Balcones Park & Pool

Our team wanted to say a huge thank you to you for helping make our Amplify Austin Fundraiser so successful! In just two days, we had over 51 supporters like yourself help us raise over $7,500 to help us work towards getting much needed bathroom improvements at our beloved Balcones Park. We are truly inspired by the number of you who showed up for us this year by donating and sharing our message with your networks.

Friends of Balcones Park and Milwood Neighborhood Assoc wouldn’t be the same without the amazing folks like you that support our work. We are so grateful for your commitment to keeping our little neighborhood improving and we are off to a great start to getting our bathroom improvements underway. We look forward to continuing to work towards this goal until it is realized.

We will continue to fund raise through Austin Parks Foundation (non profit, tax deductible).  The link to Balcones Park’s page for donations is here or you can write a check to Milwood Neighborhood Assoc with memo: “Park”. More details here.

With gratitude,
Friends of Balcones Park & Milwood Neighborhood Association

Another Successful It’s My Park Day!

Thank you to all of the volunteers that came out and helped beautify our park!

And A BIG Thanks to Erik Harris who manages this event year after year for our park!

Donate Now to help us Improve our Park and Pool bathrooms at Balcones Park through Amplify Austin! And as a bonus Austin Parks Foundation will match the first $3,500!

Click Here to Donate or Learn More: bit.ly/balconespark

Please share to family and friends and fellow park users!

This year we hope to try and make improvements to the bathrooms on both the park side and the pool side. We are excited that this benefit will enable us to better serve pool guests during the summer as well as park users year-round.

Ideally we would raise enough to replace the toilets, sinks, and lighting fixtures but if not we will do the most with what we receive – starting with the park bathrooms since they are used year round! If we surpass our goal, any additional funds would be used to make additional improvements to lifeguard hut, showers, and doors.

Please help us by making a donation!

Our park is well loved and the new playground and relatively new pool shade has been great in bringing people to our park. These additional Bathroom Improvements would go a very long way in increasing the enjoyment of park users as well so we are hopeful that we can make it happen! Thank you!!

A special Thanks to Austin Parks Foundation and PARD for their continued support of our park!

See pictures of project here.

Please save the date of Sat. March 4th from 9am-12noon to help clean up and care for Balcones Park. There will be projects for all ages including:

1- Cleanup litter in Balcones Park, along trails and in creek greenbelt.

2- Trail maintenance/erosion repairs – Creekside Trail & NCWT near bridge

3 – Tree weeding around parking lot

4 – Native wildflower and grass Seeding (along paved trails and butterfly meadow

5 – Invasive Species Removal

Sign up here – Balcones Spring Clean

If you would like to help lead a work group, please let us know!

Swim Team and Swim Lesson Registration for Balcones Pool is OPEN!

Swim Team dates and times haven’t been finalized yet, so the registration is a little unclear.

The Swim Lessons are in 2 week groups and range but last year were every Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri for 30 minutes and at a great price! Then you can stay and practice what you learn before and after! A great way to get your kids swimming! (Save yourself the headache and do it online)

https://www.austintexas.gov/swimming

https://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Parks/Aquatics/Aquatics_Guide_2019_web.pdf

To Register go to & choose the Aquatics box in the first row of pics: https://web2.vermontsystems.com/wbwsc/txaustinwt.wsc/splash.html?InterfaceParameter=WebTrac

We are so very excited to announce that Balcones Park’s new playground and pavilion will be opening on Saturday, May 1!!!

It has been a much anticipated venture and we are so thrilled to see how it turned out!

A Big Thanks to PARD staff, especially Charles Mabry! A big thanks to Neal Charles, Kim Gilbertson, Kristine Street for helping us work through all the designs, surveys and more! A big thanks to Council Member Pool for helping us be heard! A big thanks to all the wonderful neighbors who donated money, talent, opinions and time! A big thanks to Meg Davis, Bethany Metzger and Johanna Hedges who worked on the original grant!

A big thanks to Erik Harris who works tirelessly to be our park’s hero!

Dear Neighbors, please consider coming out and to help clean up and maintain Balcones Park trees, trails and landscaping.

Date/Time – Saturday March 7, 2020 9AM -12 Noon

Here is the link to sign up: Balcones Park Cleanup, Beautification and Trail Work

Here are some of the projects we will be taking on:

-Trash Clean up throughout park and greenbelt
-Weed and mulch planted trees in main park area (by pool, basketball court, parking lot.)
-Rebuild berms to prevent erosion of trail from pool area to Duval access to Creekside trail
-Clear out underbrush from Heritage Oak at Ballfield area.
-Trail maintenance – repair erosion along creekside trail, remove rock from creekside trail, remove old t-posts, etc.
-Reconnect singletrack trail to new paved trail and block erosion prone access points
-Pool bathhouse planting (spread S. Coccinea seed, other shade tolerant wildflowers)
-Invasive species removal (Ligustrum, Chinaberry, Nandina, Johnsongrass)

Want to help more? As always we are in need of additional team leaders to help manage individual projects. No experience necessary, just an hour or so of advanced coordination to make things go smoothly of the day of the event. Please Contact Erik if you are interested!

Please mark your calendar to come out to help restore the park and greenbelt for It’s My Park Day on Sat. Nov. 2, 2019.

Please see the It’s My Park Day page for more info for the Balcones Park Cleanup and Trail Work.

Sign-up HERE It’s My Park Day and get a awesome Free Event shirt.

We hope to see you in the Park!

The overwhelming winner was #2!
Click Here for Survey Summary & Individual Results

Thank You for taking the time to once again share your input!

As you can probably see by reviewing the survey results above there are some patterns in the feedback. So we are working with PARD to see if some changes to Playground Option #2 can be made so that we can meet those requests.

Due to demand for contractors, it is looking like the installment will probably begin in Feb or March.

Thank you so much for your time and patience through this process!

Keep Scrolling Down or Click Here for images of the two design options.