Following an executive session Tuesday morning, the Brownwood City Council unanimously approved the hire of Ryan Ward as new Assistant City Manager of Public Works.

Brownwood City Manager Marshal McIntosh told those in attendance, “The City of Brownwood is restructuring its Executive Public Works oversight to help support goals and long term succession planning with key positions becoming vacant, including the impending retirement of current Director of Public Works Henry Wied. To help lead the transition, the City is restructuring positions to create an Assistant City Manager of Public Works. This role is intended to strengthen the executive oversight across the City’s public works functions, improve the coordination of infrastructure and development services, and support capital priorities as Brownwood continues to grow.”

McIntosh said of Ward, “He’s well qualified for this newly structured position. He brings more than 30 years of experience across municipal, state, and private sector operations. In his previous positions he oversaw multiple public works divisions, supervised more than 100 employees a time,and has helped managed capital improvement programming. His background reflects a combination of field level infrastructure knowledge as well as much needed executive leadership experience. His work includes streets, fleets, utilities, solid waste, planning development, asset management, capital delivery, and cross department operations.”

Ward – who holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration and Leadership – began his career as an Engineering Tech for the City of Brownwood in 1995-96. Since then, Ward spent 12 years with the Texas Department of Transportation from 2000-12 as a Senior Engineering Specialist; 5 years with the City of San Angelo as Traffic Operations Manager from 2012-2017; 2 years with the City of Austin as the Right of Way Division Manager from 2018-2020; 4 years as the Santa Fe, New Mexico Public Works Department Director from 2020-2022 and again from 2024-2026; and 2 years as the Assistant City Manager of Lampasas from 2022-2024.

Ward told the Council, “It’s great to join a really good team. For me, this truly is home. Thirty years later I never knew I’d have the opportunity to come back and serve this community in a role that’s broad and bring a wealth of knowledge and servantship. I try and be involved in the community as well as all the departments where ever the needs are. The piece I’m most excited about with servantship and public leadership is working with staff, working with the community, working with Council to move initiatives forward and to make progress. The ISERVE culture here is a good fit, and from what I’ve seen over the years it’s pretty amazing to see the changes and growth of Brownwood from 1996 to now. I’d like to thank Council for selecting me and giving me this opportunity.”

Earlier in the meeting, the Council on first reading approved an ordinance closing, abandoning and vacating a portion of Sharon Avenue.

A signed petition was submitted by Thomas and Donna Sikes. They do not intend to develop this land but wish to close this portion of Sharon Avenue to join the properties they own to the east and west into one contiguous property.

Since Sharon Avenue is an undeveloped street, City policy does not require an appraisal of the street. Once the street is closed, the street automatically conveys from the center line of the street to the adjoining properties. The City will reserve a drainage easement to allow for the installation and maintenance of drainage facilities such as culverts, channels, or other drainage improvements. The City will reserve a right of way easement to allow the City and franchised, authorized utility companies operating within the city to utilize this right of way to access their infrastructure.

This property is in the shape of an “L” approximately 260.9 feet by 303.5 feet and varying in width between 39.26 feet and 50.82 feet and being approximately .59 acres. There are no utilities located in the area proposed to be closed.

The item will appear again before the Council at a future meeting for second and third/final reading before the ordinance is officially adopted.

Also during Tuesday’s meeting, Deputy City Manager Ray Tipton presented the 2025 BMDD Annual Report.