Willowridge High School dance team enjoys class with renowned dance theater - Page 6
Happy New Year! from
The Fort Bend Star!
REMINDER: Our offices will be CLOSED Friday, December 30th & Monday, January 2nd for the New Year. WEDNESDAY • DECEMBER 28, 2022 JEANNE GREGORY REALTOR®, CRS, GRI, ABR
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Commissioners vote Meyers off H-GAC board By Ken Fountain KFOUNTAIN@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
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Meyers
Despite bipartisan support from two of his colleagues on the Houston-Galveston Area Council board, the Democratic-led Fort Bend County Commissioners Court voted along party lines December 20 to remove Precinct 3 Commissioner Andy Meyers from the highly inf luential body that controls funding for multiple projects
across a 13-county region, and be replaced by County Judge KP George. Meyers, who has served at H-GAC for 25 years, will instead serve as Fort Bend County's "First Alternate," a new position whose purpose Meyers said he didn't fully understand. Before the vote, which Meyers said he had no advance knowledge of the move before he saw the meeting agenda, he asked George the reasoning behind the removal. "We are moving in a
different direction and sometimes changes can happen," George replied, referring to Democrats' recently solidified majority on Commissioners Court. Before the vote was taken, two other members of the H-GAC board spoke in favor of keeping Myers on the court, or at least postponing the item until the new year. Both had just raced from an H-GAC board meeting in Houston's Greenway Plaza area, where the body voted to approve a $491 million
budget. Brazos County Precinct 3 Commissioner Stacy Adams noted that Myers was the longest-tenured member of the board of H-GAC, which is the area's official "council of governments" and serves as a pass-through agency for millions of dollars annually in state and federal funding. He said Meyers's seniority was invaluable to both Fort Bend County and the entire region. SEE MEYERS PAGE 5
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Details on future of Char House come into focus By Ken Fountain KFOUNTAIN@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
When Sugar Land officials announced earlier this month there were plans afoot for the long-anticipated redevelopment of the Imperial Sugar property, details were somewhat sketchy. But after a "stakeholder" meeting, two public meetings and last week's meeting of the Sugar Land City Council, those details are beginning to emerge. And it appears the city may be willing to pitch in to help move the project along, to the tune of $5 million. PUMA Development, a Houston-based boutique development firm which specializes in "creating experience-driven, mixeduse communities," hopes to transform the Imperial Char House, one of Sugar Land's most historic and distinctive buildings, into a flexible co-working space as the initial phase of a project to redevelop the entire 40-acre site, which gave the city its name. After the proposal was announced, the city held two public meetings on December 8 and 15 at the Sugar Land Heritage Museum, part of the Imperial complex. Input from those meetings informed a workSEE CHAR HOUSE PAGE 5
A Houston-based developer is looking to transform the Imperial Char House into a co-working space. (Photo by Ken Fountain)
Sugar Land City Council has authorized a grant application for funding to mitigate erosion at two sites along the Brazos River. A recent study concluded that the river banks have lost approximately 200 feet since 2015. (Photo by Ken Fountain)
Sugar Land council authorizes Brazos project application By Ken Fountain KFOUNTAIN@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
The Sugar Land City Council at its December 20 meeting voted unanimously to authorize city staff to submit a grant application to the Texas General Land Office for funds to two erosion mitigation projects in order to reduce f looding along the Brazos River. After the major f looding events of 2015 and 2016 and Hurricane Harvey in 2016, the city and Fort Bend commissioned two erosion studies for 13 critical areas of the Brazos River, which concluded
that in less than 30 years erosion could threaten homes, city and county infrastructure, parks and highway bridges along evacuation routes, senior engineering manager Jorge Alba reminded Council members. The city and county responded by creating Project Brazos, a multijurisdictional effort to address the causes of erosion along the Brazos's After major flooding in 2015 and 2016, the grant will seek to riverbanks. Two of the mitigate erosion at multiple sites along the waterway that runs critical areas identified in through Fort Bend County. (Photo by Ken Fountain) Sugar Land were at Memorial Park and the U.S. Community Development received $4 million and 59/IH 69 evacuation corBloc Grant Mitigation the county received $56 ridor, Alba said. As part of the the Texas Action Plan, Sugar Land million for mitigation
projects. Under the resolution, the two entities would combine their funding for projects at the two locations, Alba said. In October, City Council approved contracts with consulting firm HuittZollars, Inc. and Pubic Management, Inc. to support city staff with their application for the block grant funding. The application is due January 9, with an anticipated contract award by June 1, 2023. Mayor Joe Zimmerman noted that Sugar Land originally initiated the SEE BRAZOS PAGE 5
Local technology course explores crytocurrency Staff Reports
A University of Houston College of Technology class is in its second year of demystifying the concepts and processes inside digital money and the brave new financial world they inhabit. “In taking this class, my students are opening themselves to a new kind of economic literacy, a system likely to be pivotal in the near future for international trade, global finance, technolo-
gy, even individual lives,” Phil Snyder, UH College of Technology instructional associate professor who teaches the Current Issues in Digital Media course, as reported in a recent press release from the college based at the UH Sugar Land campus. The class covers the history and economics of digital money, along with the workings of blockchains and bitcoin miners, and the important role Texas plays within SEE COURSE PAGE 5
UH College of Technology Professor Phil Snyder’s Current Issues in Digital Media class, now in its second year, examines the fast-changing world of digital currency. (Contributed photo)