When:   7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. Monday, April 7, 2003 Where:   Hyde Park United Methodist Church 4001 Speedway Who:   YOU and your neighbors Note:   HPNA general meetings take place on the first Monday of each month.

April, 2003   National Register District Neighborhood   Vol. 29, No. 4

T he March meeting of the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association saw a full house as neighbors gathered to learn how their property taxes are accessed. These fun and informative meetings take place the first Monday of each month at seven in the evening at the Hyde Park Methodist Church on Speedway.

Nelda Wells Spears and her staff related in detail how the Texas Property Tax System works. She explained that each January a lien is placed against each property and its value assessed by the Appraisal District. Notice of the amount due is then mailed to the property owner and any appeal of that estimate must be filed within 30 days if it is to be heard by the District. The rate if taxation set in Hyde Park by four over lapping taxing jurisdiction. You or your landlord are taxed by the City of Austin, Travis County, your school district and the Austin Community College ( be sure and attend next month for ACC's bid to raise your taxes ). The bill is then sent to the home owner who has one month to pay it or incur a six percent plus penalty. Wells went on the remind neighbors that general homestead, age 65 and disability exemptions are available. Duplexes are calculated under a different matrix that single family dwellings. Members expressed concern that multi family properties are not pulling their weight considering the extra burdens that they place on the City's infrastructure.     Consternation rose in the room as Co-Presidents Gary Penn and Bruce Nadig related information gathered at a meeting with City of Austin Fire Chief Gary Warren. The City of Austin has once again cast its cost cutting eye toward the neighborhoods beloved Fire Station. Long the totem of Hyde Park and of the power of neighborhood activism City wide, the station is once again under scrutiny. This year the grim reality of the City's finances has been added to arguments that the area can be adequately covered by surrounding stations. Penn related that Chief Warren has engineered a compromise between the City and the neighborhood. The station will not be closed, but its staff will be cut to two firefighters, and station's current full sized truck will be replaced by a smaller vehicle. Continued on page 3