WTAW - Interviews

This podcast is College Station mayor John Nichols visit with Scott DeLucia on WTAW's The Infomaniacs July 9, 2025.

Topics include the proposed city budget for the 2026 fiscal year, taxes, general fund money, future projects, a possible agreement with the Brazos Valley Bombers, and new baseball fields at Veterans Park.

This podcast contains comments from the June 26, 2025 College Station city council meeting.

Assistant public works director Pete Caler said this was the first time that there was no local residency requirement to bid on this contract. That resulted in the city receiving six proposals.

The provider for the last ten years, Bryan based Green Teams, submitted a bid that was $216,000 dollars higher. 

Green Teams owner Tucker Gallagher told the council he hoped their track record would count more.

Caler said 50 percent of the weight given to a bid was based on recommendations and qualifications and 35 percent was based on price.

Mayor John Nichols, who was part of the six to one vote, said he "could not bring himself to throw out" the low bid, then complemented staff when they "accomplished what you wanted to by opening up the bidding process to see if there is anybody who can do these specifications at less cost."

The lone no vote came from David White, saying he wanted to rebid the contract with a local residency requirement.

Click HERE to read and download the contract that was approved at the June 26, 2025 College Station city council meeting.

This podcast contains comments from the July 8, 2025 Bryan city council meeting. Councilwoman and attorney Marca Ewers-Shurtleff questioned deputy city manager Joey Dunn and the owner of the Ventura Sports Group, Mark Schuster.

The Bryan city council unanimously approves a rental agreement for Travis Field baseball stadium where another summer collegiate baseball team will start playing next year.

Click HERE to read and download presentation materials during the July 8, 2025 Bryan city council meeting.

The vote followed councilwoman and attorney Marca Ewers-Shurtleff questioning deputy city manager Joey Dunn and the owner of South Carolina based Ventura Sports Group, Mark Schuster.

The council's rental agreement gives the city rental income and a share of ballgame revenue. This replaces an 18 year exclusive use agreement with the Brazos Valley Bombers where the city paid utilities and received no revenue.

After the council meeting, Bombers founder and co-owner Uri Geva said the team will play next year's home games at three or four venues and in 2027 will play in College Station.

Original story, July 3 2025:

A second summer collegiate baseball team could be coming to the twin cities in 2026.

The Bryan city council will consider at their next meeting (July 8), a three year contract with Mid America League Baseball (MALB).

A city news release says the league, which is part of South Carolina based Ventura Sports, approached the city after the Brazos Valley Bombers announced its intent to move to College Station.

The proposed contract calls for the city to receive $32,000 dollars a year, or $1,000 dollars for each home game at Travis Field. The city news release pointed out the Bombers were never required to pay rent or utilities during its 19 seasons.

The proposed contract also calls for the city to receive a share of revenue from concessions, sponsorships, advertising, and broadcasting rights.

MALB's website shows this year's teams are in the Longview suburb of White Oak, Texarkana, Sherman, Abilene, Fort Smith Arkansas, and Joplin Missouri.

Click HERE to read and download the proposed contract between the Bryan city council and Mid America League Baseball.

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

The Bryan City Council will consider a proposed rental agreement at its July 8 meeting that, if approved, brings a new Mid America League Baseball (MALB) franchise to Travis Major Field beginning in 2026.Ventura Sports Group approached the City of Bryan with the proposal after the Brazos Valley Bombers announced plans to relocate to a new stadium in College Station.

The proposed agreement includes a three-year term starting in 2026, with an annual rental fee of $32,000 and a share of net revenue from advertising, sponsorships, concessions and broadcasting rights. Home games will be scheduled each year from May 20 through Aug. 15, with schedules provided to the city by Nov. 15.

The agreement also consents to Ventura’s required independent league exclusivity clause. This clause prevents other independent league teams from using the facility but does not apply to amateur baseball and softball events, such as little leagues, high school teams or other similar groups.

The Brazos Valley Bombers have played at Travis Major Field under an exclusive facility use agreement with Infinity Sports Entertainment. That agreement expires Dec. 31, 2025. During the 18 years of that agreement, Infinity has not been required to pay rent or utilities, as the City of Bryan has covered those costs.

Travis Major Field, also known as Edible Field, is owned by the City of Bryan and is located in Travis Bryan Midtown Park. City staff will assume responsibility for managing and operating Travis Major Field beginning in January 2026. This responsibility includes scheduling rentals and maintaining the facility.The proposed agreement with Ventura allows the city to secure a new baseball tenant for the next several years, drawing regional teams from Texas, Arkansas and Missouri. 

The city views this opportunity as a business decision that supports the long-term vision for Midtown Park and maximizes the public investment in the facility, while providing citizens another quality-of-life activity.

The city has invested significantly in the development of Midtown Park and is focused on ensuring public facilities are used in a way that brings the greatest value to residents.

This podcast contains comments from the July 7, 2025 College Station city council meeting.

The proposed College Station city budget for the 2026 fiscal year was presented to city council members at a special meeting on Monday (July 7).

Click HERE to read and download a summary of the FY 26 budget from the city of College Station.

Click HERE to read and download the 185 page FY 26 budget document from the city of College Station.

Click HERE to read and download presentation materials made during the July 7, 2025 College Station city council special meeting.

The proposal calls for a five percent decrease in the property tax rate, which would offset an estimated four and a half percent increase in residential property values.

No rate increase is proposed for College Station electric, water, or wastewater customers. 

There is a proposed five percent rate increase for College Station solid waste customers, which works out to an average of $2.97 a month.

Fiscal services director Mary Ellen Leonard says more than 20 percent of the city's general fund revenue comes from sales taxes. Next year's sales tax estimate is a one percent increase because the city won't have two big one time events that happened this year...Texas A&M football hosting Texas and a large sales tax audit payment the city received from the state.

The proposal includes six more police officers and four more patrol vehicles and one more person in the planning and development office. 

Staffing also reflects a reorganization with eliminating the community services office where two vacant positions will not be filled. 

And as previously announced, there are 12 more firefighters to staff the new seventh fire station, which will initially be funded by federal grant money.

After Monday's 90 minute meeting, the council agreed to hold a budget workshop on July 16 and a public hearing on July 24. A tax rate public hearing and budget adoption are scheduled for August 28. The fiscal year begins October 1.

Multiple fire departments were south of Kurten Monday night (July 7) at the scene of a fire at a crude oil off loading terminal. 

Brazos County emergency management coordinator Jason Ware said there was an evacuation of a half mile around the site of fires in the cab of a semi and four crude oil tanks next to the semi.

Ware said firefighters kept a full load of 6,700 gallons of crude oil from getting out of the semi tanker.

An employee at the crude oil off loading terminal was flown from the scene with undisclosed injuries.
Initial response was from Brazos County fire districts two and three.

Ware said mutual aid was provided by the precinct four, South Brazos County, College Station, and Bryan fire departments, the Brazos County sheriff's and emergency management offices, the Texas department of public safety and the Texas division of emergency management.

This podcast contains comments from the July 8, 2025 Brazos County commission meeting.

Retired state representative Kyle Kacal of College Station was sworn in Tuesday (July 8) as acting Brazos County Judge.

After 85th district court judge Kyle Hawthorne administered two oaths, Kacal took his seat and said "what an honor that has been bestowed on me by Judge (Duane) Peters and his family. I want to say that I will continue and hope you will keep them in your prayers as he (Peters) recovers" from undisclosed health issues.

Kacal also said "this is an acting appointment that I take very seriously and will dedicate all the time necessary."

Kacal then told the four commissioners "I can't tell you what an honor it is to serve with these four individuals to my right and left. Commissioners, you have all been duly elected to this county that we all call home and love, and it is our duty to do what's best for this incredible county that we live in."

Before moving into the rest of the day's agenda, Kacal said "the public's engagement makes the county operate better. And as long as we are able to engage in civil debate, we can all together do what's best for Brazos County. And as I look out there (towards the audience), I see a lot of folks that love Brazos County and this state and this country as much as the five of us. And we are excited to work alongside of you."

Amber Mastrobattista, Pride Community Center Board Member, visits with WTAW's Chelsea Reber about upcoming workshops hosted by Aggie Allies and Pride Community Center's upcoming fundraising gala.

This podcast contains comments from the July 1, 2025 Brazos County commission meeting.

Brazos County commissioners hear about upcoming changes in how elections are conducted.

Elections administrator Trudy Hancock reviewed at this week's meeting (July 1), the impact of state lawmakers enacting Senate Bill 2753, which she says "will fundamentally change the timeline that Texas has used since 1987."

Hancock says voting will begin voting 12 days before election day (a Wednesday), and voting will continue through election day. "Here in Brazos County we will open our 5 early voting locations, being open for 2 weekends including Saturday and Sunday, with Sunday hours being increased from 6 to 9, then we open the other 23 location for election day."

"By voting through the weekend", Hancock said SB 2753 "will increase overtime pay for election workers and comp hours for my staff" and she is "concerned about fatigue for those workers (because) the median age for an election worker in 79." Hancock said election workers who "in the past would have Saturday, Sunday and Monday to rest and prepare for election day", "there will be no break for them", raising the concern of losing election day workers.

Hancock also said there will be an increased cost because she will have to move the early voting ballot board from the elections office because early voting will be taking place in that building. The additional cost includes the state requirement that any time the early voting board meets, that has to be live streamed.

And another consequence of SB 2753 is that there will be no early results on election night. Since the equipment from early voting will be deployed through election day the only results released at 7:00 p.m. on election night will be ballot by mail results.

Hancock also said the final version of SB 2753 does not include eliminating voting centers, which allows Brazos County voters to continue voting at any location.

County commissioners were also given an update on a federal executive order regarding elections. Hancock said she is waiting for the Texas secretary of state's office, which is waiting for federal agencies, to finalize changes mandated by the order.

The executive order also addresses voting systems should not be used where the vote is contained in a bar code or a Q-R code. Hancock said more than once that the manufacturer of Brazos County's voting system does not use that technology.

This podcast contains comments during the June 26, 2025 College Station city council from parks and recreation director Kelsey Heiden.

The College Station city council receives annual review of operations in the city's parks and recreation department.

Director Kelsey Heiden says they recently finished an inspection of all 56 parks in College Station.

She said data is being collected for the department's first master plan update in five years by surveying residents at city parks and department events.

Heiden also said the council will be asked to make what she calls re-investments in College Station's parks, paid for by a new $2.5 million dollar account.

There was also an update on projects paid for by a November 2022 bond issue. Heiden highlighted the first month of activity at Anderson Park, where the $1.7 million dollar project drew 7,500 visitors to pickleball and multi-use courts and fields.

Click HERE to read and download presentation materials from the June 26, 2025 College Station city council meeting.

This podcast contains comments from the July 1, 2025 Brazos County commission meeting.

In 2017, new air conditioning was part of Brazos County's conversion of the former tax office building across the street from the courthouse to the new elections office and employee health clinic.

This week (July 1), county commissioners approved spending $230,000 dollars to replace equipment and inspect the building's climate control system to determine if there are any additional problems.

Chuck Konderla called the expense a "band-aid" to return air conditioning at the start of sustained summertime heat.

Fred Brown, who was part of a unanimous vote, was not happy with buying the same type of air conditioning system.

The parts and labor cost is $190,000 dollars. 

Another $40,000 is being spent on "commissioning", which the county's project manager Trevor Lansdown says involves hiring a third party to inspect the work of those installing the replacement parts.

The commissioning contract also calls for inspecting the rest of the building's mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems to identify any other issues related to operating the air conditioning system.

Background information about the purchase said the air conditioning system required recharging compressors with refrigerant on a bi-weekly basis.

Click HERE to read and download background information about the air conditioning proposal that was approved at the July 1, 2025 Brazos County commission meeting.

Click HERE to read and download the budget amendment that was approved at the July 1, 2025 Brazos County commission meeting.