Hurricane Relief Leader Honored at City Hall

By George Slaughter

Mayor Chuck Brawner offers some Katy “swag” to Colonel Scott M. MacLeod (George Slaughter photo)

The Katy community helped lead the way in the Hurricane Harvey relief and recovery efforts. Monday night at City Hall, Mayor Chuck Brawner honored the Texas National Guard colonel who led those much of those efforts from a makeshift headquarters in the Katy High School Library.

Brawner presented an “Above and Beyond” citation to Colonel Scott M. MacLeod, commander of the 136th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade.

MacLeod and his task force oversaw relief and recovery efforts for an area stretching from Corpus Christi to the Louisiana border. The task force needed a central location from which it could oversee things, and the Katy High School Library was chosen as the command site.

MacLeod thanked the citizens of Katy for their generosity. People brought food to the command center and even helped with laundry.

“You played a big role” in the recovery efforts, MacLeod said.

MacLeod lives in Round Rock. Brawner said when he visited with MacLeod, the colonel expressed a possible interest in retiring to Katy. So in addition to the citation, Brawner offered some other Katy “swag,” including a Katy Tigers golf shirt.

Brawner honored three local residents with similar citations last month.

In other action, the council:

  • Heard a presentation from the Keep Katy Beautiful board recognizing the 2017 “Adopt-a-Wreath” participants. Under this program, Christmas wreaths are adopted, refurbished, and placed on display for the public to enjoy. To see a list of participants and where the adopted wreaths are displayed, click here.
  • Approved the No Label Triathlon Event, scheduled for March 31, 2018.
  • Approved the Jeff & Brede’s Triathlon Event, scheduled for June 24, 2018.
  • Approved a $564.08 membership dues payment for the Houston-Galveston Area Council.
  • Supported Clifton Aldrich to continue on the Fort Bend Subsidence District Board of Directors. Aldrich’s tenure now runs to January 31, 2020.
  • Approved a $60,000 Convention and Tourism Bureau hotel occupancy tax application from Champion Gymnastics Foundation for the 2018 International Team Cup and Men’s and Women’s Invitational Gymnastics Competition, scheduled for January 15-21, 2018.
  • Accepted a $25,000 Convention and Tourism Bureau hotel occupancy tax application from Ainsley’s Angels for the Katy Half Marathon, scheduled for February 3, 2018.
  • Accepted a $25,000 Convention and Tourism Bureau hotel occupancy tax application from Ainsley’s Angels for the Typhoon Texas Kids Triathlon, scheduled for May 20, 2018.
  • Accepted a $117,000 Convention and Tourism Bureau hotel occupancy tax application from the Wild West Brewfest for the brewfest, scheduled for May 4-5, 2018.
  • Approved two final plats for the Lilac Residential Subdivision in Harris County.
  • Approved two final plats for the Cane Island Subdivision in Harris and Waller counties.
  • Approved a final plat for the Reserve at Katy Subdivision in Fort Bend County.
  • Approved a change order to the 2017 contract with Spring Waste Services, LP, for hauling sludge and landfill disposal. Under the change order, the wet hauling component of the contract will increase from 50,000 to 510,000 gallons and the dry hauling component will decrease from 160 trips to 144 trips. In a letter to City Administrator Byron Hebert recommending the change, City Engineer David Leyendecker said that the contractor had delays in getting its belt press operational and the work was taking longer than expected.
  • Authorized the mayor to sign an agreement with Developer Optimize Process Designs (OPD), for construction of public improvements.
  • Authorized the mayor to sign a street right-of-way license agreement with Toll Houston TX, LLC, to allow construction of a power line to a monument sign within the city limits, for a 10 year term.
  • Designated the water tower improvement project as a Katy Management District No. 1 project, approving the water tower contracts and authorizing the district to fund the project.
  • Authorized Brawner to sign a water supply and interconnect contract with Fort Bend County Municipal Utility District No. 37. The current agreement expires December 31.
  • Authorized Brawner to sign a service order agreement with ClearGov, Inc., for web site enhancement services for the City of Katy website. The council also authorized Brawner to sign a mobile application customer agreement with CitySourced, Inc., for mobile application services. The city is working to update and improve its web site. Kayce Reina, the city’s director of marketing and public relations, said the city is conducting a survey seeking input on how this might best be done. For more information about the survey, click here. To take the survey, click here.
  • Authorized Brawner to sign an amendment to its franchise agreement with Republic Services of Houston for the collection, hauling and disposal of municipal solid waste in the City of Katy. Under the amendment, the Republic Services workers will begin their work an hour earlier, at 7 a.m., to beat the local traffic. Also, bulk pickup will be done twice a month.
  • Expressed the city’s intent to reimburse certain street or drainage projects from future bonds. The city expects to offer a bond to pay for needed engineering work to mitigate flood danger.
  • Amended the original city budget for the 2016-17 fiscal year to provide for changes in the general government fund budget.
  • Appointed Jim Lipka and Gina DeCesare as regular members, and Don Bishop and Frank O. Carroll has alternate members, to the zoning board of adjustment.
  • Appointed Matt Lawson as alternate member to the building and standards commission.