COLLEGE STATION — College Station residents will be able to attend meetings in person once again, starting this May 13.
"This will be a hybrid format, so we've been Nan exclusively virtual council... but we haven't had any of the general public in. So this will switch that and this will allow a limited number of people to be in person for the meeting, with social distancing and masks, and proper sanitation." shared Bryan Woods, College Station City Manager.
This move comes after the council reportedly voted unanimously to allow in-person public attendance at last week's meeting.
According to Jay Socol, Media Relations for the City of College Station, there will be physical room for about 20 to 25 people inside the chambers, alongside room for another 15 in their overflow area.
While the seating will be first-come, first severed, people who sign up to speak will reportedly have a spot reserved for them in the meeting.
Extra sanitation measures will also reportedly be in place before and after the meetings; the likes of which, will include:
- Multiple hand sanitizing stations
- All attendees will be asked to wear a face-covering over their mouth and nose while in City Hall, except when speaking during their allotted time
According to Socol, the council is still deciding if they, themselves, will be wearing their face coverings.
Additionally, Socol confirmed the City of College Station will likely continue to keep virtual options, like Zoom, to help reach more residents. Stating, that public engagement has only gone up since its implementation at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the time of this publication, these meetings will also keep their virtual options for city staff members to give presentations and answer questions; this will reportedly return to in-person as well, however, there is no exact timeline at this time.
Meanwhile, KRHD 25 News reached out to the City of Bryan's Communications & Marketing Department to confirm the city has stopped all virtual options for their city council meetings, since Feb 9.
According to said department's director, at this time, there has been no discussion amongst council members or requests to bring it back to the public.
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