Live Blog: Thursday’s city council meetings (April 24)

This is a live blog from the College Station City Council’s workshop and regular meetings on Thursday, April 24. 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.

6:03 p.m.

The workshop has started.

Tonight’s meeting offers us our first opportunity to allow a city council member to fully participate in an open meeting via video. New state law requires governmental bodies to provide for two-way communication that allows all participants to hear and see one another, including the public.

Barring technical glitches, Place-6 Councilman James Benham will be participating in tonight’s meetings from New York City. Mr. Benham “poses” below with Mayor Nancy Berry and Councilwoman Julie Schultz:

6:18 p.m. Continue reading “Live Blog: Thursday’s city council meetings (April 24)”

Parks and Recreation, Public Communications

“Great Escape” becoming reality for kids with special needs

Early last year, the Rotary Club of College Station approached the city with an inspired project idea – an inclusive playground for children with special needs.

Since several rotary club members work in Texas A&M’s College of Architecture, they also thought the project would be ideal for their landscape architecture students. The College Station Noon Lions Club soon joined in the effort, too.

Population growth reflects need

The city’s population recently surpassed 100,000, and the special needs community continues to grow as well. The College Station Independent School District alone has 1,435 students with various disabilities, but no “play for all” parks or playgrounds exist within the seven-county region encompassed by the Brazos Valley Council of Governments.

In consultation with College Station Parks and Recreation, the landscape architecture students completed conceptual designs last fall that are the foundation for an advanced development plan. The students studied existing inclusive playgrounds in Texas, other states, England and Australia. They identified a two-acre site at Central Park as the best location due to ease of access, existing amenities, available space, available parkland dedication funds and visibility.

Continue reading ““Great Escape” becoming reality for kids with special needs”