Note: The pot really is stirring here in Hays County over many hot and very important issues and things. Not the least is the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District election, and how residents and well owners in western Hays County want their groundwater managed. Or if they want it managed at all. Early voting in this important election continues through Tuesday May 4. Election day is May 8. We received the e-mail below from Andrew Backus. He is a candidate for the District 3 seat on the HTGCD board. Andrew's challenger, Mark Key, is welcome to send us his campaign flyer. Find out more about the candidates and the groundwater district at the district's website: www.haysgroundwater.org
Many Hays County residents are also expressing growing concerns about increasing noise pollution and loud outdoor music venues. A group of people from several neighborhoods in the north part of the county are circulating a "Facts about Noise Pollution" flyer. The county reportedly has 21 music and outdoor venues. Most recently, neighbors have been on the offensive against two outdoor venues, the Nutty Brown Café east of Dripping Springs on Hwy 290 and the Memory Lane Event Center on Memory Lane off of RR 12, south of Dripping. Scroll below the Backus flyer to read the noise pollution flyer. Did you know that noise is a "controllable pollutant"?
Remember, you can't complain if you don't vote or speak up.
Send your comments and news tips to roundup.editor@gmail.com or click on the "comments" button at the bottom of the story
Early Voting: Mon. 7am-7pm – Tue 8am-4pm
Dripping Springs School Admin. Bldg. & Wimberley Community Center
I'm Andrew Backus. I'm a Hydro-Geologist, Private Property Owner and Businessman and for the past 7 years you've elected me to Protect Our Water. If you're like me, you've heard all of the automated calls and negative ads a person can stand.Early voting is nearly over and I'd like to ask for your support again this year. Please take time Monday or Tuesday to go vote at Dripping Springs School Admin Building or the Wimberley Community Center.
Before you go I'd like to remind you of where I stand on the issues.
I believe in a Board of Good Stewards to protect our drinking water.
A Good Steward of our Aquifer and Drinking Supply will fight for:
• Education for our Community so that we can All become Good Stewards of our Aquifer.
• Equal Access for Private Property Owners.
• Protection of our water from draining or plugging our Natural Springs. Natural Springs play a vital role in the life of the Aquifer.
• Protecting our Community and Private Property from taxes, taxing authority and Eminent Domain powers.
• Conservation of our resource for long term sustainability and a Secure Future.
• Health and Safety of our water for our own use and the use of our Grandchildren.
• Preservation over Profit.
Together we can keep our Aquifer and our drinking supply safe and sustainable with a Secure Future.
If I am not on your ballot, I endorse Carlton and Jernigan as candidates in other Hays-Trinity precincts that are also stewards of the aquifer.
If you have more questions I invite you to email me or call.
Backus2010@gmail.com
512-913-3156
Andrew
Additional election questions may be directed to the Hays County Elections Office: http://www.elections.co.hays.tx.us/May082010brElections/tabid/110/Default.aspx Phone: 512-393-7310 E-Mail: elections@co.hays.tx.us
Facts about Noise Pollution in Our Community
North Hays County Neighborhoods of Belterra, Big Country, Heritage Country, Heritage Oaks, Heritage Oaks West, Ledge Stone, Oak Run, Oak Run West and others.
Homes and families are affected by unnecessary noise:
· Our community is growing rapidly and many families are affected by noise pollution emanating from some local businesses.
· Most of these neighborhoods were in existence before the noisy businesses opened their doors. These businesses are creating a disruptive and invasive noise.
· Business owners should be more responsible by lowering their noise levels.
· An example of a local business that contributes to noise pollution may be found on the following web site, www.austinnoise.org.
Quantifying noise pollution:
· Noise intensity is measured in decibel units. The decibel scale is logarithmic; each 10-decibel increase represents a ten-fold increase in noise intensity. Human perception of loudness also conforms to a logarithmic scale; a 10-decibel increase is perceived roughly as doubling the loudness.
· Above 45 decibels of noise, the average person cannot sleep.
· Noise has a negative effect on quality of life, well-being and health. Some negative health effects include sleep deprivation, increased stress levels, irritability, anxiety, increased heart rate and blood pressure, an increased risk of heart disease and gastrointestinal diseases and a suppressed immune system.
Regulating noise:
· Noise is recognized as a controllable pollutant.
· The Noise Control Act of 1972 empowered the EPA to determine the limits of noise required to protect public health and welfare.
· Noise above 65 decibels requires abatement.
Responsible Business Owners:
· Business owners can be successful and responsible neighbors as well.
· The Backyard is an example of a successful open-air music venue that kept their maximum noise levels at 65 decibels.
Write Our Representatives:
· Please write our local and state representatives and ask them to help us decrease noise pollution in our neighborhoods.
· Our counties should be given the authority to set noise ordinances to protect its citizens from the negative effects of noise pollution.
19 comments:
And what about all the billboards in residential areas? How about visual pollution??? There are 7 at Darden Hill Road and FM 1826. Why are they permitted? There are a few at the end of FM 1826 and FM 150. Billboards have sprouted up all over Hays County. Some people put commercial advertising on their residential fences. Why is it permitted?
If noise above 65 decibels requires abatement under federal law, why isn't that standard instead of 85 decibels being enforced in Hays County? The flyer is very informative. Can we make a federal case out of it?
The local Hays County owner of Nutty Brown has gone to great lengths to reduce the sound of his venue dramatically to try to be a good neighbor.
I will not go into Austin to see local and national bands in expensive and huge indoor halls. Central Texas has well over 300 days of sunshine in all seasons, and it is a joy to be able to sit outside and listen to music.
The owner hires and supports local musicians, and he employs many locals to work at his restaurant, providing jobs in an area with little work. NBC; one of the very few restaurants not shuttered out here in the past 5 years.
The congestion and traffic and commute times are now huge, and will explode once the HEB, the very large hotel, countless apartment complexes, new developments, new strip malls, and traffic lights are completed.
They are coming like a runaway freight train, not just on 290 but on the scenic RR 12. And the resulting water problems?
I wish these named neighborhoods had prioritized their list of problems to include the items on "my list". Putting one man's bandstand and possibly his restaurant out of business is not high on "my list" of crisises.
We have what the local politicos and you and I have allowed to occur here, including unbridled development, gigantic highways, and visual pollution, as another reader has noted.
These are the things I lose sleep over; what my county has become and will become.
Re Good Steward
A "steward" manages someone else's property. Denying homeowners access to groundwater conveyed with their property does not equate to being a good steward from the homeowner's perspective. Attempts to impose ad valorem taxes and production fees on their property is likewise not being a good steward. You seek to take property from those you claim to be managing it for.
Re Equal Access
Equal access to what? The only "equal access" you pursued was to give the HTGCD "equal access" to the individual's property without the consent of the property owner. Others would call this trespass or unwarranted search and seizure.
Re "Protecting our Community and Private Property from taxes, taxing authority and Eminent Domain powers"
Hahaha. That's funny 'Drew!
Your record is one of trying to impose production fees on residential wells. Production fees are a tax.
Your record is one of seeking repeal of the prohibition against ad valorem taxation for this district. You spent considerable district money on lobbyists and lawyers trying to expose every property owner in the district to a new property tax burden.
Finally, you sought to prevent any new residential wells and to terminate existing ones at the time of sale of the property. Instead of paying people for such a taking, you wanted to charge them a "transfer fee" to boot. You sought eminent domain without compensation.
Why not mention the "full chapter 36" agenda you promoted at every candidate forum?
Re Conservation of our resource for long term sustainability and a Secure Future
Another equivocal statement. "Secure future" for who? 'Drew, sought to re-allocate residential well water from homeowners to the investor owned utilities to generate production fees for the HTGCD.
Your version of "conservation" means excluding the property owner from access to his/her own groundwater. Do not deny the considerable district funds you spent on lobbyists and lawyers trying to promote this agenda.
Your "secure future" refers to yourself and the district you would rule over. The district needed to sustain your retirement package would be funded by production fees and ad valorem taxes. There is no security for homeowners in a regime that takes property without compensation or which seeks to impose more property taxes, transfer fee taxes, and "production fees" to sustain its board members.
Re Health and Safety of our water for our own use and the use of our Grandchildren
My grandchildren are my own, thanks. HTGCD has little to do with health and safety of the water - particularly the investor owned utility central systems you seek to push people onto. Such matters are TCEQ's bailiwick, not HTGCD's.
Re Preservation over Profit
Inaccurate Drew. Profit for who? Homeowners will certainly not profit from your schemes but others will.
You have tried to re-allocate groundwater for profit by others, namely investor owned utilities like Aqua Tex or the district. Your idea of conservation means taking away from the individual property owners and requiring them to purchase from others such as Aqua Tex or otherwise having to pay a feudal lord such as the HTGCD money in the form of production fees and ad valorem taxes.
Ask anyone in Woodcreek how much they pay per month just to be a customer and how much extra they pay to actually get water, 50% of which is wasted due to the infrastructure.
Your plans are very non-profitable for the homeowners here. However, there are others who will profit significantly from these schemes: HTGCD and the investor owned water utilities.
Re Your mantric FORM of communication
Your mantric form and equivocal statements are more apt for cult programming. Here's a simpler, unequivocal mantra reserved for this occasion: "Vote NO to Backus".
Hey anon with the mile long rant against Andrew, why don't you STFU! If you got some sort of personal vendetta against Andrew you should try talking to him personally. Andrew's platform of good stewardship of our aquifer sound totally reasonable and positive for all concerned.
Why do you suppose Mark Keys keeps HIDING BEHIND THE SKIRTS of his DEVELOPER BACKERS. It's because the only agenda he has is to attack Andrew with a bunch of made up crap and hope the voters will believe it. Mark still hasn't told the voters WHAT HE WANTS TO ACCOMPLISH for our groundwater district and good groundwater management.
If negative attack ads and stupid rants from anonymous pin heads like you are what make up his campaign, I can only imagine what he would do to well owners across the district if he got a seat at the table.
Hey Madder than Eddy - you are no less anonymous than any other screen name. At least "Anonymous" isn't hiding behind another screen name.
The "mile long rant" was necessitated by all the false statements that Backus posted. You haven't disputed any of them. The Backus "platform" is a list of equivocal statements that do not comport with his conduct during his term at the HTGCD nor his campaign agenda to-date.
I find such false representations to be sufficient cause in and of themselves to be good enough reason to vote for someone else.
You have to be blind to ignore Backus' legislation and deaf not to have heard his push for production fees and ad valorem taxes - yet here he claims to be protecting property owners from taxes. Nothing could be further from the truth. Try crawfishing away from that one, Whirlpool.
Where is there any basis for your comments that Key is "hiding" behind any "developers"? Now that's truly false propaganda. What "developers", what is being "hidden"?
On the other hand, the points about Backus are easily proven from the legislation that Backus supported. Also, Backus readily admits his participation in astroturfing groups in addition to the HTGCD to push people onto central well systems like Aqua Tex. Backus has personally stated his objective for "full Chapter 36" powers at every candidate forum (which he has made conspicuously absent from his latest campaign statement).
Try identifying a single false statement that Anonymous made regarding Backus. If there were any, you could have listed them. The truth is that you can't point to anything that was false because they were all true.
Madder than Eddy:
Just a note about talking with Andrew, this morning I stopped by to talk with Jimmy Skipton in front of the DSISD Admin building, and noticed that Andrew was standing as far away from Jimmy and his wife as possible. No matter that for all of the years I have voted here in Drippin', all of the candidates stand together along the island and campaign.
Well, when I was asking Jimmy how things were going he said he went over to make small talk with Andrew, and Andrew just apparently stood there and stared at him, with no verbal response (or suggestive sign language) acknowledging his existence. I hate to say it, but this is indicative and typical of Andrew's selfish self-righteous attitude of his being better than others. His superiority complex, and elitism has infected the group that is running against Key, Skipton, and the "Nevada" guy from Wimberley.
How they have translated this from an office for groundwater management to a matter of personal politics is amazing. And you accuse Mark of not having issues to run on, but yet, neither does any of the other candidates have strong positions, with the sole exception of maybe Andrew. The problem with Andrew is that he says he is against meters, yet has been on record at a number of meetings that I have been in attendance of that he has flat said that he would like to meter residential wells to cover the costs of operating the District, and be able to assess an ad valorem tax. So, he is speaking out of both sides of his mouth when he says he is opposed to metering and ad valorem taxes.
I think Andrew learned one thing in his race against Patrick Rose - how to lie like a politician. Used to be something that I knew that I could count on Andrew not doing - lie. I guess that has even changed. Sad.
Yo ding dongs,
When was the last time anyone actually measured what the decibels were emanating from either Nutty Brown Cafe or Memory Lane Event Center?
Check your facts before dishing out the caca. Jeez...
I always like clean water. I mostly dislike loud noise, especially when I am trying to sleep. I don't even waste my time trying to control highway signage, as that is just the Clear Channel way of America.
There! I said my piece. Fight it out lefty control freaks and right wing haters. May the best mind win.
Dear Joe,
You can be a good businessman and a good neighbor too. The two should not be mutually exclusive. Bass content even at the same decibel level as ambient noise is still discernable. When the level of noise is much higher than the ambient level, you get disruptive noise that doesn’t allow the neighbors to enjoy their own homes in peace and quiet.
We are all working people and contribute to society in our own way. You can still have a successful business while keeping down the volume and bass content. As an example, the Backyard was able to conduct a very successful music venue for many years in Bee Cave while maintaining the volume at 65 decibels. They moved because shopping centers moved in surrounding the original site and took away most of their parking.
I totally agree with Mr. Joe, a Plumber. I remember back in the day when Dripping Springs incorporated in a panic to block Austin's expansion up 290. Looks like the city elders of DS haven't blocked anything. Only thing that has changed is that local politicians and their favorite developer friends have all the greedy control over development. What a waste. And what a wasteland of traffic, noise and pollution they are creating for themselves. Will no one ever learn?
Dear last anonymous:
Please do us all a favor and move to some place that will never grow and is slowly dying. To not grow is to die, whether in human terms or in terms of community.
Dripping Springs blocked Austin from taking over our community, not to stop growth. Now that growth has arrived in full stride to our community, it is better served by our having local control over it rather than having another 500,000 people that we have nothing in common with running our lives. Can you imagine what this community would have looked like with Austin City Council at the helm? Holy Moses!!
Wow, Backus sure was crawfishing on KDRP this morning.
I disagree with Mr. Joe the plumber.
The owner of the cafe has done nothing to reduce the noise or the length of the concerts. He uses a 30ft high loud speaker. Instead of letting his paying audience hear the noise, it shoots across the highway to the neighborhoods that have existed for 30 plus years. You can continue playing your music at a much lower volume and keep those musicians employed too.
Andrew Backus, good scientist, bad politician, bad for Hays County. Andrew has been a disaster outside of the classroom. I know him fairly well and can say he is tenacious to the point of obsession about getting his way.
He has problems in the political arena, particularly with keeping his stories straight; he is not a very good liar. My Daddy used to say, “If you are going to be a liar you’d better be the smartest guy in the room and have a damn good memory”. That would explain his performance, or the lack of it, on the radio yesterday.
unless you live next to an outdoor music venue, then you just don't get it. the bass sounds are what cause such distress to the neighbors health and peace of mind.
re: the comments about the convenience of the nbcafe, what you are really speaking about is CHEAP fun at the neighbors expense.
just wait till noise moves in next door to you. then you'll understand!
cozyhomes, why don't you file a civil lawsuite against the establishment? Just be sure you have your documents in order and it wouldn't hurt to have a witness or two to confirm what you present to the judge. You can file for $5,000 which can be a big help in soundproofing your home.
You do not need an attorney and you can also file for court fees and costs as an addition to your $5,000 suit.
Even if you don't win you will force the owners to deal with your complaints in front of a judge who may be able to be a medium for some sort of resolution and/or providing concessions on both parts.
I think it's worth a shot. I have had success with similar issue. I think you should consider filing a civil case to arrive at a resolution.
I agree she should file a civil case to arrive at a resolution. Win or lose maybe she would shut up and we would get a break from all the whining; talk about noise pollution.
The owner of the Nutty Brown is doing quite a bit to find ways of reducing the noise exposure of its neighbors. He is very serious about this, even though there are no applicable noise ordinances for him to meet.
The loudspeakers are not 30 feet high. They are positioned as low as possible and angled to keep sound in the venue.
There is no general federal noise limit. 65 dBA (DNL, not Leq) is found in land use compatibility guidelines from FHA and HUD. That is a very separate issue from neighbor to neighbor noise.
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