During Thursday morning’s meeting, the Brownwood City Council unanimously awarded a bid to ASD Consultants, Inc. in the amount of $196,072.56 for Coggin Park Phase II Improvements.

City staff solicited proposals for the installation of two regulation size basketball courts with LED lighting and fencing around the courts. The improvements would also include an ADA compliant concrete sidewalk walking trail with two low-water crossings.

Seven proposals were submitted for the project and read aloud on May 22. City staff evaluated and scored the proposals with set scoring criteria and agreed that ASD Consultants, Inc., ranked the highest and met the requirements for consideration.

The Council had ratified the use of approved BMDD Funds of $330,000 for this project back in February of this year. The base bid is $183,525.48 and the total contract is $196,072.56.

Also Thursday, Council approved authorizing City of Brownwood to issue Requests For Proposals for Administrative Services (RFP) and/or Requests For Qualifications (RFQ) for engineering services for the U.S. Economic Development Administration Economic Adjustment Assistance Programs, Planning and Local Technical Assistance Programs, Disaster Recovery Programs, and American Relief Act of 2025.

The U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) has received $1.5 billion in federal funding through the American Relief Act of 2025. This funding is targeted to assist communities designated under federal disaster declarations in 2023 and 2024.

The purpose of the program is to support both construction and non-construction projects that aid in economic recovery, infrastructure resiliency, and long-term community development.

To position the City of Brownwood for success, and maximize potential CO issuance with federal grant matching opportunity staff seeks authorization to issue RFPs for administrative consulting services to assist with project identification, grant writing, compliance, and reporting; and RFQs for qualified engineering services to support technical planning, cost estimating, and infrastructure design.

Council also authorized the City of Brownwood Mayor and City Secretary to sign a resolution accepting the Brown County Hazard Mitigation Plan.

The City of Brownwood staff have been working closely with the other Brown County communities, and the West Central Council of Government to draft an updated Hazard Mitigation Plan. While completing the update to the plan, the public had an opportunity to provide input by attending a public meeting or by completing a public survey to provide input. Communities must have an approved FEMA Hazard Mitigation Plan to qualify for federal disaster funding and grants, which are used to support recovery and mitigation efforts. The 164-page plan identifies local community risks, promotes awareness and engagement, prioritizes risk mitigation, and enhances community resilience. The plan has been approved by FEMA, and in order for it to be in effect, it needs to be adopted by Brown County, City of Bangs, City of Brownwood, City of Blanket, City of Early, and Booksmith ISD. Each entity has this item on their respective agenda for approval during the month of June.

Council also ratified three BMDD Board actions:

A Building Improvement Incentive Program (BIIP) grant not to exceed $25,000.00 to Ashwin Pokharel for Deja Vu located at 413 Center Avenue. Deja Vu offers a full bar, pool tables and a dance floor inside and would like to further expand their offerings with food and build out a full commercial kitchen with additional space they have available. In addition, they plan to address the exterior façade of the building – especially the damaged stucco material. Their estimate from Martin Contracting from Aledo estimates total project cost of $80,704.33. This does not count the additional kitchen equipment that they will also purchase. The addition of the commercial kitchen and façade improvement would benefit this building for years to come for any business that may occupy the space in the future. This project qualifies for a 50% matching grant not to exceed $25,000.00 upon completion

A Building Improvement Incentive Program (BIIP) grant not to exceed $22,500.00 to SML 3 LLC for the future Hopin Express convenience store located at 1004 W. Commerce. The building will be completely renovated including a new support beam and opening up an interior wall, new electrical work, development of a drive-through window, new HVAC and new front entrance door and window. The building is currently in fairly poor condition. Their estimate from Martin Contracting from Aledo estimates total project cost of $63,806.25. This does not count inventory and fixtures. This project qualifies for a 50% matching grant not to exceed $22,500.00 upon completion

A funding agreement to the Small Business Development Center for operations of a field office in Brownwood for $20,000 per year for 2 years.

The Tarleton Small Business Development Center (SBDC) recently created a field office in Brownwood to help with small business consulting and small business education services. The City of Brownwood provides office space in the Harvey House building at no charge. Most of the SBDC services are provided through Tarleton, but over the past 10 years, the SBDC has provided a field office to help give more one-on-one service to Brownwood businesses. The office, however, has a pattern of closing because of lack of funding and staffing. since overall, the program is funded through the SBA and a state of Texas match – which was cut in 2018. They have requested funding of $20,000 per year, for 2 years. Which is the same level of funding the BMDD provided in 2018-2019. Added to this agreement will be a requirement for minimum amount of office days and quarterly reporting to the BMDD board (which will be added to the draft agreement). The advantage of providing funding to this office is the sustainability of the service to Brownwood and the ability to more closely partner with the office and staff.