FBISD to vote on rezoning soon: Page 2
Ridge Point comes back against Travis in girls basketball action See the story on page 6. (Photo by Bill McCaughey)
WEDNESDAY • JANUARY 16, 2019
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Chipotle is first to open in The Grid By Theresa D. McClellan THERESA@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
Months after breaking ground, the Chipotle Mexican Grill is the first business to open in the $500 million venture in Stafford called The Grid. In November, a banner flying in the wind against the new blonde-colored brick building housing the popular Mexican restaurant announced its opening. As construction and underground work continues on the massive 192 acres of the former Texas Instruments property, a site now called The Grid, workers at Chipotle happily served customers and expressed interest in what is to come to the sprawling development. “This is exciting,” Chipotle manager Miriam Santana said of the giant complex that will feature “a creative mixed-use reinvention” of the landmark site, according to the Dallas based Street Level Investments developers. “It’s going to bring a lot of people here,” said Santana. Touted as a destination retail and restaurant concept with 2,400 residential high-end units, 500,000 square feet of office space, a hotel, a central public green with pocket parks, jogging and bike trails and regularly scheduled entertainment events, evidence of work on the projects underway surrounds the light-filled restaurant. Workers in hard hats and heavy equipment could be
SEE GRID, PAGE 3
Fort Bend / Southwest • Volume 43 • No. 22
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Brazos River brinkmanship
River reaches flood stage but stays in its banks By Joe Southern JSOUTHERN@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
The Brazos River played another game of brinkmanship last week but backed off without causing major flooding in Fort Bend County. The river rose to flood levels but didn’t inundate any homes or businesses last week, unlike the four floods from 2015 through Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Brazos Bend State Park was forced to close due to minor flooding. The Brazos River Turnaround on Highway 59 and parts of Missouri City’s Edible Arbor Trail were closed but that represented the bulk of the headache caused by the swollen muddy river. “The river has crested and it’s starting to drop,” said Alan Spears, deputy emergency management coordinator for Fort Bend County. Parts of low-lying areas in Needville flooded, including Cow Creek Road, Charlie Meyer Road at Turkey Creek, and River Oaks in Pecan Bend. The gauge in Richmond showed the Brazos cresting at 46.5 feet on Wednesday. The gauge downstream in Rosharon, the one used by Brazos Bend State Park, was forecast to reach 49.7 feet but crested a foot lower than that. “We had what is called a dry flood,” Park Superintendent Chris Bishop said. “What I mean by that is the river is rising but we’re not getting clobbered with rain.” It was rain a week earlier combined with rains in the northern river basin that led to the rising river according to the National Weather Service. “Most of these crests are driven solely from local rainfall,” Katie Landry-Guyton of the National Weather Service in Houston-Galveston said in a video update last
Christopher Bishop, superintendent of Brazos Bend State Park, shows the fishing pier at Hale Lake which flooded due to rising waters from the Brazos River. (Photo by Joe Southern)
week. In Brazos Bend, Bishop said he made the decision to close the park once the forecast topped 46.5 feet in Rosharon. “We don’t want to have a false sense of confidence for future floods, so 46.5 feet is my trigger point for closing in the future,” he said. At that point the road leading to the campgrounds goes under water and several of the trails become impassable. A handful of campsites flooded and the fishing pier at Hale Lake went under water again. Several popular hiking trails were closed as well. They are flooded not by the Brazos River, but by tributaries such as Big Creek that get backed up and experience a reverse flow. In Missouri City, authorities closed a portion of the Edible Arbor Trail due to minor flooding. “Staff has evaluated this section and closed both sides of the trail under FM
SaberCats try again
High water of the Brazos River flows under the train bridge in Richmond Thursday. The river reached flood levels but left Fort Bend County mostly unscathed. (Photo by Joe Southern)
1092 (Murphy Road) with barricades until the water recedes. Residents are advised to avoid these high water areas and use caution while walking on the trail and in
Mosley Park,” the city said in a press release. “According to the Fort Bend Office of Emergency Management, the river’s forecast crest level is about
10 feet lower than both Hurricane Harvey and Memorial Day in 2016, and five feet lower than Memorial Day and Tax Day flooding in 2015,” the city said.
Fort Bend Museum to be remodeled after fire By Joe Southern JSOUTHERN@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
The Houston SaberCats kicked off the second year of the Major League Rugby with a pre-season match against the Austin Elite at Constellation Field. See the story on page 6. (Photo by Joe Southern)
When a fire damaged part of the Fort Bend Museum in Richmond last year it left the burning question of how to rebuild the facility. The answer will formally be presented to the public with a major announcement at the end of January. Members of the Sugar Land Rotary Club, however, got a preview last Wednesday when Fort Bend History Association Board President Tim Kaminski made a presentation to the civic organization. He said the Fort Bend History Association will launch a nearly $2 million fundraising campaign to renovate the museum. “There’s been talk for years about renovating the museum, moving the museum, doing something else with it. But we decided it’s best to stay where we’re at, to stay on property. We are
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Showing an artist rendering of the remodeled Fort Bend Museum at Wednesday’s Sugar Land Rotary Club meeting are, from the left, Rotary Club President Margie Connolly, Fort Bend History Association Board President Tim Kaminski, and FBHA Executive Director Claire Rogers. (Photo by Joe Southern)
going into a major renovation campaign for the Fort Bend County Museum. With that, here’s what our future is going to look like,” he said, unveiling conceptual drawings of the revised facility. “Going forward, the drawing is in a carriage house style, something that
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typically would have been on the property had there been a carriage house there to begin with. This first part is an addition onto it so we can have additional office space and then the part that is currently the exhibit hall,
SEE MUSEUM, PAGE 3
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