Mayoral appointments of Gregg Rice and Keith Clark to the Brownwood Economic Development Corporation were approved Tuesday by the Brownwood City Council.
Terms of two current members of the BEDC, Gary Butts and Calvin Fryar, will expire on October 1, 2011. According to Brownwood Mayor Stephen Haynes, these two did not wish to continue as members. Fryar has served two terms and Butts did not wish to be reappointed due to health and other considerations.
The new members of the five member BEDC board are businessmen that are well known in the community.
Gregg Rice is the Human Resources Director at 3M. Haynes stated that Rice represents the industrial aspect of BEDC being an employee of 3M.
“Gregg Rice has shown himself to be very community minded and has been very involved in implementing the workforce training programs at Brownwood High School,” stated Mayor Haynes.
Keith Clark is a longtime Brownwood resident who is also the vice president of Citizens National Bank. He is also a member of the City of Brownwood’s Parks and Recreation committee.
Mayor Haynes spoke of discussion and consideration with Emily Crawford, Economic Development Direction regarding the appointments.
“Emily and I have discussed these appointments at length and she is very supportive of these recommendations,” said Haynes.
In other matters on Tuesday’s Brownwood City Council agenda:
*Council held a public hearing on the proposal to increase the total tax revenues from properties on the tax roll by 1.5% by adopting the proposed tax rate of $0.7452 per $100 value. This will be adopted at the special called meeting September 20th and approved at the regular meeting scheduled for September 27th.
*Council approved on first reading an ordinance establishing a school speed zone along streets adjacent to the Brownwood High School.
*Council approved authorization of the mayor to sign Fourth Amendment to Lease with Federal Express Corporation, regarding their leased building at the airport.
*Finance Director Walter Middleton discussed the Fireman’s Retirement and Relief Fund Actuarial Valuation Report. Middleton stated that the fund was found to be actuarially sound and the actuaries did not require or recommend any increases in benefits/reductions of coverage.
*City Manager Bobby Rountree reported that the comprehensive plan is going to be a vastly superior product compared to the last study’s plan. Rountree and Mayor Haynes traveled to Texas A&M to discuss information from city department heads. This information was well received by the students who were glad to have the input to allow them to add details to the plan which make it very specific to our community.
