The Woodlands Township Board of Directors votes Thursday, Sept. 17, on replacing its private mounted patrol with a commissioned sheriff's unit.

The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) proposal carries a first-year price tag of $2,326,230, according to the meeting agenda as reported by Community Impact Newspaper. That breaks down to $954,876 in one-time startup costs for horses, equipment and facilities, plus $1,371,354 in recurring annual expenses including salaries, supplies and overtime.

Alpha & Omega Mounted Patrol, the private security firm that has patrolled The Woodlands since 1994, wants the board to slow down. The company formally asked the board on Tuesday, Sept. 15, to table the vote, arguing the MCSO proposal became public only Friday, Sept. 11, and that no final agreement is attached to the agenda packet.

Frank P. Keller, Alpha & Omega's founder and CEO, said the cost picture has shifted since August. "We are not asking directors to defend what they were told in August. We are asking them to examine what is known now," Keller said in the Sept. 15 statement.

Alpha & Omega pegs its own current annual cost at $1,446,440, making the MCSO recurring estimate only $75,086 lower. The company says projected savings shrank from roughly $200,000 when the board first heard preliminary figures on Aug. 20 to that smaller gap in the published proposal.

Those August preliminary figures come from Alpha & Omega's own analysis and have not been independently confirmed from a Township source.

The board voted 7-0 on Aug. 20 to cut about $1.5 million from its mounted patrol line in the customer engagement department. Directors shifted roughly $1.3 million into the law enforcement fund for fiscal year 2027.

The Township has framed the potential switch as a public safety upgrade. In a Sept. 3 Q&A, the Township said Alpha & Omega personnel are not commissioned officers and cannot detain individuals, make arrests or take law enforcement action. The Township also cited liability concerns because key Town Center property owners have not signed license agreements allowing Alpha & Omega patrols on private property.

Board Chairman Brad Bailey said in the Sept. 3 Q&A that mounted patrol "is not going away" and that the board is "evaluating how to make it stronger, more capable and more accountable to the community we serve."

Alpha & Omega says 35 positions are at stake, including 32 held by Montgomery County residents. If the board will not table the item, the company asked directors to authorize negotiations only and require a separate public vote before any final agreement is executed.

The exact scope of Thursday's vote is unclear. Community Impact described it as deciding whether to "move forward with negotiations." Woodlands Online's account said the board would approve the proposal and authorize Township President and CEO Monique Sharp to negotiate and execute the final agreement.

The meeting is open to the public. The current Alpha & Omega contract expires Dec. 31.