Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Three members of the Coryell County Commissioners Court and Gatesville City Manager Bill Parry participated in a recent workshop with Natural Resources Solutions of Austin to discuss local conservation projects and funding sources, along with other improvements.
The three-hour workshop took place at the Gatesville Civic Center on April 27. Steve Manning, president of NRS, noted that the county and the city of Gatesville have both entered into a memorandum of understanding with the American Conservation Foundation, an Austin-based nonprofit that aims to investigate, implement and promote conservation strategies. The city and the county are working with the ACF to seek grant opportunities for projects within the Leon River Watershed.
"We want to identify the needs of the county and city, locate and identify appropriate grants and obtain these grants for the county and city," Manning said.
As part of the grant application process, the city and county will both have to present detailed information, and Manning noted sometimes that information is not in the right format. That is one of the things that NRS will assist with, he said.
For example, some of the county's information is on physical maps and on paper, rather than entered into an electronic database. NRS employees showed ways this can easily be addressed and benefit city and county officials, as well as members of the public whenever they are looking for information about local roads, low-water crossings, floodplains and other items of interest.
One grant that the county is interested in has a deadline of May 23, so compiling the information quickly is a priority.
Members of the commissioners court attending the workshop were County Judge Roger Miller and commissioners Kyle Matthews and Ryan Basham. Other county employees were also present, including Justin Latham, county road and bridge administrator, and Bob Harrell, emergency management director.
Coryell and Milam County were jointly awarded $6.8 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to help rebuild areas that were devastated by floods in 2015 and 2016. The counties split the money, with each receiving $3.4 million. That money was distributed through the Texas General Land Office and then through the Central Texas Council of Governments. The funding is expected to be available Aug. 1, and the counties can submit their plans for the funding.
"That's a lot of opportunity right there," Manning said.
"Our intent is to provide $500,000 to the city of Gatesville and $500,000 to the city of Copperas Cove, and for the county to retain $2.4 million," Miller said. "That allows the cities to address specific needs, and 51% has to be spent in low to moderate income areas.”
A $300 million pot is available nationally through Rural Service Transportation, with a deadline of May 23 to apply.
"Mr. Latham has prioritized some low-water crossings, and that would be an immediate impact. We would show how school bus routes coincide with school district bus routes," Miller said. "The target number (for improvements to those areas) is in the $5 million to $6 million range."
Parry said the city is focusing on two rehabilitation projects via conservation funds.
"The first is with the Leon River," he said. "Faunt Le Roy Park has been compromised and the riverbanks have caved. FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) offered $60,000 to stabilize, which wasn't enough. FEMA then offered $1.3 million for us to replace Faunt Le Roy Park by moving it to another location.
"We also have drainage issues in Gatesville, with areas of the city being inundated when we have heavy rainfall, a lot of older stormwater catchment areas are tied into the wastewater system, which then overwhelms the wastewater system. We need to separate the stormwater system from the wastewater system."
Parry said the city relies on bar ditches for drainage control, but they become overwhelmed when the area experiences flooding.
The city applied for a $250,000 grant for a city drainage study, which the Texas Water Development Board approved. Then the TWDB changed the focus, Parry said, saying they wanted a study of the entire Leon River Watershed.
"They knew what we were applying for when they approved it, but then they came back and said they wanted a study of the entire 380-mile watershed, which Gatesville is not prepared to do," he said.
"We need to figure out what to do with the park, and the biggest concern is the drainage project and how to pay for that. We are looking for available grants."
Parry said the city is looking to begin modeling for the drainage project in June, which will include part of the Leon River and Dodds Creek, which will also impact the county.
"I will come out with a hydrologic survey of that section of the Leon River," he said. "I've got four or five buckets of problems,, and this could help address some of them.
"We really need an engineer to help us start this. We don't want to fix something upstream and come out with other problems down the line. My goal is to have an engineering plan. Our director of planning is also involved in GIS (geographic information system mapping and data) and we are in the process of converting from paper maps."
"The old way is not going to hold up," Manning said.
Shannon Farrell, science director for NRS said the key is collecting useful and usable information for the county and the city.
This information can also be used to help predict problem areas and concerns based on past events and data, she said.
NRS employees have already begun entering some of the road and bridge data into a system for the county, and discussed various levels of detailed information the county may wish to include. Access to some of that information can be restricted to county employees, depending on the nature and sensitivity of the date, while other information could be made available to the public.
"You could take our road and bridge reports from TxDOT (the Texas Department of Transportation) and upload it," Latham said. "They do an off-road bridge inspection every two years and it's very detailed and can be hard to keep up with (without an online tool).
"Some of the information is accessible to anyone, but certain information is limited by the state and can only be accessed by a permission passcode."
Manning said data from one county department can be compiled and benefit multiple departments, school districts, cities, real estate agents or industry.
"There's a whole lot of information to benefit not just the county but people throughout the county," Miller said. “You could show how new subdivisions' impervious cover impacts the area."
"Then you can have an engineer look at it and require things such as a retention pond," Latham said. He added that county employees who are out in the field could take pictures of impacted areas and include those in the database to show why a change or improvement is needed.
Manning said it is important to put together information about what will happen once the city receives grant money.
"The GLO (General Land Office) will want to know – they're not just going to write a check. You can also make priorities based not just on what's happening today but what is expected in the future."
Miller said coming up with a comprehensive plan for the county is important.
"My number one takeaway – something the county needs to address – historically we have addressed targets of opportunity," he said. "We need a big picture plan and need to do a data analysis to address all the issues. Data collection can help us find the answers and address the issues in a big picture plan."
NRS policy analyst and project manager Maddie Todd said that would help the county be proactive in its approach rather than reactive.
"The county always puts a Band-Aid on things because we didn't want to spend the money (for a more permanent solution)," Commissioner Matthews said. "We're growing, and with that we want value to come with it that pays for roads and services.
"We have to be able to provide the best possible service to get good growth. You want to bring quality."
Todd said a multifaceted approach to pursuing grants would be beneficial to the county.
"You want to get the most bang for your buck," she said. "If something doesn't work for one grant, there may be two or three others where it's applicable."
Miller said focusing on what is needed not just immediately, but in the long run, will help the county prioritize.
"Fundamentally, this moves us in the right direction," he said. "It addresses the things the county could improve on and will help provide better infrastructure and better services to the public."
