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City Manager Emily Crawford on Tuesday provided those in attendance at the Brownwood City Council meeting with an update on major projects planned by the City of Brownwood for the 2023-34 fiscal year.
A complete renovation of Riverside Park headlines the vast undertakings.
“This is our largest ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funded project that we have on the books, and it’s out for bid,” Crawford said of Riverside Park. “Over $2 million is expected and that’s for complete new roads, curbs, lighting, improvements to the pavilion, signage, and landscaping.”
Other projects include:
* Health Department Renovation and Relocation
“We are out to bid now for that construction project,” Crawford said. “This is an ARPA funded project. We’ve been working on it for a really long time. The Health Department is excited and hopefully should be able to move next year.”
The Health Department is moving to 305 Booker, next to TSTC at the site of the former Piggy Wiggly grocery store.
* Allcorn Park play equipment
“This is something we’ve had on the back burner for quite some time,” Crawford said. “With the donation from ARC, we are in the process of selecting the equipment. We should see the project happen in the coming fiscal year.”
* Bennie Houston Replacement Plan and possible construction
“We are making our site tours in a couple of weeks to other rec centers that are of similar size as we would expect for our population,” Crawford said. “We will be bringing back to Council some plans that we’ll have.”
* Downtown Master Plan
“The Downtown Master Plan is well under way and we’re in the rendering phase of some major catalyst projects,” Crawford said. “We will be bringing that to Council in December or January for approval. At that time we can consider which of those plans we want to move forward with in the coming year.”
*Airport Terminal Renovation
“Due to an unfortunate sewer back up at the airport, we have an opportunity to do a renovation of the terminal,” Crawford said. “Between insurance money and grant funds, we’re going to get to completely renovate the airport terminal and improve it with a new pilot’s lounge. We’ve already awarded that bid and construction is going.”
* Lift Station Upgrades
“This is another ARPA funded project,” Crawford said. “There are four lift stations we are completely replacing, which is a great use of federal dollars of infrastructure that will last for many, many years to come.”
* Landfill Expansion
“The cell is complete but we also have litter netting to install and perimeter fencing to install and that will be done in the coming months,” Crawford said.
Also mentioned were updates at the Service Center along with new water meters, the utility billing cycle change, HR software upgrades for the City, personnel policy updates for City employees, and the fire department shifting to a 48-hour on/96-hour off schedule.