Court to consider water project

The Fort Bend County Commissioners Court this week will consider throwing its weight behind a proposal for Richmond, Rosenberg and the Brazos River Authority to construct a facility that would provide surface water for the two cities.

In 2003, a series of surface water restrictions were passed by the Fort Bend Subsidence District, calling for local cities to increase their shares of surface water usage over ground water. For years, discussions have been under way for Richmond and Rosenberg to build a plant that could collect water from the Brazos River, in order to meet those requirements.

The commissioners court will be voting on a resolution offering support for the two cities and the BRA to "implement a cooperative regional solution to developing future water resources."

Other items on the agenda include:

€ setting the Elections Administrator's bond for the amount of $20,000;

€ taking appropriate action regarding city of Sugar Land's request to abolish the Sugar Land Municipal Airport Joint Zoning Board;

€ authorizing county judge to sign approval of lease purchase agreement for fire fighting equipment loan 2006 on behalf of Orchard Volunteer Fire Department, pursuant to Section 147(f) of the IRS code;

€ approve remodeling of the purchasing Warehouse for the Judicial and Financial software teams to be performed by Interdepartmental Construction for an amount not to exceed $16,500;

€ taking appropriate action on agreement between county and Tolunay-Wong Engineers, Inc. for affected property assessment report for the Fort Bend County Landfill in Rosenberg, expenditure not to exceed $136,100;

€ approving reimbursement agreement between the Toll Road Authority and the county for an amount not to exceed $30,000, for an analysis of constructing a northbound on-ramp from Trammel-Fresno Road to the Fort Bend Parkway; and

€ taking appropriate action to convert accrued comp time to overtime pay for the medical officers in the Sheriff's Office, as a result of schedule change, for each pay period beginning May 1, until such time that all medical officer positions have been filled or Sept. 30, whichever is later.