Upcoming District 4 special election and more!
Happy new year neighbors!
My family had a really nice holiday season. My sister from Washington, DC came to visit. We took her to all the hotspots—Continental Club, Donn’s Depot, Easy Tiger, Snow Ball Rice Ball Company, Jester King brewery out in Dripping Springs. Why, the weather was so mild we even went to Deep Eddy to swim laps.
And then my 10 year old started school after the break and promptly contracted Covid. We were able to avoid it this entire time, but it finally caught up with us. Luckily he was really only vaguely sick for one day, and has been almost totally normal this whole last weekend. He’ll be back to school next week. Neither my wife nor I caught it from him, thanks to our booster shots!
-Nick Pellicciotto, HNA president
District 4 city council special election
Our city council representative, Greg Casar, is resigning to run for Congress, so a special election has been scheduled to replace him. Early voting starts Monday, January 10 and runs until Friday January 21. The closest location for Highlanders to vote early is the new City of Austin Permitting and Development Center, 6310 Wilhelmina Delco Dr., located across from the Linc on Middle Fiskville Rd.
Election day is Tuesday, January 25. Additional voting locations will be open. Visit this League of Women Voters webpage for early and day-of voting locations, as well as other information on the election.
Who are the candidates?
Seven candidates are running to replace Greg Casar as our representative on city council. This article in Community Impact gives a decent overview of the candidates.
The HNA invited several of the candidates to present at our last quarterly meeting, but only one showed up—Chito Vela, who spoke with neighbors for 45 minutes.
If you want to learn more about the candidates, the HNA, other neighborhood associations, and community organizations in District 4 are sponsoring a candidate forum. It’s Monday, January 10 at 5:30 PM. You can watch live on Facebook:
www.facebook.com/WindsorHillsNA
There is also a video recording of the League of Women Voters District 4 candidate forum, held on January 6, that you can view:
Why you should vote
City council’s decisions have a pretty big impact on our lives. And having someone in our corner on council is important given how much our neighborhood is changing and growing. I know a lot of folks might be inclined to skip this election, but turnout will probably be very low. Every single vote will have an outsize impact on the outcome of this election.
Holiday lights contest winners
Susan Sellers and her daughter once again toured Highland in search of the best holiday lighting display. I’ve been upping my lighting game over the years, but I will never catch these folks, the winners of the 2021 Highland Holiday Lights Contest:
1st place: David Foyt at 7003 Deborah
2nd place: Margaret Flores at 407 Crestland
3rd place: Dean Petty at 616 Amesbury
Honorable Mentions:
6801 Deborah
Nancy Hall 606 at Amesbury
Christmas tree recycling
Did you know you can set your Christmas tree out for recycling on your regular your composting collection day? You can also drop it off at Zilker Park if you want. Trees over six feet must be cut in half. Visit the city’s website on tree collection for more info.
New HNA officers
At our last meeting in December, we held elections to fill open seats on the HNA board and to reelect those seeking to remain in their positions. I’d like to welcome the new members of our board:
Josue Meiners, North Sector VP
Edwin Bautista, Communications Director / eNewsletter
Andrea Grimes, Secretary
Brian Richie (South Sector VP), Kate Garza (Central Sector VP), Scott Campbell (Digital Architect) and Tom Arbuckle (Treasurer) , and I have all chosen to remain in our positions on the board.
I’d like to thank Carrie Thompson, Alyson Beaton, and Maura Purcell for donating their time and attention to the neighborhood association. They contributed so much and they’re also really fun and cool folks. See y’all around the neighborhood!
Update on homicide at 601 W. St. Johns
In November of 2021, a man was shot and killed in a stairwell of the St Johns West apartments at the corner of W. St. Johns and Guadelupe. In late December, a suspect in the shooting was arrested in Pittsburg. It’s likely the victim and the perpetrator knew each other and it’s probable the murder was drug-related.