February 12, 2008

Eight HPR neighbors spoke eloquently about the need to maintain the scenic, rural nature of the western part of Hamilton Pool Road. The Commissioners appeared to be listening attentively, asked questions and engaged in dialogue with us.

Hugh Winkler, Mara Eurich, Gene Lowenthal, Nell Penridge, Pam Reese, Anni Borden, a woman named Cyd and I all addressed the fact that there is just no need for this 4-lane. Some might support the idea of a 4 lane from 71 to RR12 but not beyond. Gene pointed out the folly of building roads where they are not needed, particularly when money for such projects is so tight. Pam spoke about, among other things, the fact that we have a well organized community out here. Mara and others mentioned that there is really no traffic problem on the road. Annie brought up the fragility of the Pedernales River valley and the harm that could befall it from the construction and existance of a larger road.

Annie's remarks and the packet of maps and photos that she presented to the Commissioners are available as a PDF to download here (CAUTION: This is a big file, with images suitable for printing. Don't download unless you have a speedy internet connection or lots of time on your hands).

My remarks are in this PDF. I also showed the Court a 3 minute video which I shot (with the help of neighbor John Worrall) a while ago. The video shows a drive from Hamilton Pool to the Blanco County line. It is sped up from the actual 10 minutes 41 seconds that the trip took. The footage makes it abundantly clear how little an expanded road is needed. During the entire run, we only saw one other vehicle. Watch the video here.

The text of the entire HPR discussion at the Commissioners Court meeting is archived on-line here. This text seems to be the live stenographic recording that was used as the video captioning, so it is full of (sometimes humorous) misspellings and inaccuracies. There is also supposed to be an archived Real video available there but I couldn't make it work.