WTAW - Interviews

Bryan Councilman Kevin Boriskie visits with WTAW's Scott DeLucia about a new reinvestment zone at RELLIS, attracting new companies, the possibility of a chip facility, the impact of DOGE's cuts, annexing the Stella Ranch development, housing trends, and more during his appearance on The Infomaniacs.

State Representative Paul Dyson of Bryan (R-TX) visits with WTAW's Scott DeLucia about his committee assignments, bills he is working on, the school voucher plan, College Station ISD Superintendent Tim Harkrider's comments about school funding, and more during his appearance on The Infomaniacs.

This podcast contains comments from the February 18, 2025 Bryan city council workshop meeting.

A divided Bryan city council decides to not consider a Brazos County health district (BCHD) request to enact an ordinance regulating public swimming pools.

A proposed ordinance drafted by the health district was discussed at Tuesday's (February 18) council workshop meeting.

Click HERE to read and download the BCHD proposed swimming pool ordinance, which was provided to WTAW News by the city of Bryan.

No one from the health district attended the meeting. Councilman Paul Torres said he was asked by an unidentified representative of the health district to present the request.

Torres, Ray Arrington, and James Edge were interested in hearing from health district representatives.

Edge, who represents the city on the BCHD board, said the board discussed the ordinance at length several times. Edge said public safety and public health is a responsibility of the city and the county. He also said "We don't have the answers to the specifics to allow us to act on this at this time.

"One of four councilmembers who did not want a health district presentation, Marca Ewers-Shurtleff, said "based on the brief amount of information we have", "if an industry has been self-regulated and that has been successful, I don't understand why the government needs to insert themselves."

Shurtleff pointed out what she described as "troubling language" in the ordinance (Section 2.2a) that "The regulatory authority may, without warning, notice, or hearing suspend any permit to operate a public swimming pool or spa". She considered that as "a lot of overreach here that I'm very uncomfortable with".Shurtleff added that "I still like that old adage 'The scariest words in the English language is we're from the government and we're here to help.'"Councilman Jared 

Salvato said he was opposed to the city getting involved in what was considered a county matter. He also questioned why BCHD did not include private swimming pools in their proposed ordinance. And Salvato said "the court of public opinion is far superior than any government oversight. In the world we live in today with social media" "if a commercial pool operator is not taking care of their equipment or sanitary issues, they'll be out of business quicker than any type of regulatory business".

Salvato also asked Torres, who Salvato identified as a health district employee, for more information regarding five cases of pool related water borne illnesses that were identified by the health district. Shurtleff added "we're not sure with any kind of clarity if those have been traced to one pool, multiple pools".

When Torres brought up Salvato's swim school business, Salvato told Torres "It's not just my business, it's everybody that has a business related to this." "We've been around (the city) since 1871 and we have five cases of what could possibly be a water borne illness. I don't understand the budget constraints that the county might have to go out hire new CPO's and then they're talking about fees that are going to be assessed for all these different companies (public pool owners) when they're already self-monitoring."

Mayor Bobby Gutierrez added "This is a current time where we're trying to do away with as much regulation. If the county health department wants to do this, why do we have to be involved?" Torres said "What I understand is the ordinance is to be able to enforce the ones that are not doing it properly, the ones that are not taking care of their pools and actually having the correct pH, the correct facilities".

Shurtleff, Salvato, and mayor Bobby Gutierrez were joined by councilman Kevin Boriskie and city manager Kean Register in opposing the proposed ordinance. 

Register, who expected the proposed ordinance would also apply to city pools, said "We take the cleanliness of our pools very important because there are two things that loom over our head with pools. One is a lawsuit if someone gets sick because of it. And two is the bad PR (public relations) that we're going to get for the same reason. So those two things keep us on top of our act."

The council was told out of 22 health districts in the state, Brazos County is one of four that does not regulate public pools.

College Station Mayor John Nichols visits with WTAW's Scott DeLucia about conversations on TexAgs about the city's purchase of the former Macy's store building and future plans for the property during his appearance on The Infomaniacs.

Brazos County Senator Charles Schwertner visits with WTAW's Scott DeLucia about Winter Storm Uri in 2021, Texas' future for energy, SB 21 regarding bitcoin, SB 26 which establishes pay raises for teachers, the House's committee assignments, and more during his appearance on The Infomaniacs.

Texas A&M employees are invited to complete an online "engagement survey".

Vice president Joe Pettibon told members of the A&M faculty senate that the survey is an extension of the president's strategic plan.

Three goals that were shared with the faculty senate about the survey were to (1) evaluate and analyze employee engagement as well as the degree to which faculty and staff feel enabled to perform their roles with the university, (2) leverage survey results to create targeted action plans in areas identified as opportunities for growth, and (3) enhance faculty and staff engagement and empower them to perform their roles more effectively.

While the survey is being administered by a outside consultant hired by the university, Pettibon address concerns that some might not participate for fear of retribution.

The survey, which is expected to take 15 to 20 minutes to complete, will have approximately 70 questions on a Likert scale and up to four open ended questions.

The survey is available through February 28 to employees hired on or before January 15th who are faculty at Texas A&M, Texas A&M at Galveston, and Texas A&M Health Science Center (regardless of funding source) and staff who have a Texas A&M, Texas A&M at Galveston, and Texas A&M Health Science Center adloc.

Click HERE to read and download presentation materials from the February 10, 2025 Texas A&M faculty senate meeting.

A&M president Mark Welsh posted on his website January 24, a message that included this survey. Welsh wrote: "In February, we will be initiating an employee engagement survey led through our Division of Planning, Assessment and Strategy in partnership with an external consultant, Korn Ferry. Using questions benchmarked against peer institutions in higher education, yet tailored to our university community and what it has to offer, this is an opportunity for you to provide candid, confidential feedback. I want to hear from you on what’s working well and what’s not working as well. Employees are the backbone of Texas A&M, and we want to make sure this is a place where you feel valued."

This podcast contains comments from the February 13, 2025 College Station city council meeting.

The College Station city council directs staff to act as quickly as possible to resolve health and safety issues at two apartment complexes.

Key City Capital was identified as the owner of The Dominik and Holleman Oaks apartments.

The College Station council was told Key City since June 2022 has been issued a combined 230 summons regarding apartment conditions. Key City has paid fines totaling $20,668 and owes the city another $28,385. 

The summons and fines are for leaking raw sewage at The Dominik and not making repairs to a fire damaged building at Holleman Oaks.

The council and staff also identified Key City as the owner of the Canyon Village apartments in Bryan, where notice was given that water was going to be cut off until a past due bill of $18,000 dollars was paid last week.

The Dominik and Holleman Oaks were singled out during a staff presentation about code compliance issues at older College Station multi-family structures.

No representatives of the ownership of The Dominik and Holleman Oaks apartment complexes were at the College Station council meeting.

Click HERE to read and download presentation materials from the February 13, 2025 College Station city council meeting.

This podcast contains comments from the February 4, 2025 Brazos County commission meeting.

Administrators at the Brazos Transit District (BTD) respond to complaints from recent Brazos County commission meetings. 

After meeting in private with two commissioners, vice president Jo Marlow showed photos during the commission's February 4th meeting of large buses where there were enough on board that some riders were standing.

BTD's deputy CEO, Wendy Weedon, says the average life span of a large diesel bus is 12 years, versus five years for a smaller bus that is gasoline powered.

Weedon said the only difference in the cost of operating a large diesel bus versus a smaller bus that is powered by a gasoline engine, is paying more for the driver of the large bus because they are required to have a commercial license.

Weedon said the larger buses were needed to accommodate riders using mobility devices.

In response to a question about spending BTD money on ride sharing, Weedon says she has seen local ride sharing companies charge as much as $200 dollars during large events.

County commissioners were also given presentation materials about BTD's transition in Brazos County as a large urban transit provider as determined by the federal government. That resulted in county commissioners and the city councils in College Station and Bryan to split the cost to make up the reduction in federal funding.

Commissioners were also told about the transition of the county taking ownership of the Roy Kelly parking garage located south of the courthouse.

Click HERE to read and download presentation materials that were shown at the February 4, 2025 Brazos County commission meeting.

College Station assistant city manager Jennifer Prochazka visits with WTAW's Scott DeLucia about code violations at some older apartment complexes, the progress of studying the future development in the Northgate district, a discussion of the city purchasing and selling property, the takeaways from presentations to the city council from the police chief and the fire chief, and an update on the revised development of the city's Texas Independence Park.

State representative Trey Wharton of Huntsville, whose district includes a portion of Brazos County, visits with WTAW's Scott DeLucia about his assignments to the House insurance and corrections committees.