Author: Deborah Southerland

If you’re interested in donating door prizes or serving as a sponsor for our Neighborhood Night Out event on October 12, you’re in luck!  We’re offering Neighborhood Night Out donors and sponsors the opportunity to advertise on scofieldfarms.org for no charge.  As part of this special pilot program, your business will be featured on scofieldfarms.org for at least 15 days before and 15 days after the event.  Please contact Debbie Southerland at ddsoutherland@gmail.com for more details.  Many thanks in advance for your interest and participation!

From Ronda Schultz:

Here are the Sept 2012 Yard of the Month winners:

Scofield Main Yard of the Month: 12901 Tapadero Drive
Park at Scofield Yard of the Month: 1517 Chasewood Drive
Withers Way Yard of the Month: 1709 Ender Cove
Overall Scofield Farms Yard of the Month: 1521 Braided Rope Drive

These yards are consistently beautiful, and we appreciate how hard the homeowners work to keep our neighborhood so nice!  We will be judging for the last month of the 2012 Yard of the Month the first weekend in October, so be warned!

As we are heading into the fall, a reminder from the Pool Committee:

1. Labor Day was the last day for the lifeguards, so please exercise caution when at the pool.

2. The pool will remain open until October 31 and will observe regular hours:  Mondays 5 pm – 11 pm, Tuesdays – Sundays 6 am – 11 pm.

As always, thanks for your cooperation!

From Ronda Schultz:

The judging of the Yard of the Month for August was done over the first weekend of the month, and the competition was fierce. We judges find ourselves having trouble deciding the winners, since so many people have been working in their yards! We have been getting some nominations as well, and these get a lot of consideration. We encourage all neighbors to tell us about yards that they enjoy, so we can note them for potential awards!
The winners are:

Park Section: 1515 Tamar
Withers Way Section: 12731 Withers Way
Main Section: 1713 Dapplegrey
Scofield Farms Overall Yard of the Month for August: 12900 Scofield Farms Drive

Each winner gets a sign to display in his or her yard, and a gift card to Lowe’s! THANK YOU to everyone who is doing such a great job to keep our neighborhood beautiful!

Note that we have another volunteer on our Yard of the Month Committee: Shirley Pate. Welcome, Shirley! We appreciate your help!

The Yard of the Month Committee: Ronda Schultz, Leigh Ann Brunson, Jacob Abdel-Qader, and Shirley Pate

General Reference:

Austin Customer Service Directory

The Customer Service Directory contains information about municipal departments and their services, phone numbers and email addresses. This directory also contains some information about key state, county and federal services useful to residents of the greater Austin area.

Austin 311 – Online Service Request

This site allows the citizens of Austin to request selected (non-emergency) city services online.

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Specific Issues:

Abandoned Vehicle

To report an abandoned or junked vehicle, please call 512-974-8119.

Make an online Report of Abandoned/Nuisance Car.

Animal Bites

Call 911 if a person has been attacked, bitten or scratched by a domestic or wild animal and they need emergency care. Call 311 to report the incident if a person has been attacked, bitten or scratched by a domestic or wild animal, but emergency care is not required.

Common City Code Violations

This page contains general information about code violations. For more detailed information or exact wording, consult Austin’s Code of Ordinances. Report suspected violations by calling 311 or filing a complaint online.

Dead Animal Pick Up

Dog/cat waste on property – filing a complaint

Scoop The Poop Program

Garbage/Recycling (Austin Resource Recovery): 512-494-9400

            Resource Recovery: Trash, Recycling, Bulk/Brush Collection Schedules

Graffiti Removal

Call 311 or the graffiti hotline at 512-974-1028 to report graffiti on any building in the City of Austin.

Noise issues : 311

Power Outage: (512) 322-9100

Rodent/Mosquito Problem (Vector Control): 978-0300 rodent, 978-0370 mosquito or bee

Report Rodent/Mosquito Problem

Sidewalk/Street Repair : 311

Street Light Out : 311

Street Lighting Request

Storm Drain Maintenance : 311

Trees Near Power Lines:

If you are concerned about trees near power lines on your property, submit a Tree Pruning Request online or call Austin Energy at (512) 494-9400.

Water Restrictions

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Other Miscellaneous Resources:

Austin City Code Online
This site contains Volumes I through IV of the Austin, Texas Code of Ordinances and is current through May 2012.

APD Crime Viewer

Helpful tool to search for crimes by date and address radius.

City of Austin – Police Frequently Asked Questions

Channel 6 Austin
Channel 6 is the City’s government access channel. Programming includes City Council meetings, public meetings, news conferences, CityView news magazine, Live from the Plaza concerts and educational programming about City departments and initiatives.

City Council Meeting Minute Archives

Detailed minutes (and some video) for many years of Austin City Council meetings.

Travis Central Appraisal District
Registered owners for last year’s tax cycle, appraised values, and links to plats.

From Maria Shelby:

The 4th of July signifies a lot of things, most importantly, independence for the USA. It is also means that there is a great celebration to look forward to. This year was no different as we had another successful pool party on this historical day.

The event games, targeted at entertaining children, were filled with watermelon relay races, coin dives, pie eating contests and badminton games. There were plenty of food and snacks for everyone. We also had raffle giveaways for the adults (one per family).

A big thank you to all the people who helped make the day a memorable one for our kids including our sponsors and volunteers and our HOA Board Members for supporting the annual community event. Those volunteers include Alan Shelby, our emcee, Marina Butts, Deborah & Nate Southerland, Tracy Johnson, the children who helped with the raffle drawings, Dan Frasier (our hot dog chef) and many others who helped with either setting up, assisted with running contests or closed shop that afternoon. It takes a group effort to make it right. Our neighborhood is blessed to have such a nice pool facility and friendly people to help make the party an enjoyable event for everyone.

We were also fortunate to have such great sponsors who donated items from their businesses to give away as raffles! In all, we had over 14 drawings and neighborhood winners. In addition, the kids won prizes for winning contests or finding certain coins in the nickel dives.

Please shop at our sponsors’ businesses because they continue to support our events and we wish them continued success. The sponsors and their donations include:

Frost Bank (Tech Ridge) – seven cases of water, two gift baskets
Which Wich (Parmer Lane) – three dinners for two coupons, t-shirt & Which Wich cup, multiple buy one get one free coupons
My Fit Foods (Tech Ridge) – $25 gift card, multiple buy one get one free coupons
Jenny Walker Realtor – two $50 McCormick & Schmick gift cards
Mattrezz Guys (Burnet Rd) – two jumbo memory foam pillows and mattress cover
Kevin Koym (Tech Ranch) – 1 seat to Tech5Venture program
Tracy Johnson (Thirtyone Consultant in SF) – one specialty bag with gifts
Fletch Realty Pflugerville (Brad Butts in SF) – three Starbucks gift cards
SFROA – Einstein Bros gift cards and two sets of four tickets to a Friday night Round Rock Express game with fireworks

Congratulations to the Yard of the Month winners for July!  The overall winner, 1317 Braided Rope, will receive a $75 gift card to Lowe’s.  In addition, the winners for Scofield Main (12921 Scofield Farms), The Park at Scofield (1538 Tamar), and Withers Way (12735 Withers Way) will receive a $50 Lowe’s gift card.  Be sure to check out these outstanding yards as you make your way around the neighborhood!

Also, here’s a special message from the Yard of the Month Committee:

The judging is done on the first weekend of each month, and the judging is getting really tough!  There are a lot of beautiful yards, and our neighbors are showing a lot of originality and hard work.  We on the Yard of the Month Committee — Ronda Schultz, Leigh Ann Brunson, and Jacob Abdel-Qader, really appreciate nominations from our neighbors!  Please send an email to Ronda at rschultz@austin.rr.com, Leigh Ann at labrunson@sbcglobal.net, or Jacob at faisalabdel@hotmail.com.