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WEDNESDAY • MARCH 2, 2022
Work begins on new Precinct 3 annex
Fort Bend County has begun work on a new $9 million Precinct 3 annex. The commissioners court recently approved a resolution declaring its plans to use bond funds to pay for the new precinct annex, and in early February paid a Houston architecture firm’s first invoice toward designing the facility. “This was supposed to be the Precinct 4 annex that was approved in an old bond,” Precinct 3 Commissioner Andy Meyers said in a phone interview. “Commissioner (Ken) DeMerchant had hired an architecture firm and the county had purchased a site near the Imperial Sugar Land area. I’ve inherited all that.” Meyers’ precinct, which was previously based in Katy, has shifted to the Sugar Land and Missouri City areas as part of the county’s latest redistricting efforts. DeMerchant’s Precinct 4 has shifted from Sugar Land and Missouri City out toward Richmond and Rosenberg. DeMerchant’s office in late 2019 first envisioned a new Precinct 4 annex as a facility that served as a one-stop shop for nearby residents, including a tax office, a district and county clerk, a justice of the peace, constable and commissioner’s office, according to Ahmad Alaswad, DeMerchant’s chief of staff. “In the past, residents had to go to one building for the tax office and another building (not walking distance) for JP, constable and commissioner,” Alaswad said. “Residents would have to go to Richmond for the rest of the departments.” Voters in 2019 approved funding for the annex through a $237.3 million facilities bond referendum, according to Meyers. The coronavirus pandemic temporarily stalled progress on the project, but DeMerchant resumed planning on it in 2021 before redistricting moved him out of the area, Alaswad said. Construction on the project should begin sometime in 2023, Meyers said. Alaswad said it would take about two years to complete the project.
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Fort Bend / Southwest • Volume 46 • No. 28
Appeals board rejects lingerie store’s request to open By Matt deGrood MDEGROOD@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
By Matt deGrood MDEGROOD@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
Various Color Options
The battle between the city of Missouri City and a women’s lingerie store rages on. Missouri City’s zoning board of adjustment and appeals last week unanimously rejected
Cindie’s request to reverse the city’s earlier decision, which rejected the company’s certifi-
cate of occupancy. The latest decision to prevent the store from opening a location in the city came during a meeting that generated quite a bit of public comment and debate. “I support their right to do business, but not outside my residential community,” said John
Bertram, a resident in the nearby Quail Valley subdivision, during public comment last week. “It’s not my concern that they’ve lost $150,000 to $500,000 on this. I don’t want it.” Representatives for the lingerie store have been feuding with the city over the definition
of a sexually-oriented business. City inspectors in December deemed Cindie’s, 6302 State Highway 6, to be a sexually-oriented business – a categorization that would require the business to seek a rezoning
SEE REJECT PAGE 7
Grave concern
Former U.S. Rep. Pete Olson, right, and Fort Bend County resident Nick Landoski are spearheading efforts to preserve historic graves in Kendleton, which was founded as a freedom colony by emancipated slaves in the 19th century. (Photo by Matt deGrood)
Former U.S. Rep. Olson works to preserve historic graves in Kendleton By Matt deGrood MDEGROOD@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
A single, worn sign reading “grave site” is the only indication to visitors of Kendleton’s Bates Allen Park that they’re mere feet away from the final resting place of the only Black man nominated to be Texas’ Speaker of the House. Benjamin Franklin Williams led an esteemed life – a Republican lawmaker who served three terms in the Texas Legislature and was one of the founders of
the freedmen’s community in Kendleton. Kendleton was founded as a freedom colony by emancipated slaves in the 19th century, according to a 2013 Houston Chronicle article. But as much as Williams’ final resting place belies the importance of the man, his grave is in comparatively better shape than those just a stone’s throw away in Oak Hill Cemetery. A road sign notes the presence of the cemetery, but a literal forest has grown up around
the 4 acres of markers, some of them containing people born as early as 1827. “Gone, but not forgotten,” many of the grave markers read. That’s not quite true, said Nick Landoski, a Fort Bend County resident, during a recent visit to the site. Former U.S. Rep. Pete Olson recently read about Williams’ life, learned he’d been buried in Fort Bend County and made the visit out to Bates Allen Park. “I drove down to Kend-
leton this morning to pay my respects to this Texas hero,” Olson said. “I left upset and angry.” Olson said the lack of historical designation or marker, along with the general disrepair of the site, upset him. “You have to walk through grass, weeds and mud to get to Mr. Williams’ grave,” he said. “There are no fences or barriers to keep the feral pigs or fire ants away. I had to pull a mass of grass and dead weeds away just to see the words ‘Benjamin Wil-
liams’ on his tombstone.” Sha’Terra Johnson, the vice president of the Fort Bend Black Heritage Society, said she’d known about Williams for some time, but hadn’t been able to find his grave until Olson posted about it on social media. “I’d been looking on the wrong side of the park,” she said. “We also weren’t aware the grave site was in the condition that it’s in.” Olson and Landoski are
SEE HISTORIC PAGE 7
Missouri City parks department earns state, national honors By Matt deGrood MDEGROOD@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
Meyers
With 20 parks, two recreation centers, a budget of about $4 million and 22 staff members, Missouri City’s parks and recreation department is already sizeable. And with another park on the way along with funding from a recent bond ref-
erendum, it’s about to get even bigger. Now, the city’s parks department is being recognized across the state as one of the best in Texas. The city’s department recently received a gold medal award and a Lone Star recreation programming achievement award from the Texas Recreation & Park So-
ciety, putting Missouri City in rare company, said Rachelle Dickerson, communications manager for the city. The department was also recently accredited through the National Recreation and Park Association’s Commission for Accreditation of Park and Recreation Agencies, or CAPRA, becoming one of 20 cit-
ies in Texas with the accreditation, according to Jason S. Mangum, the city’s parks and recreation director. “Everything we’ve done has gone into winning those honors,” Mangum said. Missouri City voters in November approved three bond propositions totaling about $85.85 million for mo-
bility, facility and parks and recreation projects across the city – of which $23 million is tabbed for parks and recreation projects, according to the city. The department plans to use that funding to tear down and redevelop a sports complex to be-
SEE PARKS PAGE 7
JERRY FLOWERS
Real Estate Agent, MBA, CNE, ABE Army Veteran (RET) • 832-702-5241 Jerry@dreamhomesbyjerry.com
4500 Highway 6, Sugar Land, TX 77478