Today at the 5th annual Council Cleans the Pool Day, Senator Kirk Watson, Mayor Lee Leffingwell and Robin Cravey, president of the Friends of Barton Springs Pool, announced the donation of $300,000 to the City of Austin for the forthcoming Barton Springs Pool Bypass Tunnel project. The project, one of the short term projects announced as part of the Barton Springs Master Plan a few years ago, is going through an engineering re-assessment process in the Watershed Protection and Development Review Dept.
The Funds come from the Supplemental Environmental Program of TCEQ and part of a broader settlement with Travis County and the State Attorney General’s office for clean-up following from development near Travis County’s Hamilton Pool Park.
Our thanks to Senator Watson, TCEQ, and Travis County for their assistance. The funds will be held by the Austin Parks Foundation in the Friends of Barton Springs Pool account until the plans for the bypass tunnel are finalized. The Friends of Barton Springs Pool is one of 60 community groups who have adopted parks and raise funds for improvements on the Austin Parks Foundation umbrella.
After the announcement, city council members, city staff and volunteers jumped into the pool and started scrubbing the pool bottom and walls with brooms. The water felt good this very humid morning.