However, it was obvious that many of the council and assembled officials came itching to rumble as they tried to throw each other into the pool with moderate success.  And those who were not thrown in the pool, all bravely volunteered to grab cleaning implements and scrub away.   It was a veritable circus of cleaning and everyone was in the ring. Two lines of chanting conga pushbroomers had the shallow end sparkling like a buddhist temple waiting for the Dalai Lama to arrive.  There were people everywhere, working the brooms, scrubbing the walls, netting algae, trying out the power equipment.  Laurie Dries led an entourage into the south side lions den of algae and gave a great lesson on separating the good from the bad and whipping grime from the salamander crevasses with a hose.  Robin Cravey garnered a new title to his already estimable credit, ‘The Barber of Barton Springs’ as he trimmed the ebulant growth of plants in the deep end to a respectable swimming and diving level.  Perhaps he will be offering free hair cuts to volunteers at the next cleaning.  You sit in one of the pecan trunk chairs and he stands 12 feet away with our new pole saws.  His precision is amazing.

We extend our deepest gratitude to all those who volunteered with us this August and the gracious donations of the council to our equipment inventory.  And we look forward to seeing all of you again down at the pool helping to restore its rightful glory!

-Jonathan Beall, FBSP Service Chair

Thanks to our sponsors:

by Robin Cravey

Senator Kirk Watson along with Mayor Lee Leffingwell present at check for $300,000 to FBSP

Senator Kirk Watson was the new man at the Fifth Annual Council Cleans the Pool Day in August.  Mayor Lee Leffingwell, all the members of the Austin City Council, Representative Donna Howard, and Commissioner Karen Huber all returned for another grand day.

Kirk, a former mayor of Austin, was there to present the Friends with a check for $300,000.  The money came from a special program at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, and will be used to help pay for the improvements to the bypass tunnel.  With Kirk’s help and the participation of Charlie McCabe at the Austin Parks Foundation, we applied for the funds and received them.  When the city actually does the work on the bypass tunnel, we will pass the money through to them.

Lee improved the occasion by challenging the staff to get cracking on the bypass tunnel work.  His enthusiastic support of the Pool and the master plan is inspiring.  Besides accepting the check on behalf of the city, he also presented the Friends with a half dozen brooms on behalf of the council.

Kirk was also there to clean the Pool.  He came in his trunks, and after the presentation, he waded down into the water and pushed a broom with the broom brigade.  Also in the brigade with him were Mayor Pro Tem Mike Martinez and Councilmembers Chris Riley and Laura Morrison.  With all our new brooms, and our wealth of volunteers, we had two broom brigades working in the first shift.

Councilmember Sheryl Cole is such a cutup!  Last year, in a playful moment, she dunked Mike Martinez.  This year, Sheryl tried to push Kirk into the Pool, but he outmaneuvered her and tossed her into the water!

Randi Shade came early, and had to leave before the presentation.  Bill Spelman arrived after the presentation, but did get in the pool and work with one of the buffers.

Council Cleans the Pool Day just grows every year.  We began it in 2006 as a way to bring the council members down to let them see first hand what it takes to keep the pool clean, and what the pool needs.  It’s still about that, but it takes on new dimensions each year.  We never even thought about inviting a state legislator, but the next year Donna Howard came on her own initiative to show her support.  Then Commissioner Karen Huber.  This year Senator Kirk Watson (with a big fat check).  I think the real reason is that word is getting around that cleaning the Pool is fun and satisfying.

Quick dips

We have been trying out a new method for controlling the towers of star grass that are proliferating in the pool.  What we do is take a pole saw and, from the surface, reach down and cut the star grass off about six feet down.  It takes a while for it to grow back up high enough to interfere with swimming again.

Emma Cravey and I represented the Friends at the Zilker Neighborhood Watermelon Social.  It was a rainy day, and the event was sparsely attended, but we saw a lot of friends we knew.

We had a briefing on the bypass tunnel at the Watershed Protection Department.  Almost a dozen members of the FBSP board and the Barton Springs Plan Coordinating Committee attended, and about an equal number of city staffers.  We expect a report from the city’s consultants on the tunnel soon.

Part of our preparation for Council cleans the Pool Day was to write a memo on “Springs Cleaning Party Procedures.”  It’s a description of the main cleaning activities we do, why we do them, and how we do them.  This will become a regular handout for our volunteers.

Council Cleans the Pool Day in 2009

Contact: Robin Cravey, 236-9655

president@friendsofbartonspringspool.org

Date: July 26, 2010

Event Date: August 12, 2010

Event Time: A tour of the Pool 9:15 – 9:40 a.m.
Press conference 9:40 – 10:00 a.m.
Elected Officials clean the Pool 10:00 a.m.

5th Annual Council Cleans the Pool Day

On Thursday, August 12th at 9:15 am, Austin City Council members and other elected officials will join volunteers from the Friends of Barton Springs Pool and city staff to clean algae and silt from Barton Springs Pool.  The cleaning session will kick off at 9:15 a.m. with a short tour and press conference with a check presentation to the Friends of Barton Springs Pool to be used to fund a Barton Springs Pool Master Plan project. The elected officials will then be stepping down into the cold spring waters to work with volunteers to clean Barton Springs Pool.

Officials who have confirmed their attendance include: Mayor Lee Leffingwell; Senator Kirk Watson, County Commissioner Karen Huber, State Rep. Donna Howard, and a few city council members.

It will be the Fifth Annual Council Cleans the Pool Day put on by Friends of Barton Springs Pool (FBSP).  The group formed in 2006, another drought year, to respond to the algae blooms that clogged the pool that year.  Since then FBSP volunteers have worked side-by-side with pool lifeguards to help keep the pool clean.  Inviting council members to the pool to see conditions first hand quickly became an annual tradition.

“Last year, we had eight elected officials who got in the water with us to help clean Barton Springs and show their support of preserving the Pool for generations to come,” commented Robin Cravey, FBSP president.  “We’ll have an important announcement regarding funding that Senator Kirk Watson helped FBSP get to pay for improvements to the bypass tunnel. This year the event will be unique because we will be cleaning the Pool while it’s drained.”

The day will begin with a short tour of pool cleaning facilities and a look at problems with the bypass tunnel. Senator Kirk Watson will be the keynote speaker at the press conference to announce the funding. The press conference is often an opportunity for officials to comment on the progress of the Barton Springs Pool Master Plan, which envisions an array of improvements to the pool, grounds, and facilities.

Talking done, the officials will begin their watery work.  They will work in water up to their waists, pushing brooms and buffers to scrub the bottom, and dragging nets to skim the surface. They will also be tending to the plants that grow on the bottom of the Pool. For more information, please visit our website at www.FriendsofBartonSpringsPool.org.

A special thanks to our sponsors:

Elected Officials and FBSP Board Members

Elected Officials hard at work

Mayor Lee Leffingwell cleaning Barton Springs Pool

Mayor Pro Tem Mike Martinez enjoying a swim in the Pool before the festivities began last year.

In response to pressure from the FBSP, the city crafted a Master Plan Project in 2006 to improve the conditions at Barton Springs. The city has set aside roughly $6 million for short-term projects that include fixing the roof, removing algae and testing the dams.

“The significance of the master plan is that it is an expression of love and honor for the pool,” Cravey said. “It says that Barton Springs is a natural work of art that should be surrounded by manmade works of art. It should be a first-rate public facility.”

To this day, Barton Springs continues to serve as an oasis for the hundreds of thousands of people who swim there each year, and many are working to preserve its splendor for future generations.

I had the opportunity to tour the Zilker Park maintenance barn recently. Emily Little and I asked for the tour. The maintenance barn is proposed to be the new location for the Splash! education center, and it would be a good one.

Maintenance barn at Barton Springs Pool

Emily is an architect, a member of the Austin Heritage Society, and a member of the Barton Springs Plan Coordinating Committee. Naturally, she has a special interest in the buildings, and their historic nature. She is a leader in the effort to move the pool entrance back to the rotunda where it belongs.

Moving the entrance back to the rotunda will necessarily take some space away from the existing Splash classrooms. The classrooms are on the opposite side of the rotunda from the Splash Exhibit. They’re two dingy little rooms where visiting students learn about nature.

The maintenance barn is an old quonset hut enclosed in a fenced compound near the playground. The compound contains gas tanks and equipment in open sheds. One look is enough to tell you that this mechanical facility is a little too close to Barton Creek. Moving the compound has been planned for years, and the staff is close to taking bids on the project.

Staffers John McKesson, Gary Gregson, and Clark Hancock conducted the tour. Clark is the director of the Splash Exhibit and classrooms. He sees the move as an opportunity to expand and improve the education facility.

It will be great to tear down the tall fence around the compound and turn that into a people place again. Of course, it will also take some serious cleanup to remove the residue of decades of equipment repair and other maintenance activities. But, envision young kids skipping down from that area to the creek, then climbing back with their samples to examine.

Back at the bathhouse, envision three or five cashiers at admission windows at the rotunda, with short lines or no waiting. Swimmers will enter through the center again, as was intended. And soon, when the major bathhouse renovation is done, we’ll have a visitor center. It’s a lot to look forward to, and to work for.

Quick dips

Kelly Snook, new Assistant Director at PARD

Kelly Snook is our new assistant director for planning at PARD. I met with her and other staffers recently. Kelly directed planning in Missouri City, near Houstonand worked with community groups.

Jonathan Beall and I met with Laurie Dries recently to talk about the burgeoning plant life in the pool. Some of the plants Laurie introduced have taken over, and we’ll be working to bring them under control.

Emma Cravey and I attended a budget input session sponsored by the City Manager, where we submitted our position paper advocating for full funding of the Parks budget.

Members of the FBSP board and the BSPCC met recently with State Representative Eddie Rodriguez at the Capitol. We also met with State Rep. Mark Strama at a nearby Starbucks.

The Watershed Department continues to struggle with the bypass tunnel repair project. Director Victoria Li has assigned Dennis Crabill and Johnnie Price as new staffers on the project.

Maria Weber, Treasurer

Click on the “-Choose a program-” drop down menu and scroll down.

FBSP is under “Central” titled “Barton Springs Pool, Friends of”.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

Thanks! Your donation goes to fund projects at the Pool, tools for volunteers, and our tree planting initiatives to ensure that Barton Springs Pool will be preserved for generations to come.

Please contact Jonathan Beall, service chair to sign up for your shift today! service@friendsofbartonspringspool.org

Cleaning algae from the Pool on Earth Day

A picnic at Barton Springs Pool on a hot summer day

by Robin Cravey

 We work hard; we play hard; and we relax hard.  Saturday, June 19, was a time for some hard relaxing for the Friends.  Thanks to organizer Gary Beyer, the relaxing was easy. 

We set up the ol’ hospitality tent at the picnic grounds just outside the fence, and started the picnic with coffee and palaver with the board.  Coffee was courtesy of Austin Java.  New director Jesse Malone signed up members and made sure folks got their tee shirts. 

After some talk, a group of folks formed up to take a tour of the grounds with landscape architect Brad Burns.  We were honored to have former mayor Frank Cooksey take the tour with us.  The tour stopped at the glass rotunda, tree court, north grounds, south grounds, and accessible trail sites to talk about proposed improvements. 

By the time the tour got back to the picnic, grillmaster Jonathan Beall was rolling the hot dogs onto a platter.  We settled in to chow down.  Hot dogs and limeade! 

We presented the $7,500 check for proceeds from the Treeathlon to Ralph Webster, who accepted on behalf of the the Austin Parks Foundation.  The money will be dedicated to Barton Springs trees.  Pool Manager Wayne Simmons was also on hand for the festivities. 

We presented awards—certificates and pool passes— to six of our star volunteers.  First up was Nancy McCandless, one of the original three founders of the Friends and still a volunteer.  Tom Weber presented awards to Molly Bean and Steve Barnick for excellence in advocacy.  Jonathan Beall presented service awards to Jonathan Markoff, Mike Meier, and Booth O’Quinn.  We are grateful to have these and many other worthy volunteers. 

A tour of the grounds with landscape architect Brad Burns. 

A tour of the grounds with landscape architect Brad Burns.

  Emma Cravey drew tickets from the hat to present coupons from Uncle Billy’s Brew & Que and P.Terry’s Burgers to over a dozen lucky picnickers. 

The picnic closed with a round of Barton Springs Stories.  One by one picnickers came up to the microphone and told their favorite Barton Springs story.  Of course there were some fish (and turtle and eel!) stories. 

Quick Dips 

Our next major event will be “Council Cleans the Pool Day” on August 12.  It will be a good chance to push a broom with the mayor, councilmembers, and other elected officials, including Senator Kirk Watson!  What’s more, we will be able to drain the pool for this cleaning.  See the pool like you’ve never seen it before! 

Look for us at the Barton Hills Fourth of July Parade.  We’ll have a float in the parade, and the hospitality tent at the picnic. 

I met with Mayor Lee Leffingwell and Councilmembers Randi Shade and Chris Riley over the past month.  I also joined Tom Nelson of PARD for a master plan presentation to the council committee on planning and transportation, chaired by Sheryl Cole, with members Laura Morrison and Chris Riley. 

Public input on the general grounds improvements is wrapping up.  The architects will summarize the input at a meeting on Thursday, July 1, 6:00 p.m., Zilker Botanical Gardens – Auditorium, 2220 Barton Springs Road. 

Tom Weber, Mary Yarrington, and I attended the hearing on the gravel bar removal at the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department.  We urged the department to grant the permit to remove the gravel.