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Austin Public Health has experienced some federal and city budget cuts this year, and the failure of Proposition Q means some of those holes won’t be filled. We look at the public health landscape in Austin.
The old Faulk Central Library in downtown Austin became the Austin History Center, and has been redone after a renovation that was eight years in the making. What’s new in a place that showcases what’s old.
Plus: We hear from the Black Austin Matters podcast and their guest, Pastor Gaylon Clark of Greater Mt. Zion Baptist Church.
The full transcript of this episode of Austin Signal is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.
Jennifer Stayton [00:00:11] Austin Public Health has experienced some federal and city budget cuts this year and the failure of Proposition Q means some of those holds won’t be filled. A look at the public health landscape in Austin. And you know the old Fox Central Library in downtown Austin? It became the Austin History Center and has been redone after a renovation that was eight years in the making. We’ll hear about what’s new in a place showcasing
KUT Announcer: Laurie Gallardo [00:00:37] The Austin Signal is a production of KUT News, hosted by Jennifer Stayton.
Jennifer Stayton [00:00:43] Plus we’ll hear from the Black Austin Matters podcast and their guest, Pastor Galen Clark of Greater Mount Zion Baptist Church. All of that is coming up on Austin Signal. Stay with us. Hello everyone and thanks for joining us for Austin Signal. It’s Monday, December 15th. I’m Jennifer Stayton, very happy to be with you. Sitting in for Jerry Kehano who’s enjoying a bit of a holiday breather, but don’t worry, he’ll be back with you before the year is out. The holiday season is staring a smack in the face and that means hopefully some time off for you, a little break and. Maybe some gatherings with friends and family, and that can mean an increased risk of getting or spreading illnesses like the flu or COVID. And of course, that’s not even to mention allergies this time of year in Central Texas. So with all of this swirling, it seemed like a good time for us to check up on public health in Austin. A lot has happened in that arena this year. And here to do that is KUT’s health reporter, Olivia Aldrich. Hi, Olivia. Hi, Jen. Thanks so much for coming in. So, Olivia, Austin voters rejected proposition Q this fall, which would have allowed the city of Austin to raise property taxes above the state mandated ceiling to, in addition to some other things, plug some holes in Austin’s budget. How did that defeat impact Austin Public Health?
Olivia Aldridge [00:02:21] And its programs. So if Prop Q had passed, there would have been around $1.3 million more in Austin Public Health’s budget. There was some rearrangement of the budget to fill certain holes, but in terms of stuff that we saw just totally go, that includes $800,000 for HIV and STI testing and prevention, some funding to help with vaccination efforts, and then other various one-time funding to help, with grants that were lost or at risk. That HIV funding loss and how it could affect vulnerable people is something that local activists spoke to this month on World AIDS Day amid cuts at the federal level for this as well. This is Paulette Soltani of the group Vocal TX.
Paulette Soltani [00:03:03] Cuts like this mean fewer tests, means fewer outreach workers, fewer case managers, more people falling through the cracks.
Jennifer Stayton [00:03:12] So Olivia, you mentioned, we’re hearing about cuts at the local level, but you also mentioned cuts at federal level. So all of this locally is happening after federal cuts earlier this year to some public health initiatives. Remind us how awesome public health was impacted by those.
Olivia Aldridge [00:03:29] Yeah, you know, this funding they missed out on with Prop Q, it’s not a huge amount compared to the agency’s total budget, but it’s in this broader context of a tough year for local public health agencies. APH lost millions of dollars in federal grants this year, which resulted in cutting more than two dozen full-time staff members. There could be more. This is stuff like HIV funding. There were a number of COVID-era grants that were or were not renewed. So less funding for vaccination programs, lost funding for a refugee clinic that does a lot of tuberculosis prevention and testing. That one appears to still sort of be in limbo right now because there’s litigation going on, but also some funding used for disease surveillance that was cut. So detection of potential outbreaks.
Jennifer Stayton [00:04:14] So Olivia, sort of looking at all the things that have been impacted, you mentioned among other things, vaccines, vaccinations, refugee health clinics. Are there any other ways to fund or provide those services that have been cut, any way to keep those going?
Olivia Aldridge [00:04:31] Tricky because Austin Public Health has traditionally relied a lot on federal grants. Around 50% of their staff are supported by grant funding, which is different from a lot of city departments. They did work to address some things during this past budget season, and throughout the year folks at APH told me about, you know, taking staff from one program that’s been cut and plugging them into another to problem-solve and also save some people’s jobs. So it depends. But the fact is those federal funding losses continue to be tough to adjust to. Austin Public Health gave a statement to me after Prop Q basically saying this one time funding change that Prop Q would have provided wouldn’t have solved the critical issue facing the department, which is disruptions in federal funding. So Olivia.
Jennifer Stayton [00:05:17] Overall, if you sort of were to take a step back, how would you say that public health in Austin has been impacted then by the cuts you’ve been describing?
Olivia Aldridge [00:05:27] I think there’s still so much uncertainty and we’re still sort of waiting to see what the potential impacts are going to be. So for like, for instance, Austin public health leaders have warned that reduced funding for their immunization unit could result in fewer people getting vaccinated for serious stuff like measles. And that could mean more hospitalizations and strain on the healthcare system if we see an outbreak here in central Texas.
Jennifer Stayton [00:05:51] So Olivia, I want to pivot just a little bit in the minute or so we have left. There’s another public health issue on a lot of people’s minds today. It’s the deadline for open enrollment for health insurance in the Obamacare marketplace. Remind us what’s happening with today’s enrollment deadline.
Olivia Aldridge [00:06:07] Yes, today is the last day to enroll in an Affordable Care Act plan via healthcare.gov. If you want that coverage to begin on January 1st, you can still technically go in and enroll through January 15th, but if you wait, you might have a gap in your coverage. And especially if you were enrolled in one of those plans this year, today’s the day to go check the portal to avoid being re-enrolled automatically because your plan may be more expensive this year. There have been some significant premium increases, so it’s smart to give that a check.
Jennifer Stayton [00:06:36] There’s still some congressional potential action on what those subsidies may or may not be, kind of waiting to hear what’s happening there. I know you’re watching this and a lot more. KUT’s health reporter, Olivia Aldridge. Thanks, Olivia. Thank you. As the capital of Texas, Austin’s influence has helped shape the world beyond its city limits. The Austin History Center has been the steward of the city story, and after years of renovation work, officially reopened last week. For more, we’re talking with Executive Director for the Austin History Centers Association, Adam Powell. Adam, thanks so much for talking with us on Austin Signal.
Adam Powell [00:07:21] Oh, thank you so much for having me.
Jennifer Stayton [00:07:23] So Adam, first of all, just briefly, in case there are people who don’t know, tell us about the Austin History Center. What is it and what does it do?
Adam Powell [00:07:31] I’m so glad you asked, you know, so the Austin History Center Association we’re the nonprofit that supports the Austin history center meaning that a lot of the work we do is advocacy and for lack of a better term, just cheerleading and being spokespeople and helping get the word out about the Austin Histories Center. And so the awesome history center is truly our city’s municipal archives. It’s part of the city of Austin, it’s part the public library system and it is home to literally millions of documents and audio recordings, video recordings, artifacts, maps, architectural archives, really, you name it. It is the place to find documentation about Austin’s history and what we’re happy to support.
Jennifer Stayton [00:08:16] So you’re saying millions of documents, I’m picturing like stacks and stacks of boxes of documents. Is that really what’s in there? What’s in there?
Adam Powell [00:08:22] You are picturing correctly. And it’s really relevant to this occasion right now. The newly renovated space that the Austin History Center is in is really a generational improvement because there’s so much space that’s needed. And we know archives don’t get smaller. They only get bigger.
Jennifer Stayton [00:08:40] Well, and so you mentioned the history center is part of the awesome public library system. Talk about the site of the center, where it is and what’s special about that particular building.
Adam Powell [00:08:50] Oh, you’ve done your research.
Jennifer Stayton [00:08:52] Hey, when I was in high school here, I got sent there a lot to do research papers at what used to be the central library. So yeah, tell us about that building.
Adam Powell [00:08:59] That’s what I love to hear. That’s why I love it here. So really we’re nowadays referring to as a two building campus. And both of these buildings are critically important to the history of our city and really the history the library system. So the Austin History Center was first established in the early 1980s in what was Austin’s first permanent public library. So if you’ve been downtown off 9th and Guad next to the Moon Tower, next to Woldridge Square Park and the old Travis County courthouse, You’ve seen before this beautiful building that was constructed in 1933 and it was Austin’s actual first permanent central library. It remained that way until 1979 when obviously nowadays the John Henry Falk Library opened but at the time it was just the new Austin Central Library. And that’s actually what formed our association because the mayor and city council at the time were considering the idea of tearing down the original building. And there was a small group of Ausnites who came together and said, hey, we’re not okay with that. We wanna preserve this building, the history within it, and ultimately establishes our city’s archives, which is what they did. And 46 years later, our association is still doing the same work advocating for the history center.
Jennifer Stayton [00:10:13] So it sounds like that this renovation work took about eight years, cost about $14.5 million. What was done to the facility?
Adam Powell [00:10:23] Oh yeah, so the John Henry Falk Library building, the way I like to tell folks for people like yourself who maybe grew up going to the central library there, it looks familiar, but definitely modernized. And thankfully the building itself was set up really well to house something like an archive. It was very innovative for its time and open floor plans. Libraries have large stacks and all sorts of things there to hold the books. Archives. It’s the same situation with the shelves and the stacks and the units. So when you go in, you’ll see less carpet, you won’t see it. You’ll feel updated HVAC and heating and plumbing and modern bathrooms. But really, the sole and the core of the building has been maintained while making it a frankly world-class facility for an archive.
Jennifer Stayton [00:11:16] And how was the renovation funded?
Adam Powell [00:11:19] Primarily, almost entirely through bond monies, mostly 14 and a half million from a 2018 bond.
Jennifer Stayton [00:11:25] So Adam, what can the Austin History Center do and provide now that it couldn’t do and provide prior to the renovation?
Adam Powell [00:11:34] That is a really great question. So first and foremost, what I tell folks again, is archives don’t get smaller, right? They just continue to expand. And in the 1933 Austin Library Building that the Austin History Center was in, there just wasn’t room. I mean, you would go into the basement or the second floor or anywhere in that building, floor to ceiling, boxes, archives, artifacts, just having to be where they could fit. And so. It was at a point where there was actually a moratorium on collecting new collections into the archives. And that is a kind of existential problem for preserving our city’s history. So first and foremost, what it does is just ensure that for the next really 50 years, the archives are in a position to continue to grow, to continue, to thrive and collect everything they need to from the community. The other thing that it does, is it increases the accessibility to Austin’s history, So the first floor is now entirely dedicated to exhibit space. And that is so different from the old Austin History Center where they put exhibits where they can, but the staff was really limited. And now the first-floor, if you walk in today, you see a deep dive on the archival process with these wonderful artifacts from Austin History. And it’s something that, as long as the History Center’s open, you can come off the street and just check it out.
Jennifer Stayton [00:12:59] So you’ve said archives don’t get smaller, they get bigger. But I always think of things going forward as everything’s digital. Like scans of photos, scans of things. So how are archives getting bigger if it seems like our main storage vehicle these days is digital?
Adam Powell [00:13:14] See, this is a common misconception about archives, I would say. So absolutely, yes, there’s so much digitization that happens, and then maybe even more than that, what’s called digitally native documents. So for example, the Austin History Center maintains every board and commission meeting in the city of Austin, point blank, all of them. And all of those meetings nowadays, the videos or the Zoom recordings or what have you, they never exist as physical documents. So part of that… Is then the data storage needs and the infrastructure around that needs to expand, which does have its physical implications. The other thing is, as the city’s municipal archive, there are document retention policies within the city. So there are so many physical documents that are legally required to be maintained in physical form, maybe for three years, five years, maybe forever. So, you know, as a municipal archive as the cities archive, Those documents aren’t going anywhere. They gotta be at the History Center and the the fantastic staff of archivists and collections managers are prepared for that now to expand in the new facility.
Jennifer Stayton [00:14:22] So, and I’m finally just sort of stepping back from the renovation and the physical space and all the work that happened in the reopening. Why is it important for a city to have a history center?
Adam Powell [00:14:33] It is, I would say, one of the most essential, critical services that the city of Austin provides. Because there are very, very, very few things that you can build towards that will outlive you. There are very very few things that, you know, will be useful in perpetuity. And the work that the Austin History Center staff does to preserve the documents and artifacts and video and audio recordings that make up Austin’s. History, make up Austin’s story, is work that’s going to matter in 100 years, in 200 years, and 300 years long after we’re gone. And so the new facility, yes, the exhibits, yes the expanded collections capacity, that’s all wonderful. But the work is something that will outlive every single person listening to this right now. And to me, that is the the core of why our association is proud to do the work that we’re doing.
Jennifer Stayton [00:15:31] We’ve been speaking with Adam Powell, executive director of the Austin History Center Association. Adam, thanks so much for coming in and talking with us on Austin Signal today.
Adam Powell [00:15:40] Thank you so much for having me.
Jennifer Stayton [00:15:46] And coming up, a special excerpt from the KUT podcast, Black Austin Matters. We’ve got more Austin Signal right after this. Stay with us. This is Austin Signal. I’m Jennifer Stayton. Lisa B. Thompson and Richard J. Reddick host the KUT KUTX Studios Black Austin matters podcast that highlights the black community and black culture in central Texas. In this excerpt, Lisa and Richard talk with a lead pastor at Greater Mount Zion Baptist Church, Galen Clark. We join them as Lisa B. Thompson asks, why are there so many denominations of Christianity?
Galen Clark [00:16:28] I’m trying to get you to help me understand. We need a diagram. You help me to understand. Go ahead, go ahead, help me. I’m kidding. Sir, I have no, I, but, yeah. The tables have been turned. Jokes, jokes. First and foremost, most denominations are attempts to reach different cultures or subcultures of a group of people. That’s all it really is. A lot of times we make a bigger deal out of denominations, in my opinion. Than is warranted. For instance, a good example, you were just talking about people who graduate and having graduations for various communities at the University of Texas. Well, why are those graduations important? Why can’t everybody just go to the big graduation and be satisfied with that? Well, they do that because there’s something empowering about being able to celebrate the way you celebrate in your culture. Okay, this is all the denominations really are primarily. Now there are some differences and I can talk to you about that, but primarily Episcopalians, they tend to be more liturgical than Baptists. That’s all. Yes. I mean, Catholics are definitely more liturgical than Episcopalians even, although one is a more Protestant end of that spectrum. That’s right. You know, and in Baptist churches, we like to be loud. A little bit. You know? Presbyterians, they don’t like all that noise. They don’t all like all of that noise, no. Now, here’s the deal, here is the deal. What is wrong with somebody not being as loud as other people. Right. Tell me what’s wrong with that. I love that. Absolutely nothing. Let them be quiet. Here’s the problem. The problem becomes is that my humanness and pride tells me. The people who are not loud like me, they don’t really know Jesus the way I do. And then the people who who are quiet and they’re more button up doing service, they feel like all that stuff that those Baptists do down there, that’s just a bunch of foolishness. Like it’s anti-intellectual, you know? And the truth is, God is not up there saying. I really like the method is better. Jesus doesn’t care about all of that. He cares about followers. You know, he came to do something so much bigger than try to figure out like what specific segment of Christianity you’re gonna be a part of. In fact, what’s interesting is that Jesus felt not only called to his own people, but he calls his people to go to. Spaces where his own people are not. The only reason why Christianity has survived is because Jesus called us to go to the nations. And the nations, those are not political, territorial, governmental groups, nations. No, that word nations has to do with people groups. Cultures. Spaces where like people do life in a certain way, right? And so they went to varied cultures. So God honors culture. He honors difference. He honors uniqueness. And for us to, you know, divide His people who are beloved by Him into all these quadrants. And being some, not all, and I think we’re much better at this as a church, as the Bixy Church, at making sure that we don’t do that. But it’s disheartening. But you know, the reality about all of that is, is that it actually, to me, is kind of a beautiful thing. Because, think about it. God says your difference is okay. I don’t want you to be, you don’t have to be like that group. You have to love that group, but you don’t have to, your uniqueness is beautiful. Unity is not uniformity and this is a good thing. You know, we used to sing this song, you’ll appreciate this because you’re a church baby. Oh, no. Red, yellow, black, and white. They’re all precious. In his sight. And they still are.
Jennifer Stayton [00:21:42] That was Lisa B. Thompson and Richard J. Reddick, hosts of Black Austin Matters, talking with lead pastor at Greater Mount Zion Baptist Church, Galen Clark. You can find out more about Black Austin Matters at kut.org, and we’ll have a link to their podcast in today’s podcast, Show Notes. And thanks to KUT’s Olivia Aldridge and Miles Bloxson for their help with today’s episode. Rayna Sevilla is our technical director. Kristin Cabrera is our managing producer. Thanks to her for herding the cats. We’ve got more about the show in our podcast, shownotes at kut.org slash signal. Let us know what you think about the shows. Send us an email to austinsignal at k-u-t dot org. I’m Jennifer Stayton, happy to be sitting in today for Jerry Quijano. Austin Signal is back tomorrow. And we’ll be here all during the holidays with some special shows too. Be sure to check those out and have a great day.
This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
