Harris County Flood Control District<\/a>.<\/p>\nA closer look <\/p>\n
Cunningham said the creation of the district marks an important step in providing ongoing dredging operations in Lake Houston.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the first step in a long road to cooperative management and risk reduction for residents,\u201d Cunningham said.<\/p>\n
Still, Cunningham said officials have a lot they need to accomplish before the district can begin carrying out its own dredging operations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first [thing we need to focus on] is reaching stable, dedicated funding,\u201d Cunningham said. \u201cOther considerations include delivering success to the public, establishing strong leadership and securing partners to help dredge and sell the gathered materials.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the bill initially included $50 million in funding for the district paid out in two installments in 2025 and 2026, Cunningham said he was confident the district could attain additional funding during the state\u2019s next legislative session.<\/p>\n
“Funding is always a critical concern for any organization,” Cunningham said.<\/p>\n
The cost<\/p>\n
David Wurdlow, senior assistant director of capital projects and grant management for Houston Public Works, said a total of roughly $175 million has been allocated from local, state and federal agencies toward dredging activities in Lake Houston since Hurricane Harvey.<\/p>\n
Also of note <\/p>\n
Simpson said the district\u2019s most pressing matter is to create a funding plan to submit to state lawmakers during the 2027 legislative session.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur real objective here in the near term is to submit a … plan to the state identifying what we need and where we plan to get it,\u201d Simpson said.<\/p>\n
Board Treasurer Derek St. John said additional milestones include hiring an attorney and an accountant to help advise the board and assist in carrying out operations during meetings.<\/p>\n
Once the district is operational, Wurdlow said officials will be able to generate revenue by selling any sand, gravel, silt or other material removed from the lake.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sky is kind of the limit with the amount of volume of material that we expect in the long term to continue to flow into the basin from the tributaries,\u201d Wurdlow said. \u201cThe challenge is coming up with that operating funding in order to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Houston District E Council member Fred Flickinger said he\u2019s confident about the potential value of dredged material based on conversations he\u2019s had with dredging and marine construction company Callan Marine.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey certainly think there is value in the material that’s going to be removed,\u201d Flickinger said.<\/p>\n
Wurdlow said about $7 million of the $175 million that has been allocated has not yet been spent.<\/p>\n
\u201c[This funding is] not going to really support dredging work, but it may be able to help position you for other asks,\u201d Wurdlow said.<\/p>\n
Wurdlow highlighted three additional potential sources of revenue for the district, including agreements with the city of Houston or Harris County, additional legislative appropriations and post-disaster grants.<\/p>\n
While the district will not be able to impose any fees or new taxes, it does have the authority to eventually issue bonds that would be paid off using revenue generated by the district, according to the bill.<\/p>\n
What’s next <\/p>\n
Moving forward, Simpson said the board will set up a finance plan committee, a professional services procurement committee, an outreach committee and a dredging operations committee to help with the process of detailing the district\u2019s needs and how to meet them.<\/p>\n
District officials identified several needs the district will have to address while developing a long-term plan, including:<\/p>\n
Hiring an attorney and an accountant<\/p>\n
Determining the scope of work<\/p>\n
Developing a procurement plan
and website<\/p>\n
Setting up board committees to help distribute work among members<\/p>\n
Developing ways to communicate with the public and potential partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Members of the Lake Houston Dredging and Maintenance District met for the first time in late August, paving…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[145589,119483,2627,56,58,57,19293,8418,144174,145588],"class_list":["post-451333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-charles-cunningham","tag-dredging","tag-flood-mitigation","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-houston-public-works","tag-lake-houston","tag-lake-houston-dredging-and-maintenance-district","tag-william-simpson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}