Officials with the Greater East Montgomery County Chamber announced the launch of a new Proud Property Awards program via a Nov. 7 news release.

The overview: Per the release, the program aims to recognize properties within East Montgomery County that demonstrate outstanding maintenance and visual appeal.

"We need to celebrate and recognize the commercial properties that take pride in their investment," chamber President and CEO Mark Linabury said in a statement. "We want to encourage property and business owners to realize the impact they have on first impressions and community pride."

Zooming in: The first award of the program was given Nov. 21 to Amy Vollert, owner of Salons at the Loft located on FM 1314 in Porter.

What's next: Chamber officials said community members are invited to participate in the program by submitting nominations year-round. A selection committee of chamber representatives will review submissions and present awards on a quarterly basis. 

Linabury noted that award recipients do not need to be GEMCC members.

Blue Jay’s Cauldron—a game and trading card store—has closed in Porter for the foreseeable future.

What's happening? A reopening date has not been announced for the store, but updates will be posted on social media once established. The store has been closed due to “internal issues” a message on the Blue Jay’s Cauldron website states.

In case you missed it: Blue Jay’s Cauldron hosted events and sold comic books, character trading cards, figurines, 3D printed items and stickers. The store soft opened in July in Porter.

• 23435 FM 1314, Ste. A2, Porter

A new $617 million natural gas power plant is slated to be built in east Houston after the project was selected for a loan by the Public Utility Commission of Texas.

About the project: North American power company NRG Energy’s 455 megawatt power plant will provide power from the company’s Greens Bayou Generating Station to Electric Reliability Council of Texas' grid beginning in 2028. The new plant will connect with ERCOT’s Houston Load Zone, which provides power to Houston, Pasadena and The Woodlands, and is one of Texas’ largest electricity centers.

Quote of note: “Our investment at Greens Bayou reflects NRG’s commitment to delivering dependable, dispatchable generation when Texans need it most,” said Robert J. Gaudette, NRG executive vice president and president of NRG business and wholesale operations. “These units will strengthen grid resilience, create local jobs and support economic vitality.”

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.
 

On the heels of what proponents have called “historic” property tax relief, some Texas lawmakers are questioning whether the state can afford to continue increasing the tax exemptions passed in 2023 and 2025.

The big picture: Texas homeowners pay property taxes to various local entities, although lawmakers can limit how much entities increase taxes each year and provide state funding to expand tax exemptions.

Texas is spending $51 billion on property tax relief in fiscal years 2026 and 2027 alone and may be required to spend more to maintain existing tax exemptions in future bienniums, lawmakers said.

What they're saying: "We're kind of maxed out at what we can do for property tax reform, from a budget perspective," said Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, during a Nov. 20 event.

"$51 billion ongoing, it's a huge amount to continue to support. To think about doing anything more seems very fiscally irresponsible," Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, said.

The other side: Rep. Ellen Troxclair, R-Lakeway, said creating limits on local government spending would be critical to keeping Texas affordable.