Read the reviews and see the full season’s schedule!

The Austin Chronicle
Even fading lights couldn't dim the glow of Austin Playhouse's lovely staging

Austin 360
Review: Austin Playhouse’s ‘The Lion in Winter’

KUT
The Lion in Winter

Many thanks to those who came out for this year’s 6th annual Tower Lighting! Guests enjoyed cookies and cake while children worked on their owl keepsakes and families visited with neighbors and friends as they sipped on hot cocoa and cider from Elixer, a Mueller Trailer Eats vendor, courtesy of the Mueller property owners association. Special thanks to the Maplewood Elementary World Drumming Ensemble and the Reagan High School Band Drum Line for providing energetic entertainment for everyone as Austin City Council Member Bill Spelman and his son led the countdown to officially light the NOEL sign atop the former airport control tower!

Many of you captured the fun at Trevor Ray Thompson’s photography booth featuring the control tower, which recently had its exterior restored to the award-winning original design. Take a look at your pictures online and download your e-print for free, or you can add a special border and order holiday card prints! 

From everyone at Catellus and the Mueller Team, happy holidays, and thanks for making the Tower Lighting a true Mueller tradition. We hope you can all join us again next year!

In the episode, Joe discusses the extensive work done to prep for the garden, which houses more than 120 different flowers and plants and is a National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat. Thanks to Betsy and Joe for sharing the beauty of their garden and inspiring Central Texas gardeners.

Get tips and ideas for your own garden by watching Betsy and Joe’s segment on KLRU’s website.

The excitement begins at 6 p.m. with the orchestra playing a medley of movie music with coordinated movie scenes showing on a giant outdoor screen. Following the performance, the audience is invited to stay for a screening of Back to the Future. The event is free and open to the public, with proceeds from concession sales and donations at the event helping send the McCallum Orchestra to Louisiana State University to perform and attend a master class.

Come out to Mueller this Saturday to support these talented students and enjoy music and a movie!

As the first LEED Platinum certified hospital in the world, Dell Children’s was one of nine nationwide recipients of a 2011 Leadership Award. The award is bestowed upon individuals and organizations committed to upholding the highest standards of green building in order to protect the environment and support healthy communities.

Read the press release from USGBC announcing the award recipients and visit the Sustainability section of MuellerAustin.com to learn more about other sustainable elements of the community.

We are currently forming a committeeof interested neighbors to join Catellus and the Children’s Medical Center Foundation as we encourage neighbors, Mueller residents, vendors and employees to raise an additional $5,000 to provide books for patients at the hospital.

We will host a planning meeting of volunteers and partners in the coming weeks to introduce the campaign, identify roles and begin developing ideas for fundraising this fall. We hope to find individuals willing to give a little bit of time to help us spread the word to friends and family with the goal of raising the $5,000 before Thanksgiving. Essentially, we are asking the following for people interested in joining the Neighbors for Novels Committee:

• Participate in a handful of planning meetings to help shape fundraising;
• Help implement the fundraising events once the scope is determined;
• Help staff activities planned around this October’s Mueller Movies in the Park, which we are connecting to the book drive campaign; and,
• Share details about the book drive and its related events with your friends, family and neighbors.

Please note the Catellus team and the Foundation will do most of the heavy lifting and all financial donations will be accepted through our Dell Children’s Foundation fundraising page at http://bit.ly/Neighbors4Novelsfor this initiative. And, although we welcome any donation you and your family would like to provide to this effort, there is no financial obligation.

If you have any questions or would like to join us for this worthy cause, please email contactus@muelleraustin.comor call 512-703-9202. 

Though she may appear to be an ordinary black cow, Betty is painted with a special magnetic paint. Neighbors are encouraged to swing by to visit the cow and add their own unique magnets to the art piece to help showcase Austin’s creative and funky personality.

Betty has patiently been waiting at Mueller Central for more magnets to adorn her. Please bring your favorite magnet to help us cover Betty. Thin, light-weight magnets work best.

Betty will be on display through early October, when she will be auctioned off to benefit the Dell Children’s Medical Center Superhero Kids Fund. Catellus is proud to sponsor this fun event in support of the Superhero Kids Fund and area artists who lent their special talents to create one-of-a-kind artwork.

Show your love for Betty by sharing your story at CowParadeAustin.com/Stories. For more information about CowParade and to see where you can see other cows around town visit www.CowParadeAustin.com. 

Catellus and H-E-B recently announced the Texas-based grocer will anchor Mueller’s Market District with a new, one-of-a-kind store to open in 2013. Neighbors and Mueller friends gathered for the announcement event that was the talk of the town. See below for just some of the news coverage of the announcement:

Austin American-Statesman

H-E-B plans for first-of-its-kind store at Mueller

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/theticker/entries/2011/08/31/heb_plans_firstofitskind_store.html

Austin Business Journal

HEB opening at Mueller in 2013

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/2011/08/31/heb-opening-at-mueller-in-2013.html

Community Impact

Austin’s Mueller development soon to welcome H-E-B

http://impactnews.com/central-austin/293-recent-news/14547-mueller-development-soon-to-welcome-grocery-store-chain

KVUE

Grocery store announced for Mueller development in Central East Austin

http://www.kvue.com/news/Grocery-store-announced-for-Mueller-development-in-Central-East-Austin-128845608.html

Bordered by 51st Street and the future extensions of Berkman Drive and Barbara Jordan Boulevard, the 75,000-square-foot H-E-B grocery store will serve Mueller and surrounding neighborhoods. This H-E-B at Mueller will be a new prototype grocery store never seen before that will merge many of the traditional store elements and grocery brands its customers love with new designs and features that will be shared as plans become available.

H-E-B’s Mueller store will be the company’s most sustainable store to date and H-E-B plans to use it as a testing ground for innovations in sustainable design strategies with a focus on a dramatic reduction in energy and water use, along with new recycling programs.

H-E-B currently plans to break ground on the new Mueller store in 2012 to keep on track with a 2013 opening. H-E-B intends to keep its Hancock Center and Springdale locations fully operational after its store in Mueller opens.

See a few photos from today’s event on Facebook. 

This year you can vote for your favorite movie in our online survey. Visit our Mueller Community Associations Web site at www.MuellerAustinOnline.com and look for the survey in the bottom right-hand corner. 

Fourth of July at Mueller

Despite Austin’s burn ban, Mueller residents celebrated Independence Day with flare! The festivities kicked off in the morning with a Mueller resident parade full of bikes, wagons, scooters and even pets. The evening’s Independence Day Block Party was complete with bounce houses, a saxophone rendition of the national anthem, a special performance by the Mueller Lawn Chair Drill Team, and for the grand finale, a large burn-ban-approved video display of fireworks. Mueller neighbors prove they know how to out on a festive (and safe) July Fourth holiday!

Austin Arthritis Walk and Hero Challenge

Eager walkers gathered near Lake Park for the Arthritis Foundation’s signature Arthritis Walk® to take some important steps around Mueller and raise funds for arthritis research, educationand life improvement programs in 250 communities across the country.This year the Austin walk debuted the Hero Challenge featuring 10 unique fitness station physical challenges for participants to complete. Approximately 400 individuals walked for the cause and raised more than $40,000 for the Arthritis Foundation.

Austin Children’s Museum Imaginarium Gala

Held in the historic Browning Hangar, the Austin Children’s Museumannual fundraising event turned the outdoor space into a magical soiree. The annual gala serves as a significant fundraising source for the Museum, and this year’s “Imaginarium” theme proved to be another success. There were both live and silent auctions complete with skydiving excursions, vacations to Vegas, tickets to ACL and much more, as well as a magician, photo booths, and live music. The sold-out event exceeded fundraising goals, raising more than $270,000 for the Museum. Check out ACM’s highlight videoto experience a taste of the magic! 

If you were not able to attend the community meeting and are interested in learning more and/or providing input, download the overview presentation slides and leave any comments using the online comment form.

For more information and the latest news on the development of the PAC, please check the PAC page of the AISD website.

The Mueller Foundation, in its implementation of the home sales aspect of the Mueller Affordable Homes Program, is pleased to announce a new component to the program that provides an opportunity for a second generation of qualified buyers to purchase a re-sale home currently in the Affordable Homes Program as administered by PeopleTrust.

An affordable re-sale home is one that was initially purchased by a qualified homebuyer under the program where the homebuyer desires to resale the home and the Mueller Foundation elects to purchase the home and re-sell it to another qualified homebuyer in order to keep that home in the Affordable Homes Program. These re-sale homes may occur in any affordable product type previously sold through the program such as a Yard Houses, Row Houses, Garden Houses or Mueller Houses.

Re-sale affordable homes may become available from time to time subject to sales activity and the Mueller Foundation’s participation. These affordable re-sale opportunities will be available to individuals or families who meet the Eligibility Guidelines and have incomes up to 120% of Austin’s Median Family Income (MFI). The re-sale income range may be slightly higher than the current new home purchase guidelines of 80% MFI or below. Re-sale affordable homes present an added dimension to the successful Mueller Affordable Homes Program.

While not all affordable re-sales will be offered by the Mueller Foundation, we wish to keep those interested informed of these limited opportunities as they arise. We have created a special email contact for people who would like to receive updates on the Mueller Affordable Homes Program and notifications on future re-sale homes. To be added to this update list, please email affordable@muelleraustin.com with your name and contact information and you will receive a reply with current inventory.

Despite the drought this spring, you can still enjoy wildflowers throughout Mueller as you wander the trails especially in the Southwest Greenway, the 32-acre park featuring a restoration of Central Texas’ endangered ecosystem the Blackland Prairie.

In the Southwest Greenway, a healthy number of bluebonnets have staked claim to spots near trees and sidewalks though these flowers don’t come close to rivaling last year’s bloom.

Also joining the Bluebonnets are several Texas wildflowers such as Purple Prairie Clover, Engleman’s Daisy, Sunflowers, Prairie Verbena, Texas Thistle, and Primroses among others. Stop by the parks in Mueller to see these flowers and other wildlife calling Mueller home.

Special thanks to members of the Mueller Friends of the Prairie for wildflower information.