Bryan and College Station budgets and water supplies came in lower than expected this year. Smokers can no longer light up in College Station bars, and Bryan's mayor repaid a bar tab after using a city credit card to purchase alcohol. Red light cameras spawned a political movement, and officials from both cities settled a long-running feud over their joint management of landfills.
In all, 2009 was a year full of activity across both cities.
* College Station residents with no political experience entered the arena with a successful grassroots challenge of the city's red light camera program.
Resident Jim Ash began collecting signatures in May for a petition to put the cameras to a vote. In November, the vote was in, and the cameras came down, despite a challenge and subsequent court ruling that the election was held in violation of the city's charter.
The City Council has since repealed the original ordinance authorizing photo enforcement of red light violations.
* In Bryan, Mayor Mark Conlee said a language barrier played a role in creating a misunderstanding that led to him using a city procurement card to pay a nearly $400 bar tab in September. City policy prohibits the purchase of alcohol with taxpayer funds.
Conlee said he originally planned to pay for the alcohol with his personal credit card and purchase the food from a meeting with developers with the city's card. Between the bar owner's German accent and his own Texas accent, Conlee said, confusion ensued.
The mayor paid the city back for the purchase after The Eagle filed an open records request seeking the credit card receipts. He said he intended to pay the money back all along but hadn't gotten to it before the newspaper asked for the information.
* For more than a year, the cities have been at odds over the management of the Brazos Valley Solid Waste Management Agency, a partnership that runs landfill operations for the twin cities. The city of Bryan sued College Station in 2008, saying it had been left out of major decisions in the agency's operation and in the construction of the Twin Oaks Landfill in Grimes County. The landfill will replace the Rock Prairie Road landfill.
In October, the cities agreed to create a new entity to take over.
The dispute has strained relationships between the neighboring governments and put a dent in their pocketbooks. In September, College Station officials said they had spent more than $330,800 in legal fees related to the matter, and Bryan officials said they had doled out $216,500.
* The controversy over the landfills and the lawsuits between the cities prompted one College Station resident to take action. Katy-Marie Lyles, then 24 and a political newcomer, ran for a City Council seat, campaigning on the need for a change from the political status quo.
The race for the three-year, unpaid Place 4 seat went to a runoff in which Lyles defeated incumbent Lynn McIlhaney by nearly 500 votes.
City officials have said they believe she is the youngest person to serve on the council.
* Over the course of 2009, Bryan and College Station officials explored ways to conserve water. For Bryan officials, it's an effort to be good stewards of the environment, but in College Station, it's more urgent.
The city of Bryan said in April that it has enough water to meet expected needs for the next 50 years. College Station officials say if residents don't start conserving, water could run out in as early as 20 years. Brazos and Robertson counties rely on the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer, which extends from the Rio Grande Valley into parts of Arkansas and Louisiana. College Station pumps an average of 10 million gallons of water a day, but on a peak day, that number can reach 20 million. College Station is installing a pipeline to transport treated wastewater effluent to Veterans Park and Athletic Complex for use as irrigation water.
Officials in Bryan have said the city's water supply is in better shape. They credit that to the fact that the population isn't expanding as quickly as College Station's and the lower use per capita.
* The College Station City Council tackled three hot-topic ordinances that brought people out to meetings in large numbers this year. Ordinances expanding the smoking ban, enforcing landlord registration and requiring at least one tree on new single-family homes and townhomes were all passed by the City Council.
The expanded smoking ban in public places took effect Feb. 1, and police officers began enforcing it in March. The ordinance prohibits anyone from smoking in a bar or restaurant or within 10 feet of entryways to those businesses.
Several bar owners spoke up at the meetings on both sides of the issue, but one continued to fight. In November, the City Council made an allowance for the Hookah Station by adding an exception to the ordinance for smoking the flavored tobacco from a water pipe. The vote defined a hookah bar as a business that receives at least 30 percent of its revenues from the sale or rental of hookah tobacco products, allowing customers to continue using hookah while prohibiting cigarettes.
College Station landlords also faced a new regulation. All owners of single-family and duplex rental units must register annually or face a fine. Officials said registering the landlords would create a better understanding of how many homes in the city are rented and provide officials with contact information for emergencies. Each out-of-area landlord is required to have a local contact person.
While landlords were registering, the City Council also decided College Station needed more trees. A requirement was passed to ensure every new single-family home or townhouse had at least one tree on the property. The City Council voted unanimously in December to amend the landscape and tree-protection ordinance to require developers to include two trees at least 2 inches in diameter or one tree at least 4 inches in diameter. The new rule didn't apply to existing subdivisions, and the change also gave developers more credit for preserving trees during construction and additional credit for landscape plans prepared by qualified professionals.
* On the other side of town, downtown Bryan saw a few changes to its landscape.
The city-owned LaSalle Hotel came under new management. Magnolia Hotels took charge of the seven-story landmark in October. The Denver-based hotel management and development company signed a five-year contract to spruce up the downtown property in hopes of making it attractive enough for a buyer. The 55-room hotel at 120 S. Main St. originally opened in 1928 and saw a name change with the takeover, from the LaSalle Hotel and Café to the LaSalle Hotel by Magnolia Hotels.
Twin City Mission moved out of downtown, and the Longhorn Tavern Steak House moved in, and a new music festival, called Rock the Republic, brought together artists and musicians for a weekend extravaganza.
* In College Station, officials continued to plan for a convention center. City leaders have discussed building such a center for about two decades, and this year, officials said a combination of bad information circulating about the project and a poor public information campaign cast a negative image on the proposal. The city wants to build a $48 million facility that could be open for business by late 2015. The city spent $9.6 million last year to buy the Chimney Hill shopping center on University Drive, where officials plan to build the facility with an exhibition hall, banquet space and 667 parking spaces. In July, the council approved a financing plan for the 50,000-square-foot center that called for about 86 percent of the overall funding to come from the hotel occupancy tax, meaning visitors to the area would pay for the bulk of construction costs. Officials recently established a Web site dedicated to the project, www.cstx.gov/conventioncenter.
* Despite all the projects and new ordinances, both cities were looking for ways to make up for budget shortfalls.
Each city handled the issue differently. College Station addressed its $1 million general fund shortfall by holding vacant positions open, cutting travel and training costs, reducing maintenance at parks and city facilities and holding off on replacing old equipment.
Bryan officials decided to lay off eight employees and eliminate two positions in an effort to make up for a $1.3 million budget shortfall. Officials said the rest of the shortfall would be recovered through a change in the way the city offers insurance to retirees and through a reduction in the number of times city parks are mowed each year.
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