Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission
Ad Hoc Outreach Committee
May 30, 2001
Commission Hearing RoomTexas Parks & Wildlife Department Headquarters Complex
4200 Smith School Road
Austin, TX 78744
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6 BE IT REMEMBERED that heretofore on the 30th day
7 of May of 2001, there came on to be heard matters under
8 the regulatory authority of the Parks and Wildlife
9 Commission of Texas, in the Commission Hearing room of
10 Texas Parks and Wildlife Headquarters Complex, Austin,
11 Travis County, Texas, beginning at 3:21 p.m., to wit:
12 APPEARANCES:
THE PARKS AND WILDLIFE COMMISSION
13
14 Lee M. Bass, Ft. Worth, Texas, Chairman
John Avila, Jr., Fort Worth, Texas
15 Alvin L. Henry, Houston, Texas
Carol E. Dinkins, Houston, Texas, Vice-Chair
16 Ernest Angelo, Jr., Midland, Texas
Katharine Armstrong Idsal, Dallas, Texas
17 Mark E. Watson, Jr., San Antonio, Texas
Phil Montgomery, III, Dallas, Texas
18 Joseph Fitzsimons, San Antonio, Texas
19 THE PARKS AND WILDLIFE DEPARTMENT:
20 Andrew Sansom, Executive Director
Other personnel of the Parks and Wildlife Department
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1 AD HOC OUTREACH COMMITTEE
2 * * * * * * * * * *
3 MAY 30, 2001
4 * * * * * * * * * *
5 3:21 P.M.
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7 COMMISSIONER HENRY: Mr. Chairman, I would
8 like to call to order the Ad Hoc Outreach Committee and
9 would ask for approval of minutes from the previous
10 meeting.
11 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: So moved.
12 COMMISSIONER AVILA: Second.
13 COMMISSIONER HENRY: Have a motion and a
14 second. All in favor, aye. Opposers, nay. Motion
15 carries.
16 Mr. Sansom, Chairman's charges, please.
17 AGENDA ITEM NO. 1
18 BRIEFING - CHAIRMAN'S CHARGES
19 MR. SANSOM: Yes, sir. One of the charges
20 that Mr. Bass gave to this committee was to establish a
21 new outreach initiative that targets youth and their
22 families to enhance awareness and appreciation of outdoor
23 recreation and resource conservation.
24 Today I'm pleased to tell you that Item No. 1 is
25 a briefing by Bob Murphy, who will update you on that
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1 effort; that is, our efforts to establish outreach
2 coordinators in two major markets and our marketing effort
3 for the Outdoor Kids Program.
4 You will also see today a review of the master
5 plan for Sheldon Lake State Park, which of course is
6 specifically designed to address outreach and education
7 for urban youth. Thanks, Mr. Chairman.
8 COMMISSIONER HENRY: Mr. Murphy.
9 AGENDA ITEM NO. 2
10 BRIEFING - STATEWIDE AND REGIONAL OUTREACH
11 MR. BOB MURPHY: Mr. Chairman, members of
12 the Committee, my name is Bob Murphy, the Agency Outreach
13 Coordinator. And today our plan is to update you on the
14 progress that we've made on our statewide and regional
15 initiatives to better coordinate our -- our outreach
16 efforts.
17 You know, as -- as we've noted in previous
18 briefings, one of our key strategies is to implement
19 regional outreach initiatives beginning in Houston and
20 then moving on to San Antonio and Dallas. I will provide
21 more details on the current status of these efforts in a
22 moment.
23 The Regional Outreach Initiative in Houston is
24 well underway, and a staff team has been assembled to
25 represent each of the divisions with a stake in the
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1 planning effort. Our original contract for services
2 partner was the Nature Heritage Society. We plan to once
3 again work with Glen Miller and his team to reach the
4 citizens of Houston with our agency messages of
5 conservation, safe recreation and responsible and
6 law-abiding use of natural and cultural resources.
7 The hub site for the Houston Regional Outreach
8 Initiative is Sheldon Lake State Park. And, once again,
9 by that, we mean that this is the site where we -- where
10 we intend to introduce the public to all of our other
11 sites, programs and opportunities in the region. You will
12 hear next a briefing on the planning progress at Sheldon.
13 I am very pleased to announce that we have hired
14 the Houston Regional Outreach coordinator, and he has hit
15 the ground running. His name is Johnnie Jones. He is a
16 Houston native who has worked hard to get his fellow
17 Houstonians outdoors, camping, fishing, hunting and
18 boating in many of the Region's outdoor settings. Johnnie
19 brings a businessman's approach to this job, and a passion
20 for sharing his joy of the outdoors with his community.
21 In Dallas, we have assembled a staff team
22 representing most of the divisions involved in outreach.
23 We have just conducted the second rounds of candidate
24 interviews for the Dallas Regional Outreach coordinator,
25 and I will be forwarding a selection recommendation
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1 immediately. Those were completed yesterday.
2 Our contract for services partner was the Inner
3 City Fishing Institute, and we plan to continue working
4 this summer with Mark Cole in an effort to broaden our
5 reach within the Dallas community.
6 The hub site for Dallas will be Cedar Hill State
7 Park, and we will work with the regional team to develop a
8 Regional Outreach Plan for that area this summer.
9 On another note, I would like to bring to your
10 attention that the recent round of coop grants provided
11 funding to the Freshwater Anglers Association, led by
12 Leonard Ranne, and he will be concentrating on bringing
13 intercity Dallas kids to the Texas Freshwater Fishery
14 Center in Athens.
15 The San Antonio Regional Outreach Initiative has
16 been well supported by the Region's staff and is
17 developing nicely. We've identified many potential
18 partners in the city to help us in our efforts there. And
19 the Regional Outreach Plan will be drafted by early
20 August. Government Canyon will serve as the hub site for
21 this initiative.
22 I am also pleased to announce that we have hired
23 the San Antonio Regional Outreach coordinator. She is
24 Siri Lindholm. She's a native San Antonian who brings her
25 experience from the Witte Museum and a strong local
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1 knowledge of the community to the position. Siri is a
2 strong communicator who has worked with all of the schools
3 in the San Antonio region, and she's very proud to be our
4 representative in her home town.
5 Both Johnnie and Siri have begun an assessment
6 of the outreach programs in their regions. They will
7 continue this assessment effort and lead their regional
8 teams through a planning process that will provide the
9 statewide team recommendations -- specific recommendations
10 for their regions. They are also contacting our coop
11 grant partners and the traditional volunteer and
12 partnership groups to ensure that our collaborative
13 efforts are effective as possible.
14 The agency-wide Education and Outreach team met
15 in April at McKinney Falls, and we discussed the planning
16 and the action necessary to address the Sunset Commission
17 recommendations and to meet our budget planning
18 requirements. We formed working groups to consider the
19 key issues that are listed here and to create
20 recommendations for the agency-wide team to include in an
21 agency outreach plan. There was a draft of that plan put
22 forward in early 1999. We're using that draft and
23 updating it. We plan to forward a draft -- a final draft
24 of that plan to you at the August commission meeting and
25 then would like to seek approval of a final plan in May of
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1 2002. This would then provide us a basis for an annual
2 planning process for outreach. And by working with the
3 groups that we've identified within the agency as the most
4 appropriate to deal with each issue, putting a lead staff
5 much on each issue and involving field staff in the
6 creation of this plan, we're pretty confident that we can
7 outline solutions and bring those to you to -- for our
8 outreach challenges in the coming years.
9 I would like to close this briefing with an
10 unveiling of a new brand identity for our Outdoor Kids
11 Program. We've had Outdoor Kids since 1993. It's been a
12 building program. We've seen many examples of the use --
13 the broad use and the adaptability of this program from
14 the use of it by all fifth graders in the Wichita Falls
15 Independent School District to the development of the camp
16 this summer for the kids at the Texas School for The Blind
17 and Visually Impaired based on the journal. We're
18 reaching 10,000 kids a year now, and we could easily be
19 reaching a million. So it really has great potential.
20 To successfully take this program to the next
21 level, we realized we needed a more appealing brand
22 identity, a brand image that could appeal to kids and also
23 unify our kids-targeted programs and events. So today we
24 want to showcase the results of a cross-divisional team
25 effort. Communications Division staff, led by Tim
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1 Peterson, our new Creative Director, education staff and
2 many others from across the agency worked on this project
3 to create a new logo to put together a character around
4 which kids can rally and a tag line that invokes action on
5 the part of Outdoor Kids. All three elements work
6 together to create a single unified brand identity for the
7 Outdoor Kids Program. We believe this is going to get
8 staff, teachers, parents, partners and kids excited about
9 getting involved in our programs.
10 I've got some new promotional items. These hats
11 are for you, for the kid in you. These hats are for you
12 to have and for you to spread the word about the program.
13 The T-shirts that we've created will serve as recognition
14 items to the -- to the children that enter the Outdoor
15 Kids Program, and it will symbolize the recognition of
16 those to -- to the kids who get out and become real
17 outdoor kids.
18 COMMISSIONER AVILA: Always use a new hat.
19 CHAIRMAN BASS: You can't just give us one
20 per Commissioner.
21 COMMISSIONER FITZSIMONS: Yeah, really.
22 CHAIRMAN BASS: You have to give us one per
23 child and grandchild.
24 MR. BOB MURPHY: We can certainly oblige
25 you with that.
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1 CHAIRMAN BASS: Otherwise we can't take
2 these home.
3 COMMISSIONER WATSON: Yeah. We're in
4 trouble with one hat.
5 DR. MCKINNEY: Mr. Chairman, I recognize
6 that fowl-up and I'm getting them delivered. Now you all
7 have whatever you need.
8 COMMISSIONER AVILA: This is about
9 T-shirts. Okay?
10 MR. BOB MURPHY: With that, I would like to
11 have Johnnie Jones and Siri Lindholm stand. They're in
12 the audience.
13 CHAIRMAN BASS: Here, here.
14 (Applause.)
15 CHAIRMAN BASS: With all your market
16 research, I'm sure when we get home, our kids will want
17 this. Right?
18 MR. BOB MURPHY: So that concludes the
19 briefing. I would be glad to answer any questions.
20 COMMISSIONER HENRY: Any questions? Thank
21 you very much.
22 Now, the briefing for the Sheldon Master Plan,
23 and Laura David is going to lead that. We have Scott and
24 Merrie Talley-Pope and others.
25 AGENDA ITEM NO. 3
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1 BRIEFING - SHELDON LAKE MASTER PLAN
2 MR. BORUFF: Actually, obviously I'm not
3 Laura David. Laura's out of town today, so I'm going to
4 sit in for her briefly, but only to introduce Merrie
5 Talley of Merrie Talley-Pope & Associates. Mary's been
6 very involved in helping us put together the Sheldon Lake
7 Master Plan, and she's going to fill you in on that today.
8 MS. TALLEY-POPE: Well, I think I have the
9 spot on the agenda you've been looking for, so -- but I
10 think I have some good news to bring to you. You've had a
11 mixture of serious, and I appreciate you sitting through
12 it and paying attention. And we have a good presentation.
13 I think I've been before this committee twice
14 when we kicked off this process with a feasibility study
15 in the fall and then came back, because Commissioner Henry
16 and his hard work started right away with the fundraising
17 and said, "I need a piece to help me." And we did an
18 image prospectus, and now we have completed the master
19 plan and I think gotten the check off today to print it,
20 and it will distributed to you.
21 I have some of the slides we used in the public
22 meeting, and I think the other good news on our project is
23 it was very well received by the community. We had a very
24 good turnout and good commentary, but I think we found we
25 were on the right track with what we're developing at
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1 Sheldon as far as the community and school districts
2 around it. So I'm going to go pretty quickly through some
3 of them, and then I think we want to focus on the master
4 plan and fill you in.
5 And let me see. Do you remember which one
6 forwards us, Scott? Okay. Well, that was a little
7 quicker than I thought. Can I go back?
8 A reminder, and especially for the new
9 Commissioners, that we -- Sheldon's value - I think one of
10 the big values - is how close it is to the proximity of
11 downtown Houston. We're ten to 15 minutes away from the
12 central business district and, in fact, recently have made
13 contact with the University of Houston downtown. And
14 Johnnie is working several others that are bringing
15 teachers and students that are new to Sheldon starting
16 this summer that didn't know about our program until we
17 started this process.
18 And we looked at some other sites, but we found
19 that in our study, Sheldon, at the capacity we are
20 targeting which is 10,000 students a year, will still
21 barely dent the need in this urban area. We calculated
22 that that's approximately a fifth of the HISD students
23 that are mandated, the fifth graders, to come. So when we
24 build out Sheldon, we still won't be handling all the need
25 there is in the Houston area.
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1 And this next slide shows you the 12 school
2 districts that are within a 15-mile radius of Sheldon that
3 we will be serving, one of which is HISD. The staff there
4 kicked off the educational efforts three years ago,
5 though, with the local school districts and have -- are
6 turning away people now, because, you know, they don't
7 have enough facilities and staff, but are doing an
8 excellent job. And word is spreading, and the demand is
9 on the rise quickly.
10 MR. SANSOM: Merrie Talley --
11 MS. TALLEY-POPE: Yes, sir.
12 MR. SANSOM: -- may I interrupt you for a
13 question?
14 MS. TALLEY-POPE: Yes, sir.
15 MR. SANSOM: If that program is mandated by
16 HISD, is -- is it -- would it come with any revenue?
17 MS. TALLEY-POPE: I know that they have
18 some travel revenue, but I do not know about facilities or
19 support there. But we could certainly check into that and
20 see if we can find out a little more about it.
21 MR. SANSOM: Excuse me for interrupting.
22 MS. TALLEY-POPE: No, not a problem.
23 CHAIRMAN BASS: Offset operations --
24 MR. SANSOM: That's what I meant.
25 MS. TALLEY-POPE: Yes.
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1 MR. SANSOM: In other words, paying
2 contractors to do it. Perhaps that might give us a
3 promise of some operational dollars.
4 MS. TALLEY-POPE: Well, it could, because I
5 know that they have contracted someone in a couple of the
6 city parks, Andy. So I think it's well worth looking at
7 to see if that stretches our staff usage on site to meet
8 their needs.
9 This is the existing conditions map, and I won't
10 dwell on it. But I think the importance on this map is if
11 you're not familiar with Sheldon, the red line through
12 this map indicates the City of Houston aqueduct that
13 bisects this site. And I think that's a bonus, because it
14 looks like we're about to resolve the water issues and
15 this aqueduct will be key to that. The challenge it
16 presents is that it bisects our park. So our master plan
17 does address that we have two almost separate portions
18 that we'll need to unify, but it gives us a measure of
19 protection for the Education Center when we have overnight
20 camping and a way to contain our Education Center that's
21 primarily on the east. And our recreation facilities fit
22 nicely on the west with the reservoir and the area north.
23 So I think that it has evolved to be, overall, a benefit.
24 But you need to be aware of the layout of Sheldon.
25 Briefly, the planning process. We assessed the
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1 resources, looked at the curriculum they have in place and
2 the programming needs for the future. And we looked at
3 educational and interpretative facilities that they were
4 going to need to continue to build a program. And then we
5 assessed the recreational facilities and infrastructure.
6 These are just a couple of views of the lake so
7 that you can see the facility we're dealing with. Sheldon
8 Lake has had a great deal of its watershed diverted in
9 previous years, and then with the drought came on some
10 hard times. But the local staff has done a really good
11 job of maintaining and taking care of that. But this is
12 where our beginning point is, and we will need some
13 resource development along with the Educational Center
14 development.
15 The main resource that we're building the
16 Education Center around is the old fish hatchery, and
17 there are 28 ponds. And these ponds lay fallow for 25
18 years after the fish hatchery was abandoned. And they
19 were left with the valves in various states of open and
20 closed. And we now have ecological development that is so
21 diverse in these 28 ponds it is really amazing to go on
22 this site. So we have this wonderful resource to build a
23 program around. And then we are expanding, of course,
24 into the full 2700 acres. But we had a jewel to start
25 with. And, again, ten minutes from downtown.
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1 We assessed the resources. And I'm not going to
2 go into a lot of detail. You'll have all of these maps in
3 your master plan. But we have -- parts of the park are
4 under agricultural lease right now. And as we develop our
5 facilities, we will slowly also develop some natural
6 resources around those facilities where we will convert to
7 some prairies and areas that were previously wet that
8 we've kind of shifted into the agricultural mode. We'll
9 allow to go back wet when a facility adjacent is
10 appropriate. And we'll have some ag also on this site for
11 learning purposes. So we have all the components for a
12 real diverse learning center.
13 This site plan shows the two areas that I'm
14 going to focus on next, which will be on the east side of
15 the Educational Center and on the north side -- I have my
16 pointer. I think this is the educational site, and we
17 will enlarge and I'll show you those components. And then
18 I'll follow and show you that this is shaping up to be a
19 recreational site. And on that, you can see kind of a
20 pool. We determined in this process, in looking at the
21 whole park, the lake is going to need some deepening and
22 some improvements. And that is both to keep the health of
23 the lake as well as return fishing to this lake, because
24 we have now got so much sediment and it's grown up so that
25 we are going to need to do some improvements in
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1 cooperation with this educational site.
2 This shows you the two areas that I'm going to
3 enlarge to on the educational site. And I'll go directly
4 to this one which shows you the fish hatcheries. And what
5 we have done is we have -- the entry point where Sheldon
6 comes off of old Highway 90. And we have looked at
7 redirecting through a naturally wooded area and coming
8 into an Orientation Plaza. And from that point, we could
9 have groups of school children gather, and they can either
10 go up to the main educational building or they can be
11 disbursed to a number of pond stations. And they operate
12 on some -- a smaller version of that system, but when we
13 start accommodating the numbers that this site can take,
14 you're going to have to bring everyone into a central
15 gathering point and disburse. And I'll show you some of
16 our thoughts on those areas in a minute in sketches.
17 But then we have looked at a trail system. We
18 have amphitheaters that would have an overlook over the
19 reservoir into the lake and, in the future, a bridge and
20 canoe launch so that we could actually canoe up to the
21 north section. We're looking at, when we do the lake
22 improvements, an island in the lake. So that could be
23 another destination.
24 We then expanded, and our parking is contiguous
25 to this main building. These are some of the concepts
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1 that we see as far as a bus drop-off and having exhibit
2 space, having restrooms, lockers when the school groups
3 come in and disbursing from this Orientation Plaza.
4 The main building would house three classrooms,
5 one of them being a media room surrounded. We've placed
6 it in an area that is naturally wet, and we would like to
7 develop that further into some habitat around this main
8 building. It would also include staff offices and have
9 space. We have found there's a huge need around Houston
10 to have spaces where groups can rent space or use them for
11 small conferences or company meetings or non-profit
12 organizations. So we see that as a dual use and perhaps
13 revenue opportunity along with the Education Center.
14 This is the overlook deck I just pointed out on
15 the sketch that we see canoe storage and -- and
16 maintenance in a way below, but that you -- your trail
17 would come through three different habitats, through some
18 woods and the -- and the prairie. But when you get up and
19 you look at the lake, it's a wonderful view to have any
20 kind of elevation. And this would be our takeoff point
21 for the bridge that would go across the aqueduct.
22 And this is just an example of some of the
23 sketches we did in working out these concepts as far as
24 how we would work these areas to be educational and have
25 different marsh habitats and different depths for
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1 different -- for varying plant materials and also have
2 some opportunities for the clean water theme that we've
3 looked at in this park, where you have plant materials
4 that are actually pulling toxins out of your water.
5 This is farther to the north from the entry
6 drive. And you look at -- we have this wooded lot that
7 comes out, and this is where we want to develop our
8 camping. And you can see the cabins in this area. And
9 then we also have some tent -- some platform tents,
10 because we have found that there is a -- a great desire to
11 have an overnight program. And we found in some other
12 Education Centers that they first introduced the students
13 with a day program, and then you can move up to coming for
14 a two- or three-day program and then an immersion where
15 you can actually get to camp and stay three days and two
16 nights. And for the urban child, what has happened is the
17 first day they come sometimes they're pretty intimidated
18 by this environment. But after they've spent a day,
19 they've kind of earned their wings, and I think Outdoor
20 Kids that Bob was talking about does this, too, introduces
21 them and brings a program to them where they -- they earn
22 their way into getting to do more on site. So we have
23 provided those camping opportunities, and this wooded area
24 has several natural zones. We found a beautiful lake that
25 has some geological formations. We have a pimple mound
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1 with a 30-inch oak in the middle of it and some natural
2 wetlands. So we have discovered a lot of things on this
3 site as we've done this master plan, and it's very
4 exciting.
5 This is a sketch of the types of areas that we
6 envision. The cabins could be used for the weekends you
7 have teacher training, but I think the children are
8 generally going to want to do the platform tents and be in
9 smaller groups. But we have -- we have shower and
10 bathroom facilities planned, as well.
11 You know, let me go back to this. Also, there
12 is an area up along the wooded buffer that is now used.
13 And one of the big groups that came to our public meeting
14 was the Boy Scout group that has used this park
15 traditionally. And they wanted to make sure that we still
16 had an area for primitive camping, and Rob responded that
17 absolutely. And we do have that planned where they have
18 access to water and bath houses if they want. If they
19 don't, we have an area designated for that. But it was
20 nice that we had users that have been on site for -- I
21 think they've been using it for about 12 years, wanting to
22 continue and come back.
23 Briefly, this is -- I'm showing you -- we'll
24 look at the recreational site next. And our thinking was
25 that currently there are -- there's a boat ramp on this
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1 northwest end and the south end, but this area is
2 unsecured. It's difficult to get into. So we are looking
3 at a -- a single point and doing some fencing and bringing
4 the boating in and providing a new pier and -- and fishing
5 pier that we do not have anywhere on this lake. The one I
6 showed you in the earlier pictures is in pretty ill-repair
7 and probably going to have to be replaced soon.
8 And this takes us also into the heart of an area
9 that has an existing levy, and there's great birding in
10 here, and we envision some bird blinds as well as the
11 fishing.
12 Now, let me give you a little bit closer. I
13 think you can see that we're looking at -- at boat ramp
14 and boat parking and then a long fishing pier that's in
15 this marsh area that's developed along this lake. And the
16 birding pier would go along the levy and ultimately
17 connect back over to the east side. And up -- currently,
18 we have offices and the -- the park superintendent's
19 residence, and we have what they call the belly pond. And
20 this would be a perfect place for canoe launching where
21 you could weave your canoe down and come into the
22 mainstream of the lake and have a little bit of an
23 adventuresome trip to get -- another direction to get to
24 the lake.
25 One of our challenges was to phase the
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1 development. And after going back and forth, we decided
2 that it was very important in Phase 1 of the educational
3 site to provide the framework for the remaining elements.
4 So Phase 1 is the heaviest phase at about five-and-a-half
5 to six million dollars. And it's going to be the
6 Orientation Plaza and main building. But primarily it is
7 all your roads and your infrastructure of utilities coming
8 in. And once we have done Phase 1, we have shown you
9 Phases 2 through 5 here. But they can be billed out by
10 providing the infrastructure in Phase 1. The remaining
11 phases total about another four million. But you can look
12 at if a private donor comes forth on cabins, we can do
13 those next. So we felt it was important in the Phase 1 to
14 provide your framework and your infrastructure. And then
15 the remaining phases can be built out of -- in the
16 Education Center in any manner in which the program
17 requires or the donors would come forth.
18 Then we have identified recreational amenities
19 and resource development. We're back to the master plan.
20 I think if I had anything to say about Sheldon, it's been
21 great to work on this master plan. And I think its
22 importance is that it capsulizes components and the
23 mission of the more traditional parks, and then it leads
24 the way as a new type park that introduces urban dwellers
25 to the natural environment and educates its citizens about
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1 the importance of its natural environment.
2 And here we find ourselves in Houston's back
3 yards with the children coming and learning about Sheldon
4 and then a recreational site that is a place for them to
5 bring their families back to and share what they've
6 learned and enjoy the outdoors. So we've tried to mix
7 those two missions of education and an adventuresome and
8 enjoyable park.
9 And I'll be glad to answer any -- oh, I have one
10 piece of news hot off the press. Rob Comstock, the park
11 superintendent, is here today. Told me as of yesterday's
12 program they had served the same number of students that
13 they had all of last year through their education program.
14 They are fully booked for the summer. So they're going to
15 show about a 24 percent increase in growth. They're at
16 about max for facilities and staff, but that's great news
17 because they had a few holes to fill, and they filled them
18 this year. And so we already know that we have another
19 growth spurt.
20 Oh, well, and -- I don't know. I don't want to
21 steal Andy's thunder. We met on site with a
22 representative from Texas Audubon, and he came away loving
23 it and I think wrote a pretty glowing letter to Mr. Sansom
24 and said, "Tell me how to frame the agreement. We want to
25 do the main building and Education Center with you." So
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1 that was pretty exciting. Everybody we talk to and share
2 this with gets real excited in Houston. We've had nothing
3 like this. It truly is a prototype, and it's real
4 exciting to work on it. So I can't --
5 MR. SANSOM: And in addition, there are --
6 there are -- there is funding in the upcoming bond issue
7 for Sheldon, as well.
8 COMMISSIONER HENRY: I was going to ask
9 Andy, would you go into a little detail on that and what's
10 there --
11 MR. SANSOM: It's 2.5 million per -- and --
12 and -- and the promise of more as that bond issue
13 continues to -- to evolve over the years.
14 COMMISSIONER HENRY: When we met before
15 Senate Finance, we discovered that there -- there were
16 three members from Houston on the Senate Finance Committee
17 and one member from Pasadena, which is in the county.
18 COMMISSIONER FITZSIMONS: What a
19 coincidence.
20 COMMISSIONER HENRY: Andy took me by a
21 visit with the Lieutenant Government, excuse me, and with
22 another representative, who's on the Conference
23 Committee -- two representatives on the Conference
24 Committee to talk about this project, and they were just
25 really excited about it.
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1 And Rodney Ellis -- Senator Rodney Ellis, who
2 chairs the Finance -- Senate Finance called me a couple
3 days ago, and he wants to get together with me in a couple
4 weeks just to talk about this and some other kinds of
5 development. They are very excited about this.
6 When the Chairman gave us this job and this
7 challenge, he promised, along with our former Finance
8 Chairman, to put the resources behind it to get it
9 started.
10 And where is Rob Comstock? I know he's here.
11 Stand up, Rob. This is the superintendent out at Sheldon.
12 We -- these guys have done a tremendous job of getting us
13 where we are today.
14 I know there is a question about money. John
15 just asked me, "What the hell is this going to cost?"
16 We -- we encourage not only by the -- by the 2.5 million
17 but by the additional funds that are likely to get the
18 flow in the future with regard to this. But I've been --
19 been very encouraged everywhere we've taken this. When we
20 went to the Recreation Committee of the Houston -- Greater
21 Houston Partnership, they were as excited about this
22 project as anything I've ever seen, and promised to do all
23 they could to assist in raising the money to support it.
24 I've talked to, oh, at least a dozen members
25 from the philanthropic communities, people who have
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1 foundations or actively involved in foundations, and they
2 want to see the proposal and the plan and indicated
3 excitement about it, as well. So I don't know how much
4 money we're going to raise, but we're going to raise quite
5 a bit of money. I might even contact some of you about a
6 little about of money. Who knows? We're going to get
7 this money. It's going to be a prototype --
8 COMMISSIONER AVILA: Well, I'm now giving
9 mine to Eagle Lake.
10 COMMISSIONER HENRY: I'm convinced it's
11 just the beginning, what we do in Houston. I've got a
12 question from the Commissioner - it's a little early -
13 about the distance. It's 15 miles from downtown Houston.
14 It's only a mile-and-a-half from the city limits. City
15 limits are moving out there, you know, all the time. So
16 it's all of whether we talk about with regard to making
17 facilities available to the urban population. And I
18 haven't talked to anybody that's not excited about it.
19 I would like to thank these guys. We're going
20 to be meeting next week, week after next, to further
21 refine this, to develop it and moving toward developing a
22 document that we can take to the foundation community
23 particularly that will aid them in assisting us.
24 In that regard, I would also like to say that
25 the focus of -- of Sheldon is something that was developed
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1 almost exclusively by staff with some input from some of
2 us through a series of meetings held on site as well as
3 meetings in Andy's office and Scott's and other places and
4 all. And I think I learned early on that the best thing
5 we could do was discuss a concept and said, "You guys are
6 the professionals. Now you go and decide what's the best
7 way to do it." And I would like to thank them for coming
8 forward with a tremendous plan that I believe we can sell.
9 So are there any questions that any of you have
10 of them?
11 COMMISSIONER AVILA: Good job.
12 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Great job.
13 MS. TALLEY-POPE: Oh, thank you.
14 COMMISSIONER HENRY: Thank you. We'll look
15 forward to moving forward with it.
16 MS. TALLEY-POPE: Okay.
17 COMMISSIONER FITZSIMONS: I can tell you,
18 as a Boy Scout leader, make those Boy Scouts work.
19 MS. TALLEY-POPE: I think they've already
20 put them to work on a few projects, and we have some more
21 in mind.
22 COMMISSIONER FITZSIMONS: Use those Boy
23 Scouts.
24 COMMISSIONER HENRY: I would like to
25 just -- before we close out on the committee, to speak
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1 with you just for a moment about Expo. That's coming up
2 the first week in October. And we've asked mister --
3 Mr. Expo to come forward and just give you a brief amount
4 of information about it, because we're asking for your
5 help not only in supporting it, but sponsoring it and
6 assisting us in getting kids to it.
7 As Ernie knows, every Chairman is sort of given
8 the opportunity to put his own mark on it, if you will.
9 And we decided this time that it's going to be Outreach.
10 Not only -- and just -- you'll see here, most of the kids
11 come from this general area. We're trying to get kids
12 from all around the state here, particularly from Dallas
13 and Fort Worth, from San Antonio, from some of the smaller
14 communities around Texas. And as Lydia said in her
15 opening presentation before the Advisory Committee, we
16 want it to look more like Texas. And that's a part of
17 what we're about.
18 So I'm going to ask you to help me to get off
19 this spot that I've committed to in making this --
20 something like this. So, Ernie, would you please just
21 tell them a little bit about where we are --
22 ERNIE GAMMAGE: Sure.
23 COMMISSIONER HENRY: -- and how they can
24 assist.
25 ERNIE GAMMAGE: I'm Ernie Gammage. I'm the
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1 Director of the Texas Wildlife Expo. And this is our
2 tenth annual Expo. You've got before you our sponsor
3 materials that maybe you've already got a copy of it, but
4 it never hurts to put another one in your hand.
5 We actually started, before the ninth annual
6 Expo was over, selecting colors, a tag line, which is "Ten
7 Great Years in the Great Outdoors," and, of course, our
8 Chairman, who is Commissioner Al Henry.
9 Mr. Henry put together a great advisory board,
10 which has met once. We will meet again this Friday. And
11 I would just like to give you a quick update on where our
12 planning has taken us so far.
13 As we looked at the event which hosted almost
14 47,000 Texans last year, we wondered what we could do that
15 would affect everybody that came through the grounds. And
16 there were two things: One, we could put another road in
17 so that people could actually get into the grounds more
18 easily and then, secondly, give it a brand-new look.
19 About 50 percent of the people that come to Expo every
20 year have been to at least one, possibly two or three
21 other Expos. So we wanted to give them a new look of the
22 event and a new entrance.
23 New activities on site are an outdoor kids
24 challenge, which will, through participation and a variety
25 of outdoor activities, give chance -- kids a chance to win
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1 a lifetime hunting or fishing license. We're going to be
2 holding some Lone Star Legacy raffles to put some money
3 into that account. We have been working for a couple
4 years on something called a GPS Satellite Challenge, which
5 will introduce that technology and a lot of fun to Texans.
6 The Wildlife Division is working on a new series
7 of presentations that really focus more on the cake and
8 not so much on the eggs, butter and milk of what they do.
9 And we will have the second trail ride that will actually
10 end Friday night in front of the banquet at the Expo. It
11 should be very exciting.
12 As Mr. Henry said, we have re-doubled our
13 efforts regarding Outreach, and we've got some great
14 things that we're doing this year. And I won't bore you
15 with the details. But we really anticipate Expo looking
16 as -- as Lydia said, much more like Texas.
17 I think something that's significant about this
18 event, as we go into our tenth year, is that it has become
19 a model for other agencies similar to ours from around the
20 state. Last year we had representatives from Alabama,
21 from Michigan and Wyoming that were here. This year we
22 anticipate those folks as well as people from Virginia,
23 New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Colorado to come down here
24 and see how we do what we do. They can then take this
25 event back and tailor it. And we'll hope that you'll have
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1 an opportunity to meet some of your peers and folks like
2 Andy as they come down from other states to visit with us.
3 The dates of the Expo this year are the 5th of
4 October. That's Friday. That is our Texas Conservation
5 Banquet. It's the largest single gathering of folks in
6 the conservation arena in the State of Texas, and we hope
7 that you'll be there, support the event. We have some
8 fun, we have some surprises, and it's going to be quite
9 different from anything that we've done.
10 The actual two-day Expo where we anticipate
11 crowds, if the weather's nice, maybe 50,000 people, will
12 be that Saturday and Sunday, October 6th and 7th. And if
13 you have never spent the day at Expo, we hope that you
14 will come and -- and do that. There is -- in fact, you
15 can spend two days at Expo and still not see everything
16 and do everything that we do there.
17 Folks ask me why do we do this event. And we do
18 it, No. 1, because it gives us an opportunity as an agency
19 to beta test our message, to beta test programs,
20 presentations, to try things out that we can use in the
21 field and other places around the state. It also allows
22 us to stand up at one single place at one single time and
23 say who we are and this is what we do.
24 I hope that you'll want to become a part of this
25 event this year, because it really is going to be
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1 something special, and we'll have folks here from all of
2 the country to help celebrate it.
3 COMMISSIONER HENRY: Thank you, Ernie.
4 When the Chairman asked me to take on this job it scared
5 the hell out of me. I only took it because Ernie Angelo
6 chaired it so well last year, and promised that he would
7 be looking over my shoulder the entire time. But I'm
8 going to ask you to do something to help us, just as we
9 asked the Advisory Committee to assist.
10 When we talk about "outreach", we aren't just
11 talking about outreach to Houston and Dallas and Fort
12 Worth, but we're talking about outreach to the Tylers and
13 the Lufkins and the Nacogdoches' in east Texas and the
14 small communities in central and west Texas, where kids
15 are urbanized now and have little or no knowledge of
16 outdoors.
17 And we're asking our members to assist to the
18 extent possible through corporate sponsorships, personal
19 sponsorships, personal invitations, et cetera, to bring
20 kids from these areas and assist in the development of
21 kids. And we have all kind of plans afoot. I know, for
22 example, of one company in Houston that's going to just
23 hire two buses and send kids here with money for lunches
24 and things to come in to see it. I know of other
25 instances where arrangements are being made to bring kids
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1 with disabilities here.
2 I was in St. Louis late last week and happened
3 to your friend, Augie Bush. And John Jacobson who was
4 over there permit programs with regard to these kinds of
5 activities, doing some special things with the brewery in
6 Houston to assist in getting a couple of hundred kids from
7 the Social Service agencies in Houston in here. And we're
8 hoping that this picks up and develops all along. So if
9 you can help us with this, it will be to everybody's
10 benefit. We're excited about it. And, Ernie, keep
11 looking over the shoulder. We'll try to get there.
12 And any of you have any questions whatsoever,
13 call Ernie Gammage. He has the answers.
14 So that's all I have, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.
15 CHAIRMAN BASS: Good. Thanks, Ernie.
16 MR. SANSOM: Thank you.
17 CHAIRMAN BASS: Put the arm on us.
18 COMMISSIONER HENRY: Always.
19 CHAIRMAN BASS: Good.
20 Mr. Sansom, do we have any other business we
21 need to do today at this venue?
22 MR. SANSOM: Not at this venue. But I
23 would remind everyone that our Lone Star Land Stewards
24 Award Banquet begins at 6:00 at the Alumni Center at the
25 University of Texas.
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1 MR. SANSOM: We need to be there about
2 5:30.
3 CHAIRMAN BASS: By 5:00, 5:30. Is
4 that what --
5 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: 5:15 is what they
6 told us.
7 MR. SANSOM: All right.
8 CHAIRMAN BASS: Game Warden time.
9 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: So we don't need to
10 be there until 5:30.
11 CHAIRMAN BASS: I would be there at 5:15 if
12 I didn't want Craig mad at me. 5:15, that gives us an
13 hour.
14 We stand adjourned. Thank you all very much,
15 and thank you staff. Productive day.
16 (Concluded at 4:10.)
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1 STATE OF TEXAS )
2 COUNTY OF TRAVIS)
3 REPORTER'S CERTIFICATION
4 I, Rhonda Howard, Certified Shorthand Reporter in
5 and for the State of Texas, hereby certify that on May 30,
6 2000, I was present at the Texas Parks and Wildlife
7 Commission for committee meetings and that this is a true
8 and complete transcript of the proceedings.
9 I further certify that the proceedings were put
10 into writing by myself with the help of Lori Estrada of
11 the TEXAS PARKS AND WILDLIFE COMMISSION.
12 I further certify that I am neither counsel for,
13 related to, nor employed by any of the parties or
14 attorneys in the action in which this proceeding was
15 taken, and further that I am not financially or otherwise
16 interested in the outcome of the action.
17 Certified to by me, this 28th day of June,
18 2001.
19 _____________________________________
20 ____________________________
RHONDA HOWARD, Texas CSR No. 4136
21 Expiration Date 12/31/02
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