During Tuesday morning’s meeting, the Brownwood City Council unanimously authorized City Manager Emily Crawford to engage an engineer to develop plans for the pavement improvements at the Service Center.

The Service Center yard primarily consists of road base and dirt. Staff would like to make improvements by having the majority of the yard covered with a black top material. This will help control the dust, ponding of water, diversion of storm water and provide a better driving surface.

The work would include laying hot mix in the entrance, around the fuel island and in front of the warehouse while the other areas will have black base installed because of the heavy equipment.

Since the project includes replacing a permeable surface with a non-permeable surface, staff had to conduct a drainage study which determined that the drainage on the east side of the property will have to have a retaining wall built. Once engineering is complete and bids are received, staff will bring a recommendation of a contractor to Council.

Funding for this project will come out of the Service Center account.

Also Tuesday, City Council authorized Mayor Stephen Haynes to sign a letter supporting the Pecan Bayou Soil and Water Conservation District Community Wildland Defense Grant application.

Since wildfire is one of Brown County’s highest hazards, the Pecan Bayou Soil and Water Conservation District is interested in writing a Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) through the US Forest Service. This plan is being written in collaboration with Brown County, local fire departments and TFS. Letters of support are needed to fulfill a requirement for a Community Wildfire Defense Grant.

The Pecan Bayou intends to submit the application when submissions open in August of this year. The amount that will be requested in the grant is $10 million dollars. Currently the grant team has identified projects totaling over $15 million dollars in Brown County.

There are no projects currently being looked at inside of the city limits of Brownwood but there are some high hazard areas on the border of Brownwood that have been identified.

The biggest priority for the Community Wildfire Defense Grant is vegetation management and fuel reduction. If Brown County is awarded the grant, there will be a cost share to the individual requesting funding but since Brown County meets the low-income criteria a cost share waiver is being written into the grant. If this grant is awarded there will be no cost to the County or City.

The Brown County Commissioners also made a similar document in support of this grant.

Council also approved entering into a Cyber Interlocal Agreement to participate in newly-created TML Cyber Fund, with the Core+ 2024-2025 Annual Contribution of $1,250.

The City currently has TML Core+ Cyber Coverage with the insurance pool, but TML has recently changed their Cyber Security insurance coverage. This change requires that any city wishing to participate in cyber coverage, must opt-in to the newly-created Cyber Fund by September 2024.

Core+ provides:

* Tower I – Data & Network, Media Liability Aggregate Limit of Liability equaling $1,000,000

* Tower 2 – First Party Loss, Third Party Loss, and eCrime Limit of Liability equaling $250,000

* Tower 3 – Breach Response Aggregate Limit of Liability equaling $150,000.

A limit of $25,000,000 is shared by all Members for aggregate losses occurring within the fund Year as defined in the Cyber Liability and Data Breach Response Interlocal Agreement.

Also Tuesday, Council approved a resolution declaring old vehicles, parts, and equipment as surplus property and authorizing staff to sell, scrap, donate, or recycle. Proceeds from the sale of the surplus property shall be combined into the special purpose fund designated for the improvements to the Service Center.

Passed on the consent agenda was authorization for the City Manager to sign contracts, implement, maintain, amend, renew or request closure of any contract with Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC).

The contracts had previously been signed by the Mayor. However, many signatures now have to be done electronically through the HHSC website, so it is more administratively efficient for the City Manager to sign.