🎭Juneteenth Museum get $2 mil; A watch to prevent drownings?

WaterWatch, the brainchild of Forrest Williams, a TCU Neeley School of Business student, has been named one of the 2023 Most Disruptive Startups by Poets & Quants for Undergrads. The Waterwatch is a wearable bracelet/watch that alerts a parent’s cell phone when a child falls into a body of water. Williams says his long-term goal is to "implement other ideas that I have and grow them into a multi-faceted child safety product company.”

A 240-acre mixed-use project at the intersection of Old Weatherford Road and FM 3325 in west Fort Worth has been approved. The Beggs Ranch site would include a maximum of 1,000 multi-family units, 1,000 townhomes and 650 single-family homes. The ownership is listed as George Beggs Aledo Ranch LP and Rockriver Partnership Ltd. 

Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway announced a $2 million donation to support ongoing construction and enduring mission of the National Juneteenth Museum. Construction is underway in Fort Worth’s Historic Southside, with a public opening scheduled for Juneteenth 2025. The museum has a $70-million fundraising goal, a $15-million pledge from the city of Fort Worth, and a $1-million grant awarded by Bank of America.

Iowa landowners and BNSF have settled a lawsuit over an oil train derailment in 2018. Details, including the amount paid out, were not released. The derailment spilled around 160k gallons of tar sand oil into floodwaters in Lyon County. In 2021, BNSF agreed to pay the EPA $1.5 million for the spill.

NBC 5 reporter Bobbie Wygant has died at 97. The legendary local broadcaster was recognized nationally for her pioneering work in television.

Tennis legend Chris Evert will be the keynote speaker at Executive Women’s Day on May 21 during the Charles Schwab Challenge tournament at Colonial Country Club. Executive Women’s Day is a forum that brings together local business leaders and innovators for corporate dialogue, networking, idea sharing and development. In this feature reported by the Washington Post, get caught up on Evert's life, and how she and former rival and tennis icon Martina Navratilova have been battling cancer together.

Fort Worth’s Transportation & Public Works Department announced an East Fourth Street/First Street $2.9-million Bike Lane project that will debut new signal technology. The location connects Gateway Park and downtown through designated lanes and signals at three intersections. Detection pads communicate with standard signals showing a red, yellow or green stenciled bike signal. Funding is provided by the North Central Texas Council of Governments.

Sterling Investors purchased logistics center CentrePort 2, a 430K-square-foot building located in Fort Worth near D-FW International Airport. The price wasn't disclosed. 

Dallas and Fort Worth landed in the top 10 of U.S. cities with the worst drivers, according to Forbes. Dallas is No. 6, Fort Worth No. 9. The worst city of 50 researched was Albuquerque, NM. The best was Boston. The report analyzed the most populated cities across five metrics during five years.

The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law, a decision critics said could have sweeping implications for fertility treatment in the state.

Don Shisler, President and CEO of Gospel Mission of Tarrant County since 1995, is moving to Emeritus CEO and welcoming new CEO Dr. Charles M. Wolford, II. Wolford, a D-FW native, has 33 years of experience in ministry and working with youth, adults and families experiencing homelessness. Shisler will serve in his new role for two years, focusing on donor relations, expanding programs, and continuing with building and construction projects.

People on the move:

• TrendHR: Adds Tonya Falzett as Business Consultant.

• Commerce Bank: Names Russ Rockenbach north Texas Market President. 

• National Medal of Honor Museum: Adds Ryan McCarthy, former secretary of Army, and Fawn Weaver, founder Grant Sidney, to Board of Directors.

• Caris Life Sciences: Names Dee Dee Brooks VP-Corporate Communications.

• Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Tarrant County:  Stephen Jones is Board Chairman; Marcus Hicks has been named Chief Development Officer and Matt Sinclair the Senior Vice President of Operations.

Snippets:

• How the big airlines beat the budget guys at their own game. (WSJ gift article)

• 2023 ended with U.S. retail sales in a frenzy, but the -0.8% number for January was lower than the forecasted 0.1% decline.

Last poll results: What is your favorite sport to watch? Answers: Football (34%), Auto racing (14%), Baseball (11%), Hockey (11%), Other (9%), Basketball (7%), Soccer (7%), Golf (5%), and Tennis (2%).