Brazos County commission turns down a grant from the Texas General Land Office

This podcast contains comments from the May 27, 2025 Brazos County commission meeting.Brazos County commissioners decline a $500,000 grant from the Texas General Land Office (GLO).The grant, requiring no local match, was to pay for a drainage project on three streets in the Benchley community.County staff told commissioners that road and bridge employees can start next week replacing culverts and repaving streets. The county's cost of materials was estimated at $50,000 dollars.County engineer Prathana Banerji said this was basically an "everyday bread and butter type work that our guys are familiar doing".Commissioners were told the time it takes to comply with GLO grant requirements would delay the start of the project by one year.Purchasing manager Charles Wendt said "if we go through the grant processes and the solicitations that we have to do, we cannot use any existing contracts for engineering, surveying, geotech, materials testing, stuff like that".According to county documents, the county is also out $37,000 dollars that was spent last year to hire a grant administrator who submitted the application to the GLO.Click HERE to read and download background information from the May 27, 2025 Brazos County commission meeting.Click HERE to read and download the GLO contract that was declined at the May 27, 2025 Brazos County commission meeting.