TEXARKANA, Texas - During a regular meeting Monday, the City Council voted to allocate federal pandemic relief funds to several local nonprofits and government departments.
The Council approved amendments to the city's Community Development Block Grant plan that will make $195,000 available. An additional $23,921 will be used to cover administrative costs.
Mission Texarkana, which provides services to the local homeless population, will receive $30,000. Randy Sams' Outreach Shelter will receive $50,000, the Salvation Army $30,000 and Texarkana Homeless Coalition $5,000. The Texarkana COVID-19 Emergency Operations Center and Health Department together will receive $80,000.
The city received the funds from the Department of Housing and Urban Development as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security, or CARES, Act recently enacted to provide a wide range of financial relief needed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Community Development Block Grants are a common way for local governments to fund services and infrastructure improvements.
Also in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the Council voted to amend the city's disaster declaration to allow delay of debt payments.
The move lets City Manager Shirley Jaster negotiate postponement of loan repayments for up to six months as the city copes with financial disruption brought on by the pandemic.
The Council alo voted to accept a funding agreement with government trustees that will pay for environmental improvements to several Texarkana creeks, as well as to hire consultants to oversee the projects.
The funding comes after years of legal wrangling determined a legal settlement amount and a group of government trustees - called the Texas Natural Resource Trustees for Watershed Restoration Projects - decided what to do with the money.
Courts awarded more than $21 million in damages in suits against Kerr McGee, which operated a creosote wood-treatment plant in Texarkana from 1969 to 2003, and Tronox, a company that acquired the plant in 2005. A group of trustees made up of state and federal agencies received proposals and chose how the money should be spent to offset damage caused by the plant's pollution of Texarkana creeks.
The trustees rejected 12 of 22 project proposals made by Texarkana government, schools and universities. They awarded Texarkana $9.8 million to fund the remaining 10 projects, which will preserve and enhance approximately 200 acres of forested habitats on the banks of Cowhorn, Days, Howard, Swampoodle and Waggoner creeks, as well as restoring and stabilizing about 6 miles of urban creek channels.
The remainder of the settlement fund will be used for various mitigation projects elsewhere in Northeast Texas. They include acquiring habitat near Caddo Lake, restoring and enhancing the Mineola Nature Preserve, conserving Neches River bottomland forest and acquiring land for the Talbot Prairie and Forest. Together, those alternatives are expected to cost $9.4 million.
After taking proposals from several companies, the city chose Austin-based Aqua Strategies to perform environmental design and engineering services for the creek projects.
Getting most of the settlement "should be seen as a tremendous victory for the city," an Aqua Strategies representative told the Council via internet.
A planning and permitting process should take about a year, and construction will proceed thereafter.
Because of cancellations made because of the pandemic, the meeting was the Council's first since March 23. Council members and city staff met at City Hall, and residents had the option to watch the meeting live on streamed video accessible from the city's website.
Residents could register to take part in the meeting through an internet app called Zoom, which uses computer cameras and microphones to let participants meet without being in the same space.
The Council's next meeting is scheduled for May 11.