Tree Folks of Austin distributed a large number of trees to Spicewood Fire vicitms last week – BUT THERE WERE A LOT OF TREES LEFT OVER!  They left them with me to distribute to fire victims willing to come over to my house to picke them up.  I’m keeping them watered and ready to plant!  Some are very little (seedlings really) , while others are several feet tall (oaks).

Call me at (512) 296-6092 if you would like to pick up some of the trees  – I have them at my house.

Mike Bay-Borelli
500 Paleface Ranch Rd.  
Spicewood

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  The Next Meeting of the Spicewood LTRC, and the first meeting of the 2013 year, will be on Thursday, Jan. 10, 2013 from 8:30 until approximately 10:00 a.m.  The meeting will be held at the Grace Outreach Family Church on Higway 71 (located approximately 2 miles east of the Pedernales River on the north side of the road).

The next LTRC meeting will be held on October 11th at 8:30 at Grace Outreach Church. Several new LTRC Board Members will be elected. Anyone wishing to vote in that election should have submitted a membership application form. Applications can be obtained from the LTRC website (www.spicewoodltrc.org). They should be returned to Deacon Paul or one of the other board members no later than next Tuesday October 9th, so that they can be approved at Tuesday’s LTRC Board Meeting.

All members of the Spicewood community are invited and encouraged to attend the LTRC meetings. Committee chairs will provide updates of the recovery activities undertaken over the last few weeks, and those planned for the near future. As usual, there will be an opportunity for community members to ask any questions they may have regarding recovery efforts sponsored by the LTRC.

The Next Meeting of the Spicewood LTRC will be on Thursday, July 12, 2012 from 8:30 until approximately 10:00 a.m.  The meeting will be held at the Grace Outreach Family Church on Higway 71 (located approximately 2 miles east of the Perdenales River on the norht side of the road). All members of the Spicewood community are invited and encouraged to attend.  Committee chairs will provide updates of the recovery activities undertaken over the last few weeks, and those planned for the near future.  As usual, there will be an opportunity for community members to ask any questions they may have regarding recovery efforts sponsored by the LTRC.

from Becki Tobolka

Spicewood Long Term Recovery Committee has partnered with Capital Area Food Bank to ensure all of you who were affected by the 2011 Wildfires in Spicewood have food on the table.  Grace Outreach Church will house the food pantry for those of you in need. Our goal in the process of restoring Spicewood is to fulfill the needs in our community.

 As we work to ultimately get the maximum benefit to each of you with this partnership, we ask for your patience as well as input in reaching this goal.  There are a few items still remaining for order. This includes pre-made disaster relief boxes, spam, chicken noodle soup, mac and beef, ravioli, C batteries, and bottled water.  You can arrange to pick up those items at your convenience from Grace Outreach. Additional items available, which include “fresh” produce and dairy, will vary from week to week.  (eg: milk, eggs, juices, potatoes, onions, apples, oranges, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, pineapples, squash, plums, fruit trays, vegetable trays, etc). These products vary due to consumption and purchase dates, as well as shelf life remaining.  They carry sell by:, best by:, use by:, use before:, and expiration dates.  In an effort to prevent over stocking, leaving food spoiling, there must be a quick turnover once this food is brought in. This is another area where your input is required to meet personal dietary needs.  We are scheduled to pickup from Capital Area Food Bank every Tuesday, therefore stocking Grace Outreach’s pantry.  We urge you to stop Tuesday evenings between 4-6pm, to pick up any items your family is in need of. These are the hours we have scheduled to have volunteers on site, however, you may schedule other pickup times with Pastor Tommy, but keep in mind the “shelf life” limitations.

Additionally, there are a couple of people in the community helping to organize all of this, and can put together your family’s care package to drop by to you or have available for you Tuesday evening.  All arrangements, comments, suggestions regarding the food pantry should be sent to Becki Tobolka @ spdbrat2000@yahoo.com or 512-689-0721      .

Unfortunately USDA regulations restricts us from repackaging this food for distribution through the food bank, but if you enjoy canning, freezing, or drying food within your family we urge you to let us know. If you make a jelly, jam, pie, or whatever you specialize in, you’re more than welcome to share with friends and neighbors.

We would like to leave it open for you to volunteer at times that are convenient for you to ensure the maximum success of this venture.  Whether it’s a truck to help with pickup, time stocking shelves, or helping a neighbor by delivering their food to them.

Thank all of you for your help and support in putting Spicewood back together!!

The Austin Community Foundation (ACF) recently announced the awarding of 10 grants in support of wildfire victim relief efforts in Bastrop and Spicewood. The Spicewood LTRC received a $65,000 grant to support the construction of a model “green home.”  The “Green Home Reconstruction Project” undertaken by the LTRC is intended to encourage families who lost their homes in the Labor Day Fires to consider replacing them with environmentally friendly, economical homes. See the full ACF funding announcement at http://www.austincommunityfoundation.org/?nd=ctwfgrantsmade.

ACF Logo

The first family aided by the Spicewood Long-Term Recovery Committee (LTRC) is about to move into its newly rehabilitated home, more than eight months after the Labor Day wildfires which destroyed their home as well as many of their neighbors’ homes.

Unable to find affordable housing in Spicewood, after the fires roared through the unincorporated community, the couple pooled their own resources with their grant from the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), and bought an existing house in Kingsland as a fixer-upper.

The Spicewood LTRC heled to restore the home by paying for a badly needed new roof  and replacement windows, work that is winding up now.

 ”It’s a good feeling to see a family moving into permanent housing and moving down the road to recovery,” said the Pastor Tommy Wilborn, chair of the LTRC. ”When we started the process of helping fire survivors, we had no idea what we needed to do, or how to do it. One thing we’ve learned in the past eight months is that long term recovery from disasters, when managed by community volunteers, is a lengthy process.”

 In Spicewood, nearly 100 households were affected by the wildfires. Almost half were uninsured, and many more were under-insured. More than half the families now have received assistance from one source or another. ”After insurance and federal grants and loans, the LTRC is the main source of aid for these survivors,” Wilborn said. “But the need is huge for a small, rural community such as ours.”

The LTRC construction committee estimates it will take more than a quarter-million dollars to do everything we need to do, just for those in genuine need. The LTRC has spent about 10% of that amount so far, and still has a very long way to go. The LTRC is counting on donations to cover those needs, but contributions have been slow, as there are a lot of other needs competing for those same dollars. Wilborn said of the needed amount, just over half has been pledged, but less than half of the pledges have been received.

To assist the Spicewood Labor Day wildfire survivors with a donation of funds, or an in-kind gift of service or goods, or to help as a volunteer, contact the Spicewood LTRC through Pastor Wilborn (512-565-0800 or email River4God@aol.com ) or Jim Madigan (512-784-3800 or jim@madigancustomhomes.com).

Find the latest Spicewood recovery developments at the LTRC webpage: http://spicewoodltrc.org/.

The roofing crew sweated in the sun to get a burned-out Spicewood couple back under a sound roof again, the first of the families aided by the Long-Term Recovery Committee there to move into permanent housing. Collecting money to pay for construction has gone slowly, but the LTRC says work should go quickly now that it has gotten up to speed. The angels on the roof here are, left to right, Jerry Wright, Chris Fox and Elijah Chaney.

Commissioner Karen Huber has arranged for representatives of the Texas Appraisal District to be at the ESD 8 Perdenales Fire Station at 801 Bee Creek Rd. on Thursday, May 24th from 3:00 p.m. until 7:00 pm to meet with Spicewood Fire Victims to discuss property appraisal concerns (you must have had your owner-occupied residence damaged or destroyed to be eligible for review at this time).

You must sign up to reserve a slot to meet with one of the appraisers. Time slots available are 3:30, 4:00, 4:30, 5:00, 5:30, 6:00, 6:30, and 7:00. To sign up for a slot, please email my Chief of Staff, Garry Brown, at garry.brown@co.travis.tx.us to let him know which time slot you want. Please put down your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choices of slots, since there will be many of you requesting a meeting. These slot requests will fill up in the order in which they are received. Include your name, physical address of the property in question, your mailing address if different, phone number, and an email address.

O.K. – we are 8 months into the recovery effort!  Where are we?

• The Spicewood Long Term Recovery Committee was created within 3 weeks of the disaster, comprised of volunteers from this community, and they have been meeting weekly ever since then (sometimes several times within a week) in and effort to find the resources we need to recover.
• 38 home sites have been cleared (with the assistance of over 900 volunteers!)
• 58 families have received some form of assistance from the LTRC (Food and Clothing, Sheds of Hope, Furniture, Tools, Rental Assistance; Site Clean-up; limited Financial assistance, etc.)
• 9 family residences have been approved for reconstruction assistance funding (planning now underway to begin reconstruction)
• A local Food Bank has been established
• More than $100,000 in funding has been secured through extensive fundraising and grant writing efforts – and your LTRC is working diligently to find more resources.
• A Spicewood LTRC webpage was created (and is regularly updated) in an effort to keep everyone in the community fully aware of what is going on.

“What’s Your Story?“, a series of short video-interviews with Spicewood Wildfire survivors, is going to be professionally produced in the very near future. Wildfire victims would be interviewed on their property – given an opportunity to talk about their loss, recovery efforts, and plans to rebuild. Each interview would last about 3 minutes. Following the interview, the videos will be professionally edited (so don’t worry about talking casually in front of the camera).

We hope to use the videos in support of fund raising efforts – we plan to place them on our website, on news channels, as well as show them to potential contributors. The LTRC invites you to put your name forward to be interviewed – please!

Please contact LTRC Chair, Pastor Tommy Wilborn, if you would be willing to be interviewed (or if you just want to explore the idea further with him).
(512) 264-2772