Increase in Giving Could Be Sign of Economic Recovery

City of Navasota Takes Action After Unauthorized Credit Card Use

The City of Navasota announced today that three city employees resigned after being caught using city funds for personal gain. Officials say the three employees came forward voluntarily and provided statements to Navasota police. They submitted their resignations and entered into restitution agreements to repay the amounts. The employees were caught misusing city issued credit cards. The cards were meant to purchase fuel for city vehicles, but they were instead fueling up their own vehicles. City administration says they received information about the abuse earlier this week and referred the matter to the Navasota Police Department. After an NPD investigation confirmed the misuse, the City consulted with the City Attorney’s Office and the Grimes County District Attorney’s Office to address the misconduct, recover public funds, and protect the integrity of City operations. The following information is from the press release from the City of Navasota: “The misuse of public funds is a serious violation of the trust placed in every City employee,” City Manager Robert Hemminger said. “Once this matter was brought to our attention, we acted quickly to alert law enforcement and provide documentation of purchases. Our responsibility is to protect the taxpayers, hold individuals accountable, recover the funds involved, and take appropriate steps to prevent similar misconduct in the future.” The City has already implemented additional safeguards, including supervisory review and oversight of credit card usage. City administration is also evaluating further procedural and technological controls to strengthen monitoring, documentation, and accountability. “The actions of a few individuals do not reflect the character and dedication of the many City employees who faithfully serve this community every day,” Hemminger said. “We remain committed to transparency, accountability, and restoring any public trust affected by this incident.” The investigation and review of relevant transactions remain ongoing. The City will take further action if additional unauthorized activity is identified. Because the matter involves an active investigation and personnel information, the City will not release additional details at this time.

City of Bryan Announces Two Hour Parking Limit in Downtown

Starting on Monday, July 27, 2026, the City of Bryan will initiate a two-hour parking limit in Historic Downtown Bryan. There will be 139 timed spaces along the storefronts for five blocks of Main Street between 23rd Street and 28th Street. They are clearly marked with green and white two-hour parking signs and pavements markings. The timed spots will remain free to use…so long as you use them for two hours or less. Violators will be subject to a $35 fine for their first offense, and a fine of $35-$500 for repeat offenses. The time limits will only be enforced between 8:00am and 5:00pm, Monday through Friday. The City says creating the timed parking zone will improve turnover in key areas and make parking at Downtown businesses more accessible for residents and visitors. In addition to the 139 time limited spaces, there are more than 2,000 untimed spaces throughout the Downtown area. The image shows the new two-hour spots, highlighted in green.  

College Station City Council Meeting Recap 07/23/2026

The College Station City Council held a regularly scheduled meeting Thursday night. The meeting lasted four hours and 25 minutes. The meeting opened with a Proclamation designating July 23, 2026 as Texas A&M Women’s Tennis Day, in honor of their recent 2026 National Championship. The hear visitors portion of the meeting allows speakers to voice concerns on items that are not on the agenda. Robert Rose, owner of Cycles, Etc. asked the council to provide an avenue to have our state legislators be more serious when it comes to cyclist safety and penalties for those that strike riders along highways…in reference to the recent killing of 26-year-old Hannah Rapp as she rode along FM159 on Saturday. The Consent Agenda passed in full, approving nearly $9-million in spending. This spending include just over $7-million in funding for amenities at Texas Independence Park such as a bike track, a playground, picnic areas, a disc golf course, fishing, and trails. The Workshop Agenda was spent mostly on a presentation by College Station Police Chief Billy Couch in support of the use of Automated License Plate Readers (ALPR’s). He confirmed there are currently 75 cameras within the City of College Station. He presented statistics gathered between January 1, 2026 through July 17, 2026 that showed Flock cameras in College Station identified 293 vehicles known to be associated with someone with outstanding warrants, 67 stolen vehicles, and pinged on 9 known missing persons. The majority of citizens spoke out against the use of the cameras, claiming they are an invasion of privacy and worry that the company behind the cameras will utilize the information captured in questionable manner. Charles Fleeger, the Executive Director of the Amber Alert Network of the Brazos Valley, expressed his support. He said that had these cameras existed in 1996, the assailant in the murder of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman may have been brought to justice. Hagerman is the namesake of the Amber Alert system founded in October 1996. Her murderer still has not been found. Many referenced the viral picture of a camera facing the pool at The Woodlands apartments on Harvey Mitchell Pkwy South in College Station. Council advised that particular camera is privately owned by the complex and not part of their system, specifying that all their cameras are on roadways. Even though the camera discussion took up a large portion of the evening, it was a non-action item. The idea was only to hear a presentation from the Police Chief, hear resident concerns, and have a Q&A with representatives from Flock. The first item on the regular agenda was the public hearing on the proposed budget. Two residents signed up to speak. One questioned if the boost to our economy from the current Big 6 construction project and the upcoming Terafab factory had any impact on the budget. Mayor Nichols explained that the City can only go off the numbers currently available. There was no action on the budget itself. Only a motion that the budget will be adopted at the August 27, 2026 regular council meeting. Mary Ellen Leonard, Director or Fiscal Services for the City of College Station, says she expects to have the final numbers from the Brazos County Appraisal District by the end of business tomorrow. Those numbers will be presented to the council at the August 13th meeting. The final order of business was whether or not to institute eminent domain on the final piece of land required to proceed with the Rock Prairie East widening project. Jennifer Cain, Director of Capital Projects, said the current landowners have not responded to requests from the city via email, telephone, and Certified Mail. Council voted unanimously to move forward with eminent domain proceedings. The following is more detailed information on all agenda items: CONSENT AGENDA ($8,888,600.00): ALL ITEMS PASSED 7.2. Construction Manager at Risk contract amendment with Skanska USA Building Inc. for GMP #1 for Texas Independence Park at Midtown, in the amount of $6,852,842 plus the City’s contingency in the amount of $200,000 for a total appropriation of $7,052,842. Project involves the design and construction of Texas Independence Park at Midtown, located at 6904 Rock Prairie Road East. Amenities to Texas Independence Park include Bike Hub/Track, Playground, Picnic Areas, Disc Golf, Fishing, and Trails. 7.3. Solid Waste Container Lease agreement with Brannon Industrial Group, LLC for an annual expenditure of $543,300. This item is consideration of an annual lease agreement for the rental of 1,391 front-end loading refuse containers used by the Public Works Solid Waste division’s commercial collection operations. City ordinances require commercial entities to use city-issued containers for solid waste collection. While the city purchases and owns certain types of containers for collection use, front-end loading containers are leased by the city. The fee for the use of these containers is included in the solid waste rate. The breakdown of monthly rental costs included in the agreement is as follows: 158 four-yard containers at $29.00 Five (5) six-yard containers at $31.00 1,221 eight-yard containers at $33.00 Seven (7) eight-yard containers with side sliding doors at $35.00 7.4. Franchise Ordinance with United Site Solutions, LLC For Recyclables (Second Reading). Ordinance granting United Site Solutions, LLC a non-exclusive franchise for the use of public streets, alleys, and public rights-of-ways within the city for the purpose of providing collection of demolition and construction debris, recyclables, and organic waste from commercial, industrial, and multi-family sites. Counting United Site Solutions, LLC, the city has a total of nineteen (19) franchised haulers. This list can be found on the city’s website under Public Works. 7.5. Interlocal Agreement with Texas A&M University Health Science Center. The interlocal agreement with the Texas A&M University Health Science Center would allow the College Station Police Department to work with the center to coordinate and interview adult sexual assault victims with a forensic interviewer. This setup works similar to how Scotty’s House handles forensic interviews with children. The interview process is trauma-informed and prevents victims from being re-victimized multiple times through police […]