During Tuesday morning’s meeting, the Brownwood City Council unanimously approved a resolution declaring railroad tracks located off of Washington Street as surplus property and issued a Bill of Sale to Texas Rock Crusher Railway in exchange for the removal of the rail material.

The City of Brownwood is leasing property on Washington Street from BNSF Railway for the development of a parking area near the Event Center Complex. As part of the lease, BNSF asked the City to remove the old railroad tracks from the property.

Because of regulations of railroad property, ownership of the old tracks was required to enable the City to dispose of the tracks, which was accomplished by a bill of sale from BNSF to the City of Brownwood.

In planning the removal of the tracks, Texas Rock Crusher Railway is interested in acquiring the tracks and has offered to remove them, at their cost, if they can keep and reuse them. This direction would save City staff time and money for the City and accomplish the goal of having the tracks removed.

To move forward with the aforementioned plan, the old tracks had to be declared surplus, and a Bill of Sale issued to Texas Rock Crusher Railway.

Also Tuesday, the City Council unanimously approved a revision to the Brownwood Municipal Airport hangar lease contract template.

The airport currently has 38 active hangar leases. There are several planes that are being stored in hangars that are not operational and haven’t been for a long period of time.

After researching the FAA guidelines, it came to the City’s attention that non-operational aircraft should not be allowed to be stored in government-funded airports, which is now reflected in the contract.