Great Hills Park

Minutes from August 30 Park Summer Meeting

Mark Johnson September 12, 2026 Uncategorized

Great Hills Park Meeting Minutes

August 30, 2026, 6.30-8pm

Location: 10706 Sierra Oaks

Secretary: Amy Johnston Harper

MEMBERS PRESENT:

  • Mark Johnson
  • Amy Johnston Harper
  • Ralph Marston
  • Tom Meserole
  • Steve Schwartzman
  • Rodney Peschel
  • Chris Thompson
  • Sheri Brummet

Meeting Called to Order: By Mark Johnson at 6.36

Meeting Meetings from February Approved

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

TREASURER – Mark Johnson for open position

  • Spending so far this year to website rehosting, signs, plants, compost, and brush collection for wildfire mitigation workday (split cost with Austin Parks Foundation) at cost $2,131.11. Our current balance of available funds is $6,339.83. 

TRAILS – Mark Johnson for New Chairs: Welcome Austin Lane & Areeej Siddig

  • Thank you to Bruno Lepore & Rafi Baddour for their past leadership.
  • Trails workday Sunday Sept 13 at 9am; meet at Floral Park Kiosk. Focus will be clearing and lining trails across the stream that lead to two benches. 
  • Tentatively, trails workdays on second Sunday of each month.  21 People on distribution Text List. Can add more, let Mark if you want to be added.
  • Large cedar across trail near the fish pond needs to be removed. Cannot use a gas or battery chain saw in the park. Have to call city at 311 and explain that the safety hazard needs to be remedied.  Rodney and Tom to call and address. 

FLAG – Chris Thompson

  • Continue trying to get flag right height with cleat system. Maybe need Parks Dept to get involved. Mark to try to determine who the contact would be.  Chris to reach out to that contact.

GARDENING

  • No report

NATIVE PLANTS & PHOTOS – Steve Schwartzman

  • Spring plant walk was informative and enjoyable. There were five attendees. Plan to promote more in future.  

IT’S MY PARK DAY

  • No report during the meeting about the March 7, 2026 work day, but reports posted after the workday rated it successful. Work was done around the playscape and the Floral Park kiosk, including spreading mulch and planting trees.
  • Kudos to Sierra Kumar for her leadership.

KIOSK AT TAYLOR DRAPER – Rodney

  • Looks 100% better since the roof was replaced.

KIOSK AT FLORAL PARK

  • Boy scouts replaced the roof.  About 5-6ppl working.  Still having problems with dog waste bags being left at kiosk.

WILDFLOWERS  – Tom Meserole

  • LBJ Wildflower Center gives City date when to mow the grass/wildflowers off Floral Park.  Seeds are dropped in the fall.

EVENT SIGNS – Tom Meserole

  • Bought new signs for July 4 and Easter Egg Hunt.  No tagging and no loss to any of our signs.
  • Wildfire Mitigation signs contained a QR code to the sign-up sheet for that day. Single-use signs were printed at FedEx Office and mounted in reusable holders.
  • Ralph Marston (webmaster) stated that we could have a semi-permanent QR code that linked to a page on the Great Hills Park website which could be configured for each event to link to the specific sign up page for that day.

CHIMNEY SWIFT TOWERS – Tom Meserole

  • They get cleaned out every February.  Austin Audubon Society has offered to help but so far has never provided a volunteer. Always had 1 nest in every tower.  Almost every year there are egg shells, so likely new family every year.

PARENT’S GROUP – Ashley Garcia

  • No report

WEBMASTER – Ralph Marston

  • Moved to managed host.  Paid until Feb 2029.  Includes Managed Hosting and SSL Secure certificate – which Blue Host does.
  • Domain name is good through 2027. 
  • Gmail address ([email protected]) is now forwarding to Mark Johnson (chair). This avoids needing to periodically check the GMail inbox to see if anything has arrived.

BAT HOUSES – Mark Johnson 

  • Haven’t seen any activity in any of the three.  Discussed moving them farther off the trail towards the woods.  Mark to research about how to move those large poles.  If at least one is moved, would like to rotate one 90 degrees to try a different heat level. Bats are very sensitive to internal temperature of the house. Note that bats need water in the vicinity. **Perhaps an Eagle Scout project?

RECAP OF 2026 EAGLE SCOUT PROJECTS

  • Project that replaced about 25 steps.                          Arun Kumar Jan 2026
  • It’s My Park Day Organization                                   Sierra Kumar March 2026
  • Replace Kiosk Roofs – playscape, Taylor Draper Zach Painovich March 2026
  • Replace Kiosk Roof – Floral Park                              Collin Killian May 2026
  • Replace Kiosk Roof – Fox Way                                  William Teague TBD

After Fox Way, only the Colina kiosk could still use a new roof.

RECAP OF WILDFIRE MITIGATION WORKDAY

  • April 2026 had 45 volunteers collecting dead and down brush near the Fox Way trailhead. The volunteers came from all over Austin. It was a big success.
  • Looking ahead to a fourth workday, Mark talked to Erin Long with the UT Volunteer Office. They sponsor a monthly project, typically getting 20-30 volunteers, with UT providing the bus and a lunch afterwards.  April 3, 2027 is marked on their calendar. This will be the fourth workday at Great Hills Park.
  • We anticipate similar arrangements as the previous workdays, recruiting volunteers in addition to the UT students, arranging snacks and water, etc. The target clean up area will be in the center of the park along the main trail. This is further from a trailhead than the previous workdays but we can leverage having a volunteer demographic who will be younger and stronger.
  • Discussed if we could use a gator type vehicle (UTV) to help haul to the Floral Park trailhead for collection, probably pulling a trailer. We would need someone to volunteer their vehicle and then GHP could get a rented trailer. Renting a UTV and getting it to the park is cost prohibitive.

IT’S MY PARK DAY – November 7, 2026

We need a volunteer to lead it.  Project proposals can be submitted between September 8 to Sept 25.  We have a model for proposals (used to get APF to donate mulch and to provide publicity). No one should be afraid to lead it! 

NEW BUSINESS

Treasurer Position Still Open

The treasurer is one of 3 officers to vote on spending money (need at least two if spending more than $250). The treasurer responsibilities are split between GHP and Friends of the Parks of Austin, with finances led by that group, so the treasurer workload is modest.

Meeting Adjourned: 8:01pm

Submitted by Amy Johnston Harper