Bond Election November 4th

Early voting is from October 20th through the 31st. If you vote early, you don’t need to go to your regular polling station. The early voting stations are as follows:

Brazos County Courthouse – 300 E. 29th
Arena Hall – Tabor Rd & N. Earl Rudder
Galilee Baptist Church – 804 N. Logan
Grace Bible Church – 101 Harvey Mitchell
Memorial Student Center – Campus

Here’s a google map with these locations.

Most of these places will be open from 8:00am to at least 5:00PM. More info here.

So, along with goverment official voting, there are some propositions we need to vote about.

Proposition 1: Streets and transportation – Proposing $48,785,000 for various street and transportation projects, including: an extension of Jones Butler road to accommodate for Student traffic, new traffic signals throughout the city, extending Victoria Drive, Barron Road widening, Hike Bike Trail Completion, extension of Barron Road, installing sidewalks throughout the city, widening Rock Prairie Rd West, Lick Creek Hike Bike Trail construction and University Dr. Pedestrian Improvements.

Proposition 2: Library Improvements – $8,385,000 for expanding parking and adding a 15,256 sq ft extension at Larry J. Ringer Library.

Proposition 3: Fire Safety Improvements – $6,990,000 for building Fire Station #6 at University and Tarrow.

Proposition 4: Park improvements – $12,790,000 for park building improvements including Creekview Neighborhood Park, various other park needs, Lincoln Center addition of parking spaces, pavillion, backstop and an 8,000-10,000 sq ft extension, and Central Park Improvements. Also including more money for Lick Creek (see prop 1), a Skate Park (that would be cool), Est District Maintenance Shop replacement, Purchasing of neighborhood parks in advance of development and a nature center at Lick Creek.

Proposition 5: Community Center – $7,050,000 for a new community center off Krenek Tap Road.

Proposition 6: New City Hall – $26,300,000 fo the envisioned 4-story, 69,568 sq ft building at Krenek Tap and Texas Avenue.

Click here to download the Bond Proposition Brochure in PDF format (from cstx.gov)

The brochure explains the anticipated duration of these projects…for example, the new City Hall will start in 2009 and finish in 2012. The skate park with start in 2009 and finish in 2010. University Drive Improvements will sart in 2013 and finish in 2015.

The brochure also explains the impact on the tax rate. It explains that ONE CENT of the tax rate would generate approximately $495,000. A one cent increase will affect the total taxes on a $100,000 home by $10.00 annually. The expenditures of Prop 1-5 won’t affect the tax rate, although the maintenance costs could increase the tax rate in the future. Prop 6 (the new city hall) will likely increase the tax rate by 4.5 cents. So we’re looking at around $50.00 annually on a $100,000 home at least until 2012.

If you live in College station, you probably received the “VOTE FOR YOUR FUTURE” brochure in the mail, so check it out…it’s more detailed than my post here…or click the link above and download the brochure.

Personally, I THink all these improvements would be good…even if it means an increase in property tax.

—

Oh, and Ben & Jerry’s is giving away a free Ice Cream Scoop if you go in to their store on November 4th between 8:00 and 5:00pm.

Ben & Jerry’s wants to thank you for voting by giving you a free scoop of ice cream! Come to participating scoop shops on November 4th from 5-8pm, show us you voted and you’ll get a free scoop of ice cream. Show us your “I Voted” sticker, a photo of you in front of your polling station, do the “I Voted dance” or just tell us you voted.

Yay…free ice cream.

What to do on Your Anniversary

OK, so today is our 14th anniversary. We’ve got a few errands to run, and we’re down to 2 kids this week (the two older ones are with their grandmother).

We’ve decided not to have a babysitter and take the kids with us in whatever adventure happens tonight.

1. OK, first things first…I took out the trash. I also cut the fat off the chicken we were going to freeze. My wife’s love language is Acts of Service, so I think the day started well. Oh, and I gave her a card that said all the right stuff.

2. We need to go to the library because we have some overdue videos. (those are $1 each day they are overdue by the way).

3. Next thing we want to do is go to Hobby Lobby. We have this wooden elephant that kinda got handed down to my wife, but the tusks are gone. We looked up what the gift for the 14th anniversary is and the traditional gift is ivory. Well, last I heard, buying ivory is illegal, so we’re gonna go and see if we can find something that resembles 2-3 inch long elephant tusks. Maybe they’ll have a cool mirror on sale at like 80% of or something. (the modern 14th anniversary gift is Gold Jewelery and my wife doesn’t like gold. She likes nickel free!

4. Starbuck’s Vanilla Latte. It’s right across the parking lot.

5. I’m thinking about Fish Taco’s at La Bodega. They have really yummy quesadillas and rice and beans for the kids and we can use one of our coupons.

5. Cafe Capri for their chocolate toffee mousse with kahlua. I think we are going to need a whole piece each…well, we’ll each share a few bites with each of our kids. I just took another look at their menu and I might be considering the Cajun Tortelini. Yum.

6. We will probably go to Post Oak Mall to Victoria’s Secret (me and the kids will be at the little soft play park in the food court). Leigh received a coupon in the mail for free Panties…yay!

7. We’ll hang out a little while at the soft play park in the mall. We like watching our kids play. Plus we’ll get to talk a little.

8. If we feel like we need to talk a little more, maybe we’ll go to Wolf Pan Creek walk around a bit…holding hands of course.

9. Maybe rent a Redbox movie. Unless we get our NetFlix rental arrives today…John & Kate plus Eight is coming next.

But first, I have to work making websites and graphics and logos and flash games and stuff.

jorge

Central Park – Bring Bread for the Ducks

We recently went to Central Park in College Station. The grounds are very nice, and although the playground is fairly small, there were other things to do.

There’s a basketball court, pavillions, baseball fields, picnic tables, paved trails, a pond and ducks.

Lots of ducks. And geese. We took peanut butter and honey sandwiches, goldfish crackers and granola bars, and those ducks ate almost everything we threw at them. I mean toward them.

My kids don’t eat the crust of their sandwiches. My mom always made us eat ours, and for the most part we make our kids eat theirs, but not when there are ducks around.

There is one goose in particular that is pretty big, and apparently the scout, well, at least not afraid to come right up to you.

In fact, at one point, I found our 4 year old (who we call the “Bug Whisperer”) petting it…practically hugging it.

I’m not convinced ducks like peanut butter, but they ate just about everything we threw at them.

The pond was very pretty and well kept. Looks like it’s stocked with fish and you can actually catch them, so bring your rod. The regular Texas Parks and Wildlife limits for bagging apply to this pond. The Central Park pond has Trout and Catfish in it.

Statewide Bag and Length Limits for Freshwater Fish
Species	Daily Bag	Length (minimum)
largemouth and smallmouth Bass	5 (in any combination)	14 inches
spotted and Guadalupe Bass		No minimum
Bass, striped and hybrid	5 (in any combination)	18 inches
Bass, white	25	10 inches
Bass, yellow	No limit	No minimum
Catfish: channel and blue, their hybrids and subspecies	25 (in any combination)	12 inches
Catfish, flathead	5	18 inches
Crappie: white and black, their hybrids and subspecies	25 (in any combination)	10 inches
Paddlefish	No harvest allowed
Saugeye	3	18 inches
Sunfish: various species including bluegill, redear, green, warmouth and longear	No limit	No minimum
Trout: rainbow and brown, their hybrids and subspecies	5 (in any combination)	No minimum
Walleye	5 (only 2 can be less than 16 inches in length)	No minimum

Here are some tips on releasing fish:

Quickly play and release fish.
Keep fish in water as much as possible.
Remove hook with pliers or cut line.
Gently place fish back into water.
Revive fish by holding upright in water and moving back and forth, gently forcing water through gills.

Enjoy

jorge

Tanglewood Park – Splash Pad and Playgrounds

Tanglewood park is a great park in town. It’s one of three “Splash Pads” in Bryan and College Station (one at Tiffany Park, and another at Lincoln Center).

These Splash Pads consist of fountains and even a water bucket that fills up and splashes down. It’s great fun in the summer and spring. It’s about the size of a basketball court…maybe smaller, and there’s a controller to turn it on when it turns itself off. The cycle is about 10 minutes, and the controller is just a post with a round top that is touch activated.

I read this about the Splash Pads from the Eagle website:

Based on the popularity splash pads in Bryan/College Station, city officials are considering including more of these features in future projects, so be sure to keep the look out for new splash pads this Summer.

I called the City of Bryan Parks and Recreation, and they told me that the water is City Water, just like you’d get out of your faucet.

Tanglewood park has several covered pavillions, three playgrounds, a sand volleyball court and loads of picnic tables.

We really like this park. Not as much variety as Austin’s Colony (well, except for the Splash Pad) but great playgrounds, and although it’s a well know park, we’ve never had trouble finding empty picnic tables.

You can get there from Villa Maria, 29th or Texas Ave.

And just so you know, here’s a website that sells these Water Play Features. I don’t know if Bryan and College Station get them any cheaper, but we can assume that these are approximately the price our city paid as well. I guess that’s what our taxes are paying for. I’m OK with that. Parks are fun.

Go play.

Jorge

Austin’s Colony Park/Playground

Our favorite Park/Playground in town is definitely Austin’s Colony.

The park is behind Harvey Mitchel Elementary School, but we’ve gone during School times and the park is big enough that we don’t bother the kids at recess.

There are actually 3 playground areas, so we have a choice when we go there. There are also basketball courts, tennis courts, and even a paved skating rink with hockey goals in it.

There are some paved walking trails at the far end of the park that winds around a pond or creek or something, which means mosquitoes in the Spring and Summer, and watch out for Poison Ivy around the trails. (look for three leaves with a red stem where the leaves come off the larger stem, and wash off immediately with Lye soap if you rub on the plant).

The bathrooms are usually pretty clean (considering they are those public park toilets), and since they are one one side of the park, there has been at least one occasion where a certain little girl couldn’t hold it long enough to make it to the other side of the park. We found a secluded place behind a tree close to the pond/creek and left our mark.

The ground around the playgrounds are that “poured-in-place” rubber stuff and it’s kinda falling apart, but it’s soft, which has cushioned my kids’ heads many times.

We’ve seen some teenagers come out and hang out at the picnic tables every once in a while, but not causing trouble.

The pavilion is a nice size for around 75 people.

Jorge