Cost To Build Brazos County’s Medical Examiner’s Office Increasing Almost $10 Million Dollars

Bryan City Council Moves Ahead With Building A New Animal Center

March of 2025 will mark seven years since the Bryan city council agreed to start studying the construction of a new animal center. It would replace a building that’s been used since the council decided to take over animal control services in 2011. At Tuesday’s city council meeting (December 10), the decision was made to build a more than $7 million dollar facility. The city department head whose responsibilities includes the animal center, Eric Zaragoza, reviewed the results of a feasibility study that included: • More animal habitats are needed • Spaces are used for multiple purposes, compromising primary functions • Many program needs do not have specifically designated space • Rooms are used as passageways for unrelated functions • Facility needs improved accessibility • Public access to animal habitats and comingled air creates potential for disease to spread Click HERE to read and download presentation materials from the December 10, 2024 Bryan city council meeting. All seven council members supported the project. Six agreed to build it on city owned property on Martin Luther King Jr. Street next to the municipal services center. Ray Arrington, who represents the district where the center will be built, said neighbors were opposed. Construction could start in October 2025. Zaragoza shared the following statistics about the Bryan Animal Center (BAC): • Around 9,000 visitors per year at the BAC • The BAC has the city’s largest pool of volunteers, with 3,000 applications this past year and since 2015 volunteers donated more than 31,000 hours • During fiscal year 2024, the center took in 1,361 animals • Animal control officers returned 667 pets to owners in FY 24 • Save rate of animals is 69% • Since 2021, BAC has provided 1,537 vaccinations, 1,373 microchips, and 1,196 sterilizations Click below to hear comments from the December 11, 2024 Bryan city council meeting. Listen to “Bryan city council moves forward with building a new animal center” on Spreaker.

Collision Of Two Pickups In Northern Brazos County Kills One Driver And Seriously Injures A Second Driver

A collision of two pickup trucks in northern Brazos County Wednesday morning (December 11) killed one driver and seriously injured a second driver. A Texas department of public safety spokesman says they are investigating the reason the driver of a southbound pickup on FM 2223 near OSR highway crossed the double yellow line on a curve and struck an oncoming dually pickup. The driver of the southbound truck died. He was identified as 21 year old Joshua Huffman of Lucedale Mississippi, which is northwest of Mobile Alabama. The driver of the dually was taken to a hospital in Bryan.

Brazos County District Court Jury Convicts And Sentences Bryan Man For Committing Sex Crimes Involving A Child Victim

A Brazos County district court jury takes 30 minutes to find a Bryan man guilty of sex crimes with a child. Those deliberations included the jury asking and receiving the judge’s responses to two questions. The jury then sentenced 53 year old Dana Pettigrew to 45 years for illegal contact and 20 years for illegal exposure. Both sentences will be served at the same time. And Pettigrew is awaiting another trial on a charge of violating a protection order against the child’s mother. News release from the Brazos County district attorney’s office: Dana Pettigrew, 53, was sentenced to 45 years in prison on Friday, December 6th by a Brazos County Jury for Indecency with a Child by Sexual Contact. The jury convicted the defendant after deliberating for only 30 minutes. The jury also convicted the defendant of Indecency with a Child by Exposure and sentenced him to the maximum punishment of 20 years in prison for that charge. The two sentences will run concurrently. Pettigrew was charged with the two Indecency with a Child charges in March of 2023 after a child who lived in his home disclosed that the defendant had touched her inappropriately and exposed himself to her in the past. At the time of the disclosure, Pettigrew was no longer living in the home and was the subject of a protective order against his wife. In August of 2022, Pettigrew was charged with violating the protective order. Those charges are still pending. During the trial, the jury heard evidence of domestic violence against the mother of the victim in the case. They also heard testimony from another woman who had been molested by the defendant when she was a teenager in Ohio. She is now an adult. This additional evidence would not have been possible without the outstanding work of Detective Patricia Marty with the College Station Police Department, the Akron, Ohio Police Department and the Cuyahoga County District Attorney’s Office. Both young women were able to provide victim impact statements following sentencing. Statement issued by assistant district attorneys Kara Comte and Tonika Davis: “Believing a child who discloses abuse is the first step to achieving justice. This jury was able to provide much needed closure and justice to two brave girls.”