Cross posted on the pease thread - Am sending this to the statesman...we'll see if they print it. Any objections to invoking Waterloo before I send it? I can sub. "disc golfers." (I'll wait until about 3 this aft. to send it.)

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Pease give me a break.

A recent editorial (�You can�t Pease everyone�) called for removing the disc golf course in Pease park. This is ridiculous. Does the course interfere with grass growth and contribute (minutely) to erosion? Of course it does. This is because the disc golf course is a facility , just like a soccer field or tennis court.
There are two key features that separate the disc golf course from other facilities, however. First, it is much less obtrusive. When was the last time you saw a beautiful oak tree in the middle of a tennis court?
Second, the Pease disc golf course is actively maintained by the volunteer efforts of the Waterloo disc golf club. Do the soccer players themselves mow the city soccer fields? No, the city �the taxpayer � does.
Rather than responding to arguments that the Pease disc golf course be removed, we should be demanding that the city maintain the course as they do other recreational facilities. But we don�t. We maintain the course voluntarily so that we, and others, can enjoy it. If you�re not going to thank us, at least leave us alone.

I have no problem with that. We try to maintain it as do Moody & Siuda.

I also think it'd be perfect without the last sentence. The goal should be to let them know that there is definitely more to the argument than they bothered to research. There's no point in coming across as some angry disc golfer since there has been no response from the city to the paper's proposal yet.

Lou

Thanks Larry!

We'd like to request that you hold off on sending that just yet. I've talked to the park supervisor and he has indicated that he hasn't heard anything from the park higher-ups yet (and they would definitely tell him if some kind of pressure/response were coming in). I've got a couple of calls in to those 'higher up' folks, but haven't heard back yet.

We may yet need disc golfers to voice their support for the park, and letters like this to the editor, council members, and/or parks dept. officials would be useful. But I don't think we are there just yet.

I'm concerned that if we stir things up at this point, it may continue to grow on both sides. Whereas if we hold off, the whole issue may just die a quiet death.

If we reach the point where you do send this in, then I think Lou makes a good point about that last sentence. We want to emphasize the positive things we do and make our arguments, but without coming as too angry or combative.

Also, it might be nice to add "the local vendor" as someone that also does a lot to maintain the course? Maybe check with Moody before doing that, he may or may not want to be brought up in conjunction with this.

Thanks guys - that's why I put it out here! I agree about the last sentence (I even emailed Dan Schroeder and John Godfrey specifically asking if it was "too caustic.")

Other points I'll put out for consideration, if we ever do get to the letter-writing, council-meeting-attending phase, are:

� lack of maintenance, not park use, is the main problem
� disc golfers mitigate the homeless problem
� disc golfers would do even more maintenance with city support
� the park is primarily for the people, not the grass (this from a proud tree-hugging dirt worshipper)

I just was irked by the impression the original article left, and the subsequent editorial really put me over the top. :mad:

Yours in restraint... -Lar

Went back and read that Op-Ed. That is a joke. No support as to why the course should be pulled, just a statement to pull it.

Pulling the course will not increase the amount of funds allocated to the park. Pulling the mayor's and council's salaries might. :)

� disc golfers mitigate the homeless problem


Many ideas ran through my head about how we actually mitigate the homeless problem, then I realized what you meant. You meant that by seeing the average disc golfer at Pease, the homeless don't seem so poor or disheveled. :p

Gordo, are you taking advice from an angry green man about not being angry and combative? Is he transforming back into "Bill Bixby" right now? Will we see him in ripped clothes walking around Pease telling the cute coeds that his clothes are ripped because at times, he really has tremendous guns. As they walk away, you will hear him implore "No, really, I am a bad man." ;)

How can I say this without peeing in someone's cereal?
If we are trying to get away from the public image portrayed of us (pot head, beer drinking, ragged clothed played sport)
Which until we do change that image..... will we be looked at as a REAL sport and sponsored as REAL sport)
What am I trying to say here........If a well dressed (lets say lawyer) conducted his business in a trash can��.then he would be looked at as a trashy lawyer.
So let�s jump into our trashy courses to play and go to city meetings in tie dyes and demand we be treated as professionals��YEA!
Until we police ourselves and change the our image, we can expect un-maintained courses, allotted draining ditches for new courses , disrespect, and no leverage with the right people��.that is way to serious for this time of the morning.
Insert pee into cereal :p

Will you be standing while you pee into the cereal? :p

There is a lot of truth in what you say though.

<-------hands on hip, chest out
I ALWAYS PEE STANDING UP!
And on the other hand this mikey guy....I am not sure.....and the new kid has James in the name...so it makes me wonder.

Just a reminder that your help is needed this Saturday, April 22nd; 9 am � 1 pm.

Specific to disc golf, there will be 2 events going on during: Austin�s �It�s My Park Day�.

1) The Waterloo Club�s work day at Pease Park. Items to be done include: painting the new bulletin board; prepare/cleanup a couple of alternate boxes; some brush and tree trimming (especially on #15); and trash pickup Come help clean up and improve the disc golf course and get it ready for the big Capital of Texas Open in May. Snacks and drinks available. Please bring work gloves, loppers, shovels, and rakes.

Be careful to select the Club�s project when registering as there is another project at Pease Park too by a different group (removing non-native plants and some erosion control on one of the hillsides � and they are going to have a short disc golf clinic afterwards J Gotta love it!)


2) The South Austin DGA�s work day at Mary Moore Searight. They are going to replace some benches, clean up the course, remove graffiti, and more. Lunch will be provided. Golf afterwards.

Projects will be going on in lots of Austin�s parks. You can see a full list of projects by going to the Austin Park�s Foundation website: http://www.austinparks.org/ItsMyParkDay.html

Here�s how you can help: go to the site above and register as a volunteer on one of the projects; then show up on the 22nd and help improve a park. Oh, and help spread the word and get other golfers and friends to come help too. Even if you don�t pre-register, just show up at the park on Saturday morning and help us make a difference.

However, if you pre-register by Wednesday, there will be a shirt available for you in your size from Austin Parks Foundation, plus you�ll help us gauge how much drink and snack to have available.

This is an excellent opportunity to show that disc golfers care about our parks and that we want to maintain and improve them.

I also saw a park cleanup project at Bartholomew. It is not specific to disc golf, but I�m sure they�d love some disc golfers to help, and cleaning up the creek is certainly something that will make the course nicer. If you go, be sure to let them know you are a golfer and that you are there because you care about the park.

Thanks,
Waterloo Disc Golf Club

I'll be there...

Vinnie, I appreciate the point about showing up at a meeting and acting unprofessionally.

The lawyer metaphor, however, doesn't work for me. It implies that, since the city doesn't maintain the park or deal with the homeless problem, we disc golfers are somehow tainted by playing there, even though we do volunteer and actively maintain the park. If we "refuse to be tainted" and cease playing there, the homeless will encroach even further, and the only "disc golfers" will be the one-disc-wonders from UT who convert a 12-pack of Busch into a trail of aluminium on each round, and think that the hike-&-bike paths make perfect fairways.

Then the course *will* get pulled.

But maybe that's your goal. :D

I agree but, the public don't know about disc golfer doing clean ups or that the city is NOT maintaining the parks.
The public passes judgement on what they can see....

Good point. I think something we can all agree on is that (to extend you analogy that I said didn't work :p ) we should "wear the suit" even if we're in the garbage can. By that I mean not littering, picking up what we can and, above all else, treating other park users with coutesy and respect.

The thing that I, personally, really have to watch is - um - "expressing my displeasure" with a bad shot. Not good when there are other people (esp. kids) around.

Gordo, just a thought to add to this. If this article becomes something then we should get in touch with the media as well on a good note. I don't know if you have any contacts at News 8 from that Fit for Friday episode you did, but we could have a support article on how much good the disc golfers do for the comunity in the up keep of parks and the run off of unwanted people. If we can handle it this way then the public that don't know disc golf and have read this horrible article on Pease will look at it from a different aspect and not have conflicting ideas in their heads on what we do. I really don't think that we can change what we wear or smoke or drink when there are so many students out there from UT. But if we show the possitive benefits to what we are about then it will greatly combat this article in a possitive way and not directly to inspire some kind of retaliation from the these tree hugger groups.

As many of you can probably guess, Pease Park took a pounding from the storms last week. 70 mph winds have a way of causing a lot of damage. With COTO coming up in just 10 days, we are going to need to do a lot of work on the park.

We know that not everyone can make every work day (and we don�t expect you to :D ), but please try to come out to one or more of our upcoming work sessions.

We have Manor this Saturday (see club workday thread or the Manor thread under Courses), Mike needs a good turnout to get the clearing finished. This is going to be an awesome course, but will definitely take some work this Saturday by the club and its volunteers to get it closer to completion.

Then on Monday � Thursday next week, we�ll be doing work each afternoon and evening at Pease. Mike Suida and/or Mitch Justice will be at the park each day directing the efforts. We have a lot of trees to clear, tee boxes to work on, and other items to get done.
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Also, we are in need of additional staff people during the COTO tournament. If you can help out one day, two days, or all three, please let me or Patty Justice know ([email protected]).

On Tuesday (May 16th) after the Pease mini, we will be having a COTO staff meeting up at Bongos BBQ (on West 24th & San Gabriel) for everyone who is volunteering that weekend. We�ll meet at the park and then head up there, probably around 7:45 � 8, depending on when the mini finishes; or just meet us up there.
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Next, we have a hotel deal worked out for COTO. It is a rough time for rooms near downtown because it is prom weekend as well as State UIL competition, so we weren�t able to get many rooms, but we did get a good deal. Details are:

Suburban Lodge
2501 south IH35 Austin Tx 78741
512-712-9920
They were only able to block 10 rooms for us. Two of those are already taken, so, there are 8 still available.
The rate is $49.99/night
Each room has: 2 queen sized beds, a kitchenette, I-net access, & cable.
Please reference the �Capital of Texas Open� when reserving one of the rooms. It may be easiest to call Mitch at 512-563-6482 and get a confirmation # before you contact the hotel.
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And the best for last�

We have TWO beer sponsors for COTO this year! The Real Ale Brewing Company in Blanco and New Belgium Brewing will each be providing kegs for our weekend enjoyment.

Lunch will be available both days. One day will be on us, and the other will be $5 for everything. More details to come��

There will be an awesome raffle that will include a �San Saba� basket as well as lots of other cool stuff!

Don�t forget about Doubles on Friday. Flex tee off starting at 1:30 ($20.00 per team..�pay at the park).
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Entries are flyin� in! Sign up TODAY on www.titledisc.com (http://www.titledisc.com) to secure your spot. The flyer is below.

We already have 2 pro women and 5 advanced women. C�mon ladies, we�d love to have a huge women�s turnout. We�ll treat you right :D

Announcing the 16th Annual
CAPITAL OF TEXAS OPEN
May 20-21, 2006

Pease Park, Austin, TX

Benefiting: EDGE www.edgediscgolf.org (http://www.edgediscgolf.org)
Hosted By: WDGC www.austindiscgolf.org (http://www.austindiscgolf.org)

The 16th Capital of Texas Open is a PDGA sanctioned B-tier Charity event with the Educational Disc Golf Experience (E.D.G.E) as our charity this year. You must present your current PDGA card or pay an extra $5.00 fee in order to play this event. $4 per entry goes to WDGC, and $4 per entry goes directly to E.D.G.E. For more information on the E.D.G.E. program, please visit www.edgediscgolf.org (http://www.edgediscgolf.org)

FORMAT:
Staggered start (individual tee times/everyone starts on hole #1)
3 Rounds, 18 holes each, plus a 9 hole final for top 1/2 - 1/3 plus ties.

Offered Divisions:
Open Pro, Pro Women, Masters, Grand Masters, Advanced Women, Adv. Men, Adv. Masters,

Adv. Grand Masters, Intermediate Men, Int. Women, Recreational Men, Rec. Women, and Juniors*

Tee times posted by Friday at the course and on PDGA discussion board if possible. If not, they will be posted by 7:00am Saturday. First tee times will be 7:45am both Saturday and Sunday.

Name______________________________________________ ___ PDGA#______________
Address___________________________________________ _________________________
City_________________________________ State_____________ Zip__________________
Phone (day) __________________________ (evening) _______________________________
Email_____________________________________________ __________________________
I would like to register to play in the _____________________ division.
Fees Enclosed:
___ $61.00 All Pro divisions
___ $41.00 All Advanced divisions
___ $36.00 All Intermediate divisions
___ $31.00 All Recreational & Junior divisions
___ $4.00 Ace Pot � All Aces Split evenly; if no Aces then CTP 70/30 2 closest
___ $5.00 non-pdga fee *not applicable to Juniors

You can register online at www.titledisc.com (http://www.titledisc.com) or by mailing your registration form (with check or money order) to: Waterloo Disc Golf Club, PO Box 33531, Austin, TX 78764.

Friday Doubles -- Flex tee off starting at 1:30 on Friday ($20.00 per team..�pay at the park).

Questions????? Please call (830) 833-1254 or send an email to [email protected]

Coming up next week on Wednesday evening is a City of Austin meeting about Pease Park and the impact future city work will have on the course. Here is the email we received from the city about it. I believe the location listed is the activity center near W. 29th and N. Lamar (across W. 29th from the bike shop). It would be great to have a big turnout from the golfers to show that we really do care about our course at Pease.

Pease Park Water Quality and Stream Restoration Project

We have scheduled a disc golf stakeholder's meeting concerning how the project will affect the disc golf course at Pease Park.

Public Meeting

Subject: Pease Park Restoration Project: How this will affect your Disc Golf Course

Date: November 4, 2009

Time: 6:00pm

Location: Senior Activity Center: 2874 Shoal Crest Ave

Info: Bill Wells @ 974-7828
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Also, mark your calendars for a couple of work days at Pease on November 14th and November 21st. These won�t be for work on the disc golf course, but instead will be hosted by the group Trees for Pease, and will be all about replanting a bunch of trees at the park to help replace/repair some of the damage and loss of trees due to the drought and several recent severe storms. We have been told that the tree planting won�t negatively affect the disc golf course (it may not help or enhance the course either, but it will help the park as a whole). This is a very worthy project and an excellent chance to show the city and the other big user groups and supporters of Pease Park that the disc golf community cares about the park and wants to make it better. We�ll have more info on the workdays as they get closer.

Thanks,
Waterloo Disc Golf Club

KXAN (channel 36) is running a story this evening (mon.nov 2nd) on Pease Park and the changes in store for the park and the disc golf course, and some of the controversies. The main story will be on their 5 pm broadcast (supposedly about half-way through, but who really knows what time it will actually air), and maybe, possibly shorter versions at 6pm and 10pm.

If you watch, be kind � even after all these years interviews still make me very nervous; and who knows what kind of sound bites will get pulled out of the full interview. But hey, I made a couple of putts :)

Here is more info on the November 14th Trees for Pease workday. It is very important that we get as many disc golfers out there helping as possible!

The planting starts at 9:30 am

Meet by the big picnic table area at the south end of the park (by the playground). When you check in with the organizers, please mention you are a disc golfer (and heck, wear a disc golf shirt so the other volunteers will know too).

They recommend wearing clothes you don't mind getting dirty, bring gloves and if you have a wheelbarrow that you can bring, it would be greatly appreciated.

You can register as a volunteer by clicking here: https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1205/t/4029/l/eng/p/salsa/event/common/public/?event_KEY=54712

If you want to get there a little early, they will also have Veterans Day ceremonies and tree planting from 8:30 to 9 am.

After the work, there will be live music and refreshments from noon - 3:00 pm (music by Will Sexton and the Wine and Nuts; refreshments courtesy of Blue Star Cafeteria, Uncle Billy's Brew&Que, and Austin Java).

Come on out and celebrate Pease, Love, and Rock & Roll!

If you can't make it but would like to donate funds to the project, you can send a check to Austin Parks Foundation (payable to APF), just put in the memo line "Trees for Pease" project, and also mention that you are a disc golfer. Because it is payable to APF you can get a tax deduction for making a charitable contribution. APF, 816 Congress Ave, Suite 1680, Austin, TX, 78701. You can also donate online by going to the Member Page of the APF website and making a gift to the Pease Park Fund - http://www.austinparks.org/member.html The APF has figured that it takes about $150 per tree to plant it and keep it irrigated.

The Waterloo Club is donating $300 to the project.

Thanks,
Waterloo Disc Golf Club