WTAW - Interviews

College Station Mayor Pro-Tem William Wright visits with WTAW’s Scott DeLucia to share updates on the Pebble Creek Parkway extension, future of data centers in College Station, future of the city-owned Macy’s building, city council's recent approval of budget amendments, future development in the Northgate District, and more during his appearance on The Infomaniacs on Friday, January 16, 2026.

This podcast contains comments from the January 12, 2026 Bryan ISD school board meeting.

New lights are coming to Bryan ISD's Merrill Green stadium.

The Bryan ISD school board at Monday's meeting (January 12) unanimously voted to take the lowest price of about $224,000 dollars for lighting with a ten year warranty. 

Board members instructed administrators to ask the manufacturer for a longer warranty. That's after board member David Stennis floated the idea taking the highest bid to spend another $14,000 dollars in order to get a 25 year warranty.

Click HERE to read and download the bid sheet provided by Bryan ISD.

BISD athletics director Dereck Rush supported going with the low bidder. That's after visiting with College Station ISD officials about similar projects taking place.

Rush also told board members that the manufacturer lowered their price to $218,000 dollars.
Funding for the new lights comes from savings from prior projects in BISD's 2019 bond issue.

Bryan city councilwoman Marca Ewers-Shurtleff visits with WTAW’s Scott DeLucia January 15, 2026.

Topics include the Bryan fire department's proposal to change their work schedule, economic development items from the recent council meeting, development north of the Northgate district, the status of the yet to be completed entertainment complex in Midtown Park, and items of interest to her constituents in single member district five.

Brazos County District Attorney Jarvis Parsons visits with WTAW’s Scott DeLucia January 15, 2026. The conversation includes a preview of the upcoming "DA In A Day" event and his involvement on statewide domestic violence task forces.

This podcast contains comments from the January 13, 2026 Bryan city council workshop meeting.

The Bryan city council had questions, but expressed no opposition, to a request by a committee of Bryan firefighters to change their work schedule.

There was a 60 minute discussion at Tuesday's council workshop meeting (January 13) to change the schedule of working 24 hours followed by two days off, to working 48 hours followed by four days off.

Click HERE to read and download the summary of the BFD committee's report.

BFD Lt. Walter Noel, who presented the department's yearlong study, says this will improve recruiting and retaining firefighters.

The timing of the request comes as BFD tries fill 20 openings with a recruiting class that starts next week.

Noel says the change is supported by 94 percent of those who respond to fire and ambulance calls.

Also participating in the discussion was fire chief Richard Guisti. 

The chief and Noel fielded questions on subjects that included firefighter fatigue, where firefighters live, and other jobs that firefighters have.

City manager Andrew Nelson says there will be additional input by other departments before final action is considered.

Bryan Mayor Bobby Gutierrez's visits with Scott DeLucia on WTAW's The Infomaniacs included a review of the January 13th city council meeting. Those topics included the fire department's proposal to change firefighter schedules and ongoing projects at Midtown Park.

This podcast, recorded January 8, 2026, is with local businessowner Doug French and WTAW's Bill Oliver.

A local businessowner is renovating a downtown Bryan building which was his great-great-grandfather's men's clothing store.

Doug French of Stylecraft Builders and Tenant First property management group continues to search for memorabilia and historical information that is associated with the W.F. Gibbs & Son business which operated into the depression. 

Most recently, French said the building on Main Street across 26th from the Palace Theater was the office of attorney Michael O'Connor.

The renovation project includes replacing the stucco exterior with brick, which was the exterior of the building. And windows will return to their original location.

French said he is excited to be a small part of the downtown Bryan community, which has undergone various renovations for decades.

French anticipates renovation will be completed by the summer of 2027. The Tenant First office will occupy the second floor, and the first floor will be leased to one or two retail businesses.

Click HERE to read and download more information from Doug French's LinkedIn page.

This podcast contains comments from Brazos County county attorney Earl Gray during the January 6, 2026 county commission meeting.

Brazos County commissioners get a report from the county attorney about that is available to those charged with misdemeanor crimes that are associated with a person's mental illness.

Earl Gray says this applies to offenders with a diagnosed mental illness that affected the criminal behavior the person is accused of doing. 

Gray says program includes two key conditions of probation. One is keeping appointments with medical providers and the other is taking medications as prescribed.

Gray also shared statistics from 2025 that included disposing of 11,580 misdemeanor cases and collecting fines and fees totaling $713,997 dollars.

This podcast contains comments from the January 8, 2026 College Station city council meeting.

The College Station city council's first regular meeting of 2026 included approval of nearly $33 million dollars of changes to the city budget.

21 budget amendments presented by director of fiscal services Mary Ellen Leonard includes two projects approved by voters in a November 2022 bond issue. Savings of more than $3 million dollars to build the new Central Park operations building is going towards improvements at Thomas Park. And at Lincoln recreation center, $350,000 dollars was transferred from a parkland fund to finish that project.

Unrelated to the bond issue, some of the other 21 amendments includes:$1.5 million dollars in hotel occupancy tax money will be spent to replace two synthetic playing fields at Veterans Park.

$4 million dollars in excess utility revenue will be spent on relocating utility lines impacted by the freeway expansion project.

$1.5 million will be spent on repairs at the Dowling Road water pumping station, which is College Station's only high-service pump station delivering treated drinking water.

$950,000 dollars will be transferred from the parks capital improvement project fund to build another columbarium at Memorial Cemetery.

Click HERE to read the entire list of budget amendments approved at the January 8, 2026 College Station city council meeting.

This podcast contains comments from the January 8, 2026 College Station city council meeting.

The College Station city council approves spending nearly $4 million dollars for new main sewer lines that are located along the Rudder Freeway construction zone and the Lick Creek hike and bike trail.

Click HERE to read and download background information about the project that was approved at the January 8, 2026 College Station city council meeting.

The city's capital projects director, Jennifer Cain, was asked about access to the trail during construction.

Mayor John Nichols supported construction of a gravity sewer line that will remove three sewer lift stations.

The project includes building almost one mile of new sewer lines.