WASHINGTON CO. COMMISSIONERS TO SEEK GRANT FOR IMPROVEMENTS RELATED TO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

  

Washington County Commissioners are taking steps forward with a large economic development project.

Commissioners at their meeting Tuesday appointed themselves to a selection review committee to rate responses for requests for proposals (RFPs) for grant writing and administrative services, and requests for qualifications (RFQs) for engineering services.  Those are related to the prospective infrastructure improvements for the project.

Brenham Economic Development Director Susan Cates was only able to give limited details of the project to commissioners, as she said it is still a “confidential and competitive project”.  She said an application is in the Texas Governor’s Office for a Texas Enterprise Fund grant, and that the project cannot be publicly announced until the Governor’s Office completes their consideration of that piece.

Cates gave a brief description of the project, called “Silver Crayon”:

 

Cates said Phase I of the project will call for the hiring of 30 employees, most of them local.  The average wage of these workers would be $90,000 a year.

Cates stated this company does not have this type of operation anywhere in the state of Texas, but does have a similar operation in another state that they hope to duplicate here in Texas.  She said in Phase II, the company hopes they would move this out-of-state operation to Washington County, which would increase the employee size beyond 30.

Cates added that this project has the backing of Washington County’s state representatives.

 

Cates said the matter is urgent because a significant piece of the project is the extension of a gas line, and the deadline to apply for grant funding is April 15^th.  Cates said if an RFP is not issued, the county will not meet the grant deadline.

Cates said Tuesday’s motion would not require the county to sign or award a contract of any kind, and if the county decides not to move forward with this project, they do not have to.

The deadline for RFQ’s and RFP’s to be turned in to the county clerk is Monday, March 23^rd at 5 p.m.  They will be opened Tuesday, March 24^th in commissioners court.