Shenandoah City Council approved an amendment to its interlocal fire services contract with The Woodlands Fire Department and approved a special-use permit for a new hotel on Tamina Road during its Oct. 14 meeting.
A closer look
The unanimously approved fire services amendment moves the budgeting away from the calendar year system running from January to December, which The Woodlands uses, and into the fiscal year system to align with Shenandoah's budgeting process, according to agenda materials.
The contract provides fire services from The Woodlands Fire Department in exchange for a fee that comes out of Shenandoah's operating budget. That fee is calculated using the city's tax roll, which includes tax-exempt buildings such as schools, hospitals and churches.
The fee system allows the city to use the previous year's tax roll to calculate its fees while the value of tax-exempt properties is fixed at the 2025 amount so new exempt buildings don't increase the fee.
By the numbers
According to numbers from the meeting's agenda, the change in calculation will save the city roughly $53,000 on its 2026-27 fiscal year budget. The city's fire services budget, essentially the fee the city pays The Woodlands Fire Department, totals just under $2.39 million.
Quote of note
Palmer Buck, chief of The Woodlands Fire Department, spoke on the partnership between the township and the city of Shenandoah.
"It has been an incredible opportunity to be your fire department since 2011 and we're looking forward to continuing to do it well into the future," Buck said. "Just a quick statistic; in 2026 from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30, we've run 1,479 calls all in Shenandoah, about 164 calls a month. So we're quite busy over here."
Also on the agenda
The Shenandoah City Council also approved a Staybridge and Atwell Suites hotel at 9030 Tamina Road in a 5-1 vote. The vote comes after postponing the decision during the city council's Sept. 23 meeting. Councilman Frank Robinson voted against granting the permit.
