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Fire Station Festival TimeAtime to celebrate, a time to remember. A time to renew your commitment and your membership in HPNA The Fire Station Festival sponsored by the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association will be held Sunday, October 13, 2002 from 2 until 4 PM this year. This annual event commemorates the saving of Fire Station Number 9 more than thirty years ago from an attempt by City cost cutters to close the station. It also is a yearly demonstration of our collective resolve to keep the station open. City administrators are once again faced with the difficult task of cutting the budget to match revenues that have shrunk since the September 11 attacks and the collapse of the stock market speculative bubble. It would be in the best interests of the neighborhood and, just possibly, one's own best interest that there be a good turnout to demonstrate that we are still determined that the central symbol of City services in our neighborhood remains open and active. Continued on Page 7
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| October, 2002 National Register District Neighborhood Vol. 28, No. 10 |
Cuttings on the curb near Fire Station 9 reflect the Hyde Park Alley Cats clearing of a mere half-block of alley! It's no wonder city workers found the alley difficult to navigate.
Alley Cats Make an Impact
The Hyde Park Alley Clean Up
held on September 14, 2002 was a big success. Large amounts of brush
were cleared so that the City of Austin garbage trucks will be able to
continue to navigate the alleys. The growth of trees, weeds, vines, and
other vegetation had become so thick that the city threatened to stop
our alley garbage pick up.
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If you saw the pile of brush next to the Fire Station, you can
begin to understand the magnitude of the job. That pile was not a
central collection point for brush. It is what was cleared from a
half block of a single alley!
Brush was cleared from the alleys between 38th and 45th Streets where the city does provide alley garbage collection. Despite advance publicity, neighborhood participation in this event was less than had been hoped. A number of neighbors met at 40th and Speedway to begin the cleaning efforts. Some other folks took it upon themselves to clean their own alleys. To |
supplement our own labor, 18 day laborers from First Workers Day
Labor Center were hired. This gave us enough manpower to get all of
the work done in one day. Thanks as well to the boy scouts from
Hyde Park Baptist Church, who provided valuable assistance and
"elbow grease" to the task.
The day laborers were paid from the general funds of the HPNA.
This expenditure was authorized by a vote at the August 2002
general meeting of the Association. There are several things that
can be done to help HPNA avoid Continued on page 6
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