A longtime Bryan municipal court associate judge is retiring.
Colleen Batchelor was recognized for her service by mayor Bobby Gutierrez at the December 10th council meeting.
Batchelor, who was appointed to the city bench in March of 1985, will retire March 31, 2025.
The council unanimously approved the personnel action following an executive session.
Click below to hear comments from the December 10, 2025 Bryan city council meeting.
Texas A&M’s president is asked about multiple subjects when he spoke at December’s faculty senate meeting. Mark Welsh said “difficult conversations” are ahead regarding budget and capacity problems in an effort to manage 80,000 students in a way “that feels comfortable”. Welsh says they “have to get right”, the university’s facilities and infrastructure, before adding more undergraduate students. Welsh says academic deans who want to start a new undergraduate program will have to decide where to downsize. And he added that faculty members have to be a part of that conversation. Program cuts do not apply to adding the number of graduate and online students. Welsh announced that an outside consultant starts work in January to review A&M’s more than 270 facilities. That was in response to a faculty member’s complaints that the university is not addressing building repairs and basic necessities of students and employees. Welsh also said he would be sending faculty members, a list of projects that will be done in the next five years on the flagship campus that are funded by the system. That was in response to a faculty member who asked why the system is spending millions on the RELLIS campus, which is controlled by the system. Another faculty member who questioned why “the administration had not stepped forward to reassure us of their commitment to LGBTQ students and their education, or to LGBTQ faculty and their teaching and research on controversial subjects.” Welsh said “I’ve probably said this 50 times publicly. All of them should be treated with respect. All of them should be included. All of them should have a voice, and should feel comfortable using it. All of them should feel like an incredibly valuable and critically important pieces of what we’re trying to accomplish here.” This subject came up after a faculty member reported a student was chased by other students who were yelling LGBTQ students. Welsh says university police will reach out to the faculty member who sent him an e-mail about the incident to get more information. Welsh was also asked about the university’s response to executive orders from the governor against the Republic of China and the Chinese Communist party. Welsh says lawyers at the A&M system want members to send them questions on how the orders could affect students and employees. He also said any decision whether to push back on the executive orders would come from the system chancellor. Click below to hear comments from Mark Welsh during the December 9, 2024 Texas A&M faculty senate meeting. Listen to “Texas A&M's president asked about multiple subjects by faculty senate members” on Spreaker.
The Bryan/College Station Salvation Army announces gifts have been collected for their 2,300 Angel Tree recipients. Speaking on WTAW’s The Infomaniacs, spokeswoman Kathleen Sanderson expressed thanks to those who donated gifts for 200 children at the last minute. Volunteers are needed to help distribute gifts Tuesday and Wednesday (December 17-18) from eight and four at the former Bealls store on the Holleman Drive side of Post Oak Mall. Volunteers are also still being recruited to ring bells at red kettle locations. Click HERE to be directed to the registertoring.com website. As of Monday (December 16), we are awaiting the results of Saturday’s B/CS mayor’s red kettle ring off. Click below to hear comments from Kathleen Sanderson, visiting with Sean Burnett on WTAW’s The Infomaniacs.
The College Station city council expresses no opposition in the first public disclosure of the possible sale of the Northgate district surface parking lot. That followed a presentation, discussion, and public comments lasting almost two hours at Thursday’s council meeting (December 12). Click HERE to read and download presentation materials from the December 12, 2024 College Station city council meeting. The following morning on WTAW’s The Infomaniacs, the city’s chief development officer says the developer’s concept is a multi story, mixed use building with retail on the ground floor and an undisclosed number of floors of student housing. And the city’s planning and development director told the council if approved, the proposal would join 20 multistory student housing buildings that are either open, under construction, or are in another stage of development…creating as many as 11,000 beds. A proposed timeline from city staff calls on the College Station council to consider a sales agreement with the developer in January. If what is currently a $13 million dollar offer is approved, the timeline calls for the sale to be closed in May 2026. During that time, there will be public engagement on the future development. That was welcomed by two of six public speakers at the council meeting, the second generation owner of Duddley’s Draw, Dee Benning, and the operations director at the Dixie Chicken, Courtney Phillips. As previously announced, the city will require the developer to create at least 100 parking spaces, make room for ride share drop off and pick up area, build restrooms, build a police substation, build a place to store trash containers, and reserve land for green space, a plaza, or a courtyard area. Click below to hear comments from the December 12, 2024 College Station city council meeting: Listen to “College Station city council to consider selling the city's Northgate surface parking lot for $13 million dollars” on Spreaker.
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