Last Tuesday, City Hall hosted a City Commissioner meeting to discuss pressing issues including the Public Utilities Board’s high electrical bills, and the new bus stops being built.
The City Commission Regular Meeting kicked off with proclamating the week of Sept. 26-30 .
to be National Gear Up, as well as Clean Energy Week. September has been proclaimed Deaf Awareness Month, by Commissioner Nurith Galonsky and Commissioner Rose Gowen.
City Commissioner of District 3 Roy De los Santos said clean and abundant renewable sources such as wind, solar, hydro, geothermal and nuclear natural gasses are being used to power more homes and businesses than ever before in Texas.
The state has the leading numbers in producing crude oil and natural gas and wind power electricity generation in the nation.
The clean energy sector has produced economic growth for the city of Brownsville, creating new job opportunities.
“Scores of new jobs are being added to the industry every year, and cannot be outsourced due to the on site major of instruction, installation and maintenance,” De los Santos said.
Deputy Director of Multimodal Transportation Gennie Garcia presented the new updates on the Bus Stop Improvement Project. Currently, there are only 104 sheltered bus stops out of the 599 in Brownsville, however once the project is completed, there will be a total of 134 sheltered bus stops across the city.
The bus stop improvement proposal was awarded by the city commission back in May, and the estimated date for finished manufacturing plans is early Nov. 2022.
The recent high rates in electrical bills in Brownsville, are presented by the Public Utility Board (PUB) representatives, including Brownsville’s PUB General Manager John Bruciak.
Heat of the summer, high fuel cost and rate adjustments have contributed to the sky rocketing prices in the utility bills, however short and long term measures will be taken to lower the costs, according to the board.
Commissioner of District 2 Jessica Tetreau-Kalifa defended resident complaints about their utility bills being too high and single mothers being unable to pay their bills, leaving them with no electricity.
“I’m getting a lot of constituent calls, from people who are not able to pay their bills,” said Kalifa to the PUB representatives. “That’s unacceptable.”
Commissioner De los Santos brings suggestions to the table such as possibly incentivising solar panels to fix the problem in the community.
The next commissioner meeting is scheduled for Oct. 4 at City Hall.
