded a Freeport outpost of the Christmas Bird Count (essentially an annual bird census) who persuaded about ten people to join him drew a fifteen-mile-diameter circle on a map of the area and ended his first count with a respectable 114 species He continued sending postcards and letters every year to potential participants (“I’m a stick-with-it kind of guy,” he explained) Even as he went to the University of Texas to study zoology and botany and then skeptical that he could build a career as a birder on to Harvard to study political science as a graduate student By 1972 the participating group was big enough and the birding conditions good enough for the Freeport group to win that year’s national CBC competition: 226 species counted who were interested in the growing birding phenomenon paid a lot of attention to the latest CBC winner When Audubon magazine sent George Plimpton to Freeport the following year Emanuel’s status as a birding authority was pretty much established Plimpton introduced his new friend to his old friend Peter Matthiessen Emanuel couldn’t make a living as a birder though he had had some encouraging experiences and he came to a convention for home builders.” Here’s where Gorham asked the local head of the National Wildlife Refuge for a bird guide and was given Emanuel’s number I’m living in one room that I’m subletting from some friends would you take me and my sister out birding for the day?’ I practically dropped the phone.” Emanuel helped Gorham and his sister find all five of their target birds including a white-faced ibis and a sprague’s pipit Thinking there might be other interested parties for personalized birding tours “Using me was as cheap as renting a car,” he said But I needed the experience.” While he struggled to grow his business Emanuel taught political science at Rice University and worked as an organizer for school board elections In 1976 he finally felt confident enough to launch Victor Emanuel Nature Tours Besides the folks in the Travis Audobon Society there were about a dozen enthusiasts who hung out with the eccentric naturalist and godfather of Texas birding but the birders he liked received a high honor: a bird name Kincaid granted Emanuel’s request to become the hooded warbler a cute little thing with a bright yellow face and a sweet “Weeta-weeta-weet-y-o.” According to his friends “He’s hyperactive,” Rose Ann Rowlett once explained When his close friend Mike Andrews ran in the 1980 Democratic congressional primary for the Twenty-second District Emanuel was recruited as his campaign manager Emanuel commuted from Austin to the campaign headquarters in a Houston shopping strip near Hobby Airport That’s when he received the sign that it was time to stop dividing his energies “We had a front office and a back office,” Emanuel recalled dealing with all this campaign management stuff Bob WHITE.’ The building was made of cinder block and there was a post right behind my office with a bobwhite quail sitting right on it The sound came into the room like it was calling me back.” His ultimate decision to leave politics mystified some of his colleagues who had been a speechwriter for Lloyd Bentsen told me that one time she stopped by Bent­sen’s Houston office to meet with some colleagues and told them she had come to Texas to do some birding Vic what’s-his-name,” one of Bentsen’s people said In the early part of the twentieth century people trying to identify a marbled godwit or any other species of bird were left to their own devices Assistance arrived in 1934 when Roger Tory Peterson produced the very first field manual to birds who by that point had gone from calling themselves bird lovers to calling themselves birdwatchers formed an elite group: the American Birdwatching Association Since many of the hobbyists were isolated practitioners wandering through fields in no-man’s-land with their binoculars and guidebooks it took a little while for word to get out In 1968 the ABA’s official newsletter was a five-page mimeograph sent out to ten people; a year later membership had crept above one hundred This small group of pioneers enjoyed competing with one another keeping a tally of how many species they had seen over the course of a day one of the first to keep a “life list” (at the time of his death or about two thirds of the roughly 9,000 species that exist) suggested a new nomenclature to differentiate the fanatics from the backyard hobbyists who didn’t care about the finer points of pishing and ululating in 1969 “bird-watchers” became “birders,” the American Birdwatching Association became the American Birding Association The years that followed saw an explosion of interest in hard-core birding Stories began to circulate about people like sixteen-year-old Kenn Kaufman and lived on a dollar a day just so he could beat the record of 626 species seen in a year whose current membership is roughly 12,000 is full of birders who will spend many hours and dollars to find rare species who in 1995 became the first person to see more than 8,000 species The British ornithologist David Hunt was killed by a tiger in 1985 while leading a bird tour in India and his posthumously developed photos show that he was snapping pictures up to the very end (According to Bill Oddie’s travelogue Follow That Bird “The final picture is of a frame-filling shot of the tiger’s head eyes blazing and teeth exposed in a snarl.”) will go out of his way to see an unusual bird he received a call from Houston birder Ben Feltner and his friend Dudley Deaver Feltner and Deaver told him that they had been out on Galveston Island and had spotted a lone Eskimo curlew in a field of long-billed curlews A stunned Emanuel went down to Galveston a few weeks later to verify the sighting As he and his entourage headed for the spot where Deaver and Feltner had seen the bird Emanuel noticed a field where shorebirds were feeding alongside dairy cattle “Let’s look at these birds,” Emanuel said he spotted it: a small curlew about a foot long with a thin “It was the most thrilling thing that’s ever happened to me.” Emanuel was walking around his neighborhood in South Austin with his $2,000 binoculars around his neck when he spotted one of his favorite species “It’s up on that bare branch,” he told me “It’s called a yellow-rumped warbler ‘That bird bred in the spruce forest of Canada And here it is.’” He has seen so many yellow-rumped warblers in his lifetime that one might expect him to practically yawn through the sentence But even though he enjoys the thrill of the odd bird does not share his colleagues’ enthusiasm for bird quests “Obsession with the new and obsession with collecting the list means you’re losing so much beauty that surrounds you,” he said “This bird is the product of thousands of years of evolution “So when you see a bird,” I asked Here’s thousands of years of evolution?” He put his binoculars down and looked startled by the question “I just think it’s beautiful.” This could well sum up Emanuel’s philosophy “Victor is the Zen master of birds,” said Matthiessen “He looks at the bird directly for itself He’s not attaching or anthropomorphizing at all He just sees it and appreciates it for what it is right at that moment without forming abstract ideas about it.” Matthiessen added with a note of exasperation that listers are not much fun to bird with “They keep dropping the names of birds,” he said sometimes Emanuel’s avian egalitarianism can seem extreme a conservationist and wildlife photographer in the Metroplex were on a boat in Austin’s Lady Bird Lake one of the most common and least-loved birds on the planet Victor had to direct everyone’s attention Being the Zen master of birding can be tricky when it’s your job to find rare birds “There’s a bird in the mountains of southern Mexico called the horned guan,” Emanuel told me one day which looks like a cartoonist’s joke is one of those rare species that people will pay a lot of money to see “It’s a big bird—black above with a red horn on top of its head,” he said And they’re secretive; they live up in these giant trees.” To see unusual birds like the horned guan and pay VENT anywhere from $1,000 to $10,000 per trip knowing all the while that drought or development or unforeseen weather patterns can chase a population of birds away It is the guide’s job to make birds appear “You feel the pressure,” Emanuel said VENT takes clients on 160 tours in more than one hundred destinations annually: places like Bhutan Tours go by names such as “The Montana Owl Workshop” and “Best of Borneo.” Many tours were scouted by Emanuel himself He fine-tuned the accommodations and selected the local guides Now he spends only 120 days a year traveling Author Stephen Harrigan once called Emanuel when he was writing an article about homesickness “I figured that since Victor traveled all the time all over the world he would have some interesting things to say about the affliction,” Harrigan said how do you deal with homesickness?’ He paused for a moment and then said ‘What are you talking about?’” As a nod to the Houston nature club that played such a huge role in his life so many years ago Emanuel has acted as a mentor over the years to dozens of kids many of whom have pursued ornithology or related fields Some of his closest friends are graduates of the children’s camps he created in Texas and southeastern Arizona’s Chiricahua Mountains When I asked Emanuel’s friend Lee Walker if Emanuel’s attention had had a big effect on children he didn’t quite know how to answer the question “I’m not sure when subtle becomes big,” said Walker “I don’t think any child who is with Victor ever sees the world the same way again Emanuel attended the fifty-third Freeport Christmas Bird Count accompanied by two former Chiricahua campers was a camper in 1988 and later returned as a counselor; Cullen Hanks a 35-year-old conservationist at Texas Parks and Wildlife Emanuel and Lyon spotted a vermilion flycatcher Lyon walked out of the woods and down a road to summon Hanks “He doesn’t want to see it,” Lyon told Emanuel “He doesn’t want to see it?” Emanuel said with mock incredulity We must not have done a very good job at camp.” It is usually difficult for birders to articulate why birds are significant in their lives it is a way to heighten their awareness of seasons and geography Others appreciate birds as a way to mark space apart from man-made signs and roads “How do you explain what brings meaning to your life?” one birder asked me with a shrug Emanuel and I were walking around his neighborhood park one morning when he started talking about a duck called a bufflehead “It has kind of a rounded head,” he said and you have the sun behind you and you’re close you can see that it’s not black and white.” He waited a second for this to soak in it turns out to be the most incredible color of emerald washed with maroon and gold.” He sounded amazed that something so wonderful existed “It’s hidden beauty,” he said “It’s like seeing deeper.” Normally Emanuel scans the trees for movement “My aunt Claudine Williams was one of the top businesswomen in Las Vegas,” he continued “She was also the last surviving member of my parents’ generation Someone else will be here soon.’ There was a golf course next to her house And then”—he stretched his arm in front of him with his fingers spread wide—“I saw and I just focused on that and soaked it in And it helped me deal with my aunt’s imminent death the fact that I was seeing this bufflehead the 1,200-acre sewage treatment plant in East Austin to meet up with some of his young friends and their parents exited his car with his mom and dad and looked at the large Another vehicle holding three young children “It smells like poop around here,” said one young girl “That’s because there is poop around here,” said her dad He was already setting up his high-power scope to watch some ducks in a pond when his eye was drawn to movement near the shoreline It’s a kind of shorebird; it likes to be around water and it’s white below and brown above on the page.” He guided Eliot to the scope and riffled through his field guide until he got to a page featuring many birds that looked nearly identical Eliot peered through the scope and focused then stood back and put his index finger firmly on one bird on the page “You know why it’s called killdeer Later in the day Emanuel would try to excite the kids by screaming when a spider descended on his head He would tell them about the time he accidentally ate a stinkbug just as he had Bush and Plimpton and Gell-Mann and tell them a story about the cara­cara’s status in Mexican history And his enthusiasm would be contagious enough that the earthy scent would go without comment for the remainder of the trip But for now he kept everyone focused on the killdeer “It lays its eggs next to the road sometimes And right around the eye it has a red ring You see it?” As Emanuel creased the binding Eliot put his arm around Emanuel’s neck and watched curiously as the man examined the page and then looked up at the bird possibly the 10,000th killdeer he had seen as if he had never seen anything so beautiful in all his life Parts of the wooded hilltop look positively Amazonian “I had volunteers up here not long ago,” graveyard expert Karen Thompson says many ancient gravestones — more than 150 years old — told their intimate stories in crisply preserved lettering “A cemetery is like a book,” Thompson likes to say Thompson guided us through two of Austin’s oldest graveyards — Rogers Hill-Burleson and Hornsby Bend — that are final resting spots for some of the area’s earliest settlers and their descendants “Over there are the Burlesons,” Thompson says And the Rogerses married into the Hornsbys despite all the pioneers and soldiers who have lent their names to area towns perhaps the most famous personality buried on these eastern Travis County hillsides is baseball great Rogers Hornsby (1896-1963) Nicknamed the “Rajah,” he was an infielder, manager and coach who played in the major leagues for 23 seasons and is considered one of the greatest hitters of all time with a lifetime batting average of .358 A complicated character not much liked by fellow players Hornsby was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1942 know that the son of Ed Hornsby and Mary Rogers was born in Winters his Austin relatives are justly proud of him Fans leave pristine baseballs at his grave site at Hornsby Bend The Rogers Hill-Burleson and Hornsby Bend graveyards camouflage their silent beauties on private land just off a major road in eastern Travis County “Any person who wishes to visit a cemetery that has no public ingress or egress shall have the rights for visitation during reasonable hours and for purposes associated with cemetery visits,” reads the Texas Health and Safety Code, Section 711.041 and Section 711.0521 “The owner of the lands surrounding the cemetery may designate the routes for reasonable access Interference with ingress and egress is a Class C misdemeanor.” any Austinite interested in the city’s early past could visit these two off-the-beaten-path graveyards at some point Rogers Hill-Burleson is located on a spectacular rise that offers broad views of the Austin skyline six miles below 183 as it unfurls as FM 969 — the original road to Bastrop along which one can find nine graveyards dating to the Republic of Texas You will pass the Walnut Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant on your right there is a mailbox on the left at 8604 FM 969 Making it across this highway as cars descend the hill from Decker is tricky More welcoming is the wide driveway and parking lot for the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems there veer to the left of the sustainability research center’s laid-back complex You will immediately see a fenced family plot to the right are beyond that enclosure and in a sunny glade Here are elaborate monuments commemorating early Anglo families many of them Indian fighters and slave owners whose stories are the stuff of Central Texas lore Nearby are the simpler but lovingly tended graves of African-Americans whose lives were closely enmeshed with those of Anglos before and after Emancipation The tour is not over: Down the brushy hillside are scores of hidden memorials no historical marker announces Rogers Hill-Burleson there will be a sign (there wasn’t one every time we visited) take care of the zooming traffic as you pull over Get out and open the metal gate to the left of that enclosure and drive about half a mile south along a narrow road On your way down the hill, you will see on the right a centennial marker at the site of the Hornsby homestead. As is often the case, the cemetery is wonderfully sited. Tall trees open up to the grassy, fertile floodplains below with the popular Hornsby Bend Bird Observatory and the Colorado River in the distance this graveyard is immaculately kept and carefully marked To the left is a fenced “Mexican” cemetery says all-round Hornsby Bend expert Kevin Anderson are African-American graves that should receive more attention surveyor and statesman Edward Burleson (1788-1851) is not buried in his family’s plot Yet many of his family members can be found at Burleson-Rogers It is not surprising that Tannehills married Burlesons, since two of their land grants bordered each other at the mouth of Walnut Creek. Jesse Tannehill, you might remember, founded Montopolis, according to recent research, on the north side of the Colorado River James Rogers claimed a grant not far to the northwest on the other side of the creek but the pioneers built their homes — and graveyards — along the safer ridges to the north and south of the river was the first prominent Anglo settlement in what is now Travis County He is buried near his original cabin and stockade taken from “Brief History of the Hornsby Family” (1975) allows us to imagine what life in this valley was once like and from the front porch would shoot his shotgun,” the account reads Up the road we could hear guns of Wallace Hornsby (Cox?) shot too close to the front porch — the shot going through his roof From down near the river could be heard the guns of Malcolm Hornsby This was their way of saying ‘Merry Christmas’ to the Hornsby Bend Settlement Sitting in the ethereal quiet on a bench in the graveyard Harry Hornsby decided he wanted to shoot his shotgun off on Christmas morning to see if there were anyone to remember He silently came in the house to put his gun up and realized he was about the last one to remember to shoot on Christmas morning.” Tips for scouting Texas country cemeteries By Steve BrownReal Estate Editor Paul northeast of Dallas were ranked as the second-hottest suburban home markets by Realtor.com Realtor.com measured the number of online home searches and overall growth in suburbs around the country for its nationwide ranking Only the Denver suburb of Montbello scored higher for housing activity than the Wylie/St D-FW Real Estate NewsGet the latest real estate news you need to know GoogleFacebookBy signing up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy The suburban Austin market of Daffan/Hornsby Bend was fourth on the list "Suburbs are traditionally viewed as meccas for young families willing to trade in shorter commute times and urban nightlife for better schools and larger homes," Jonathan Smoke rising home prices and inventory shortages in urban centers have made affordable suburban home prices more appealing for buyers "Our analysis indicates 50 percent of buyers planning to purchase a home this spring indicated they preferred a home in the suburbs." Paul market is attracting a mix of first-time homebuyers "The area is booming with new construction that's being scooped up by homebuyers," the report said "A typical property within this 'burb spent 41 days on the market 18 days less than the typical property in the study "Homes in Wylie received 2.4 times more views on Realtor.com than a typical home The listing price of properties in this ZIP code grew 18.7 percent annually over the last three years." Dallas-Fort Worth has one of the fastest-moving home markets in the country Preowned home sales rose 8 percent in January from a year ago and the median price of homes sold in the area was up 15 percent Subscribe to our new weekly real estate newsletter. Join the conversation Thank you for reading. We welcome your thoughts on this topic. Comments are moderated for adherence to our Community Guidelines Please read the guidelines before participating Farmer Allen Click is standing in a field of calf-high grass with a white cowboy hat casting a shadow over his face and quickly identifies it: coastal Bermuda grass because that particular kind of grass can be turned into high-quality hay that is easier to sell Click said it’s like “making wine for horses and cows.” But the land Click is standing on — 540 acres of untamed grass and a small grove of pecan trees — isn’t his And it provides an extra bit of revenue for the city using a byproduct that might otherwise be a burden Click will pay the city $300,000 over five years to have access to the property at Hornsby Bend which is bordered by the Colorado River and can be seen easily seen from the windows of planes landing at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport Click is given permission to cut the grass and turn it into hay He also is granted permission to farm a small 10-acre grove of native pecan trees Those hundreds of acres of grass are actually a key part of the city’s wastewater treatment operations All of the wastewater that can’t be treated and returned to the Colorado River or recycled as “reclaimed” water and used for irrigation becomes “sewage sludge.” That sludge is piped over to a facility at Hornsby Bend But some of the sewage — which Austin Water Utility calls “biosolids” — isn’t turned into compost Instead of bringing the leftovers to a landfill the utility applies them to those 540 acres as a form of fertilizer all that grass under Click’s black cowboy boots is fortified with our sewage Click got permission from the Austin City Council to farm this land but not without some questions from council members who were surprised to learn the city made money off hay and pecan production it is an unusual agreement for a city whose purchasing decisions usually revolve around upgraded technology The city has never done a five-year farming contract at Hornsby Bend before for farmers to cut the grass and turn it into hay Revenues to the city ranged from $15,000 to $30,000 a year Click has worked on the city’s land on and off for 15 years said it was helpful to have a longer five-year contract so he can improve the land “I’ll make a higher-quality product,” Click said wide blades of “Johnson grass” that have taken over the Hornsby Bend land and don’t make very good hay The native trees did manage to survive 2011 — the year that Texas sunk into a severe drought Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page.