WTAW - Interviews

Bryan Mayor Bobby Gutierrez visits with WTAW's Chelsea Reber about holiday events, his relationship and communication with Texas A&M President Mark Welsh, lessons learned from the failed tennis center project at Midtown Park, the new medical examiner's office, and more during his appearance on The Infomaniacs.

This podcast is a recording of the program at the groundbreaking of the Brazos County medical examiner's office, held December 17, 2024.

Construction is officially underway on Brazos County’s medical examiner’s office.

Speakers at Tuesday’s groundbreaking were Brazos County judge Duane Peters, district attorney Jarvis Parsons, former College Station mayor Karl Mooney...who pursued a local office following delays in the out of town autopsy of his wife Laura, and the dean of Texas A&M’s college of medicine, Dr. Amy Waer.

Weather permitting, the office is scheduled to open in April of 2026.

The $34 million dollar, single story building will serve a 100 mile radius of the Brazos Valley.

Dr. Susan Ballabina, Texas A&M President Mark Welsh's Chief of Staff, visits with WTAW's Chelsea Reber about the university's new designation, the appointment of an interview Vice President of Student Affairs, a review of President Welsh's first year, a new podcast, and more during her appearance on The Infomaniacs.

This podcast contains some comments from Texas A&M president Mark Welsh during the December 9, 2024 meeting of the A&M faculty senate.

Texas A&M's president is asked about multiple subjects when he spoke at December's faculty senate meeting.

Mark Welsh said "difficult conversations" are ahead regarding budget and capacity problems in an effort to manage 80,000 students in a way "that feels comfortable". Welsh says they "have to get right", the university's facilities and infrastructure, before adding more undergraduate students.

Welsh says academic deans who want to start a new undergraduate program will have to decide where to downsize. And he added that faculty members have to be a part of that conversation. Program cuts do not apply to adding the number of graduate and online students.

Welsh announced that an outside consultant starts work in January to review A&M's more than 270 facilities. That was in response to a faculty member's complaints that the university is not addressing building repairs and basic necessities of students and employees. 

Welsh also said he would be sending faculty members, a list of projects that will be done in the next five years on the flagship campus that are funded by the system. That was in response to a faculty member who asked why the system is spending millions on the RELLIS campus, which is controlled by the system.

Another faculty member who questioned why "the administration had not stepped forward to reassure us of their commitment to LGBTQ students and their education, or to LGBTQ faculty and their teaching and research on controversial subjects." Welsh said "I've probably said this 50 times publicly. All of them should be treated with respect. All of them should be included. All of them should have a voice, and should feel comfortable using it. All of them should feel like an incredibly valuable and critically important pieces of what we're trying to accomplish here." This subject came up after a faculty member reported a student was chased by other students who were yelling LGBTQ students. Welsh says university police will reach out to the faculty member who sent him an e-mail about the incident to get more information.

Welsh was also asked about the university's response to executive orders from the governor against the Republic of China and the Chinese Communist party. Welsh says lawyers at the A&M system want members to send them questions on how the orders could affect students and employees. He also said any decision whether to push back on the executive orders would come from the system chancellor.

WTAW's Chelsea Reber visits with Peggi Ondrask, President/CEO of United Way of the Brazos Valley, and Jillian Warriner from The REACH Project.

This podcast contains comments from the December 12, 2024 College Station city council meeting.

The College Station city council expresses no opposition in the first public disclosure of the possible sale of the Northgate district surface parking lot.

That followed a presentation, discussion, and public comments lasting almost two hours at Thursday's council meeting (December 12).

Click HERE to read and download presentation materials from the December 12, 2024 College Station city council meeting.

The following morning on WTAW's The Infomaniacs, the city's chief development officer says the developer's concept is a multi story, mixed use building with retail on the ground floor and an undisclosed number of floors of student housing.

And the city's planning and development director told the council if approved, the proposal would join 20 multistory student housing buildings that are either open, under construction, or are in another stage of development...creating as many as 11,000 beds.

A proposed timeline from city staff calls on the College Station council to consider a sales agreement with the developer in January. If what is currently a $13 million dollar offer is approved, the timeline calls for the sale to be closed in May 2026.

During that time, there will be public engagement on the future development. That was welcomed by two of six public speakers at the council meeting, the second generation owner of Duddley's Draw, Dee Benning, and the operations director at the Dixie Chicken, Courtney Phillips.

As previously announced, the city will require the developer to create at least 100 parking spaces, make room for ride share drop off and pick up area, build restrooms, build a police substation, build a place to store trash containers, and reserve land for green space, a plaza, or a courtyard area.

This podcast contains comments from the December 10, 2024 Bryan city council meeting from mayor Bobby Gutierrez and councilmen Jared Salvato and James Edge.

The Bryan city council officially decides at this week's meeting (December 10) to put an end to the development of a second multipurpose building at Midtown Park that would have also been used by the Texas A&M tennis teams.

Presenting the backstory before the council's unanimous vote, mayor Bobby Gutierrez said the outside companies hired to design the building within a $17 million dollar budget first came up with something that looked like a "haybarn" or an "airplane hangar".

Gutierrez said when the design companies were reminded that the design was supposed to complement Midtown Park's Legends Events Center, the price went to $27 million dollars.

The mayor said when the design companies were reminded about the $17 million dollar budget, the building's size was reduced from 65,000 to 45,000 square feet.Gutierrez said it was a joint decision with Texas A&M to end the project. 

The city and the university are splitting $852,000 dollars in costs to the design firm.

Click HERE to read and download the termination agreement with the Texas A&M system that was approved at the December 10, 2024 Bryan city council meeting.

Click HERE to read and download background information associated with the termination agreement.

Click HERE to read and download background information about the termination of the city's design and construction contract.

Click HERE to read and download background information about the termination of the city's third party operator contract.

Michael Ostrowski, Chief Development Officer, visits with WTAW's Chelsea Reber about the potential sale of the surface parking lot in the Northgate district, future Northgate development, bids for the former Macy's store, development at Veterans Park, and more during his visit on The Infomaniacs.

Kyle McCain, Solid Waste Supervisor, and Mark Jurica, Wastewater Treatment & Compliance Manager, visits with WTAW's Chelsea Reber about the used tire and oil recycling center, "Preventing the Clog", and more during their appearance on The Infomaniacs.

This podcast contains comments from the December 11, 2024 Bryan city council meeting.

March of 2025 will mark seven years since the Bryan city council agreed to start studying the construction of a new animal center. It would replace a building that's been used since the council decided to take over animal control services in 2011.

At Tuesday's city council meeting (December 10), the decision was made to build a more than $7 million dollar facility.

The city department head whose responsibilities includes the animal center, Eric Zaragoza, reviewed the results of a feasibility study that included:

• More animal habitats are needed
• Spaces are used for multiple purposes, compromising primary functions
• Many program needs do not have specifically designated space
• Rooms are used as passageways for unrelated functions
• Facility needs improved accessibility
• Public access to animal habitats and comingled air creates potential for disease to spread

Click HERE to read and download presentation materials from the December 10, 2024 Bryan city council meeting.

All seven council members supported the project.

Six agreed to build it on city owned property on Martin Luther King Jr. Street next to the municipal services center.

Ray Arrington, who represents the district where the center will be built, said neighbors were opposed.

Construction could start in October 2025.

Zaragoza shared the following statistics about the Bryan Animal Center (BAC):• Around 9,000 visitors per year at the BAC:

• The BAC has the city's largest pool of volunteers, with 3,000 applications this past year and since 2015 volunteers donated more than 31,000 hours

• During fiscal year 2024, the center took in 1,361 animals
• Animal control officers returned 667 pets to owners in FY 24
• Save rate of animals is 69%
• Since 2021, BAC has provided 1,537 vaccinations, 1,373 microchips, and 1,196 sterilizations