Annual meeting minutes

Friends Of Deep Eddy (FODE)

9 May 2023

The Friends came together for our yearly general membership meeting on Tuesday 9 May 2023. Participants included Paul Bardagjy, Ben Serrato, Laura Acklen, Maureen Coulehan, Heidi Gibbons, Vickie Tatum, Haley Moburg, Christina Flores, Clyde von Rosenberg, Sally Cook, Karen Kelly, Randeen Torvik, Shelly Hardeman, Jeanette Scott, Tom Fornoff, Tommy Dunn, Jeryll Adler and our good friend Jim Moi who kept with tradition and served out his world-famous Jim-Jim’s Mango Water Ice. From the Parks & Recreation Department (PARD) we were joined by DeAndre Cain, Michael Balaguer (?) and Mark (?).

We began our meeting by reviewing the minutes from last year’s annual general membership meeting, and on motion from Maureen with Ben seconding they were adopted unanimously as submitted.

Next was a report from PARD. DeAndre informed us that his responsibility now is Barton Springs rather than being in charge of both Deep Eddy and Barton Springs and introduced the new Deep Eddy leader Michael Balaguer. DeAndre will continue to work with Michael until he has familiarized himself with our facility as our pool has some quirks. On the good news side PARD has now assigned 4 permanent lifeguards to Deep Eddy so there should be some seasonal continuity in operation and maintenance. Unfortunately, some of the maintenance issues have to be addressed as they come up; the downhole pumps in wells # 3 & 4 were cleaned out during the recently completed spring maintenance shutdown but we now have a clogged impeller in the downhole pump in well # 1. The drain issue will require a fabrication of a unique valve but PARD has devised a stop-gap procedure that is working. PARD is trying to get ahead of maintenance issues, an example being the replacement of plumbing in the men’s changing area. The original piping underground was rigid and subject to freezing and has been replaced with a pipe that is better adapted to hard freezes. Future PARD plans for Deep Eddy include replacing the area lighting, but these things require allocations of money. As for a new well, that will fall on FODE. We discussed opening up the city lots to the west for staff and patron parking, especially on the weekends.

Turning to official business, the following slate of directors were elected to serve for this coming year:

Christopher T. King                            Tom Fornoff                          

Shelley Hardeman                              Sarah Searight

Blake Tollett                                       Vickie Tatum

Maureen Coulehan                             Laura Acklen

Paul Bardagjy                                     Haley Moberg

Joe Luke                                             Jeanette Scott

Heidi Gibbons                                     Randeen Torvik Ragan

Benjamin Serrato                                Christina Flores

Billy Apt                                             Jeryll Adler

The following officers were re-elected to serve another year with the office of Vice-President being subject to a vote since both Laura Acklen and Christina Flores have asked to be considered for the position. Paul asked the candidates for brief position statements and will submit them to the Board and ask for a vote.

• President: Paul Bardagjy

• Secretary: Blake Tollett

• Treasurer: Maureen Coulehan

• Events Coordinator: Benjamin Serrato

In unofficial positions, Heidi Gibbons will continue as our t-shirt wrangler and Tom Fornoff has volunteered to help with cleaning up and modernizing our website.

Maureen reported that our requisite financial statements have been filed with the IRS and that our current balance is $63,532.95.

We then had a long discussion on the perennial issue of parking, specifically the use of our parking lot by patrons of nearby commercial businesses to the exclusion of patrons to the pool and city parkland. The most egregious violators continue to be patrons of the Pool Burger trailer located behind Deep Eddy Cabaret. On PARD’s part there appears to be a general lack of will to impose and then enforce parking restrictions, so there will be no good resolution. A committee was formed (Billy Apt, Christina Flores and Merlin Cross) to again explore options.

Under new business, FODE will finance a new refrigerator and possibly other kitchen equipment for the guard’s room once PARD has given approval of the purchases, probably through a Citizens Activated Parks Project (CAPP). We also discussed the adoption of our sister park, Eilers Park, since the previous friends’ group associated with the facility has gone dormant.  Paul will reach out to PARD and the Austin Parks Foundation for guidance. Heidi was given permission to order more t-shirts as needed.

Having concluded our business, we adjourned.

Blake Tollett, FODE Secretary