Citizen Kevin Mac Donnell

My friend Kevin MacDonnell, though still relatively young in years, is one of the old-timers of our neighborhood. He and his wife Donna were some of the first pioneers of our area, on the wild and woolly outskirts of Austin, Texas. One quiet fall afternoon in 2003,1 met Kevin while investigating the history of our neighborhood. He graciously spent a good amount of time feeding me facts during our first encounter. I wasn't surprised to hear the stories of shady developers, larger-than-life characters (do they come any other way?), and criminals who done somebody wrong.Kevins civic involvement began at a time when it counted most and was the hardest to do. In fact, his exploits often required the cunning of a jewel thief, the patience of Job and the persistence of Edison. He often faced overwhelming odds like David against Goliath. And yet, time and again he won, and we all benefited. In fact, I never completed my history of Glenlake, but I did something much more important that day. I made a lifelong friend and met a future collaborator. Since then, we've worked on many projects together, and continue to this day.As one of the first residents of Glenlake, out of necessity Kevin created much of what we now take for granted. The first example of his problem-solving skills involved a tiny endangered bird. Our neighborhood is in a cedar forest. One particular bird, the Golden Cheek Warbler, was identified by environmentalists as requiring the canopy of the cedar forest for its nesting habitat. Therefore, much of our area was off limits to building unless an exemption letter (a.k.a. a Bird Letter) was obtained from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service. There was no blanket exemption available, so each neighbor had to seek it on their own, the administrative hoops being numerous and high. At a time before Google Earth or drones, each resident had to submit an aerial photograph. Kevin researched this and found that there was no critical habitat within fifty or sixty acres, so he applied for and received blanket approval for our entire subdivision, thus saving individual residents hundreds of hours of red tape.In the late 70s and early 80s when Kevin and Donna built their home and began residing in our neighborhood, the water company was privately owned by the developer. The bad news was that they didn't maintain the filters or chlorine levels, so the water quality was horrible. Residents might be out of water for two or three days at a time. So, Kevin and three other residents formed a water committee. Shortly thereafter, water quality became stable again. Kevin was also instrumental in getting a surcharge removed from our water rates and changing the rate structure, which provided significant savings to residents of several neighborhoods. Like many of Kevin's achievements, very few people realize he was the man behind this benefit.From 1985 to 1993, Kevin was an EMS first responder for Travis County Emergency Services District 4 (ESD4). This meant he was the first on the scene for all traffic accidents within ESD4 jurisdiction. He quickly started to see patterns that caused concern, and he decided to do something about it. There were many accidents on City Park Road, a precarious path perched on the side of hills. It provides a beautiful overlook of the city skyline. It is treacherous for those unfortunate enough to leave the road. When it doesn't rain for a while in Austin, oils collect on the roads. Then when it does finally rain, these roads get as slick as an ice rink. Kevin, having tended too many of these roll-over wrecks, researched, lobbied for and obtained a new DiamondCote resurfacing of the road, which provided better grip and reduced accidents very significantly. …