COUNCIL APPROVES RESOLUTION OPPOSING LAKE SOMERVILLE OIL LEASES
Brenham City Council approved a resolution opposing the Bureau of Land Management’s decision to lease 1400 acres of land for oil and gas drilling around Lake Somerville. Council had issued a similar resolution in April of last year when the BLM proposed leasing the land. The protests raised by various groups opposing the leases were denied by the BLM last month. Today’s (Thursday’s) resolution supports the appeals made by those groups. City Manager James Fisher said that Lake Somerville is Brenham’s sole water source and that we need to be looking into securing another source of water for the city.
In other action, council approved several ordinance changes. They amended the requirement that residents requesting a zoning change were responsible for posting the signage with all the information. Now city employees will post a metal sign on the property with a phone number to call for the information. Council also approved several amendments to the codes dealing with serving on the Planning and Zoning Commission and the Board of Adjustments. They also approved a change to the setback and lot widths for the Oak Alley Subdivision off of Mustang Road.
Rusty Pancoast
Interim Police Chief Rusty Pancoast presented council with the 2017 Use of Force and Pursuit Reports for the Department. He said that both reports were surprisingly low for a city our size. Pancoast also received approval for a $22,000 grant from the Office of the Governor for Rifle-Resistant Body Armor. The grant will allow his department to purchase 24 of the vests.
Council also approved an agreement with the county for the Spring Cleanup Event. Only the first 500 pounds each resident brings in during the event will be free. Anything over 500 pounds will be billed at the normal rate. Public Works Director Dane Rau said that they haven’t set the dates for this spring’s city-county event, but that it wouldn’t be on consecutive weekends as it has in past years.
I am elated this is being fought by the City.
Least not forget the long term pollution from the Tye plant as well.
You can say that the squeaky wheel gets the oil or you can say that the city silence in reference to oil production at lake Somerville gets oily water. For the city of Brenham. The city management and politicians greatly neglected to be more proactive in speaking out against this activity. Why didn’t the city go bid on the lease? The city could have held the lease and did nothing with it. A lot less money than trying to get another source of water.