Fire Out on A&M Campus, No Injuries

Bryan City Council Special Meeting To Approve Another Change Order In The Reconstruction Of South College Next To Midtown Park

Motorists won’t have access to South College Avenue in Bryan between Villa Maria and Carson until the end of 2025. What was originally a construction period of 360 days, has grown to 509 days. The Bryan city council held a special meeting Thursday (April 25), in part to approve a fourth change order in what is now a $15.6 dollar project that replaces the street and utility lines. The contract price was reduced by almost $304,000 dollars with the elimination of a continuous median. City documents say the delay is due to Optimum and Frontier having to move fiberoptic lines to their correct locations. And the city’s background information also says the general contractor is pursuing $1 million dollars in damages against Optimum and Frontier for delays caused by their incorrect installation. Click HERE to read and download background information about the change order that was approved at the Bryan city council special meeting on April 25, 2024. Click HERE to read and download a summary of the change order approved at the Bryan city council special meeting on April 25, 2024. Click below to hear comments about the amended contract from Bobby Gutierrez, visiting with Scott DeLucia on WTAW’s The Infomaniacs April 24, 2024:  

Texas A&M’s President Announcements From His April Online Newsletter

April’s update on the Texas A&M president’s website includes the status of the searches for five leadership positions. President Mark Welsh reported 120 applications for chief operating officer has been reduced to 17 candidates. Welsh expects finalists will be selected for campus visits in May. According to A&M’s executive search website, next week there will be four finalists on campus seeking the dean’s position at the Bush School that became vacant when Welsh became president. One of the four finalists is from A&M. The others are from Southern Methodist, the department of defense, and The Baldwin School. The executive search website also showed finalists were on campus last week for two other dean vacancies that will be known as colleges on August. There are three finalists for dean of what is still the architecture school. None of those finalists are from A&M. There are three finalists to lead performance, visualization and fine arts. One is from A&M. And the president reported the application period has closed for A&M’s internal search for dean of the graduate and professional school. Welsh also announced that the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board has approved requests to change eight schools to colleges. The official rebranding becomes effective August 15th for architecture, dentistry, education, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, veterinary medicine, and performance, visualization and fine arts. And Welsh provided updates on the work of two committees. Welsh reported members of A&M’s capacity study committee recently met with the cities of Bryan and College Station to discuss the off campus impact of the growing student body. And another committee is reviewing responses following on campus meetings and three thousand survey responses to what can be done to make the Aggie student experience number one in the nation. Below are screen shots from https://president.tamu.edu/messages/presidents-brief-2024-04.html

Brazos County Sheriff’s Arrests Follows A Vehicle Chase And A Foot Chase

A Bryan man is in the Brazos County jail after he was arrested on eight warrants from four counties and leading multiple law enforcement officers on a chase of approximately 40 miles. The arrest report from a Brazos County sheriff’s deputy says Tuesday night’s chase (April 23) involving 40 year old Kristofer Wingate began in the area of Texas and Villa Maria. The pursuit went east, over the freeway down Boonville Road and Highway 30, then south on Bird Pond Road, through College Station’s Foxfire neighborhood, then north on the freeway back into Bryan, then west on Highway 21 into Burleson County. The chase ended near Cooks Point on Farm Road 1362 near Highway 21. Wingate remains held as of April 25th on a new charge of evading arrest, three warrants from Grimes County, two from Brazos and Waller counties, and one warrant from Burleson County. Online jail records show Wingate is held without bond on two Waller County warrants charging him with deadly conduct by discharging a firearm, the Burleson County warrant charging him with family violence assault, and a Grimes County warrant charging him with possession of a controlled substance. Bonds on the other charges totals $249,000 dollars. A Brazos County sheriff’s deputy who sees a pickup following another vehicle too closely on Highway 21 near the Brazos River at two in the morning on Tuesday (April 23) gets the truck to stop. After that, the deputy’s arrest report says the driver gets out and runs into a field. The driver stops after running 50 to 75 yards when he is tased by the deputy. That leads to a 34 year old Bryan man going to the Brazos County jail for the 34th time in 16 years. Felipe Tello Jr. was charged with DWI, driving with an invalid license with a prior conviction, evading arrest with a prior conviction, and threatening the deputy and two jail officers. At the time of this arrest, Tello was awaiting trials in seven criminal cases dating back almost three years on two felony and five misdemeanor charges. Tello remains held as of April 25th in lieu of bonds totaling $33,000 dollars.