NEWS BRIEFS Montgomery County mistakenly builds forensic center on airport grounds
Lone Star College System begins search for new chancellor
Conroe-North Houston regional airport New forensic center AIRPORT INTERSECTION
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BY JESSICA SHORTEN
director of the Conroe-North Hous- ton Airport, the property on which the $13 million new forensic center was built at 9900 Carl Pickering Drive was thought to be county property, but it was later identi ed as airport property by the FAA and the Texas Department of Transportation. The money will not go to the FAA, but to the Conroe-North Houston Airport budget, according to Brown. “The FAA’s guideline is not hard and fast that says a payment must be made right away. It just says that payment must be made to the airport,” Brown said. Noack made a motion for the payment to come out of Precinct 2 Commissioner Charlie Riley’s budget, which failed in a 2-3 vote. “This is a monumental mistake,” Noack said. “We have to come up with $1.3 million from somewhere. We pull it out of fund balance, then we’re not going to be at our status
TECHNOLOGY PKWY.
Commissioners must nd a way to pay $1.35 million for the land on which its new forensic center was built after the property was mistak- enly identi ed as county property instead of Conroe-North Houston Airport property, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. “It should be knowledge to some- body in the county that when we are constructing a facility that is not aviation use on airport grounds that we need approval to do so prior to, and there’s a fee involved for doing so. We have to buy the land at fair market,” Precinct 3 Commissioner James Noack said. An item authorizing the county judge to sign a letter to submit to the FAA to begin the land release process was discussed at the April 11 Montgomery County Commission- ers Court meeting. According to James Brown, the
BY CASSANDRA JENKINS
The Lone Star College System
board of trustees is beginning its search for a new chancellor for the rst time in eight years.
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Stephen Head
SOURCE: MONTGOMERY CENTRAL APPRAISAL DISTRICT COMMUNITY IMPACT
Chancellor Stephen Head announced his retirement in January e ective Aug. 1. According to a presentation given during an April 6 board meeting, the Employee Search Advisory Committee will select seven to eight semi nalists to replace Head by June 8 and will select up to four nalists to present to the board for consideration. Final candidates will interview with the board, tour the college, participate in open forums and meet with constit- uents. The next chancellor will start Aug. 21, according to the presentation.
amount of money in reserves. This is a problem.” The item was ultimately tabled by the court to allow the Montgomery County attorney’s o ce to gure out possible solutions to the land ownership issue and have more discussions with the FAA regarding possible alternate release agree- ments for the land. The 22,000-square-foot forensic center was initially approved in 2020 and opened last October.
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