Couple gets hitched at food trailer | KXAN.com

Couple gets hitched at food trailer | KXAN.com

via Couple gets hitched at food trailer | KXAN.com.

Cheesesteak and cheesecake and a minister, too

Updated: Sunday, 29 Jan 2012, 10:40 PM CST
Published : Sunday, 29 Jan 2012, 10:40 PM CST

AUSTIN (KXAN) – Are you looking for a uniquely “Austin” way to get hitched?

This may be for you: Way South Philly food trailer is offering complete wedding packages for $39.99.

For that price, you get Philly cheesesteak sandwiches and cheesecake to share with your bride or groom, as well as an official marriage ceremony. Marcos and Graciela Cantu came by the food trailer on Sunday to get hitched.

Actually, it was to renew their wedding vows with their two children present.

“”When we were first married, the kids were really small,” Graciela Cantu said. “We thought this would be a good way so they could participate in our wedding.”

Trailer owner Willy Pearce recently became an ordained minister, so he performs the ceremonies. For more information and available dates, drop by the trailer on East Sixth Street near Waller in East Austin.

 

AISD unveils new elementary plans | KXAN.com

AISD unveils new elementary plans | KXAN.com

via AISD unveils new elementary plans | KXAN.com.

School promised to relieve North Central Austin

Updated: Sunday, 29 Jan 2012, 9:19 PM CST
Published : Sunday, 29 Jan 2012, 7:59 PM CST

AUSTIN (KXAN) – Austin Independent School District trustees are expected to approve design plans for a new North Central Elementary School, which will relieve the overcrowded McBee and Walnut Creek campuses.

The $14 million campus, which has stalled for a lack of a location, was approved in the 2004 bond issue. BLGY Architects were selected as the prime design firm for the campus in 2008. Last November, trustees finally approved the purchase of an 18-acre site at 102 East Rundberg Lane.

According to backup materials provided to trustees, the current programmed scope of work includes the construction of a campus with 32 classrooms that can be expanded to 40 classrooms. The site also will include playing fields, parking lots and a bus circle, as well as space for four additional portable classrooms.

The item, which is on the board’s consent agenda, suggests taking a base bid for 32 classrooms, plus an alternate bid for the full 40 classroom facility, in case bids are competitive. Comments made by trustees in early January are being incorporated into the final plans.

The elementary school originally was budgeted for $12.7 million in 2004. The revised budget is $14.8 million. Construction is expected to begin in June and be completed next August.

 

New arts center on tap at Mueller

New arts center on tap at Mueller

via New arts center on tap at Mueller.

Mueller

Performing Arts Center will be open in 2013

Updated: Sunday, 29 Jan 2012, 9:22 PM CST
Published : Sunday, 29 Jan 2012, 9:18 PM CST

AUSTIN (KXAN) – The design plans for a $26.6 million Performing Arts Center will be approved by Austin Independent School District trustees at Monday night’s school board meeting.

A 3-acre site for the complex, at the intersection of Mueller Boulevard and East 51st Street, was purchased by Austin ISD last April. That followed the hiring of Pfluger Associates Architects to design the PAC in 2009.

Funding for the project, which is still on budget, came out of the 2008 AISD bond issue. The programmed space in the building will include a 1,200-seat auditorium, a 225-seat black box theater, facility offices for the Fine Arts Department, plus a parking garage that contains 400 spaces for scheduled events.

An alternate bid to be considered by trustees included additional space for dance and rehearsal spaces, with moveable audience seating, according to backup materials presented to the school board.

The earliest stages of construction will begin on the site in June 2012. Construction should be completed, according to the school district, in the Fall of 2013.

 

Areas eager to join Austin proper | KXAN.com

Areas eager to join Austin proper | KXAN.com

via Areas eager to join Austin proper | KXAN.com.

Areas eager to join Austin proper

Others want to see new home rule city

Updated: Sunday, 29 Jan 2012, 6:53 PM CST
Published : Sunday, 29 Jan 2012, 6:53 PM CST

• David Scott

AUSTIN (KXAN) – In East Travis County, several neighboring communities are desperate for one of two things to happen: be annexed by the City of Austin or incorporate as its own separate city.

Those neighborhoods include Austin’s Colony, Forest Bluff, Kennedy Ridge Estates and other communities along FM 969 near Webberville, nine miles east of Austin.

Some 7,000 residents live in this growing area. Right now they face rapidly rising water rates, the need for rules on land use and concerns over emergency response time, as well as health and human safety issues.

“Right now it’s in limbo,” said resident David Trevino, who supports annexation. “There’s no one in control, no direction, no significant oversight. You need somebody to come in and do some kind of Sunset Valley, something that has control. Right now there’s no control in this area. Without some kind of oversight, there’s no telling what’s going to happen out here.”

But the City of Austin said it has no plans ot annex that area, at least in the near future. That works fine for some residents, who would prefer to become a home rule city and not part of Austin.

“Annexation wouldn’t give us as much power as being a separate city,” said Richard Franklin III, who favors incorporation. ” We could create our own economic development zone. If we become annexed then we’d still have to go to the city and ask them to do things for us. As our own city we’d be able to do it ourselves.”

On Saturday afternoon, residents were signing petitions to incorporate as the City of Hornsby Bend. Hornsby Bend was a settlement in that area going back to the 1830s. That way they say they could control their own destiny and perhaps even develop their own private water company. Residents say one way or another, something’s got to happen.

Incorporation will requiring petitioning Travis County for an election.

 

Areas eager to join Austin proper: kxan.com

The Ronald Reagan Legacy

The Ronald Reagan Legacy

Click on the link below to see this awesome documentary!

 

via The Ronald Reagan Legacy.