Midland City Council to weigh water treatment, road agreements, grants

The Midland City Council will meet Tuesday, Sept. 22. Here’s a rundown of agenda items the Reporter-Telegram is watching. Mayor Lori Blong has been out of town recently and was unavailable for comment.

The City Council will consider approving the annual purchase of treatment chemicals for Midland’s drinking water. Multiple companies will supply the chemicals at a total cost of more than $4.24 million.

At its Sept. 14 meeting, Midland Development Corp. moved forward with two professional service agreements, one with MOTRAN and another for the West Texas aerospace corridor. The City Council will now consider authorizing both agreements.

The MOTRAN agreement commits $142,500 to MOTRAN for fiscal year 2027, the same amount as in previous years, “to secure additional infrastructure funding for the area and aggressively pursue the development and improvement of transportation corridors connecting Midland with domestic and international markets.” The aerospace corridor agreement, meanwhile, concerns the authorization of the scope of work for the corridor to be handled by Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc., which “includes infrastructure and supply chain analysis, stakeholder engagement and regional coordination, and strategic master plan development.”

The cost for these services will not exceed $655,000. Under the agreement, MDC will be fully reimbursed using funds from the Texas Space Commission’s Space Exploration and Aeronautics Research Fund.

The City Council will consider granting a series of authorities to the city manager’s office for the purchase of land in west Midland to move forward with different infrastructure projects. There are three authorizations for two projects: the extension of Sinclair Avenue and the construction of the Wildcatter Trail.

The City Council will consider approving fiscal year 2025 funding received through the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant and applying for the same grant for fiscal year 2026. This is a joint grant for the city and Midland County, with the city receiving about four times as much funding as the county in both grant years. In the case of the 2025 funding, the money will go toward purchasing different types of ammunition, with the city purchasing “less-than-lethal” pepper ball projectile systems and the county purchasing tactical team ammunition and supplies.