This podcast contains comments from the June 17, 2025 Blinn College board of trustees meeting.

Records are not available for the last time that Blinn College's largest campus by enrollment was not in Bryan. But that was the case during the spring semester.

Headcount in Bryan was 3,980. Ten years ago, Bryan enrollment was more than 12,000.

Blinn's largest spring enrollment was the number of online students at 4,236. After Bryan, the third largest presence was the RELLIS campus location at 3,523.

By percentage, the number of high school students taking dual credit classes showed the largest increase compared with the year before at 19.65 percent. That was followed by RELLIS at 12.30 percent. By comparison, headcount at the Bryan campus fell 15.82 percent compared with the spring 2024 semester.

Vice chancellor Becky McBride repeated at June's board of trustees meeting, what she has said for years about the impact of more students going to four year universities.

McBride said one Blinn program now at the RELLIS campus is returning to Bryan, to make more room for students at RELLIS affiliated with one of the Texas A&M system alliance of regional universities.

McBride also shared continuing recruitment efforts. One focus is bringing back former Blinn students. McBride said former students have received a combined one million e-mails and 3,000 text messages.

Blinn's district wide enrollment for the spring 2025 semester was 16,076. That's 125 more students compared with a year ago and is within 1,000 students of a record high that was set in 2020, just before the start of the pandemic.

Click HERE to read and download presentation materials at the June 17, 2025 Blinn College board of trustees meeting.

Bryan Councilwoman Marca Ewers-Shurtleff visits with WTAW's Scott DeLucia about the water rights lawsuit, Texas water law, existing water well production, development at Midtown Park, the city budget, Bryan ISD, upcoming events, and more during her appearance on The Infomaniacs.

This podcast contains comments from the June 12, 2025 College Station city council meeting.

Almost three hours of last Thursday's College Station city council meeting was a discussion about what they could do to make housing more affordable.

No decisions were made, as the council also recognizes the continuing work by a citizen committee on that subject.

Much of the time was devoted to whether impact fees to help pay for infrastructure in new developments should be reduced or waived. 

Councilmembers were told the combination of impact fees, building permits, and parkland dedication fees account for up to four percent of the total sales price of a 1,450 to 1,550 square foot home in College Station.

The council was told in College Station, there are more than 1,100 housing units supported by tax credits or federal programs. And 41 households have received a combined $1.3 million dollars in down payment assistance.

Click HERE to read and download presentation materials that were shown during the June 12, 2025 College Station city council meeting.

This podcast contains comments from the May 27, 2025 Brazos County commission meeting.

Brazos County's interest income during the first quarter of the 2025 calendar year was $4,245,341.42.

That amount drew the attention of a speaker during the public comment portion of the county commission's May 27th meeting.

Responding to a question of how the interest income will be spent, county auditor Katie Conner says generally the income is credited to the department where the principal is located.

The county's first quarter 2025 investment report also showed during the fourth quarter of calendar year 2024, interest income was $3,864,561.70.

Click HERE to read and download the Brazos County investment report for the first quarter of calendar year 2025.

This podcast contains comments from Texas A&M associate provost of faculty advocacy Claire Katz at the June 9, 2025 A&M faculty senate meeting.

October 2024 began the work of the first person at Texas A&M to take on the new role of Associate Provost of Faculty Advocacy.

Dr. Claire Katz shared her first eight months on the job at the June meeting of the A&M faculty senate.

Katz, who joined the A&M faculty in 2006, says she has visited with some of the university's more than 4,000 faculty members. That includes visiting most of A&M remote campus locations.

Her general observations included assisting faculty members understand how the university works and supporting for and by deans, department heads, and other faculty administrators.

Katz also said she is not a lawyer, she is not a therapist, and she is not a magician who can solve all problems.

She also said she has had to tell faculty members to be careful about what they tell her. That's because there are circumstances where is required to report those conversations for possible consequences.

Click HERE to read and download Claire Katz's presentation materials at the June 9, 2025 Texas A&M faculty senate meeting.

State Representative Paul Dyson visits with WTAW's Scott DeLucia about his first legislative session, the committees he serves on, his response to Bryan ISD board member David Stasny's comments about public school funding, impact fees, and more during his appearance on The Infomaniacs.

This podcast contains comments from the June 12, 2025 College Station city council meeting.

The penalty for College Station residents who leave out their trash containers near the street too long is changing.

The city council voted five to one at their last meeting (June 12) to support a staff recommendation to impose a fee of $25.50 that is added to a customer's utility bill.

Councilman David White, who said he has been late moving his trash containers away from the curb, voted no because he wanted a workshop discussion on the ramifications of adding the fee.

The council's vote also reflected extending the time for a customer to move containers away from curbs from 12 to 24 hours.

The civil fine is already in place in the Northgate district, where customers have until nine a.m. to move their trash containers.

The new fee replaces residential customers facing going to municipal court for taking too long to move containers away from curbs.


Click HERE to read and download the ordinance that was approved at the June 12, 2025 College Station city council meeting.

This podcast contains comments from the June 10, 2025 Brazos County commission meeting.

There will be a fourth year that Brazos County commissioners hire someone to write grant applications.

The contract is part of the budget that was approved before two new commissioners were elected last November.

One of the new commissioners, Fred Brown, questioned how $48,000 dollars was spent during the first year before being part of a unanimous vote during the commission's last meeting (June 10).

County auditor Katie Conner gave some examples of what the grant writer has done.

Then the grant writer told commissioner Chuck Konderla he has generated almost $3.8 million dollars, with more applications being considered.

Staff told commissioners that they plan to request the expenditure again for the next county budget.

Click HERE to read and download the contract that was approved at the June 10, 2025 Brazos County commission meeting.

Click HERE to read and download the original contract.

This podcast contains comments from the June 12, 2025 College Station city council meeting.

The lone speaker during the public comment portion of last Thursday's College Station city council meeting (June 12) asked that the city cemetery ordinance be re-interpreted.

Lisa Burton wants to place in her mother's columbarium, the ashes of her late mother's cat.

Burton says while the city ordinance says "cemeteries are set apart for the interment of human remains", she says the ordinance can be interpreted to say columbariums are not restricted to only the internment of human remains...that the phrase "set apart" does not mean "restricted to".

Burton said friends told her to add the cat's ashes without notifying city officials, but Burton said "that's not the way I believe things should be done."

She also told the council that "the city can not make me a promise beyond 100 percent that there are not animal/pet ashes already with their owners in any of the cemeteries here."

Five and a half hours after Burton's comments, just before the council ended its public business at midnight, councilman David White asked for more information about the city cemetery ordinance with the possibility of discussing this at a future workshop.

Click HERE to read and download the city of College Station ordinance regarding cemeteries, as taken from the city website on June 12, 2025.

Spokeswoman Kathleen Sanderson visits with WTAW's Scott DeLucia about a school supplies drive, work the ministry team is doing this summer, and more during her appearance on The Infomaniacs.