WTAW - Interviews

This podcast is a visit with the general manager of the Wellborn Special Utility District, Campbell Young, and WTAW's Bill Oliver.

The more than 10,000 water customers in the Wellborn special utility district are invited to a community meeting Saturday morning (April 18).

General manager Campbell Young says four topics includes future impact fees, an update on the district's expansion plans, the introduction of smartmeters, and summertime conservaton efforts.

Saturday's meeting is from nine until 11:30 a.m. at the Wellborn community center.

Bryan city councilman Jared Salvato visits with WTAW’s Will Welch on The Infomaniacs on Thursday, April 16, 2026, to review Tuesday's monthly regular meeting of the city council.

The chief public defender of the Brazos County public defender's office, Nathan Wood, visits with WTAW’s Scott DeLucia on The Infomaniacs on Thursday, April 16, 2026, to discuss the creation of the department, caseloads, and more.

This podcast contains comments from the April 9, 2026 College Station city council meeting from mayor John Nichols and councilman Bob Yancy.

One of the few city of College Station employees that is hired by the city council is the city attorney.

And at last week's council meeting (April 9), mayor John Nichols was caught off guard when not everyone approved a five year extension of the contract with Adam Falco.

Councilman Bob Yancy, who abstained from the extension vote, did not explain his vote at the meeting.

Yancy also declined to explain his vote when contacted by WTAW News.

Falco has been city attorney since 2022 and with the city attorney's office since 2007.

Click HERE to read and download background information about the city attorney's contract extension that was approved at the April 9, 2026 College Station city council meeting.

This podcast contains comments from Burleson County sheriff Bill Rios from an April 14, 2026 post on his Facebook page.

Burleson County's sheriff provides more information in his weekly report as to what went into the decision to cancel Saturday's Chilifest music festival.

Bill Rios said Friday's rainfall of one inch followed a six inch downpour earlier in the week.

While there were no issues getting into the festival grounds, Rios said five of the seven entries and exits were destroyed.

The two exits that remained Friday night created long lines of vehicles attempting to leave.

That resulted in festival goers deciding to start walking home. Rios said that forced all officers to move from the festival grounds to FM 60 to protect those walking home, which he described as a "tragedy waiting to happen".

The sheriff also said the mud was so bad that if there would have been a mass casualty on Saturday there would have been no way for emergency vehicles to enter and exit the festival grounds.

Out of 35 arrests, 26 were for public intoxication because they could not find someone safe to turn over the individual to. Two of the 26 were also charged with assaulting officers and resisting arrest. 

23 who were arrested were underage drinkers as young as 15. Rios says underage drinking has "got to be something that's addressed by Chilifest and by us here also."

12 arrests were minors in possession or consumption of alcohol, two were arrested for fighting, four received tickets for public urination.

This podcast is a visit with assistant Brazos County district attorney Jessica Escue and WTAW's Bill Oliver.

A Brazos County district court judge gives the maximum punishment to a 27 year old man who was caught with over 2,000 pornographic videos and images of over 800 hundred children.

Assistant Brazos County district attorney Jessica Escue says 27 year old Preston Ray Smith will serve three consecutive ten year prison sentences after he was caught with images and videos in his Dropbox account in March of 2020. 

The prosecutor said when Smith was arrested, state law gave Smith the possibility of getting probation or deferred adjudication, which would have meant serving no time.

Online court records also show Smith was indicted on 50 additional counts of possessing child pornography. Escue said those charges had to be dismissed because state law at the time had a shorter statute of limitations.

Escue told WTAW News that Smith was a student at Texas A&M at the time of his arrest. And Smith was also a children's ministry intern at a church in a county bordering Brazos County.

News release from the Brazos County district attorney's office:

On Monday, April 13, 2024, Judge John Brick sentenced Preston Smith to the maximum of 10 years in prison on three counts of Possession of Child Pornography. Judge Brick ordered that these sentences be served consecutively, making the total sentence 30 years in prison.

In March of 2020, the Office for the Attorney General was notified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that child pornography was uploaded into a Dropbox account. An investigator with the Office for Attorney General linked this Dropbox account to the defendant. A search warrant was executed at Mr. Smith’s apartment, where his computers and digital devices were seized.

Following the seizure of his items, Mr. Smith was interviewed by the investigator. During the interview, the Defendant admitted to seeking out child pornography. He further admitted to trading child pornography with others online.

During the defendant’s punishment hearing, Judge John Brick heard from Ken Sikes with the Brazos County District Attorney’s Office regarding the contents of the defendant’s Dropbox account, where Mr. Smith possessed over 2,000 sexually deviant and explicit images and videos depicting child sexual abuse and child physical abuse. Mr. Sikes also testified to the history of the defendant’s Dropbox account, which reflected the fact that the defendant had been downloading child pornography since 2016.

Judge John Brick also heard from the defense’s witnesses, including two expert witnesses who testified that the Defendant had Bipolar Disorder and, now that he was treated, he was low-risk to reoffend.

At sentencing, Judge Brick cited his concerns for the safety of children in our community and the horrifying nature of the images and videos as the reason for the maximum sentence.

College Station Mayor John Nichols visits with WTAW’s The Infomaniacs on Wednesday, April 15, 2026. Topics include the economic impact of the upcoming Road to 26 soccer match and the Savannah Bananas baseball game at Kyle Field, the council's 4-3 vote to remove an extension of Pebble Creek Parkway from the city's comprehensive plan, and the council's upcoming rezoning request from a housing developer.

This podcast contains comments from the April 14, 2026 Bryan city council meeting.

The agenda for each regular monthly meeting of the Bryan city council includes a report from the city manager.

With Andrew Nelson out on medical leave, Tuesday's report (April 14) was given by deputy city manager Hugh Walker.

The first of two prepared statements was on behalf of all city of Bryan employees.

That was followed by Walker reading a letter written by Nelson after he underwent brain surgery.

Five council members then responded to what Walker read...James Edge, Ray Arrington, Jared Salvato, Marca Ewers-Shurtleff, and Kevin Boriskie.

Bobby Gutierrez left the meeting before Walker's presentation. Paul Torres missed the council's workshop and regular meetings.

This podcast is a visit with the chief appraiser of the Brazos Central Appraisal District, Dana Horton, and WTAW's Bill Oliver.

The Brazos Central Appraisal District (BCAD) starts three rounds of mailing property value notices on April 15th.

Chief appraiser Dana Horton says additional mailings are scheduled for the end of April and in mid-May. 

Horton says protest deadlines are 30 days from the date your notice was placed in the mail. And if you plan to snail mail your appeal, Horton stresses the importance of knowing the date of the postmark that's going on the envelope you are returning in order for your protest to be considered.
Instead of going to the post office, Horton invites property owners to drop off protest notices in their dropbox outside their office.

She welcomes property owners to take advantage of informal meetings that are scheduled on a first come, first served basis starting April 22nd.

News release from the Brazos Central Appraisal District:

The Brazos Central Appraisal District is preparing to send the first round of 2026 Notices of Appraised Value (NOAV) and would like to take the opportunity to relay a few changes before they are placed in the mail on April 15th.  There will be two additional mailings: one toward the end of April and the last in mid-May.

Protest deadlines are May 15th or 30 days from the date your NOAV was placed in the mail.  This date is provided on your NOAV. Property owners who receive notices in separate mailings should be mindful of the protest deadline associated with each individual property; deadlines will not be extended if all notices are not received at the same time.

Once you receive your NOAV, please review the information carefully for accuracy of owner name, mailing address, legal description, etc.  Please verify that your exemptions, if applicable, are in place.  Due to the volume of homestead removals and applications received during the completion of the homestead audit in 2025, we want to assure that all applications have been processed and everyone receives the exemption(s) for which they are entitled.

Informal meetings will be held on a “First Come, First Served” basis beginning April 22nd and continue through May 15th.  Formal hearings begin May 19th, and all informal meetings from that date forward will be scheduled around the formal hearing schedule.  

For those who qualify and choose the E-File option, we have a new Taxpayer Portal.  This portal combines the online functions of Appeals and Online Forms in one central location.  Your existing Appeals Portal username and password should be active in the new Taxpayer Portal.  Online Forms users will need to create a new username and password to access previous information and utilize the system moving forward.  Please remember, protest communications through the taxpayer portal are considered an informal meeting.   

In addition, the USPS has implemented changes to their postmark procedures that could influence the timeliness of your documents.  The Texas Property Tax Code states that to be considered timely, the document must be properly addressed, have prepaid postage and have a post office cancellation mark of the due date or earlier.  Please ensure that your document meets these requirements to be considered timely.

This and more detailed information can be found on our website at www.brazoscad.org.

This podcast contains comments from the president of the Bryan/College Station chamber of commerce, Glen Brewer, during his visit with Will Welch and Scott DeLucia on WTAW's The Infomaniacs on April 14, 2026.

The reaction came quickly after the Texas A&M system board of regents selected Susan Ballabina as their finalist for the next president at the flagship campus. 

Shortly after the vote, the system and university started sharing endorsements on their social media from Aggie former students and leaders of Aggie affiliated organizations.

Social media endorsements included two Aggies who are state lawmakers, Paul Dyson of Bryan and Brad Buckley of Killeen.

Other Aggies in state government as of noon Tuesday (April 14) who have not shared their opinion on social media include the chairman of the state senate's higher education committee, Paul Bettencourt of Houston, and the chairman of the state house higher education committee, Terry Wilson of Georgetown.

There has also been no comment on the social media of the governor or lieutenant governor.

Speaking on WTAW's The Infomaniacs, Bryan/College Station chamber of commerce president Glen Brewer said Ballabina "will open up an age of some great things to happen at the big school."