President’s Annual Report

From CCDC Board of Directors President Mary Reed, presented at the April 16, 2024 Annual Meeting.

2023 was full of accomplishments, but it was also dominated by worries about money, namely where the money would come from to pay for the many, often expensive, property repairs the CCDC needed to make. They existed because unbeknownst to the CCDC board, the organization’s previous property manager been not been diligent about identifying and addressing needed repairs.

For months we grappled with where the repair money would come from. We explored whether an organization might give us the money in the form of a grant; brainstormed with individuals in the affordable housing, real estate and development fields about our options; considered selling the Neighborhood Center to raise the money and held a Special Called Meeting to discuss this possibility; and considered funding the repairs with money from the Austin Housing Finance Corporation. During this process we learned that most affordable housing grantors want to fund the construction of new housing, not fund repairs to existing housing. We also decided that taking money from the City came with conditions that the board and the CCDC’s property management firm did not believe were good for the long-term viability of the CCDC’s affordable housing program. And we concluded that selling the Center was our option of last resort.

As the year wore on, things began to look up a bit. For starters, John Henneberger with Texas Housers asked Paul Balmuth with PB Construction to assess the CCDC’s properties and come up with good cost estimates for addressing all needed repairs. After inspecting the CCDC’s properties, Paul estimated that the cost would be close to $400,000, which, while still a lot, was considerably less than the $1 million dollar figure we had been working with. Also, the Texas Affordable Housing Corporation gave us $10,000 to spend on repairs at 1817A West 10th and a board member said they would donate $20,000 to that same cause. In addition, we received a $50,000 unrestricted donation from an anonymous donor. All of that, combined with the wise and carefully-considered financial decisions the board made in consultation with Prak Property Management, the company that manages our properties and maintains our books, meant that we ended 2023 feeling a lot more positive.

Also, earlier in 2023, Kim O’Brien spearheaded the CCDC’s first participation in Amplify Austin’s “I Live Here I Give Here” citywide fundraising campaign. We set a goal of raising $10,000 and raised $9,122, but after qualifying for a couple matches, the total amount we raised was close to $11,000. The CCDC used all of that money to help support its affordable housing program.

Meanwhile we hosted another successful ice cream social, and there was a stunning upset in the homemade ice cream competition: 14 year-old Beckett Raftus beat perennial competition winner Gregory Tran. I think we all look forward to this year’s rematch.

We also co-hosted our annual Christmas Caroling party with OWANA. This year’s party, which featured “snow,” holiday crafts, food and beverages, followed by caroling at the Haskell House and around the neighborhood, was our biggest party ever.

Last year, the CCDC focused a lot of its efforts on the Haskell House. For example, the House was part of Austin Museum Day for the first time with live music, fun activities for kids, including Haskell House jigsaw puzzles, cookies and lemonade. The House was open all afternoon and many people from all around Austin visited the House for the first time and learned about Clarksville’s history.

We also began Clarksville Conversations: Sundays at the Haskell House to help promote the House. Clarksville Conversations is a quarterly speaker series that focuses on Clarksville history, gardening and current issues of interest to the neighborhood. Our first speakers in the series were Jessica Gilzow with PARD, who spoke about how to plant a pollinator garden, and State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, who provided a wrap up of the 88th State of Texas legislative session. By the end of the year, the CCDC had already nailed down its 2024 speakers.

And the CCDC established the Haskell House Advisory Group to give descendants of former Clarksville residents, like Charles Clark and Hezikiah Haskell, as well as people of color with an interest in Clarksville history, the opportunity to help tell Clarksville’s story, initiate projects to enrich the experience of visitors to the House, and help the CCDC market the House and events happening there to Austin’s African American community. We also hoped that members of the Advisory Group would become docents, which would diversify our pool of docents.   

Our efforts to promote the Haskell House paid off in 2023. In 2022, just 105 people visited the House, but last year we had 431 visitors. However, this is an understatement because some visitors to the House do not sign the Haskell House login sheet. We are happy especially pleased with the visitor increase considering that virtually no one visited in July and August due to the brutally hot temperatures.

Also in 2023, several groups of Mathews 4th graders visited the House as part of their Texas history curriculum. They were fascinated by what they learned about early Clarksville and by the photos in the House. Some of them also got to be part of a documentary about the House that PARD had commissioned.

Also, during 2023:

 • We totally redid the CCDC’s website to make it more dynamic, engaging and informative and became active on Facebook and Instagram.

• CCDC board member Paula Hern joined OWANA’s Steering Committee. Her attendance at the Committee’s meetings will help strengthen the relationship between the two organizations.

• Kim O’Brien joined OWANA’s zoning committee. Her participation at committee meetings is especially important in light of the developments planned for West Lynn.

• The CCDC hosted a meeting for neighbors to hear from Zydeco Development, who now owns the property on the east side of West Lynn from 12th Street to Café Medici. At the meeting, residents learned about Zydeco’s plans for that area, shared their concerns and got their questions answered.

• And finally in 2023, the CCDC continued to face obstacles – mostly city-created – to getting its project at 1611 West 10th completed, and the organization filed a lawsuit against the first contractor hired to pour the driveway there. That contractor took our money and disappeared.