WTAW - Interviews

This podcast is a visit with Lina Adams of the Destination Bryan tourism office and WTAW's Bill Oliver.

Topics includes a preview of First Friday in downtown Bryan on January 2nd, a review of 2025 holiday activities, and looking ahead to travel and tourism in Bryan during 2026.

This podcast contains comments from the December 15, 2025 Bryan ISD school board meeting and the December 16, 2025 College Station ISD school board meeting.

Those associated with Bryan ISD schools now have their calendar for the 2026-27 school year.

That's after school board members approved on December 15th, the choice of more than 60 percent of employees and community members and more than 70 percent of students. 

Counseling services director Donna Willett, who was in charge of developing the calendar, said what the board approved...which is similar to this year's calendar...was not favored by 51 percent of parents. 

BISD administrators received survey results from more than 2,500 people. Both calendar options included three day fall breaks.

Click HERE to read and download presentation materials from the December 15, 2025 Bryan ISD school board meeting.

Meantime, those who have an interest in next year's College Station ISD calendar have until Friday (January 2) to complete an online survey. 

There are two options, with the main difference whether to have no fall break or a two day break.

School improvement director Jeff Mann told board members this month that out of 770 parents who were surveyed in October, six percent preferred a long weekend and 11 percent wanted a break for an entire week. 

After the CSISD survey closes, administrators will crunch the data and present recommendations to the school board at their January regular meeting.

Click HERE to read and download presentation materials taken from the College Station ISD YouTube video of the December 16, 2025 board meeting.

This podcast contains comments from the Burleson County sheriff's office Facebook page.

December reports on the Burleson County sheriff's office Facebook page includes asking for assistance to find suspects in oil well pad thefts.

Sheriff Bill Rios says investigators believe five thefts took place on the same day but were reported on different days.

Rios also announced developing a new ride along program where Burleson County residents who pass a background check can join patrol deputies.

This podcast contains comments from the December 18, 2025 Texas A&M system board of regents meeting and comments from a December 8, 2025 Zoom call involving Texas A&M faculty members and representatives of the provost's office.

November's meeting of the Texas A&M system board of regents included unanimous action to amend policies affecting faculty members and students. One policy change says no academic course within the System may TEACH race or gender ideology or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity.

Click HERE to read and download policies that were approved at the November 13th board of regents meeting.

A month later, on the week before Christmas, the regents changed the language in policy 08.01, dropping the word TEACH and substituting that faculty can not ADVOCATE race or gender ideology.

The regents also changed the system policy 08.01 when a university president gives an exception to allow teaching of race or gender ideology. The new policy applies exceptions to specific but undefined non-core curriculum, or graduate courses in some undefined disciplines. And a president approving an exception applies to limited circumstances upon demonstrating a necessary educational purpose.

Click HERE to read and download amended policy 08.01 that was approved at the December 18th board of regents meeting.

The regents action on December 18th followed a December 8th Zoom call where A&M faculty members were invited to ask questions of the teaching policies with representatives of the provost's office, which is in charge of the university's academic operation.

Some businesses in Bryan/College Station did better in 2025 and others didn't.

Chamber of commerce president Glen Brewer discussed the subject during a visit with Will Welch on WTAW's The Infomaniacs.

The conversation included an invitation to attend the chamber's annual economic outlook conference on January 28th to learn more about what 2026 has in store.

This podcast contains comments from the December 16, 2025 Brazos County commission meeting.

Brazos County commissioners at its December 16th meeting approved the purchase of cameras that read license plates for the sheriff's office.

But before the unanimous vote of the nearly $76,000 dollar purchase, was commissioner Fred Brown's opposition to buying the equipment through the education service center in Austin.

Click HERE to read and download information about the license plate camera from the December 16, 2025 Brazos County commission meeting.

Brown said "if they're involved in our county business there's a kickback that somebody's getting. They're getting a commission off of this if they're going through us."

Brown, who preferred buying equipment directly from the manufacturer, also said he "looked at this (education service centers) with a jaundiced eye that why are we paying them extra money."

The county's purchasing director, Charles Wendt, said the education service center in Austin "allows us economies of scale in some instances and saves us on the administrative side."

What Brown referred to as a commission or kickback, Wendt described that as an "administrative fee" of one or one and a half percent "to pay for the purchasing people, the audits, (and) the lawyers who write the contracts" among other things. Wendt also said when possible, they will compare the prices of multiple purchasing cooperatives to get the best deal.

This podcast is a visit with Brazos County county attorney Earl Gray and WTAW's Bill Oliver.

Five weeks after a DPS trooper was ejected from a Texas A&M football game after coming in physical and verbal contact with South Carolina players, the trooper will not face criminal charges.

Brazos County county attorney Earl Gray said his decision followed a review of reports submitted by Texas A&M police.

WTAW News has e-mailed DPS asking if they will have additional comment about the trooper's ejection.

This podcast contains comments from Bryan mayor Bobby Gutierrez's visit on WTAW's The Infomaniacs on December 16, 2025.

The January regular meeting of the Bryan city council will include consideration of giving property tax breaks to an international company for a more than $65 million dollar project.

Click HERE to read and download the notice from the city of Bryan's website.

A city spokeswoman confirms to WTAW News that German based Messer corporation is the company that city documents say wants to build production facilities that separate air into its basic components.

Messer's website says the 125 year old company is the largest privately held industrial gas business in the world and a leading industrial and medical gas company on four continents.

Click HERE to read and download information from the Messer Americas website.

The location of the proposed facility is what the council recently established as Tax Reinvestment Zone #34. The location is inside the Carrabba industrial park that is east of the freeway, north of Highway 21, and south of Tabor Road.

Click HERE to read and download information about the city of Bryan's Tax Reinvestment Zone #34.

Bryan mayor Bobby Gutierrez was asked about the proposed tax abatement on WTAW's Infomaniacs. He said "over a ten year period they're not going to pay the full amount of the taxes" and we (the city) get this extra revenue that we didn't have before. So would you rather have a million dollars over five years and then maybe two million dollars in the next five dollars for that whole thing or would you rather have zero and they don't come and we don't get any jobs and we don't get any quality of life?"

This podcast contains comments from the December 15, 2025 Bryan ISD school board and December 16, 2025 College Station ISD school board meetings.

A common topic at December's Bryan and College Station ISD school board meetings was safety and security.How either district is doing with state required inspections was not brought up.

Bryan ISD administrators at the December 15th meeting did a presentation sharing how safety and security are part of the district's technology services, counseling services, and providing an overview of the district's emergency operations plan.

Click HERE to read and download presentation materials from the December 15, 2025 Bryan ISD school board meeting.

At the December 16th College Station ISD board meeting, the subject came up when two members reviewed meetings of the district's safety and security committee and the district's education improvement council.

This week's United Way of the Brazos Valley update features partner agency Scotty's House.