COUNCIL APPROVES BCDC LAND PURCHASE

  

The Brenham City Council met this (Friday) morning to approve a land purchase by the Brenham Community Development Corporation (BCDC).

The land, located at the intersection of FM 389 and FM 332, will become the Southwest Industrial Park.

“It appears like this is coming up for the first time, but it’s not” said City Manager Terry Roberts.

The council previously approved a $500,000 promissory note between the City of Brenham and BCDC for the purchase in October of 2016. The council initially believed the land purchase would close by February, however the process took longer than expected.

“The council’s actions are essentially reapproving and adopting an updated payment plan” said Roberts.

The loan has a 3.52- percent interest rate, which will bring the city just over $96,000 in interest.

Related to the purchase, the council also passed a resolution to terminate and agreement between the city and Ethel Gurrech. The city and the Gurrech family entered into a development agreement to keep the land outside of the city limits. Considering the sale, the BCDC would like the land to be annexed into the city- thus a termination of the agreement is needed.

Also during the meeting:

The council approved a service agreement with McCord Engineering, Inc. for the replacement of copper electric lines. The project will replace 18 of 24 miles of copper with aluminum. Lowell Ogle says they will focus on areas most susceptible to storms.

The council approved a number of people to serve on various city advisory boards: Johanna Fatheree- Board of Adjustments, Keith Behrens- Planning and Zoning, Dona Lynn Parker- Main Street Board, and Tom Whitehead- Main Street Board.

The council terminated an inter-local agreement between Washington County and the City of Brenham concerning the Critical Incident Command Unit. The termination of the contract will allow the city to sell the vehicle on GovDeals and split the proceeds 50/50 with the county.