Story, photo by Steve Nash / Special Contributor to BrownwoodNews.com

EARLY – Early City Council members approved a resolution Tuesday night to show their support for a future affordable rental housing development for residents over the age of 55.

“The resolution is the support from the city council for a development to be called Pioneer Crossing,” Early City Administrator Tony Aaron said. “That is a tax credit development for affordable housing for seniors that are over 55, and the rent will be based on their income.

“That developer is proposing to build approximately 48 units for rent. They’re all single story units and the development will be located between Early Boulevard and Old Comanche off of West Street. It would be a new street that would come in off of Early Boulevard onto West Street and tie into this development.”

The developer will finish his application to the Department of Housing and submit plans for construction if the tax credits are awarded, Aaron said.

Council members had approved a similar resolution at a previous council meeting, but the project did not go forward at that time. “They couldn’t get their construction budget to come in under budget to make sense for the tax credits, so that period has expired,” Aaron said.

“They are reapplying for the same project. They have additional tax credits available this year for the City of Early because of our deficiency in this type of housing and they dropped the scope from 52 units to 48 units to try to get that overall project cost in.”

In other business, council members authorized Police Chief David Mercer to apply for grants that will pay for rifle-resistant body armor and ballistic shields.

“The chief of police is applying for two separate grants,” Aaron said. “One of them is for rifle resistant body armor. That grant is in the amount of $30,000. It would equip our officers with a rifle vest that could be worn over their day-to-day vest, and it’s rated to stop high caliber rifles, so it would definitely improve officer safety.

“The other is a bullet resistant shield grant in the amount of $34,000. That would put bullet proof shields in all of our officers’ cars. If they’re responding to an officer involved shooting or active shooter situation they will have more ballistic protection.”

Mercer told council members the department already has two shields, and he wants to purchase eight additional shields so every police car can be equipped with one.

Additionally, council members:

• Awarded a $57,677 bid to Vulcan Material for hot mix for reconstruction of McDonald Drive.

• Approved a $5,000 grant from Early Economic Development Corp. to ROC (Revitalize Our Community) to support Juneteenth.

• Called for the May 2 election of three council members.

• Authorized the city to continue participating in the steering committee of cities served by Oncor.

• Approved the execution of an advance funding agreement with TxDOT for a Transportation Alternatives Project.

That action is related to a $5.3 million grant the city received earlier for the construction of sidewalks. The advance funding agreement means the city will be responsible for any cost that exceeds the amount of the grant, Aaron said.

• Heard the annual racial profiling report from Mercer. The report does not show any incidents of racial profiling in the 2,207 traffic stops that officers made last year, Mercer said.

The traffic stops resulted in 1,276 written warnings and 885 citations. Of the traffic stops, 1,639 drivers were white, 108 drivers were African American and 425 drivers were Hispanic, Mercer said.