CITY OF BRENHAM REVEALS TIMELINE TO REOPEN FACILITIES
City of Brenham officials have unveiled the city’s plans for when and how several of its facilities will reopen in the coming weeks.
At today’s (Thursday) Brenham City Council meeting, City Manager James Fisher discussed the city’s intentions for its facilities, a timeline for their reopening, and what programs and services they will offer as operations ramp back up.
Starting May 18th, the Blue Bell Aquatic Center will open its indoor and therapeutic pools. Fisher said he is hopeful that the leisure pool can reopen on June 1st. All pools will open to 25 percent capacity and limited hours, and reservations will be required. Proposed hours are 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, and closed on Sunday until June 1st, when a gradual ramp-up in hours would begin. Restrooms will be open, but locker rooms and the concession stand would remain closed.
The Nancy Carol Roberts Memorial Library opened up this week to reservations for library materials and computer usage, but Fisher said a full reopening of the library is not quite sustainable at this point.
The Visitor Center opened back up on May 1st, along with the downtown restrooms. The city’s parks are still open, but their competition fields, basketball courts, kitchens, and playgrounds remain closed until further notice, as well as the carousel and the All Sports Building.
Brenham City Hall, municipal court, and animal services will reopen to the general public on June 1st, with modified hours of noon to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. The public can still make appointments and use the drive-thru window at City Hall from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The Brenham Police and Fire Departments will remain closed to the public until further notice.
More detailed breakdowns on the reopening of city facilities are available below:
City of Brenham Facilities Reopening
City of Brenham Facilities Reopening (cont.)
Also at today’s meeting, councilmembers approved:
- The annexation of roughly 52.4 acres south and west of Dixie Road. The council also moved to assign the tract Planned Development District zoning, which will allow Stylecraft Builders to extend the current Vintage Farms subdivision and allow for the development of a single-family home subdivision known as The Lakes at Vintage Farms. A small and separate portion of the tract of land, to be referred to as The Cove at Vintage Farms, is planned to be developed with patio homes. Development Services Director Stephanie Doland said the new subdivision will add roughly 150 new homes to the 260 currently in the Vintage Farms subdivision.
- A change in zoning of just under an acre of land at 811 West Fifth Street, to allow for an accessory off-street parking area to serve a planned student dormitory for Blinn College.
- An amendment to the system water availability agreement between the city and Brazos River Authority (BRA) for the temporary resale of water. In September, the city agreed to purchase 774 acre-feet of raw water per fiscal year from the BRA, to sustain long-term future growth for the city. The city currently uses about 2,777 acre-feet of the 4,200 acre-feet available to it through the city’s primary water availability agreement.
- A water supply resale agreement between the city and the Dow Chemical Company related to the temporary resale of water. The city is selling 774 acre-feet of excess water on a temporary basis, through August 31st, to the company for $61,146, or $79 per acre-foot. Councilmember Keith Herring voted against the measure, saying he was nervous about letting the company get their “foot in the door”. He cautioned the city to be careful come August 31st, saying the company will likely come back before the council with another request after the current agreement ends.
- A ground space lease agreement between Aviators Plus, LLC and the city for the construction and operation of a fuel farm at the Brenham Municipal Airport.
- An amendment to the airport project participation agreement between the city and TxDOT.
- The first amendment to the interlocal agreement for managing entity by the Brazos Valley Council of Governments (BVCOG) for the Brazos Valley Wide Area Communications System (BVWACS). The council will also act on the first amendment to the second reinstatement of the interlocal agreement for the construction, acquisition, implementation, operation, and maintenance of the BVWACS. The agreement was amended to add Madison County into the system.
- A resolution related to the city’s gas fund and maintenance of cash reserves.
Probably more scared about lawsuits than anything. Understandably–people sue for everything and are starting to win for everything. Five a tr e the says of people making decisions for themselves and accepting the consequences whether positive or negative.
*Gone are the days
People, please stop with your self absorbed whining! Back when polio ravaged this country devoted citizens were told by science how best to protect themselves from the polio virus. And they listened and obeyed for the good of all. That is what real humans do. Life and limb are far more important than your personal desires. And now, no one will starve, many different kinds of help are available. When the polio vaccine was discovered, again for the good of all, everyone took the vaccine. This virus is just as deadly except now it is the most lethal for the old. It should be mandatory too, but you can bet the selfish whiner will refuse under “ I have my rights, you can’t make me!” UN American attitude. God save us.
You are being conditioned to believe that standing up for ones rights is selfish!! They have NEVER shut down the economy and then REFUSED to let people get back to work before in our Nations history!! What is UNAmerican is you following like sheep!! There will NEVER be a vaccine for this virus just like the OTHER corona viruses.
That’s rich coming from you…..Quit with the scare tactics!!! Initial measures were to keep from overwhelming the hospitals. We did that, so let’s get back to work. Can’t wait for this the “go away” cause it will never do so and a vaccine for a corona virus is a pipe dream. People want to live, but they also want to LIVE! Sitting in the house scared is not living.
How and where do I go to get the new sticker for my car? Had it inspected today…thanks
Get your new sticker online.
Sandra I renewed mine Online. It takes about 7 to 10 days to get but you can print out a form that shows you have renewed, Call the courthouse and ask what site to go to online. Hope that helps you .
How is this a reopening? Not being able to take our children to the playground is absolute nonsense. They should not continue to punish children for what’s going on. There is no reason in the world you can’t open the playgrounds. The city clearly is using this to just control the people who live here. Are my taxes going to be lower next year since we are unable to use the facilities we pay for? No. They won’t. We just have a bunch of tyrants running Brenham trying to keep everyone here scared of their own shadow. First Brenham is LAST to do anything for curriculum for children from school and now we have the people running Brenham saying we aren’t allowed to even take them to play on a playground. This is ridiculous. The city should really think about how they are contributing to the loss of our rights as Americans and be ashamed of themselves.
I’m very thankful for our County and City leaders doing the best they can under an attack of pandemic proportions. We are blessed to be going through this craziness inside our homes watching tv, on our computers or I-pods….. please let’s all be mature and do our part to unite to beat this enemy on our soil. Let’s just make America America !!
I agree I feel the parks should be open for the children! Well said
Open it all.
Stop being scared of this Covid-19.
The bathrooms, playgrounds, and ALL other recreational areas should have never closed.
How can they claim to want to keep people healthy by closing outdoor activities?
Open it all now.
You would risk your child’s health by having them touch surfaces another sick person may have touched? Have you not seen the ppl who go to the parks? It’s not just children. Ppl go there to do alot of things I won’t speak on. You can take your child to play outside. My son hasn’t missed any fun during this because I play catch outside with him and he rides his truck up and down the street. I hate to see ppl act so entitled when we are still having cases pop up. This is best for everybody
Does anybody still have a brain?
There are dangerous substances all around us at all times, and has been forever!
My children touch gross and disgusting things all day, and are fine.
They are kids, they are gross, that iswhat kids do.
That is how you build your immune system.
I know that it is rediculous to be walking at the park with my children, and we need to cross the street to use the bathroom at Dollar General because the City of Brenham is sooooo concerned and scared to let us use the bathrooms at the park that all of our tax dollars pay for.
Good greif Charlie Brown!
I agree 100% with you @Bryce,
There are many things you could do with your children that dont need a park .
Ride a bike,catch ball,put up alittle basketball net,make cookies together,learn to sew,art and craft days,hop scotch, jump rop..let them make dinner,picnic in the yard etc..the list is endless,dont waste these weeks at home with your kids on tv,iphone,computer,you will probably never get this time off again like this ever
Bryce, We risk getting sick touching surfaces an ill person touches all the time though, COVID or not.
We also touch hundreds of filthy surfaces,… and germs ones at that, fault.
It honestly is a non-sequitur argument there, bit of the shaming one too folks grow annoyed of now.
Thing to do it proper hand washing and cleaning.
I am thankful for our county and city leaders who appreciate the times we are going through.
Might I suggest simply taking your child outside and play with them. It is important to keep physical distancing at this time, and important to have parks closed to avoid kids getting too close and prevent them from touching playground equipment that will hold the virus and cause it’s spread.
If you really think this Action by the county or city is tyrannical then I also suggest that if you go out with no masks and do not pay attention to physical distancing, you make yourself a small card for your wallet that says you think this is all a ruse to get control of citizens and you deny the danger and THEREFORE YOU REFUSE ANY HEALTHCARE INTERVENTION FOR COVID 19 for yourself.
Good luck With that
I totally agree!! There is no reason we shouldn’t be able to take our children to the play grounds. There has only been one case (in China) of outdoor transmission. In fact all studies are showing it is better to be outside. This pandemic is also not effecting children like older people so why are they being punished. This is a clear case of fear mongering and abuse of power.