Blazing a trail Sugar Land officials lay out vision for city in annual address

By Ken Fountain KFOUNTAIN@FORTBENDSTAR.COM

The large ballroom of the Marriott hotel at Sugar Land Town Square was filled with a who's who of elected officials and the local business community Friday as Mayor Joe Zimmerman and City

Manager Mike Goodrum laid out their vision for a revitalization of the city in the annual "State of the City" event hosted by the Fort Bend Chamber of Commerce.

In a slickly produced multimedia presentation, the pair took a tag-team approach, taking turns with the speech that was also interspersed with videos showcasing city staff, City Council members and members of the public presenting a unified vision of taking Sugar Land into a new level as a growing suburban community

The presentation began with a video that looked back over the decades to once-dominant businesses such as Blockbuster Video and Radio Shack which withered and died because they didn't keep up with new technologies and changes in consumer demands. The unspoken message in the video was that is where Sugar Land's leadership sees the city heading if it doesn't take a more proactive approach.

In their combined talk, Zimmerman and Goodrum didn't take long bringing that subtext forward.

"Life is short and we only get one chance at success," Zimmerman said, "which is why we are obsessed with being a city that is

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Parish Plant named among country's 'deadliest' in new study

By Ken Fountain KFOUNTAIN@FORTBENDSTAR.COM

A new report from the environmental advocacy group the Sierra Club finds that the W A Parish power plant operated by NRG Energy in central Fort Bend County is the 8th-worst coal-fired plant in the nation in contributing to premature deaths from soot pollution.

The report, titled "Out of Control: The Deadly Impact of Coal Plant Pollution," states that while many of the nation's coalfired plants have been retired in recent years in the wake of more stringent environmental laws and market forces, researchers estimate that "the remaining fleet of coal-fired power plants is still responsible for 3,800 premature deaths per year due to particulate pollution. 10% of plants are super-polluters responsible for over 50% of these deaths."

"Polluted air has been linked to increased asth - ma rates, bronchitis, blood clots, heart attacks, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer, diabetes, and weakened immune systems among other adverse health impacts. These health impacts not only affect the quality of life for those who are exposed, but can also lead to premature mortality," the report states, citing 2021 research by the University of Chicago

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