College Station City Council hears multiple items of interest during Thursday night’s meeting

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – The College Station City Council meeting Thursday night had a few items of interest for residents.

First, the council heard about interest from Viasat to terminate the Economic Development Agreement that was made in 2016. This was an incentive for the business to hire locally and expand payrolls, in order to have fees waived and reimbursements from the city.

The city made one payment to the company in 2020 when Viasat achieved its goals for the incentive. But, according to city documents, Viasat moved employees to work remotely when COVID-19 hit and they chose to not request incentives in 2021 and 2022. Thursday, the company requested to terminate the agreement citing a change in their presence in College Station and the sale of their building.

The termination was unanimously approved. City Manager, Bryan Woods, told the council no money was owed to or from the city.

Councilmembers also unanimously approved $852,307 to move utilities along Highway 6. This is necessary to prepare for a highway widening project from TxDOT. TxDOT told KBTX Thursday that this project will span almost 12 miles from William D Fitch to SH-21. It was originally planned to happen in two phases, but now will be completed in one. TxDOT will begin bidding for the project at the end of 2024 and it will take at least four years to complete.

The council was also given a presentation from the College Station Emergency Management Coordinator, Tradd Mills. Mills told the council they continue to work with surrounding agencies on communication and training. Mills also shared a reminder for residents, encouraging them to sign up for ‘Code Red’.

This is an emergency alert system that residents countywide can sign up for. It will notify them of any dangers nearby.

“If there is an emergency say like an active shooter or a train derailment or even a missing person, we can geolocate an area and we can blast out text messages, cell phone calls as well as landline calls, to alert everyone in that area that they can either evacuate, shelter in place or help locate lost individuals,” Mills said.

Residents can sign up for alerts here.