The Woodlands Township board of directors at a Nov. 19 meeting accepted a proposal for the purchase of new and improved commuter buses for township commuters.

In a nutshell: The Woodlands will get new commuter buses in September 2026, made by Motor Coach Industries, after the board approved executing the commuter bus vehicle manufacturing contract.

The details: The new fleet will come wrapped in The Woodlands transit logo, and that cost is included in the total, Haut said.

The new fleet will also include:

• Air conditioning system with 50% more cooling capacity
• Footrests
• Outlets
• Flushing toilets
• Visual displays and electronic stop announcements

Oak Ridge North City Council directed city staff to begin working with D.R .Horton, an Arlington-based home construction company, at the Nov. 17 City Council meeting following the builder’s presentation.

What to know: Iyeka Bankston, D.R. Horton’s project manager, presented the proposal for a development at Elder and Robinson roads, featuring 40-by-110-foot lot sizes, as previously reported by Community Impact.

Digging deeper: The lot size would allow for 160 homes to be built that would be priced at $419,000 in order to be competitive with higher-prices home in The Woodlands, she said. Bankston said the company received feedback from Oak Ridge North residents who were in favor of the development.

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It was during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when the Lone Star College System noticed a lot of students who didn’t have the necessary items needed to make ends meet. That’s when Carolina Redmond, who is the executive director of care programs at LSCS, said the college developed a centralized tracking system, or care request form, so students could log in through their school portal and identify in confidentiality what it is that they need, whether that be food, clothing or hygiene items.

In a nutshell: Now, LSCS operates multiple care centers at its campuses, including LSC-University Park, LSC-Tomball and LSC-Montgomery. 

By the numbers: Redmond said LSCS has seen a rise in student visits at a few of its care centers in the 2025 spring semester. Redmond said in the spring, the LSC-Montgomery care center had about 2,037 visits, the LSC-Tomball location had about 5,125 students visit and around 3,676 students visited the LSC-University Park care center.

Giving Machines are returning to Houston this holiday season, allowing residents to donate to area nonprofits by purchasing items through the specialty vending machines, according to a news release.

Quote of note: “This Christmas season, the Giving Machines help the entire Houston community to share the light of Christ by following His example and giving to those in need,” Elder Robert Ellis, Area Seventy for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said via news release. “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is honored to partner with these life-changing charities across Houston, our country, and the world."

More details: Residents can purchase items such as meals, medical care and clothing for area nonprofits, which, according to the news release, will include:

• Target Hunger
• East Fort Bend Human Needs Ministry
• BEAR, or Be A Resource
• TOMAGWA HealthCare Ministries
• Interfaith of The Woodlands
• Church World Service
• Splash International