After lengthy discussion regarding both items, the Brownwood City Council Tuesday morning approved change orders not to exceed $120,000 for Riverside Park construction, electrical, and lift station improvements, as well as $15,636.25 regarding sewer improvements near the Brownwood Coliseum.

Both change orders will be paid for out of American Rescue Plan interest earnings, but one of several questions posed by Ward 4 City Council member Draco Miller Jr. was, “what if we couldn’t?”

“We are all ecstatic right now that we can still do this, but there’s going to come a point where, whether it be grant funding or ARPA funds, all of those are going to go by the wayside and the City is writing the check,” Miller said. “That means we’re robbing Peter to pay Paul because that means other projects are put on the back burner, not done, or whatever the case may be.”

Deputy City Manager Marshal McIntosh told the Council if the money was not available for the changes at Riverside Park, “We’d have to reduce the scope, but right now we have the ability to not reduce the scope, and this will allow us to complete the project if Council approves.”

The City of Brownwood approved an initial construction contract to Sullivan Construction for Riverside Park. Since construction, several items have delayed progress including weather, lift station upgrades, and most notably Oncor underground electrical work.

The following items are needed for completion of the project, and these items have been added in addition to the initial construction contract. These expenses were unexpected for the project scope, and after, engineering and electrical design was completed by engineering firm eHT.

• $16,321.91 to Oncor for underground electrical work
• $27,500 to Martin Earth Works for retaining wall and work for transformer / lift station.
• $66,018.44 for change order to Sullivan Contract for Riverside Park.

Mayor Stephen Haynes told the Council, “eHT designed the electrical component a certain way, Oncor didn’t approve what they designed. For whatever reason Oncor changed its standard on this project. This is a mistake in professional judgment by eHT, but they were relying on Oncor’s approval of a prior project. We’ve asked Oncor for an explanation and we have not be given a very good one. To be frank, Oncor in the last two or three years has become pretty difficult for us to communicate with and deal with on these types of issues.”

McIntosh did confirm to the Council that Oncor offered initial approval on a site visit, “but after that site visit multiple times there were changes … so this is the only allowable pathway forward.”

City Manager Emily Crawford told the Council, “I want to assure you we have been working on this issue for at least six months trying to bring a resolution and work with these new engineers, trying to get headway with Oncor. Believe me when I say this is the very last option that we had, but we’ve come to a point as a staff we feel like we’ve exhausted our abilities to negotiate and convince. eHT is aware of our dissatisfaction with having to bring this to you and we will keep that in mind when we go out for future engineering.”

Riverside Park is expected to be open to the public again by the end of the 2024 calendar year.

Regarding the other change order, the City of Brownwood is closing out a second TxCDBG Community Development Grant (CDBG) from the Texas Department of Agriculture in the amount of $350,000.

The original application was prepared and applied for in 2021 and awarded in 2023. The TxCDBG Grant replaced water and sewer lines within the Valley-San Jacinto neighborhood. The completed sewer improvements replaced old, dilapidated clay tile sewer lines and brick manholes and restored the integrity of the sewer collection system to meet Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) design requirements.

The water improvements completed the looping of existing dead-ended water lines. Previous dead-end lines allowed for less than desired water quality within the project area. The new lines allow better circulation of the water in the distribution system and avoid stagnant water with low disinfectant residual at the service taps.

The change order was needed to reconcile final quantities completed by JM Pipeline on the CDBG project, which were water and sewer lines in the San Jacinto/Malone area. The main additive item is the increase in the number of sewer reconnections. Again, these are existing services that were not included in the original bid due to a typo by engineering firm eHT.

The change order is a net $21,301.25 contract increase, bringing the final contract amount for JM Pipeline to $330,636.25. The City will utilize $5,665 of previously unobligated CDBG grant funds and will contribute an additional $15,636.25 of local funds, again coming from ARPA interest, to pay for the change order.

The Council also approved rejecting all bids for the parking lot construction and development at the BNSF lot located on Washington Street and authorized staff to re-bid the project and pay for additional testing, engineering and design services.

This intended parking lot would be for the Brownwood Event Center Complex and greatly enhance the aesthetics of that area to compliment the facility, according to the City.

The original budget for this project was set at $450,000 but several unknown elements related to the site have greatly increased this project cost including drainage, required detention pond, the cost from Oncor for underground utilities, the size of the paved parking area, information related to the usability of existing dirt from the site, and cost for several ancillary items.

The City went out for bid for this project and opened sealed bids on Oct. 1. Three construction firms submitted bids and Staff recommended rejecting all submitted bids and paying BRW Architects to initiate additional site testing, design and engineering services to create a new set of bid specs to reduce the cost of this project. Additional expenses are estimated to be $19,200.

Possible actions to reduce the costs in future bids are:

• Soil samples to quantify the amount of existing usable dirt at the site.
• Possibly use highway millings from TxDOT to reduce the cost.
• Reduce the paved area of the parking lot.
• Reduce the amount of parking lights.
• Reduce some landscaping and irrigation.

Staff will work with BRW to improve the specs on this through a contract amendment.

The Council on Tuesday also rejected the one bid for to purchase and install a new recycling baler at the Landfill. Staff recommended rejecting this bid and re-soliciting to acquire more bids and a better price.

The Council approved a First Amendment to Financial Advisory Agreement with Hilltop Securities for the La Cresta Development.

At the Sept. 24 meeting, Council approved a Public Improvement District (“PID”) Policy that requires a developer to enter into a professional services Deposit and Reimbursement Agreement with the City to pay for the City’s professional service expenses in establishing and administering a PID.

At the Oct. 22 meeting, Council approved a Deposit and Reimbursement Agreement with First Advisors, Inc. The Agreement requires the developer to deposit an initial balance of $25,000 to pay for the City’s professional expenses that will be incurred in evaluating and creating a PID and TIRZ as part of the negotiation of a development agreement. In the event the balance with the City drops below $5,000, the Developer will replenish the balance to $25,000.

The First Amendment to Financial Advisory Agreement with Hilltop Securities is for financial advisement for a development agreement and bond issuance, if applicable. The fee schedule remains unchanged for conventional financial advisory services. The addition is the section titled Development Services and Development Debt Instruments.

The agreement requires an upfront fee for work on development projects of $25,000, and a fee equal to 2% of bonds or debt issued. The developer’s escrow will pay for the upfront fee, and fees based on debt would come from the debt proceeds.

Council also approved a contract with SpyGlass Group, LLC, to analyze telecommunications service accounts to seek cost recovery, service elimination and cost reduction recommendations.

This audit would provide a review to identify and rectify billing errors, if any, optimize telecommunication services and expenses, and possibly save money by uncovering inefficiencies and unnecessary costs within the City’s phone and data network usage, contracts, and billing practices.

The audit process would ensure that the City is only billed for the services it utilizes, identifies outdated or redundant services, and ensures contracts align with market standards. An expense will not be incurred to the City unless the audit results find errors in invoicing, unused telecommunication services, or cost savings to the City.

At that time, if changes are made to services that are the result of the audit, the City would share 50% of the cost savings for those changes with Spyglass for one year. There would not be an initial expense, and if no issues are found, the City does not pay Spyglass anything.

Council also approved a resolution abandoning the Outbuilding located at 1601 Indian Creek Drive.

The City built an approximately 195 square foot Outbuilding that housed a chlorine booster station at 1601 Indian Creek Drive. The City has not used the Outbuilding since about 2010 when it removed the water pump station.

Recently, the private property at 1601 Indian Creek Drive sold and the realtor responsible for the sale asked the City about the ownership of the Outbuilding. The Outbuilding is located on a 10 foot-wide prescriptive easement that runs in front of the private property.

The City has no need or use for the Outbuilding. Thus, the City can abandon in place the Outbuilding since it does not have a need or use for the Outbuilding. The resolution does not waive the City’s rights, title and interest in the easement that runs in front of the private property.

Council also approved recommended changes to the City of Brownwood TMRS Retirement Plan as well as the Brownwood/Brown County Health Department TMRS Plan.

The Council approved a resolution adopting a policy prohibiting the use of TikTok and other social media applications and services on City devices. Last session, the Texas legislature passed Senate Bill 1893, which prohibits the use of TikTok and certain other social media applications and services on governmental devices.

The Council also accepted a $2,000 donation from Blue Cross Blue Shield to Brownwood/Brown County Health Department to be used for health promotion at the quarterly Maternity Fair.

Prior to the business of the day, the Brownwood High School FFA Ag Issues Team gave a presentation regarding school vouchers during Tuesday’s Brownwood City Council meeting.