Brownwood City Council accepted a grant for the purchase of a police vehicle and approved the funding for new water lines from the Brownwood Economic Development Board at Tuesday’s city council meeting.
Council approved the BEDC Board’s funding of up to $39,000 to help replace old infrastructure, namely a 74-year-old water line in the industrial area of Brownwood to help develop new and expanding business enterprise. The line is located on Stephen F. Austin, Custer Road, Morris Shepherd Drive, and Sheridan Drive.
According to BEDC Director Emily Crawford, the 16-inch cast iron line ruptures two to four times a year, causing businesses to be out of water for 6-12 hours and limiting or shutting down operations as it is being repaired.
Businesses served by this line include Ethos, VRC Technologies, UPS, LANI Pet, Diamond P, M&F Gauge, and Roberson Renal.
The line will be downsized to an 8-inch line which will be re-routed to the existing utility easements along the roadway. This will eliminate any problems for future expansions or buildings on the LANI Pet and Diamond P properties, through which the pipe travels. The new line will also provide more complete fire protection coverage for the area and will allow for future expansions or new development in the area. The current line is in conflict with the railroad spur extension for LANI.
The abandonment of the old waterline is expected to take approximately two weeks, according to Crawford. City crews will return to remove the waterline entirely. Services to the companies are not expected to exceed 3-5 minutes while the lines are being switched over, said Crawford.
“All companies that will be affected with this project have been contacted and support the installation of the new water line,” said Crawford.
The materials cost for the line is $38,038.06. The city will pay for the installation at an estimated cost of $20,000 labor and fuel according to a council briefing sheet.
Council also approved a resolution accepting the recently received Justice Assistance Grant of $25,000 to be used to purchase a new vehicle for the police department’s Criminal Investigations Division (CID). According to City Manager Bobby Rountree, the funds will be used to purchase a utility vehicle which will be used to store and maintain all equipment necessary to process the scene of a major crime.
“Currently, equipment used for major crimes is spread out amongst the detectives and stored in various vehicles,” said Rountree. “The use of a crime scene vehicle will consolidate and organize all equipment minimizing delay and damage to equipment already on hand.”
In other matters on Tuesday’s agenda:
*Council approved a resolution awarding an agreement with the Texas Association of School Boards to join a fuel purchasing cooperative and authorizing the City Manager to sign commitment contracts for fuel purchases. Today’s action authorizes the City of Brownwood to join the cooperative with TASB to purchase large amounts of fuel at a set price through the TASB cooperative program which includes school boards and municipalities, according to Rountree. The set price will be determined at a later date, which will hopefully save the city a large amount of money. As compared to last year’s fuel purchases by the city and the TASB averaged price this year, the city could have saved $130,000 in fuel costs according to Rountree. This cooperative supplies gasoline and diesel fuels only and will not affect the city’s jet fuel purchases. Through the cooperative, prices are negotiated with fuel companies and the delivery and service will not be changed, said Rountree, explaining that the fuel will still be delivered by the same fuel companies and delivery trucks as it always has been.
*Council approved a resolution nominating 3M Company as a Texas Enterprise Zone Project. This Texas Enterprise Zone Program is an economic development incentive from the Office of the Governor to promote job creation and capital investment in economically distressed areas of the state. In order to qualify, companies must have at least 25% of their new employees meet economically disadvantaged or enterprise zone requirements. 3M Company is located in an Enterprise Zone and meets the eligibility criteria.
Communities nominate a company for an Enterprise Project to the State and an application is made through a competitive process. Each quarter, 12 designations statewide are awarded. The benefit of the Enterprise Zone Program designation is that a company is eligible to apply for state sales and use tax refunds on qualified expenditures. In order to get the refund, the company must report their capital investments, taxable purchases and a number of jobs created and retained. 3M would be eligible to receive a maximum refund of $1.25 million over a five year period. 3M has over 540 employees, an annual payroll of $38 million, and an average annual capital investment of over $2.5 million. They are one of the top three largest employers in Brownwood.
Currently, Brownwood has two other Enterprise Zone Program designees, Brownwood Regional Medical Center and Kohler.
*City Manager Bobby Rountree reported that cells 12 and 13 at the landfill were now complete and that they can be put into use at the first of the year. Rountree also reported that the new fire station continues to near completion with flooring being finished up this week and millwork to be delivered next week. He is hopeful that the fire department can take occupancy of the building after the first of the year.
