School zone enforcement time changes discussed
The times during which school zone driving laws will be in effect in Greatwood and New Territory could change as part of Sugar Land’s annexation of the two cities, as council members discussed proposed changes.
In a presentation to the council, James Turner, Sugar Land’s traffic engineer, said enforcement times for driving safety laws in the two cities’ school zones vary slightly from guidelines suggested by the Texas Transportation Institute.
The 110 lights and signs that alert drivers to the school zones will become the property and the responsibility of Sugar Land to maintain after annexation, Turner said.
There are three school zones in New Territory that are part of Fort Bend ISD, while two school zones in Greatwood are part of Lamar CISD. Both school districts have told the city they agreed with the proposed changes, Turner said.
There are no plans to change the areas included in each school zone, Turner said.
Although the annexation will not occur until December, city staff is advising the changes take effect before the next school year begins, Turner said.
“The plan is to update the equipment and vote on the new ordinance before the start of 2017-18 school year,” he said.
New software to streamline creation of meeting documents
Creation of Sugar Land meeting agendas and minutes could become more automated, as council members were updated on a proposal to implement software to streamline creation of those documents.
The new system allows for meeting agendas to post automatically to the city’s website and is also able to keep track of votes as they are taken during meetings, said Cindy Dees, assistant to the city manager.
City staffers looked at agenda management systems offered by five different vendors before settling on technology provided by Novusolutions, based in Florida, she said.
“This was more user friendly compared to other systems that were tried,” Dees said. “In talking to other cities, we heard their staff did see a reduction in time spent putting together materials.”
The new software could be put to use on city council meeting documents by the middle of summer, and then expanded in the fall for use on the city’s other boards and commissions, Dees said.
“We’re starting with the city council agenda because that is the most complex agenda we have to put together,” she said.
