All aboard with Brad Stafford
Navasota was once again among the stops for the historic Union Pacific Big Boy 4014 steam engine. Hear what Navasota City Manager Brad Stafford had to say about the event in this week’s edition of Grilling Stafford.
Find out what community questions were submitted to Navasota Examiner Publisher Ana Cosino and Willy 98.7 FM Radio Personality Kenny Graves.
Highlights from Grilling Stafford – episode 67
How was the overall Big Boy experience and what kind of impact did it have on our city? “Well, I think the overall experience and impact was great for Navasota. We had a good crowd of folks. People were excited and there were train lovers from all over the area. I even talked to somebody as far away as San Antonio. It was really a good experience for us, I thought it was handled very well by all the folks involved although it was a little warm. Unfortunately, we had a few folks that suffered some heat related problems but nothing serious. But a lot of people had fun. Union Pacific actually told me, Chief Myatt and Lieutenant Mize how much they appreciated what Navasota did and how smooth the event ran. We also appreciate TxDOT for working with us to close off Washington avenue for that period of time because it really helped with the viewing area to keep the train right where we did because it was easier to control traffi c. But overall, it was great experience and great to see so many people in town.”
When is National Night Out? And what activities are planned? “National Night Out is Oct. 5. A lot of places have it in August, but Southern states do it in October because of the heat. It’s very similar every year. People will have block and neighborhood parties. Police offi cers, fi re department, some of the city staff, city council members will be out talking to residents trying to help bridge any gaps or communicate with folks and spending the evening getting to know more about the police department and the community itself.”
Will Navasota PD host Treats on the Streets this year, and will it be in the same location? Have you ever considered moving it to August Horst Park? “Yes, they will host Treats on the Street, I believe it’s on Oct. 28. We always like to host events downtown. This event has gotten very large. The answer is yes, we have considered it but there are a lot of logistics that have to go into planning it in either location. One of the big ones is it seems to rain a lot when we have Treats on the Streets and if we had it at August Horst Park it might get pretty messy. But it’s not saying that we won’t, Chief and I have talked about it, I know the police staff have talked about it quite a bit. We’re weighing all the option to determine which location is the best. There are concerns and advantages to both locations. Stay tuned and we’ll let you know where.”
Are there any plans for the city to hold a new citizen academy?
“We do hope to hold one soon. We had one almost ready to go last year, but the reaction to COVID was pretty bad, so we decided we better push it back. We were hoping to do it this year, but we’ve has some staffing changes and actually have not replaced some staff yet, so that plays a factor in it. But yes, city council really wants us to get that out, so we’re going to try and get it out as quickly as we can. Timing is always an issue with that as well, you don’t want to time it when we have a lot of events going on throughout the city like ball games and school events. We’re trying to piece all this together and get it going again.”
Is there an update on the Chicken Express that I heard was coming to town?
“Chicken Express is coming to town. The development department is working with their team at Chicken Express to get all their approvals. I’m not sure where we are on the fi nal approvals yet, but we should be getting close on those and hopefully you’ll start seeing some dirt move soon.”
To view the full video of Grilling Stafford – Episode 67, or to watch archived episodes, visit The Examiner website, www.navasotaexaminer.com. If you would like to submit a question for Grilling Stafford, email news@navasotaexaminer.com. New episodes of Grilling Stafford are released every Thursday.