2006 Neighborhood Beautification Grant Recipients

Keep Austin Beautiful selected eight projects to be awarded 2006 Neighborhood Beautification Grants. In its second year, the Keep Austin Beautiful beautification grants program funded a total of 15 projects, investing $20,000 to support Austin communities with efforts to beautify and improve their neighborhoods.  The 2006 grant winners include neighborhood associations, community groups, PTA’s and schools that are working collaboratively to take ownership of their neighborhoods.

• Brentwood Wildflower Project –planted wildflowers to start restoring Arroyo Seco from a creek bed filled with non-native plants and weeds to a native state that will beautify the neighborhood, generate community pride and create a habitat for wildlife.
• Clayton Elementary School and Circle C West Neighbors joined forces to create a model project by turning a detention pond into an outdoor learning space for students and a community gathering space for the neighborhood, by creating walking trails around the detention pond, installing native landscaping, benches and an outdoor classroom.
• Conley Guerrero Senior Activity Center Advisory Board - teens and seniors worked together to replace a dead tree and unhealthy shrubs with an herb garden, perennial bed, bulbs and new trees to beautify the center.
• Galindo Elementary Neighborhood Association –are working to create an inviting native landscape at the South Austin Park that will enhance the appeal of the park and serve as an educational resource for youth at the adjacent South Austin Recreation Center.
• Gullett Elementary PTA –created a new native-plant teaching garden, designed for entire classes to explore natural habitats and ecosystems and provide hands on experiences in science and other subjects to students.
• Highland Neighborhood Association – This neighborhood that suffers from a severe lack of greenspace developed a very large traffic triangle into a neighborhood green to provide some public open space, increase community involvement and create a focal point for the neighborhood.
• Highland Terrace & Perry Lane Neighborhood – The neighborhood took on their 5th median beautification project, their most ambitious yet, as they transformed an unattractive concrete median into a colorful native landscape.
• Neighbors of 38 1/2 Street - constructed tile mosaic flowers and install native plants to beautify and add some unique neighborhood character to a traffic calming median.