During Tuesday morning’s meeting, the Brownwood City Council approved authorizing Letters of Intent to MHC Kenworth from Abilene to purchase four trash trucks and one rolloff truck for Sanitation and one dump truck for Streets for the 2025-26 budget at an estimated cost of $2,025,000.

The $2,025,000 total is for three Automated Refuse Trucks at $1,245,000, one Sideloader Refuse Truck at $353,000, one Rolloff Truck at $257,000, and one Dump Truck at $170,000.

“The reason why were were requesting this is because of new emissions requirements and a new engine that is going to be required based on federal requirements in January 2027,” said Brownwood City Manager Emily Crawford. “We’ve experienced having first line vehicles before and they’re generally very challenging because there are bugs that haven’t been worked out and there’s a lot of downtime with repair and maintenance. We are wanting to not get this new line vehicle until maybe a couple of years after it’s been on the market. The reason for that is the cost increases, the cost in maintenance and we are hoping to avoid that by getting vehicles manufactured before 2027. We are putting in letters of intent for three trash trucks, a crane truck and a dump truck. We don’t know when we will receive these items because of that delay in manufacturing, we’ve had a huge delay in trash trucks already, so whether we get these vehicles before 2027 is yet to be seen.”

The new engine design would also increase the price by over $15,000 each. The new trucks are also subject to tariff increases. If the trucks are ordered before April 30, the tariff is $7,000 per trash truck and rolloff and the dump truck is $5,000. After April, the tariff increase is unknown. Manufacturers are anticipating organizations will try to avoid the above issues and cost increases, which will create a large influx of orders and back up production causing delays.

The City is already experiencing lengthy delays in receiving trash trucks that were ordered in 2022, 2023, and 2024. The delay in receiving these trucks has increased the wear and tear on existing trucks and increased maintenance costs. The City has already spent over $26,000 on each of the 2015 and 2016 trash trucks in repairs this fiscal year.

The City does not intend to make any heavy truck purchases in fiscal years 2026-27 and 2027-28. The funding plan is a combination of rolling over debt service payments that will be retiring over the next two years, savings in maintenance and repair costs, and possible Sanitation fee increases. The increase to the 2025-26 budget for the trash trucks is about $98,000 and in 2026-27 is anticipated to be $196,000. This does not reflect the anticipated reduction in maintenance and repair costs, which is currently over $72,000 for four trucks.

Other matters in which the Council took action are as follows:

Awarded an administration contract to Public Management, Inc. related to a TPWD Local Parks Grant

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department will accept grant applications on August 1, 2025, for the Non-Urban Outdoor Recreation grant and the City of Brownwood is seeking the maximum award amount of $750,000.

The program requires a minimum dollar for dollar match and typically have a 3-year contract term, with option for a 1-year extension. Scoring for these grants have become increasingly subjective in recent years, with TPWD generally funding projects that are direct responses to extensive public engagement and have been well thought out.

The City received this same grant during the previous funding cycle in 2023 for Riverside Phase II. The City is working to maximize grant scoring to be most competitive in this grant funding cycle.

City staff and Public Management will work to further identify the grant scope and exhibit to present for Council approval in July. In July, Council will consider for adoption a resolution to submit the application and any other necessary actions needed, as required by the grant.

If funded, the project will have to follow applicable state and federal guidelines including environmental review, ADA compliance, and federal procurement.

Awarded a general engineering service agreement to Taylor Engineering

The City of Brownwood is currently facing a deficiency in internal technical engineering capacity needed to effectively plan, review, and execute the growing number of ongoing capital projects and anticipated projects.

While current staff is effective in many operational areas, the absence of in-house engineering expertise presents challenges in meeting the technical demands of both ongoing and future infrastructure and development projects.

Taylor Engineering has worked with the City over the past year under individual contracts for various projects. During this time, Clint Taylor has demonstrated strong technical competence and has developed a highly complementary and productive working relationship with City Staff, including Henry, Travis, Gary, and Tim.

The engineering service agreement would establish an ongoing professional relationship with Taylor Engineering to provide approximately 12 hours per week of general engineering support; address the technical review needs associated with upcoming projects such as the Downtown Plan and related submittals; position the City to better manage and execute both small and large scale capital and grant-funded projects; and allow for seamless integration of Taylor Engineering’s services without disrupting existing contracts, which will remain outside the weekly 12-hour allocation.

City Staff recommended the general engineering services agreement with Taylor Engineering to provide reliable, technical support on a recurring basis; support upcoming engineering reviews, project inspections and grant-related projects; and improve the City’s ability to efficiently manage its growing portfolio of capital projects.

Ratified BMDD Board action to approve a Downtown Retail Opportunity program grant not to exceed $25,000 to Steven and Teresa Beal for a property located at 201 Center Avenue

Steven and Teresa Beal have purchased the former Krischke CPA building located at 201 Center Avenue. They have submitted a Downtown Retail Opportunity application to renovate the exterior of the building and make it look historically accurate as to when it was first constructed.

The proposed project would include removal of the exterior stucco to return the building to the original facade including brick exterior walls with columns at the entryway. The original wooden, single-pane windows will be replaced, and exterior doors will be replaced. The project also includes a new roof. Improvements for this project are expected to exceed $500,000

Other items approved:

Authorize uses of the remaining Opioid funding in the amount of $47,324 from the Brownwood/Brown County Health Department for training, curriculum, community coalitions, availability of Naloxone, expanded access to laboratory testing and ability to present information to first responders and community.

Replacement of the front window frame, windows, front doors and the rear door at the Service Center at a cost of $18,830 utilizing Early Glass and Brownwood Door of Early.