WESLACO, Aug. 23 - A group putting together the evaluation criteria for ranking flood control projects in the Rio Grande Valley is determined not to leave colonia residents at the bottom of the list.
The multi-million dollar project is titled “Regional Economic Adjustment Plan for Building Disaster Resilient Communities,” with funding coming from the federal Economic Development Administration. The Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council successfully applied for the grant.
The idea is to develop a master plan for the four-county Valley region that will foster economic growth and economic recovery following a natural disaster.
Danny Rios, of S&B Infrastructure Ltd., said the way the program is structured almost lends itself to giving a greater ranking to more affluent areas where the property tax base is high. He said the technical committee was determined not to let that happen.
“We have tried to make sure, as we did the evaluation, that all people, from whatever status they are at financially, would be treated equally. We switched the points around so that if you have a higher tax base you would not get a higher treatment than folks that live in lower income areas, such as the colonias,” Rios told the Guardian.
Sonia Lambert, general manager of Cameron County Irrigation District No. 2, chairs the technical committee that is putting together the evaluation criteria. She said the way the project was formulated made it harder to help the poorer areas. However, she agreed with Rios that the technical committee had succeeded in making things fairer.
“This project is supposed to be about economic development so we do have to look at the value of the property. There will naturally be a bigger impact if a property has a bigger value. We cannot lose focus on the reason we got this grant. It is for economic development,” Lambert said.
“However, while a poorer neighborhood scores a little lower in that area it can get extra points in the scoring process for other reasons, such as population or repair of an existing ditch. There are several other areas that could get them to a higher ranking, not only the value of the property.”
Lambert said the overall goal of the Regional Economic Adjustment Plan is to provide a framework for governmental entities in the Valley to work together to plan and manage their current and future public works infrastructure and storm water-related systems in order to minimize the impact of hurricanes and major storms.
Lambert said the project started in earnest in January and would take about three years to complete. “The ultimate goal is the construction of the flood control infrastructure we need,” she said.
The consultant team working on the project is headed by S&B Infrastructure. Rios said his company enlisted the help of a number of local companies to help with the study. “We all live here. We all know the drainage projects,” he said.
Within the consortium are Bickerstaff, Heath, Delgado, Acosta, LLP, Guzman and Munoz Engineering and Surveying, Inc., Rigcatco Consulting, L&G Consulting Engineers, Inc., Olivarri & Associates, and TEDSI Infrastructure Group, Inc.
Leah Pagan Olivarri, of Olivarri & Associates, said the master plan will be a “big picture” plan that compiles information on major drainage systems, catalogs potential and known flooding problem areas and needed improvements. These will be incorporated into the region’s comprehensive document, she said.
“The plan will include a Geographical Information System centralized database for the collection and maintenance of infrastructure and assets which will be available to governmental entities within the Lower Rio Grande Valley,” Olivarri said.
“The plan will identify storm-related public works infrastructure critical to diversifying the region’s economic base, and recommend funding mechanisms and sources for a phased regional Capital Improvement Plan to compliment the current and developing infrastructure in the study area.”
Rios said the Capital Improvement Plan would include projects identified by each community in the Valley. He said that in order to make sure projects identified by small communities were not lost in the shuffle there would be three categories, small, medium and large. The small category is for projects valued at less than $2.5 million. The medium category is for projects valued between $2.5 million and $24.9 million. And the large category is for projects valued at $25 million and above.
The technical committee met at Weslaco City Hall last Thursday to work on the evaluation criteria and categories. Rios said he was pleased Solomon Torres, representing Congressman U.S. Rep. Rubén Hinojosa, and Orlando Salinas, representing state Rep. Aaron Peña, were present.
“We have asked the representatives if there is any way we can help the folks from the lower income areas even further. Additional funds would help enhance the study further. We do not want to leave these folks out of the study,” Rios said.
In addition to the technical committee, there is also a steering committee chaired by Godfrey Garza, manager of Hidalgo County Drainage District No. 1. The evaluation criteria selected by the technical committee has to be approved by the steering committee.
A list of the members of the technical committee and the steering committee is included at the end of this story.
Torres, representing Congressman Hinojosa, told the technical committee that a one-day conference on flood control issues would be held in either late September or early October and would include experts from the International Boundary and Water Commission, the Texas Department of Transportation and other key agencies. Members of Congress would also be present, Torres said.
“With Hurricane Alex only just behind us it is very important that the public knows we are working on drainage issues,” said Lambert, welcoming news of the upcoming conference. “The conference will bring focus to a lot of what is going on.”
The steering committee for the Regional Economic Adjustment Plan consists of:
Godfrey Garza, manager of Hidalgo County Drainage District No. 1 (chair)
Robert Pinkerton, mayor of South Padre Island
Eddy Hernandez, director of customer and information services, Brownsville Public Utility
David A. Garza, Cameron County Commissioner, Precinct 3
Steve Brewer, mayor of La Feria
Dan Serna, public works director, City of Harlingen
Jeff Johnson, assistant city manager, City of Brownsville
Wayne Halbert, general manager, Harlingen Irrigation District
Eddie Campirano, port director and CEO, Port of Brownsville
Tom Hushen, past chief emergency officer, Cameron County
Eddy Gonzalez, mayor pro-tem, City of Edcouch
Tito Palacios, Hidalgo County Commissioner Precinct 2
Domingo Villarreal, coordinator, Hidalgo County Precinct 3
Joseph Palacios, Hidalgo County Commissioner-elect, Precinct 4
Pilar Rodriguez, assistant city manager, City of McAllen
Alma Garza, commissioner, City of Edinburg
Leopoldo ‘Polo” Palacios, mayor, City of Pharr
Julio Cerda, city manager, City of Mission
Troy Allen, general manager, Delta Lake Irrigation District
Sonny Hinojosa, general manager, Hidalgo County Irrigation District No. 2
Abel Gonzalez, Starr County Commissioner Precinct 4
Rose Benavidez, executive director, Starr County Industrial Foundation
Tony Nieto, plant manager, Kenaf Industries
Jerry Taylor, general manager, El Sauz Ranch
Fred Serrato, Willacy County Commissioner Precinct 3
Aurelio Guerra, Willacy County Judge
Eleazar ‘Yogi’ Garcia, city manager, City of Raymondville
Michael G. Wilson, port director, Willacy County Navigation District
The technical committee for the Regional Economic Adjustment Plan consists of:
Sonia Lambert, general manager, Cameron County Irrigation District No. 2
James L. Holdar, of Holdar Engineering
Louis Ara, road bridge superintendent for Cameron County Precinct 3
Jack L. Brown, president of Brown Leal & Associates
Alan Moore, general manager of Harlingen Irrigation District No. 13
Bobby Sparks, of SRS Farms
Jo Jo White, general manager of Hidalgo County Irrigation District No. 9
Ramiro Gutierrez, president of R. Gutierrez Engineering Corp.
Javier Hinojosa, president of Javier Hinojosa Engineering
Raul Sesin, technical engineer, Hidalgo County Planning
Noe Saldivar, technical engineer, Hidalgo County Drainage District No. 1
Raul Lozano, chief administrator, Hidalgo County Precinct 1
Richard Garcia, city manager, City of Mercedes
Eloy Vera, Starr County Judge
Freddie Nieto, wildlife manager, El Sauz Ranch
Gary Palousek, board member, Willacy County Drainage District No. 2
Paul Greenhill, general manager, Willacy County Drainage District No. 1
Raul Flores, Willacy County Engineer
Juan Peña, district conservationist, Lyford-NRCS (ex-officio)
The Regional Economic Adjustment Plan’s official Web site is: www.lrgv-regional-eap.com
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