WTAW - Interviews

Jennifer Prochazka, Assistant City Manager, visits with WTAW's Scott DeLucia about her office's structure, community involvement, the recreation study, middle housing, student housing, parks and recreation, and more during her appearance on The Infomaniacs.

This podcast contains comments from the September 9, 2024 Bryan ISD school board meeting.

Bryan ISD school board members approve the administration's recommendation to take pre-kindergarten instruction to qualifying child care centers in Brazos and Robertson counties.

BISD's director of special programs Jennifer Warren says they could serve as many as 440 three and four year olds who would be co-enrolled with their care center and the district.

A full day of instruction would be provided to four year olds and three hours a day to three year olds.

BISD would receive additional state funding and share that revenue with the child care center.

BISD board members agreed to a partnership that also involves Texas A&M, the Texas Workforce Commission, and the Texas Education Agency.

Click HERE to read and download presentation materials that were shared during the September 9, 2024 Bryan ISD school board meeting.

Trudy Hancock, Brazos County Elections Administrator, visits with WTAW's Scott DeLucia about sample ballots, voter registration roll accuracy, mail-in ballots, changes in polling places, the need for election workers, and more during her appearance on The Infomaniacs.

This podcast contains comments from the September 10, 2024 Bryan city council meeting.

Residents of a west Bryan neighborhood are successful in their appeal to the Bryan city council to keep a convenience store from being built off of Harvey Mitchell Parkway between Highway 21 and Sandy Point Road.

A unanimous council vote at the end of a 90 minute discussion during Tuesday's meeting (September 10) denied a conditional use permit that the planning and zoning commission approved in August on a 5-3 vote.

The council agreed with 13 residents of the Pleasant Hill subdivision who said that the location of the c-store, which would be accessible only from Smith Lake Boulevard, would create more neighborhood traffic by motorists going through as a shortcut to Lake Bryan.

Mayor Bobby Gutierrez and councilman Jared Salvato told the residents to expect the c-store to be built at the north edge of the subdivision along Sandy Point Road.

The council was told that homes have been built at 600 of the 1,800 lots at Pleasant Hill.

Click HERE to read and download presentation materials from Pleasant Hill residents, provided by the city of Bryan.

Click HERE to read and download background information from the city of Bryan.

Click HERE to read and download the city of Bryan staff report.

This podcast is a visit with the director of the Texas A&M system RELLIS campus, Kelly Templin, and WTAW's Bill Oliver.

Thursday's meeting of the Brazos Valley groundwater district board (September 12) includes two contested applications.

The Texas A&M system opposes the application from a group who wants to export water from Robertson County to Travis, Williamson, Bell, and/or Milam counties.

And the group wanting to ship water to the west opposes the system's application to drill a well on the RELLIS campus.

RELLIS campus director Kelly Templin says the water exporters want to pump almost the same amount of water that is used by the combined total of A&M and the cities of College Station and Bryan.

Both applicants say they have concerns about the impact that the competing applications will have on the underground water aquifer.

Thursday's groundwater district board meeting starts at two p.m. at the district office in downtown Hearne.

Click HERE to be directed to the Brazos Valley groundwater district website home page, which has links to a webstream of Thursday's meeting and documents associated with the applications from the Texas A&M system and those wanting to export water out of Robertson County.

This podcast contains comments from the September 10, 2024 Brazos County commission regular meeting.

Brazos County commissioners approve the 2025 fiscal year budget and property tax rate after hearing from six public speakers. 

Five of the six supported the majority vote to increase the tax rate by one cent.

The 4-1 commission vote supported county judge Duane Peters proposal. Steve Aldrich was opposed.

Peters said the FY 25 county budget also spends $90 million dollars in savings. $75 million is going towards capital projects and $15 million is for maintenance and operations.

Peters also said there is a possibility of a tax rate increase in the fiscal year 2026 budget.

This week's United Way of the Brazos Valley update features partner agency Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Billy Couch, Chief of Police, visits with WTAW's Scott DeLucia about traffic during Aggie football games, department statistics, non-officer positions within the department, the evolution of the Northgate district, property crimes, home security cameras, storing bodycam video, using drones, school zones, and more during his appearance on The Infomaniacs.

This podcast is a visit with the city of Bryan's public works director Jayson Barfknecht and WTAW's Bill Oliver.

One of the city of Bryan's three wastewater treatment plants is getting $6 million dollars of improvements.That's after the city council at its last regular meeting awarded a contract for the Still Creek plant near Highway 21 and Harvey Mitchell Parkway.

Public works director Jayson Barfknecht says the project changes the way waste is broken down from an anaerobic system to an aerobic system.

Parts will be replaced at the grease plant, which serves 23 businesses that processes what Barfknecht says is collected in grease traps at restaurants and the waste in portable toilets.

There will also be a replacement of what is called a bar screen, which protects the treatment system equipment by blocking rags, plastic, and other debris.

The project, which is being paid from the city's wastewater fund, not from taxes. 

The contract amount is about $300,000 dollars above the engineer's estimate.

Click HERE to read and download a summary of the contract that was approved at the August 13, 2024 Bryan city council meeting.

Click HERE to read and download 102 pages of the 1,056 page contract that was approved at the August 13, 2024 Bryan city council meeting.

This podcast is a visit with Caden Jones of the Destination Bryan tourism office and WTAW's Bill Oliver about September's First Friday in downtown Bryan, the free shuttle bus between downtown Bryan and Texas A&M home football games, and registration continuing for the downtown Bryan lighted Christmas parade.