State officials recently awarded $1.5 million from the Emerging Technology Fund to MicroZAP, a bio-technology company that specializes in food safety.

The company was spun off from patented technology developed through food sterilization research at the International Center for Food Industry Excellence at Texas Tech University. The technology uses directional microwaves at varying doses and intensities to target disease-causing microorganisms, including the MRSA bacterium.

The company will receive $500,000 of the award at the beginning of its contract with the state and can receive up to an additional $1 million when the company achieves certain milestones agreed upon in the contract. The state will have an equity position in the company in return for the investment, state officials said.

Texas A&M University officials recently chose Joe Bermudez (pictured) as the dean of the College of Liberal Arts. 

Bermudez currently serves as director of the Center for Programs in Arts and Sciences at St. Louis University.

Bermuduz has a bachelor's degree and a Ph.D. from Cambridge University in England. He will replace Charles Johnson who ended his post as dean in October.

A recent demographic study indicates that enrollment at the New Caney Independent School District could grow as much as 75 percent in the next 10 years.

The study provided both high-range and low-range estimates for enrollment growth, with the lowest estimated growth to be a 56 percent rise in enrollment in the coming decade and the highest estimate predicting an 88 percent increase in students by 2019. The figures were submitted by the chief data analyst who presented the study to board members. To meet the needs of the projected enrollment, New Caney ISD would need to open five new elementary schools in addition to the district's ninth new elementary school already slated to open in fall 2011, the analyst said.

Other suggestions were for the district to turn the sixth-grade campus and two middle schools into a middle school encompassing sixth- through eighth-grade middle schools. The district would still need to build a new middle school and a new high school by 2018 and to purchase property as soon as possible because property in the area is selling briskly. The next step is for the analyst to present the study findings to the 60-member Facilities Study Committee, which will study facility needs, create a five- to 10-year-long range plan and make recommendations on whether to hold a bond election to trustees in June.

The directors of Pedernales Electric Cooperative recently approved a capital improvement plan for projects to be instituted until 2013. The plan projected that PEC will spend  $111.3 million in 2010 on capital improvement projects and even less, $61.3 million in 2013.

The plan includes building and improving substations, adding more electric lines and upgrading transformers. This year, the approved projects include four transmission projects, 25 substation projects, 69 electric distribution projects and 60 general plant projects.

Board members also revised several policies concerning authority and responsibility regarding contracts, including a policy that lowers the values on purchasing contracts required for board approval from $5 million to $1 million and lowering the value of consulting contracts requiring board authority from $1 million to $150,000. The new policy provides board members with a better view into the pipeline of contracting activity and provides more information to board members before the fact than after the fact, said Vice Chair Cristi Clement (pictured).

As a result of receiving federal stimulus funding, Bedford city officials recently were able to add solar panels, an energy-efficient roof and geothermal well field to the new $8.8 million library currently under construction.

Calhoun County Commissioners recently agreed to receive an $83,775 grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to improve emergency management services.