🐴 The Woodlands Gets Seven Horses and Seven Deputies on Patrol

📦 Retail Is Racing to Catch Up With Growth Along the Grand Parkway

💼 Jimmy Pilarte Has One Question Before He Sells You Anything

Sunday, October 25
🌤️ Partly Cloudy · 80°F / 62°F
Nice afternoon, cool night. Good October weather.
Source: Vaisala Xweather

The Woodlands Township is getting a new kind of law enforcement presence starting in 2027, and it comes with hooves.

Montgomery County commissioners voted 5-0 on Oct. 22 to approve a new mounted patrol agreement for The Woodlands, shifting the program from a private contractor to the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office. The move follows a September township vote and brings seven horses and a team of seven (one sergeant and six deputies) to the community.

The horses will be stabled at a park facility off Fish Creek Thoroughfare, where two county personnel will be reassigned full-time to support the animals. The township agreed to cover one-time setup costs of up to $954,000 and close to $1.4 million in recurring annual costs.

“It’s a good deal for not only The Woodlands, not only for Woodforest, Montgomery Trace,” said Precinct 2 Commissioner Charlie Riley. “It’s a good deal for all involved.”

The change comes after the township’s previous mounted patrol contract with Alpha and Omega Mounted Patrol was set to expire Dec. 31. Alpha and Omega’s proposed 2027 renewal carried a higher price tag, about $1.62 million, up from roughly $1.45 million in 2026. The new sheriff’s office arrangement adds seven personnel with broader law enforcement authority. The Township says it also reduces liability on non-township-owned property.

Sheriff Wesley Doolittle said the additional deputies will strengthen safety across the area. “Now as our county continues to grow when our crime rates increase, we’re looking for ways to do more with contracts that help benefit the community to keep them safe,” Doolittle said.

Precinct 4 Commissioner Matt Gray voted in favor but expressed reservations about the pace of the decision. A list of candidates with completed background investigations is already in place, according to Doolittle.

In the same meeting, commissioners also approved the David Memorial Drive extension to Hwy. 242 (a $1.8 million contract awarded to JFO Services) and a San Jacinto River watershed monitoring contract with Thompson Consulting.

Why it matters: Mounted patrol has been part of The Woodlands identity for years, and this vote ensures it stays that way, now with sworn law enforcement authority.

Source/Credits: Community Impact

Updated Oct. 26: Clarified that the liability claim is the Township’s position and that the Sheriff’s Office offers sworn law enforcement authority.

East of I-45 has been the quiet side of the Woodlands corridor for a long time. That’s changing fast.

A wave of retail development is taking shape along the Grand Parkway and Rayford Road in south Montgomery County, driven by residential growth numbers that attract serious commercial interest. The 77386 ZIP code saw a 56.6% population increase between 2014 and 2024. Montgomery County grew 25.9% from April 2020 to July 2025, compared to 3.1% nationally.

The most significant project in development is Fidelis’s Grand Imperial Marketplace, a 170,000-square-foot retail center at the Grand Parkway and Imperial Promenade Drive in Spring. Sprouts Farmers Market, Marshalls, Five Below, Ross, and Planet Fitness are all signed for fall 2027 openings. A second Fidelis project, Falls Bluff Shopping Center, is planned adjacent with 11 additional pad sites.

Woodlands-area developer Nate Newman is also moving east for the first time. His firm is building FLEX Oak Ridge on the Robinson Road corridor: 10,000 square feet of retail plus 100,000 square feet of industrial space. Horizontal work was underway as of mid-September.

Meanwhile, Imperial Oaks Shopping Center on Rayford Road reports being fully leased for the past year, driven in part by a 46% population increase in the surrounding three-mile radius since 2010.

Fidelis projects as many as 23,000 additional planned homes in the broader market. “I also expect the business mix to become increasingly diverse,” said Aaron Cox, president and CEO of the Woodlands Area Chamber of Commerce. “Over time, we should see additional healthcare, professional services, office users, entrepreneurs and employers locating.”

Why it matters: Growth along the Grand Parkway has outpaced the retail serving it for years. The wave building now suggests the gap is finally starting to close.

Source/Credits: Community Impact

Most salespeople lead with a catalog. Jimmy Pilarte leads with a question.

Before recommending a single product, Pilarte International LLC (his Houston-based promotional products company) asks clients to walk through what their business actually needs. What are they selling? Who are they trying to reach? What kind of impression do they want to leave?

That conversation, Pilarte says, is where most promotional marketing either works or doesn’t. Without it, companies tend to default to the same mistake: buying cheap. “Don’t look at the least expensive product,” he advises clients who ask for the lowest price. “Look at a good product that your customers will keep for a long time, and your brand.”

The logic is straightforward: a promotional item that gets tossed in a week does nothing for a brand. A quality product someone actually uses (a travel mug, a well-made tote, a water bottle) keeps that company in front of customers every day. Pilarte works with businesses of all sizes across Texas, from startups building their first impression to larger companies planning major campaigns, across the full spectrum from lower-cost giveaway items to premium pieces meant for longer-term impact.

New catalogs are coming in the months ahead, with fresh options across every price point.

Why it matters: In a market where marketing dollars can easily disappear into forgettable giveaways, having someone who asks the right question first is exactly the kind of advantage a small business needs.

🗓️ Lone Star Groundwater Conservation District Symposium | Conroe | Free (lunch included) | More info

🗓️ Montgomery County Heart Walk | Northshore Park, 2505 Lake Woodlands Dr | More info

🗓️ Día de los Fieles Difuntos, Cantona Homestead
Running through November 1 | 24706 FM 2978, Tomball | cantonahomestead.com

🗓️ Vets & Vintage Veterans Day Tribute and Food Drive, The Woodlands Car Club | Market Street | Free | Vintage cars, honor veterans, donate nonperishable food | More info

🗓️ Fifth Annual Pumpkin Smash, The Woodlands Township | Free | Bring carved or whole pumpkins for composting | More info

🗓️ Cars & Coffee for a Cause: Vets & Vintage | Market Street, 9595 Six Pines Dr | 6–10 am | Free | More info

🗓️ Rock the Row | Hughes Landing | Evening | Free | More info

🗓️ Grand Trolley Reveal | Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion Southside Stop | 10–11 am | Free | More info

🗓️ Pavilion Palooza | Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion | More info

Note: Dates and times are as announced online. Organizers may make changes. Always confirm before heading out.

In 1972, HUD provided $50 million in federal loan guarantees under the New Communities Act to fund the development of The Woodlands. It was one of only 13 communities funded that way nationwide. Most of the others failed. The Woodlands was the exception.

"You can put your boots in the oven, but that don't make 'em biscuits." Translation: calling something what it isn't doesn't change what it actually is.

The version of you that exists in other people's memories is completely out of your control.

Why can't a nose be 12 inches long? Because then it would be a foot.

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