The Bryan city council approves going to condemnation to acquire easements to build a sewer line and lift station covering areas south and east of the RELLIS campus.
That action was taken during a special council meeting on Tuesday (September 17), along with awarding a $5.6 million dollar construction contract.
The project is time sensitive, according to city documents, because in order to use federal pandemic grant money there has to be a construction contract by the end of 2024.
Before the council’s unanimous votes, one of the property owners affected by the condemnation action tells the council that city staff is “dysfunctional”.
Alfred Smith, who said he is in the land business and deals with easements, says he has attempted for four years to reach an agreement with the city.
The council or city staff did not respond to Smith saying that the city is not going to take care of controlling sewage odor and that the city plans to remove three oak trees that are 200 years old.
Councilmembers had other questions. Councilwoman Marca Ewers-Shurtleff asked public works director Jayson Barfknecht “Has your office made every good faith attempt that they can make to reach some kind of compromise in this case?” Barfknecht told Shurtleff “I think we’ve done a really good effort to try and meet with the property owners and meet with their attorneys to try to reach an agreement.”
Click below to hear comments from the September 17, 2024 Bryan city council meeting.
