BRENHAM CITY COUNCIL PERMITS PARKS AND RECREATION TO PURSUE GRANT
The Brenham City Council will allow Brenham Parks and Recreation to pursue a grant for potential improvements to a local park.
At today’s (Thursday) meeting, councilmembers permitted the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board to submit a grant application to Texas Parks and Wildlife.
The grant, with a ceiling of $500,000, would be used to start the first phase of improvements at Brenham Family Park.
Public Works Director Dane Rau said these potential improvements have been accounted for in the city’s 2015-2025 Parks, Recreation, and Open Spaces Master Plan, adopted in March 2015. Some of the improvements include a four-acre water feature, new walking and biking trails, wildflower viewing areas, and restrooms.
Rau said many of the items in the master plan are “what the community has asked for,” citing past meetings with the public and their feedback.
Construction costs for Phase 1-a are projected at $1.7 million, with Rau saying the entire first phase could be up to $3 million.
The program provides 50-percent matching grants on a reimbursement basis, for eligible applicants.
The Brenham Community Development Corporation (BCDC) has already allocated $500,000 for Brenham Family Park, in its 2018-19 budget. The BCDC also has $172,500 set aside in leftover funds from previous years, for items in Phase 1-a.
Rau said the advisory board will have until October 1st to turn in an application for the program, and it should expect to hear back in mid-March if it is eligible for grant funding.
The city council also dealt with a large list of other items at Thursday's meeting.
To begin, councilmembers held a workshop where they discussed the city's sign ordinance. According to City Manager James Fisher, this item had been tabled several years ago. City Engineer Lori Lakatos presented several types of signs, such as marquee and off-premise signs, and said many existing definitions for them in city code could be revised or added to.
The council also heard the first reading of an ordinance calling for no-parking zones on certain streets near Blinn College. Since the beginning of fall classes at Blinn, along with the opening of new student housing, vehicles parked on streets around the campus have started to hinder traffic.
Rau said Brenham's police and fire departments, as well as the Blinn College police department, requested that the city begin instituting no-parking zones. If these were approved, parking would be banned in certain sections of Old Mill Creek Road and Saeger Street.
The council expects to hear a second reading of the ordinance in October.
In addition, the council approved a service agreement with Kendig Keast Collaborative, to develop a comprehensive plan for the city. Lakatos said the plan was last updated in 2009 by the Lower Colorado River Authority, and provides details on city priorities and long-term goals. The agreement is for 12 months, set at $259,825.
The city also approved tax abatements for Stanpac and MIC Group, which are adding on to their businesses in Brenham. It also approved a lease agreement to use the Simon Theater Visitor Center, previously contracted with the Convention and Business Bureau.
The council also issued second readings and final approval of this year's budget and tax rate. The budget outlines expenditures at $69.9 million, with $65.3 million in revenue. The tax rate of $0.5170 per $100, while remaining the same as last year's rate, is effectively a 3 percent increase due to property values increasing.