Bryan adopts $569M budget with major utility investments

The city of Bryan officially adopted its $569 million Fiscal Year 2027 budget during its Aug. 25 City Council meeting. 

The budget concentrates expenditures across three funding categories: 

• Enterprise – $381.1 million for electrical, water, wastewater, solid waste, commerce and development and airports. 

• Governmental – $164.55 million for public safety, public works, development services, community services, support services and general administration. 

• Internal Service – $23.4 million for insurance, employee benefits and warehouses. 

Among the approved enterprise funding expenditures, the lion’s share – $326.9 million – will go toward electrical operations and infrastructure within the Bryan Texas Utilities (BTU) City and BTU Rural areas. Over the next year, Bryan plans to implement $13.1 million in distribution Capital Improvement Projects (CIP), $11.6 million in CIP engineering design projects and $8 million in distribution replacement and restoration projects. Other initiatives include completing two new substations, two substation expansions/rebuilds, weatherizing generation units, deploying a customer portal and initiating a five-year meter replacement project. 

Bryan will dedicate $18.3 million to wastewater initiatives. Plans include replacing aging pumps and motors across three wastewater treatment plants (WWTP), completing annual sewer line replacements and building the Still Creek WWTP slope stabilization and outfall relocation. Additional projects will consist of designing and opening construction bids for the Brushy Creek WWTP, Highway 6 Lift Station, replacement lift station for the Mumford site and acquiring permits for the Thompson Creek expansion. 

Water projects call for $17.8 million in investments for FY 2027, largely consisting of building a new water Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, drilling four wells, building piping and finishing site improvements for two wells and installing an emergency generator at Wellfield Pump Station. Additional work will include: 

• Building a master meter solution and a pump and electrical redundancy at High Service Pump Station. 
• Replacing a pump at Well 14. 
• Installing strategically placed valves along the distribution system. 
• Replacing deficient valves. 
• Improving fire flows. 
• Building permanent wells for aquifer and storage recovery. 
• Replacing distribution lines that are undersized or inadequate for effective service. 
• Rehabilitating three cooling towers. 

Another $10.4 million will go toward the city’s solid waste projects. Bryan will work toward zero days of service interruptions while optimizing routes with new routing solutions, implementing an additional residential route and ensuring all curbs and gutters are swept at least 3 times a year. The city’s overall efforts revolve around service improvements, safety assurances, technology integration and communication enhancements. 

A total of $70.8 million will go toward the city’s bond-funded CIPs, with another $84.1 million dedicated to operating capital outlay across all funding categories. Significant portions of the operating outlay will go toward vehicle replacements, IT infrastructure, lighting, street and roadway improvements and utility enhancements. 

The CIP will support projects across four main categories throughout FY 2027: 

• BTU City – $32.1 million. 

• Water – $20 million. 

• Wastewater – $10 million. 

• BTU Rural – $8.7 million. 

BTU City will predominantly be distributed through transmission-centric initiatives, whereas BTU funding for rural areas will go toward distribution projects. CIP water projects will include building four water wells and an Aquifer and Storage Recovery (ASR) well. Wastewater efforts will center around improving the Brushy Creek WWTP. 

Photo courtesy city of Bryan