Steiner Ranch Information Blog

I read this article in the statesman about property appraisals going up this year… I think with the recent mortgage crisis that started late last year, the values would be going down, but I guess not. Notices will be sent out this week, and you can find out for sure.

Last year I used a service that appealed my property value for me. They reduced my assessment about 10% and the main thing is that I did not have to do anything. I know some people will say its real easy to protest, but these guys just do it for you and if they do not reduce your home assessment value they don’t take anything and if they do reduce it they get 30% of the property tax benefit for that year and nothing ever again. They are Texas Protax Austin. Check it out.

Got this email from Bill the owner of Freedom Boat Club

Freedom Boat Club - Open House Member Preview

No Boat Required; No Experience Needed; Hassles not Included. The Boat is waiting.

Come visit us at our location in Steiner Ranch. We are located next to the Steiner Ranch Lake Club. You will get a chance to learn more about the club as well as see our fleet. In addition everyone that attends will be entered to win a 3-day pass to the club. Please RSVP to bmarquardt@freedomboatclub.com with LAKE AUSTIN RSVP in the subject line or just stop by. Food and refreshments will be served. Bring the whole family.

When: Saturday 4/19/08 from 10AM to 4PM.
Where: 12405 River Bnd, Austin, TX 78732
www.freedomboatclub.com
Bill Marquardt
Sales Manager
FREEDOM BOAT CLUB
Lake Travis & Lake Austin
T 512.834.BOAT (2628) ext 4
M 512.642-3756

Got an email from Tim about a new pet sitting service.

My wife, Chris Johnson, just started a pet sitting business geared specifically toward Steiner Ranch residents. As residents of Steiner over the past three years, it has been obvious that there are MANY, MANY pet lovers just like us in this wonderful neighborhood and this is a service that is drastically needed. There are certainly other companies that provide the service as well (although some charge extra to come to Steiner). Chris’s service will be another great alternative for the many pet owners in the area, who want personalized care for their animals, but would rather not put their pets in a kennel while they are out of town. As a Steiner resident she’ll be close by all the time.
Honestly, I can’t think of a better person to take care of anyone’s pets. She was a Vet Tech in Colorado and a “multiple-pet” and horse owner her entire life. She’s caring, compassionate, incredibly qualified and she ALWAYS puts the animals first! In her words, “It’s how we pay them back for there unconditional love”.

Daily “In-Home” Pet Care Package

$30 per day includes:

• Free Initial Consultation
• Administer meds as needed
• 2 Visits Per Day (am & pm)
• Newspaper pickup service
• Feeding, playtime and TLC
• Lights alternated if needed
• Scoop/Change Litter Box
• Light watering of houseplants

Additional Services: Additional daily visits, pet baths & private walks also available.

Call Chris at 567-5046 or email crittercarebycj@yahoo.com Limited spaces available – reserve your dates today

Got an update from Tom Henry about some recent and upcoming projects of Steiner Cares

The Steiner Cares Dress for Success Clothing Drive was a True Success!

Our community came together for an overwhelming response. We are still receiving donations, but the latest totals are over 140 suits (many of which still had tags on them!) and more than 300 additional clothing items including dresses, blouses, shoes, make-up, and accessories.

Items that cannot be used by Dress for Success will go to the Arc of the Capital Area, a 501 (c)(3) organization, which provides services to adults and children with developmental disabilities. http://www.arcofthecapitalarea.org/

Thank you to everyone who helped out, especially:
Sharon Adams
Kathy Mayor
Heather Bland-Ho of Conquer Your Chaos Organizing
4 Sons’ Quality Cleaners
Jennifer Swenson and the Shire Ridge gang
John and Sharmae Erickson
Kelly Adams-Browning

We are working on scheduling our next campaign and will announce details on the Steiner Cares website.

Please join us for these upcoming volunteer opportunities:

· Steiner Cares has partnered with The Summit at Northwest Hills (located @ 2222 and Mesa Drive), an assisted-living facility for the retired and elderly. We are seeking volunteers for visits on a monthly basis for game nights, birthday celebrations and other recreational events to provide some fellowship and cheer for the residents. Those interested can contact Greg or Lynne Stamps at 512-266-3114 for more information.

· Steiner Cares has also partnered with the Texas Baptist Children’s Home http://www.tbch.org/ (located @ Hwy 79 and Mays in Round Rock). We are scheduled to work on the campus during the morning of May 10, from 9-12:30, to help to beautify the campus while landscaping and working to enhance the overall décor of one of the campus’ cottages.

· Please mark your calendars: The second annual Steiner Cares’ back-to-school clothing drive, for less-fortunate area children, is planned for mid-August. Details will be posted on our website.

Please go to www.steinercares.org for updates and to volunteer. Thank you for helping!

I got this email from Carolina of Spanish Train.

Dear Steiner Ranch neighbors and parents of young children;

Spanish Train is a project that I have been working on for the past few months. It is an initiative to promote early Spanish learning. I am starting the first series of workshops on Wednesday April 16th at the Bella Mar Community Center at Steiner Ranch, at 10:30 am. This is a SR HOA sponsored workshop.

MOTHER & CHILD 50-MINUTE WEEKLY WORKSHOP

The Mother and Child 50-minute weekly workshop’s goal is to expose children and parents to as much Spanish as possible, learning new songs and games in an enjoyable setting. Your child will acquire the foundations of the Spanish language through story-telling, songs, movement and dance, crafts, play-time and other fun and engaging activities and you will also have fun while learning Spanish with your child!! Weather permitting, during many of the sessions we’ll have outdoor activities.

Our Mother and Child program accepts parents with children 18 months to 4 years old.

Tuition for 8 weeks session once a week is $150
Sibling tuition is 50% off
Registration/Supplies fee is $15 (non-refundable)
Sibling Registration/Supplies fee waived

Weekly sessions will meet once a week on Wednesdays at 10:30 am at the Bella Mar Community Center, Steiner Ranch. Address: 12401 Bella Mar Trail, Austin, TX

For more information, please contact
Carolina Alvarez
Spanish Train
info@spanishtrain.org
www.spanishtrain.org

Since there were a lot of comments on the blog about Lakeside Pizza and Grill the past couple of days. I wanted to put a post up about my most recent experience. We went this past Thursday and arrived at around 7. We wanted to sit outside but the hostess said it would take 40 minutes for them to unchain the tables and chairs. RANT ON If you don’t want to do it then just tell us… you don’t have to lie and say it will take 40 minutes. There are only so many days in Texas where it is shorts weather and you won’t sweat sitting outside with the sun out. RANT OFF

So inside we went, it was loud in the beginning but then we got used to it. We ordered drinks and a pizza and Chicken Marsala. The pizza we ordered was the Shiner/Steiner?? Pizza… I thought it was very good, not that cheesy. As my wife says what do you expect all pizzas are cheesy. The chicken breast in the Chicken Marsala on the other hand was just plain burnt. It was dry inside with no flavor. The french fries and the mashed potatoes were very good. All in all, it was a good experience. I wish we could have sat outside and next time I am only ordering pizza.

OFF TOPIC Post: This was my doing tax weekend so here is some how to on something that really annoyed me.

I spent a considerable amount of time trying to figure out how to enter RSU’s (Restricted Stock Units) into Turbo Tax Premier. I did not figure it out, my friend Bentley (yes he is named after the car) showed me how to do it. I am passing on the information to you. The example is 900 shares vesting on 4/21/2007 at 20 dollars and 300 of the shares are withheld for tax purposes. You kept the other 600 shares and did not sell them. These are not real numbers… I made them up. Here is how you do it in Turbo Tax Premier. We both got lots of help from The Finance Buff.

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So I see there is road work being done on RM 620 starting this week between 2222 and Quinlan Park Road. The trucks and other road equipment is right past the church on the lake. I fail to understand what they are doing. It seems like they are patching certain sections randomly. I did some research in the TXDOT database and found this link. Key points from it are 2.6 million dollars for this work??? With that kind of money you would think they were repaving the whole stretch that is under construction and not patching. Maybe they are starting out with patching and will come back and repave the whole road. It also says 620 from 2222 to the Colorado River Bridge. So maybe they are going to finish up patching really bad sections in between those two points on 620 and then go to repaving the whole thing. Either way they say it will take 59 working days, so I hope our taxpayer/gas tax money is going to repaving the whole road and not patching the road indiscriminately. Here is the stretch on Google Maps.

The other road work I saw being done was on Quinlan Park. I know they repaved Quinlan Park from 620 to the first intersection of Steiner Ranch Blvd, I believe they should repave Quinlan Park Road to the next stop sign. That stretch has a lot of potholes. I saw some patch work being done on Friday, but I still see a lot of cracking on the road that will only get worse with what is expected to be a hot summer this year.

UPDATE: April Fools… Hope you did not go and storm the Steiner Ranch HOA Office with complaints. 

I have some exciting news today from some of my sources. We are going to have a new tower project in Steiner Ranch called Steiner Ranch Towers. It will be at the corner of 620 and Quinlan Park Road. It will be the tallest building in Austin and you can see downtown Austin on a clear day. The first three floors will be retail and then some office space for lease and the rest of the floors will be residential condos. The penthouse suite is already under contract to none other than Lance Armstrong at a staggering cost of 4 million dollars. Check back in for more information about this development later today.

UPDATE: April Fools… Hope you did not go and storm the Steiner Ranch HOA Office with complaints.  

I got this email from Erin Bloss from the Leonard family that was affected by the fire.

UPDATE ON LEONARD FAMILY- family affected by fire on Cowden Drive

To all of you who so graciously gave money, clothes, toiletries, donations and gift cards, Keely Leonard has sent a heartfelt thank you note for me to pass on. It is a great feeling to be a part of such a generous and great neighborhood.  I am proud to call Steiner home!

See Below:
It is hard to know where to start and how to write the many thanks we have for all the support, donations and gifts.

Losing almost everything you own is hardly describable, yet we feel so lucky to have not been home and subjected our children to the threat, let alone the sight of our home burning down.

Although we did lose one dog and one cat, we thank the wonderful firemen who were able to save one other cat and dog for us.

We have finally settled in a home in Steiner Ranch in order to be close to the schools for the children and close to our friends. We are now living on Canyon Glen Circle across from the Elementary school.

I hope this letter will serve and be accepted as a sincere and deep thank you to each and everyone for all the gifts and donations of every kind that have been given to us.  The number of individuals and families who have been involved have truly affected us in ways we never thought possible.  It has taken an army of people to sustain us and help us get through this ordeal and for that we are very grateful.

We will be rebuilding our home on Cowden Drive and look forward during the many months ahead as we watch the process to completion.

Again, many thanks to every one, we couldn’t have done it without you!!
Keely, Mitch, Ryan, Sam and Emmi Leonard