During their meeting Tuesday morning, January 10, the Brownwood City Council authorized the City Manager and City Attorney to present a draft contract to Texas State Technical College of Brownwood to enter into negotiations for the re-acquisition of property at 305 Booker Street.

According to a previous story on Brownwoodnews.com dated September 28, 2022, “The Brownwood City Council heard a presentation from Brownwood/Brown County Health Department Administrator Lisa Dick regarding a potential move of the Health Department to 305 Booker Street on the TSTC campus, using City and County American Recovery Plan funds for the renovation.”

The account of the meeting goes on to say “The City Council designated $400,000 in ARPA funds for the Health Department when they adopted the ARPA Plan on March 22, 2022. Since then, staff has been pursuing options to expand and/or relocate the Health Department currently located at 510 E. Lee Street.”

According to the previous story, the property was given to TSTC by the city many years ago and it has not been in use for several years. Moving the Health Department would resolve space challenges and ensure the building is used for a public benefit.

In other business from the January 10 Council meeting:

The Council approved purchase of 14 water meter vaults for the Trafalgar Indian Creek Townhomes, Phase II project totaling $42,200 which will be purchased from Meter Nest in Alvarado, Texas.   Trafalgar Homes is building a new multi-unit housing complex at the southwest corner of Milam and Indian Creek. The housing complex will require the Water Department to install water meters for each unit; concrete water meter vaults will be used instead of individual plastic water meter boxes.

The Council approved a Resolution amending the City of Brownwood Investment Policy to mirror state policy.  The Public Funds Investment Act requires a review and re-adoption of the City Investment Policy at least once per calendar year.

The Council approved adopting the Parks Master Plan that was completed by Halff Associates.  In February of 2022, the City of Brownwood hired the firm Halff Associates to develop a new Parks Master Plan to give a comprehensive look at the City’s park system, assess the highest and best use of each park, develop ideas and concepts for improvements to the parks, engage the community, City Council, boards and citizens in assessing needs in the parks and make recommendations on future park improvements and developments.

Having this plan in place will allow the City to apply for park improvement grants, will help guide the development of future park improvements and help the BMDD to better allocate budgeted park improvement funds to help leverage future grants.

The Council authorized the City Manager to sign a Memorandum of Understanding between the City of Brownwood and Keep Brownwood Beautiful.  There has not been an updated Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between KBB and the City for a few years.  The KBB Board and Director have worked with city staff to update the MOU in a way that is mutually agreeable to both entities.

The Council authorized the City Manager to sign an Intergovernmental Agreement with the Texas Department of Emergency Management for office space at Fire Station #1.  TDEM is currently hiring one County Liaison Officer (CLO) for each county in the state and has recently hired Gwen Stone as the new CLO for Brown County.  Gwen is a Brown County resident and for the past 13 years has been employed by the City of Brownwood as an Administrative Assistant for the Brownwood Fire Department.  To support this new statewide initiative TDEM is requesting the use a 10’ x 12’ unused room adjacent to the Emergency Operations Center in the administrative wing of the Brownwood Fire Station located at 600 Adams where historically the County’s Emergency Manager has had an office. The term of the lease is one-year January 15, 2023, through January 14, 2024.

The Council approved a Mayoral appointment to the Parks and Recreation Board of Dustin Larremore, replacing Nathan Smith’s term 1/1/25.