One member of the three-person Texas Water Development Board of Directors will attend Riverbend Water Resources District's Town Hall meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the New Boston Community Center, 301 N.E. Front St., New Boston, Texas.
Kathleen Jackson will be on hand to hear discussions on how important the state's water plan is to rural areas in East Texas. Riverbend's board of directors, along with Texarkana, Texas, water liaison Steve Mayo, area lawmakers and consultants, will discuss Riverbend's current study for inclusion in the Regional Water Master Plan.
Riverbend CEO and Executive Director Liz Fazio Hale encourages residents to attend and learn more about how water planning works-specifically how water plans affect East Texas.
"We want people to come out and talk about what is the Northeast Texas that we envision," she said. "Who are we, what do we look like in the future and how much water are we going to need to get there?"
Consultant Susan Roth and Tony Smith with Carollo Engineers will also give updates on the $500,000 study which began in July to get hard data on the three counties and 12 municipalities the water district serves. It's expected to be completed in December 2017, and once done, is expected to give an accurate representation of the district's resources.
Completing a RWMP is important, Fazio Hale said, because it gives true numbers for East Texas' resources at the local level. Those numbers will then be fed into the state water plan, the next of which is expected in 2021.
Fazio Hale said one goal of the town hall meeting is to impress upon Jackson how rural East Texas is unique and has specific water uses and needs.
"We need to paint a picture for the water development board about the type of funding that we're going to need in the future. Rural is different than urban city planning and population," she said. "I think it's also really important to show the state agency that we are working together as a region through Riverbend."
Fazio Hale added that the water planning process begins at the local level.
"It's unlike any other planning in the state," she said. "It's a bottom-up process."
Discussion will also be held with State Rep. Gary VanDeaver, Rep. Bryan Hughes, Bowie County Judge James Carlow and Cass County Judge Becky Wilbanks.