Texas Border Business
WESLACO – The good news keeps coming for Hidalgo County and those who have pushed for drainage and flood control projects to provide relief for communities hard-hit by recent and repeated extreme rain events.
Precinct 1 Commissioner David L. Fuentes is pleased to announce that he was just informed by the Texas General Land Office Community Development and Revitalization division (GLO-CDR) that $9.96 million in grant funding has been awarded to Hidalgo County for Phase 2 of the Main Floodwater Channel Expansion Project. The project was submitted by Hidalgo County under the Mitigation 2016 State Most Impacted and Distressed (SMID) grant competition, funding from the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program.
The grant will fund Phase 2 of a 2-phase project, and both phases work in tandem. Last week, Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush announced funding in the amount of $9.85 million for Phase 1 of the Main Floodwater Channel expansion. Expanding the channel will add millions of cubic yards of storm-water capacity, which in turn will benefit the citizens of Hidalgo County and provide mitigation against flooding for a large portion of Hidalgo County and the Rio Grande Valley.
Fuentes, along with Precinct 4 Commissioner Ellie Torres, has been championing this and other drainage and flood control projects, meeting with representatives from state and federal agencies as well as with the Rio Grande Valley’s state legislative delegation and members of the South Texas federal legislative delegation. Armed with information and details of the impact of the recent floods that severely damaged homes, businesses, infrastructure, and properties for low- to moderate-income families, Fuentes and team successfully impressed upon the agencies the urgent need to expand capacity in the county’s drainage system.
“Our area’s desperate need for investment for flood control infrastructure in our region has been heard and acknowledged by our state and federal partners, and we are extremely appreciative of this and other funding we have recently received,” Fuentes continued. “This funding leverages the $180 million in drainage bond projects that were approved by Hidalgo County voters as well as another $20 million in grants that have come at no cost to our taxpayers,” Fuentes added.
“This injection of funding is a tremendous achievement for which we should all be proud, and we are grateful to HUD, GLO, Land Commissioner George P. Bush, and our state and federal legislative delegation who supported this project,” said Fuentes. “We look forward to continuing to improve our county’s drainage system and to providing assurances to our Hidalgo County residents that we are working to future-proof and prevent future widespread and damaging flooding in our community,” Fuentes ended.
For more information on the project awarded, please visit https://files.constantcontact.com/cfceb679001/40f05441-8c74-4480-bc84-91803363c9e5.pdf.
