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lake pointe

Lake Pointe

October 2009

Volume 2, Issue 10

MESSENGER

A Newsletter for the Residents of Lake Pointe on Lake Austin

INTENSITY OF DROUGHT SURPASSES PREVIOUS DROUGHTS AUSTIN – Despite scattered rainfall, the Colorado River basin remains in a severe drought that is affecting water supply, LCRA staff told the Board of Directors this week. As a result, LCRA is considering whether to take additional drought management actions. Within the past several weeks, LCRA has asked its wholesale water customers to implement mandatory watering restrictions, with the goal of a 25 percent reduction in water use. LCRA staff has already been talking to agricultural customers in the lower Colorado River basin to advise them of the possibility that water releases for irrigation could be sharply curtailed next year. Taking additional steps may require LCRA to seek additional flexibility in how it manages its water supplies from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The flexibility may be needed, for example, if LCRA were to determine that the current drought is worse than the most severe drought the region has ever known, the 1947-1957 drought. “Despite the recent rains, our region remains in a serious drought. LCRA experts are analyzing the unprecedented drought conditions of the past two years and the effects on water supply,” said LCRA General Manager Tom Mason. “We are evaluating whether we need to take different actions than would be allowed under the stateapproved Water Management Plan.” Mason said staff would be ready to come back to the LCRA Board of Directors with their recommendations in October. If the current drought ultimately is worse than the drought of record, then all water users in the lower Colorado River basin will be affected, Mason said, including those who use water today and plan to use water in the future, as well as LCRA’s agricultural, municipal, and industrial customers. Copyright © 2009 Peel, Inc.

Staff analysis, presented to LCRA’s Board of Directors at its Sept. 23 meeting, show that, at least in its intensity, the current drought is more intense than the drought of the 1950s. This record drought is the basis of LCRA’s state-approved Water Management Plan, which mandates LCRA take specific actions at various milestones over the course of a drought to stretch water supplies. These actions are designed to cope with a repeat of the drought of record. Current conditions include record low volumes of water, or inflows, flowing from tributaries into the Highland Lakes, the region’s water supply reservoirs. In addition, the region has received below-normal rainfall for the past two years, the third driest such period on record, with only 35.25 inches of rain in Austin compared to 67 inches on average. Record high temperatures in 2008 and 2009 have also contributed to the intensity of the drought. “When you look at how little water flowed into the Highland Lakes over the past two years, it shows that the intensity of this drought surpasses the worst drought our region has experienced,” Karen Bondy, manager of River Services, told the Board on Wednesday. A two-year comparison of inflows, or the amount of water flowing into the Highland Lakes, shows a deficit of almost 400,000 acre-feet below the average inflows recorded during the 1950s drought. By comparison, the City of Austin draws for its municipal use about 160,000 acre-feet of water per year. This significant deficit in inflows is the primary indicator of the intensity of the drought. What is different, so far, is the duration of the current drought, which has lasted almost three years compared to the 10 years of the drought of record. (Continued on Page 3) Lake Pointe Messenger - October 2009 

Lake Pointe Important Numbers Travis County Sheriff Emergency........................................................................911 Non-Emergency...................................................... 974-0845 After Hours............................................................. 854-4316

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Newsletter Publisher Peel, Inc........................ www.PEELinc.com, 512-263-9181 Article Submissions............................. [email protected] [email protected], 512-263-9181 Advertising Information Please support the businesses that advertise in the Lake Pointe Messenger. Their advertising dollars make it possible for all Lake Pointe residents to receive the monthly newsletter at no charge. If you would like to support the newsletter by advertising, please contact our sales office at 512-263-9181 or [email protected]. The advertising deadline is the 10th of each month for the following month's newsletter.

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Disclaimers DISCLAIMER: Articles and ads in this newsletter express the opinions of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Peel, Inc. or its employees. Peel, Inc. is not responsible for the accuracy of any facts stated in articles submitted by others. The publisher also assumes no responsibility for the advertising content with this publication. All warranties and representations made in the advertising content are solely that of the advertiser and any such claims regarding its content should be taken up with the advertiser. * The publisher assumes no liability with regard to its advertisers for misprints or failure to place advertising in this publication except for the actual cost of such advertising. * Although every effort is taken to avoid mistakes and/or misprints, the publisher assumes no responsibility for any errors of information or typographical mistakes, except as limited to the cost of advertising as stated above or in the case of misinformation, a printed retraction/correction. * Under no circumstances shall the publisher be held liable for incidental or consequential damages, inconvenience, loss of business or services, or any other liabilities from failure to publish, or from failure to publish in a timely manner, except as limited to liabilities stated above.

Lake Pointe Messenger is a private publication published by Peel, Inc. It is not sanctioned by any homeowners association or organization, nor is it subject to the approval of any homeowners association or organization, nor is it intended, nor implied to replace any publication that may be published by or on behalf of any homeowners association or organization. At no time will any source be allowed to use Lake Pointe Messenger contents, or loan said contents, to others in anyway, shape or form, nor in any media, website, print, film, e-mail, electrostatic copy, fax, or etc. for the purpose of solicitation, commercial use, or any use for profit, political campaigns, or other self amplification, under penalty of law without written or expressed permission from Peel, Inc. The information in the newsletter is exclusively for the private use of Peel, Inc.  Lake Pointe Messenger - October 2009

Copyright © 2009 Peel, Inc.

lake pointe Intensity of Drought - (Continued from Cover Page) “What we don’t know is how long the drought will continue,” Bondy said. LCRA urges residents to continue following mandatory watering restrictions and taking steps to save water. Consider turning off automatic irrigation systems during the fall and winter months and install a rain sensor so that irrigation water is not wasted when it is raining. For updates about drought conditions in the lower Colorado River basin visit www.lcra.org/droughtupdate.

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Lake Pointe Get Ready for Windows 7

For Lovers of XP and Haters of Vista Submitted by Laurie Scott

Users of Microsoft Windows have been waiting a long time for a great upgrade from Windows XP. Well, I have good news - Windows 7 is coming. On October 22nd, the successor to the less than popular Windows Vista will begin to ship with new PC’s and be available in stores and online. If you bought a new PC with Vista Home Premium installed in the last 3 months, you’re probably going to get a free upgrade disk from the manufacturer. Should you upgrade your current PC? There are some very compelling reasons to do so. In almost every area Windows 7 outperforms Vista and even XP in the time it takes to install, copy files on the hard drive or move files over a network. It also doesn’t need quite as much memory to run well. It has MUCH better security than XP and is less annoying than Vista. Vista users know about the constant pop-ups of the UAC (User Account Control) every time you make the slightest change to the system, encouraging many to disable it altogether. Windows 7 has modified it so that it can be adjusted to be less intrusive while still protecting you from unwanted program installations. This makes it much easier to run as a regular

user rather than an administrator (an almost impossible task in XP), providing better protection from viruses and trojans. The Media Center provides support for playing Blu-Ray discs (if you have a drive that can play them), and the Home Group feature makes sharing files and printers between computer really simple. Windows Live is a separate but I think important product from Microsoft that works well with Windows 7. It’s a set of free online products that features SkyDrive, offering 25 gigabytes of online storage, and Family Safety, that in conjunction with your Windows user accounts provides access control to web content, and provides activity reports as well as administrator access (i.e. the parent) from any computer, anywhere. The Professional version of Windows 7 includes the ability to run Windows XP as a “Virtual Machine” in a window, so if you have programs that need XP to run, you can run them in the virtual machine while continuing to run everything else in the Windows 7 environment (I know, that was geeky and your eyes probably started to glaze over, but it’s a great feature none the less.) (Continued on Page 19)

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lake pointe Get Ready for Windows 7 - (Continued from Page 18) System requirements for Windows 7 are a 1GHz or faster processor and at least 1GB of memory. You can perform a check of your computer by downloading the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor from microsoft.com. The upgrade for Windows 7 Home Premium will be $119, but Microsoft will also be making a “Family Pack” available, giving you 3 licenses for $149. I’ve been using Windows 7 since the Beta version was released in January, having it on 3 systems without problems, including 2 desktops and 1 laptop. The interface is much cleaner with lots of great small features too numerous to list here. So if you’re ready for a new computer, but it’s not presently in your budget, consider upgrading your current computer to Windows 7. The only regret you’ll have is that it took Microsoft so long to finally get it right.

Recipe of the Month Chicken Spaghetti

Stew chicken. I season water with salt, pepper, and 2or 3 bay leaves. About half-way through cooking time, add chopped onion and celery. When chicken is done, measure about 2 cups of broth and place in another pan. To this broth, add 1 can of tomatoes and one can of Cream of Mushroom Soup. Heat this mixture. Cook spaghetti in water in which chicken was cooked. Place spaghetti in large baking dish, then boned chicken. Season with salt and pepper. Then pour broth mixture over spaghetti. Bake at 350° until heated throughout. Sprinkle with grated cheese about 10 minutes before removing from oven. If you would like to submit YOUR recipe email it to [email protected].

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Lake Pointe Messenger - October 2009 

Lake Pointe A Sensible Plan for College Funding

Submitted by Rich Keith How you fund college expenses is divided naturally between using down the value of many folks’ 529 accounts. People with younger your money, and by using other peoples’ money.  This sounds simple children can keep contributing and look to a rebound. Parents of but each scenario requires understanding of the long-term impacts.  college and pre-college students, though, may have few options In this article we are going to focus on free money, and on “Tax other than using 529 plan withdrawals to pay for higher education. Scholarships,” where the Federal Government helps you send your Having said that, it may be better to pay for college from cash flow child to college through tax savings and other methods. or from cash reserves. This delays liquidation of 529 assets as long as Recently the federal government boosted financial aid for higher possible, allowing for a recovery.  Remember to reimburse yourself education, including various tax breaks. An expanded version of from your 529 plan before the end of the calendar year in which the the Hope Scholarship tax credit appeared called the American expenses were incurred. Opportunity tax credit.  The new credit can save taxpayers as much as If the market does not come back in time for your needs, you still $2,500 in tax, or $5,000 for two collegians, and a refund of $1,000, have options.  If you have other funds that can cover college bills if you satisfy certain rules. without disrupting your financial plan, keep the money in the 529 Remember that you can’t claim the American Opportunity credit as long as feasible, in hopes of future tax-free growth.  Of course, if for expenses paid with withdrawals from a 529 plan.  So you may a child is finishing school and there is no younger sibling who could wish to limit 529 withdrawals so some college expenses are paid with use the funds in the future, then you should spend down your 529 other money, to allow the use of the new tax credit.  Some students funds.  Tax tip: parents of college-bound children should realize net won’t qualify for the American Opportunity credit. Fortunately, a losses in their taxable accounts to lock in tax benefits. The proceeds Lifetime Learning tax credit provides a maximum annual credit of can be reinvested in 529 accounts so that any future gains from $2,000 for tuition and fees, subject to rules. today’s low levels can be withdrawn, tax-free, to pay for college later The tax advantages of 529 plans are many.  A down year for stock on; perhaps in graduate school. Check with your financial coach and funds, combined with a poor year for many bond funds, has driven tax advisor for full details.

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