Austin City Council will consider changing the name of Metz Recreation Center, 2407 Canterbury St., Austin, to the Rodolfo "Rudy" Mendez Recreation Center after the parks and recreation department collected public feedback through May 2. Mendez was a dance teacher and mentor in East Austin who founded the Ballet East Dance Company. He died in 2019.
The original namesake of the center, Hamilton Metz, served in the Confederate Army in the Civil War. Austin ISD is set to close nearby Metz Elementary School at the end of the 2020-21 school year. Those students currently at Metz will attend the modernized Sanchez Elementary School when the construction project is finished, scheduled for Aug. 2021. www.austintexas.gov