Brenham City Council Sells Water

The City of Brenham will be selling water soon, a lot of water.  Brenham City Council approved an agreement at their meeting Thursday with Dow Chemical Company to sell them the excess water from Lake Somerville.  Specifically, the agreement says that Dow Chemical will purchase 774 acre-feet of water from the city for $68,112.  Dow Chemical will not utilize the city’s intake or pipeline, but instead will capture the water from the Brazos River before it reaches the Texas coast. The city agreed to take the additional 774 acre-feet in 2019 from the Brazos River Authority.  That is in addition to the 4200 acre-feet, the city’s primary water source.  The city felt they needed the additional water due to the growth of the city.  The annual water consumption for the city is 2,777 acre-feet on average.

In other action from the City Council Meeting Thursday, the city will soon have a new 4-way stop. The intersection of Prairie Lea Street and 5th Street now has two more stop signs.  The city is looking to increase safety at the intersection with Blinn College having built the new Blinn STEI building and the new Prairie Lea Hall nearby.  Since this is technically a state roadway (FM 389) TXDOT will be installing the stop signs.

Council also approved accepting $1.04 million from the Brazos Valley Council of Governments for the improvements of Shepard Lane and Lott Lane.  Those roadways are currently very narrow and have poor drainage.  The funds with improve them with wider roadways and concrete curb and gutters.

In other action, the council approved a lease agreement with Ricoh USA for Leased Office Equipment, and also approved the first reading of a new rate tariff schedule for the City’s Electric Department. The city currently credits the bill of people who have solar or wind generators connected to their meters.  The problem arises when they generate more electricity than they use. The new rate tariff should take care of that.

The council also held a workshop session on the Fire Department.  Fire Chief Roger Williams updated the council members on his goals for the Department.  Fire Marshal Steven Loving went over the fees charged by the city for false alarms.  Currenty, the city doesn’t charge for the first 12 alarms, and only $30 after that.  He is recommending a change to only the first 5 free, $50 for false alarms 6-10, $75 for 11-15, and $100 after that.  Council member Atwood Kenjura stated that this city needs to get tougher on false alarms and suggested a stricter response.  In 2020, the Fire Department had 482 total false alarms, 516 in 2021, and 319 so far this year.  Loving said those alarms where the system performed correctly, but still sent out a false alarm, such as when cooking, would not be billed by the city.

After an executive session where the city council discussed a number of items, they came back into regular session and approved City Manager Carolyn Miller to move forward with a settlement in the WTG gas case.  WTG had filed a suit against the city stemming for gas sales during Winter Storm Uri in February of 2021.