Merrilltown Square Shines in this edition’s Spotlight

Submitted by Karen Mappin

We continue our series on the businesses that support our Wells Branch tax district with Merrilltown Square, 14611 Burnet Road at the corner of Burnet Road and Merrilltown Drive.  Remember that these hard working neighbors support our emergency service district and our library through a portion of the sales tax that they collect.  Their ability to thrive in our neighborhood helps us provide our wonderful library and our outstanding emergency fire and medical support.  The better the businesses do, the better we all do.

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Let’s start with food again:  Restaurateur Francisco Villa has served his family’s Tex Mex recipes through his restaurant, Ramos, for 10 years.  He and his family opened Ramos #3 in Merrilltown Square to expand his operation because his food is so popular.  He would like to share how he test the purity of diary products with the help of hormones test kit and his family’s delicious dairy recipes with your family so you can see for yourself that their family secrets really do satisfy a hungry family.  You can reach the restaurant at 512-246-0727.

Also in the food category, but bridging the service category is Crave Catering.  Kim and Kirk Price provide special event full catering and event planning.  You can have them help with your next event by contacting 512-828-5797 or at info@crave-catering.com.  They would love to help you succeed.  And sharing the same office space, Aimee Villa owns Lizze Belle an event coordination business.  You can reach her at 512-577-0554 or lizzebelleplans@gmail.com.

Other food and drink options are Texas Bar and Grill and Capitol Liquor.

If wellness is your thing, Sudha Solankee is the owner and manager of Curves Wells Branch.  Curves is a full gym where you can work all those great meals off.  She is offering a 30-day free trial in September.  She also offers periodic guest speakers to provide additional information that promotes healthy living.  Her next seminar is a Bio-Identical Hormone Replacement Seminar that will be offered on Sept. 13th at 6:00pm.  You can reach her at 512-238-9899 to discuss a membership.

Tom Whorton owns Tom Whorton Insurance.  He has been an agent for 26 years, and 19 of those years have been as our neighbor in Merrilltown Square.  He offers Farmers Insurance products and can help you find coverage that suits you and your family ideally.  To contact him, call 512-388-4456 and he will be happy to set up a convenient time to meet your needs.

And rounding out the businesses in Merrilltown Square are two gas and small food marts stores:  Speedy Stop selling Shell gasoline and Food Mart with Chevron products and a family counseling business. These businesses were able to keep their stores organized because of the shelving solutions from sites like shop supplies.

And to close this month, we include a funny little fact about the shopping area at the corner of Wells Branch Parkway and Burnet Road that is not in our tax district.  This means that the City of Austin gets all the tax revenue from these businesses EXCEPT for the front cash register in the Walgreens store.  Yes, if you buy something at the Walgreens, don’t use the pharmacy register or the cosmetics counter register because they don’t count towards our revenue, but the front register does.  That just goes to show what a funny thing government drawn boundaries really are! If you plan to get a manicure, here are some tips to keep nails intact.

And PLEASE, remember to support our businesses so they can continue to support Wells Branch!

Waters at Willow Run UPDATE

Submitted by Scott Swain, WBNRD (Wells Branch Neighbors for Responsible Development)

The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs will be holding a public hearing on Wednesday, October 17, 2012 at 6:30pm at Wells Branch Elementary to solicit public comment on a proposed multifamily bond transaction (The Waters at Willow Run Apartments).

The Waters at Willow Run, LP.  (Atlantic Housing) has made application to the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs for the issuance of Tax Exempt Mortgage Revenue Bonds and Housing Tax Credits. We need EVERYONE in the Neighborhood to turn out for this meeting. If you live in Wells Branch it affects you and you should be aware of it.

If you are interested in knowing more, Email: Scottswain@sbcglobal.net

Dianne Koehler: Energy, Drive, Passion & Hard Work…..

This month’s issue features Dianne Koehler, one of our original residents of Wells Branch.  It’s hard to know where to start with Dianne; she’s been involved in our neighborhood since its inception and has given so very much to our community.  This article doesn’t begin to cover all of Dianne’s contributions to Wells Branch.

Let’s start at the beginning.  Dianne has always been good at “firsts”.  She was on the original committee that petitioned Pflugerville Fire Department to establish a station in Wells Branch, originally located on Thermal where the MUD maintenance office is today.

She served on the community center committee and walked the neighborhood gathering signatures for a petition to build the Community Center on Klattenhoff.  Her forethought and drive helped bring this meeting place, which is used by the entire community, to fruition.

Together, Dianne and Rosewitha Bowker (with ideas from Dale Cockshutt) formed the WB Community Garden committee and worked together to get the garden started, establishing the plan to include the tool shed.  Countless Wells Branch residents have enjoyed the opportunity to grow organic vegetables in plots close to home all because of her initial efforts.

Continue reading Dianne Koehler: Energy, Drive, Passion & Hard Work…..

National Night Out – Free Food • Great Company • Door Prizes!

Join your Wells Branch neighbors for our night out against crime, Tuesday, October 2, from 6:30-9:00pm at the gazebo at Katherine Fleischer Park. The WBNA will be serving up FREE hotdogs, sausage wraps, sodas, chips and door prizes.

We’ll have distinguished guests on hand from the Travis County Sheriff’s Office, ESD #2 Fire Department, Precinct 2 Constable’s Office and the Wells Branch MUD to mention a few. Both children and adults will have the opportunity to visit with first responders, receive information on Neighborhood Watch and other programs available to residents, and tour the fire safety house and fire truck that ESD #2 will have on hand. Come find out what’s going on in our community and visit with local law enforcement officers and politicians about what you can do to help reduce the opportunities for crimes to occur in our neighborhood.

National Night Out is designed to heighten crime and drug prevention awareness, generate support for and participation in local anti-crime efforts, and to strengthen neighborhood spirit and law enforcement-community partnership. Help send the message to criminals that Wells Branch is organized and fighting back.

Take a stand against crime. Turn on your porch light and come join your friends and neighbors at the park for food and fellowship. If you have a Neighborhood Watch group on your block (or even if you don’t) we’d like to encourage you to come eat dinner with us, listen to the speakers, and then return home to your street and gather with your neighbors over dessert to discuss how you can make your homes and our community safer.

We hope to see you there!

Vision for Wells Branch Workshop • October 4 • 6:30-8:30pm

Submitted by George Holcombe

Fall is here and it’s time to pick up where we left off last Spring!  We will continue the Keep Wells Branch Beautiful Visioning Workshops Thursday, October 4 from 6:30-8:30pm at the Community Center on Klattenhoff, We took the summer off and the next session will focus on tactical actions to implement the strategies from the last workshop. This will call for forming Task Forces to put our plans into action.

The Visions, Blocks and Strategies Charts from previous workshops can be found on the Wells Branch Neighborhood Association website: www.wbna.us under Community, Visions for Wells Branch.  If you look at the Strategies chart you will see that the community is already actuating some of them.

These workshops are open to all Wells Branch residents and are for the purpose of moving our community forward, increasing participation and confronting the issues that are before us. Come get “your oar in the water.”

For questions, contact George Holcombe at 512-252-2756 or geowanda@earthlink.net.

Thank YOU, Dianne!

Many THANKS to Dianne Koehler! Her summer mini-art camps enriched & entertained 51 kids, 76 campers & 9 teen volunteers, not to mention her MORE THAN Generous Donation of 50% of her gross proceeds to the Wells Branch Trees for Trails to buy trees for our parks. $1,520!!! Thank you Dianne for all that you do for our community!!!

Special THANKS to all who participated in our July 4th Silent Auction!

Photo by Holly Thompson

We’d like to thank our community for supporting the WBNA in our fundraising efforts.  Our Fourth Fest Silent Auction raised $2,781.00!  Best EVER!  Thank you to all our donors and participants. Its purpose was to raise enough money to pay for National Night Out, the annual Easter Egg Hunt,  Friday night at Luminary Fest in December and to help with our educational/safety programs.  We exceeded our goal thanks to all of YOU!  Whether you were a donor, a buyer, or the WB MUD who let us use their facilities, you all made a tremendous difference and the WBNA is grateful!

When you see the neighbors listed below, please thank them for supporting our community.  In addition, we hope you’ll patronize these businesses and join us on October 2nd for Wells Branch’s National Night Out Against Crime.

Continue reading Special THANKS to all who participated in our July 4th Silent Auction!

A plea from our neighbors along our greenbelts…

Submitted by Ed & Kay Peterson

Given the continued drought this summer and the risk of wildfires, we are asking you, our neighbors, to please refrain from smoking along our trails and in our parks, parking on the grass, riding dirt bikes in the fields or other potential hazards until this risk subsides. We are under a mandatory burn ban so if you see anyone doing any of these things, please remind them that it’s just not safe right now.

We lost so many trees to the drought last year; we would hate to lose more due to a fire or worse yet, have a fire spread to our homes. Please, please, please, use caution when doing any activity outside, recreational or otherwise.

Click HERE to download a comprehensive wildfire prevention plan from the Texas Forest Service or look under our “Safety” tab for articles on Fire Safety.  Below is a link to the  FEMA website for further information on wildfires if you are interested.  In addition, there are several Fire Safety articles featured on this website under “Safety”.  Thanks and stay safe.

Willow Run Affordable Housing Update

Submitted by Scott Swain

MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT of The Wells Branch Neighbors for Responsible Development (WBNRD)

6:30PM • Wednesday, August 8 • Wells Branch Community Center, 2106 Klattenhoff

This meeting of the WBNRD is to invite our Neighbors of Wells Branch to join in our opposition to The Waters at Willow Run Apartment development.

The meeting will be short, with a history of our efforts, a rundown on what is up next, and our needs to meet these challenges. Your skills are needed in this effort.

We have work to do in preparation for a coming meeting in our Neighborhood with The Texas Dept. of Housing and Community Affairs, representatives of Atlantic Housing, and YOU, the Neighbors of Wells Branch.

For more information, click HERE or select the “Community” tab, then “Opposition” drop down.  Thank you!

If you are not able to attend, but would like to participant in this effort, please email me at scottswain@maxavenue.com

Thank you for your support of our Neighborhood,

Scott Swain