Conroe City Council approved a resolution April 9 to reserve a city-owned tract near Grand Central Park for a possible future senior center.

City leaders said the move does not approve construction, but keeps a city-owned site near I-45 in play as officials study what a long-term senior facility could look like.

The gist: Nancy Mikeska, deputy city administrator and community development director, told council the tract originally totaled 37.93 acres when the city bought it in August 2013 from the Sam Houston Area Council Boy Scouts of America. The property was appraised at $416,900 and purchased for $428,703, according to a presentation. Mikeska said 1.68 acres were sold in 2024, leaving about 36.45 acres.

She said that the city is trying to plan ahead for a growing senior population, and reserving the land would give staff room to continue environmental review and other due diligence without committing the city to a final project.

Montgomery County commissioners are set to begin work on the county’s fiscal year 2026-27 budget, with a proposed calendar that lays out months of department meetings, public presentations, budget workshops and a final adoption date Sept. 8. 

What you need to know: The budget calendar launched the FY 2026-27 process April 9, with a formal kick-off scheduled for the next Commissioners Court meeting April 23, Budget Officer Amanda Carter said.

According to the county’s budget schedule, the first phase—budget development—runs from April 9 to July 15 and includes training, budget packet distribution and meetings between the budget office, department heads and elected officials about their funding needs.

County departments would receive budget training and budget packets April 27-May 1, per the calendar. After that, the budget office is scheduled to meet with individual departments and elected officials from May 7-June 12. 

The big picture: Per Carter's presentation, the process is broken into three stages: budget development, preliminary budget and workshops, and adoption with compensation updates.

The Artemis 2 astronauts safely returned to Earth on April 10, splashing down off the coast of San Diego at 7:07 CDT, according to NASA’s website.

The successful landing concluded the nearly 10-day mission that marked NASA’s first crewed journey to the moon in over 50 years.

In case you missed it: The mission sent NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen on a lunar flyby, making them the first humans since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972 to go beyond low-Earth orbit, as previously reported by Community Impact.

The crew included Friendswood residents Wiseman and Hansen, along with pilot Glover, who is a parent within Clear Creek ISD.

Texas retailers can resume selling smokable hemp products after a Travis County judge temporarily blocked some of the state’s sweeping new regulations on the hemp industry.

The background: On March 31, the state health department enacted rules changing how THC content is measured in consumable hemp, which industry experts said effectively outlawed most smokable hemp products.

The Texas Hemp Business Council, a federal hemp industry group, and several local hemp companies sued the state April 8, arguing that the state health department does not have the authority to reclassify legal THC levels. State officials have defended the rules, saying they are in line with a September executive order by Gov. Greg Abbott, who at the time called for stricter oversight of the multibillion-dollar hemp industry.

The latest: Travis County District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble sided with the hemp industry in an April 10 ruling, directing the state not to enforce the new THC testing requirement and a restriction on the transportation of hemp products between states. An additional hearing is scheduled for April 23.