Legislative changes will affect juvenile court cases

As a municipal court judge, I see many young defendants who are in court for the first time. My job is to make sure these juveniles don’t appear again in my court, or any other. Starting next week, recent legislative changes will affect the type of cases we see.

Class C Offenses

Citations can no longer be issued for Class C offenses (other than traffic) that occur on school property and involve defendants between 10 and 16 years old. The most common tickets in any school are for class disruption, disorderly conduct or inappropriate language. A witness with knowledge must now sign an affidavit, and a complaint approved by the prosecutor must be filed in court before the police can file charges.

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Public Communications, Public Works, Traffic

City works to reduce gameday traffic congestion

As much as we all love Aggie football, there’s one thing we dread when football season arrives – the increased traffic around Kyle Field.

In the early 1990s, the city worked closely with Texas A&M to develop the Go With the Green Plan to move traffic in and out of the area after football games. The plan has worked well, but the rapid growth of the city and the university – not to mention all the new visitors from the SEC – means it must be tweaked and updated.

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Parks and Recreation, Public Communications

Are you ready for some (youth) football?

In countless backyard football games across Texas, kids dream of catching the game-winning touchdown in the Super Bowl.

When I was a kid, we played football in the street or in an open field. We’d wear our favorite team jersey with our favorite player’s number. Sometimes, fights would break out over who got to be what team or pretend he was a certain player. Then, we’d go out and try to duplicate the great play we saw on TV the day before.

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City Council, Public Communications

Live Blog: Thursday’s city council meetings (Aug. 22)

This is a live blog from the College Station City Council’s workshop and regular meetings on Thursday, Aug. 22. It’s not the official minutes.

Both meetings are being broadcast live on Suddenlink Channel 19 and can also be watched online. An archive of previous council meetings is available on the website.

6:09 p.m.

The workshop meeting has started.

6:13 p.m.

Mayor Nancy Berry proclaimed Sept. 2-6 as Brazos Valley Fair Week with a presentation to the Brazos Valley Fair & Expo. Pictured below with the mayor are Brazos Valley Fair & Expo President Jim Mazurkiewicz (right) and executive committee member Jim McCord (left).

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City Council, Public Communications

Five things to watch at Thursday’s city council meetings

Here are five items to watch when the College Station City Council gathers Thursday at city hall for its workshop (6 p.m.) and regular (7 p.m.) meetings: Continue reading “Five things to watch at Thursday’s city council meetings”

Economic Development, Public Communications

Guess what city is the nation’s second-fastest growing college town?

If you didn’t answer “College Station,” you either don’t live here or you need to resume your 20-year nap alongside Rip Van Winkle.

According to a new study by SpareFoot, College Station is the nation’s second-fastest growing college town with a growth rate of 38.25 percent from 2000 (74,267) to 2010 (93,857).

We should also point out that the study doesn’t take into account that College Station has grown another 5.5 percent since 2010 and is expected to reach the 100,000 mark in the next couple of months.

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