Jersey Village received a slew of great news regarding flood mitigation in March. As a flood victim myself and experiencing mostly bureaucracy/red tape for the past 2 years following the Tax Day Flood, I was overjoyed to hear the news:
- Jersey Village’s application for home elevation grants to save 18 houses was selected to move on to the funding phase. Despite our small size, Jersey Village will potentially snag $3.35MM out of just $158MM in funds made available nationwide. More rounds of grant applications will be submitted every year as federal and state programs are made available.
- After another red-tape/draconian State Law mess, we engaged engineering firm Brooks & Sparks to look at the Jersey Meadow Golf Course Berm project design and make a recommendation to move forward quickly. Not only did Frank Brooks and his team create a desirable plan to detain rain water on the course, but also presented an outside-the-box idea for integrating the planned Wall Street neighborhood (Wall/Capri/W. Tahoe/Crawford) drainage improvements into the functional design. In a nutshell (see the work session video here), pumps would be used to move water from that system onto the golf course once the bayou channel reaches a level of ineffectiveness, therefore giving storm water that would otherwise sit and rise a place to go. Council gave further direction during a work session last week to continue with the design phase. I asked that new ponds and dredging existing ponds be included in this design to increase detention capacity beyond the 105 Acre Feet planned. We hope to start the project late summer or early fall depending on regulatory hurdles.
- On March 27th, Harris County Commissioner’s Court authorized the Flood Control District to move forward on negotiating a contract with an engineering firm to design, engineer, and manage construction of the White Oak Bayou flood risk reduction project. Pieces of this federal project have been done over the years (detention ponds, bypass channel, etc.) but the major impact piece– widening and deepening the bayou channel– has been on hold for years due to lack of funds. Myself, City Manager Austin Bleess, flood victim Mike Stembridge, and Council Place 4 candidate James Singleton appeared before the Commissioners Court on March 28th to voice our support and offer our help in moving that project forward. The City has already reached out and continues an open dialog with the Flood Control District. We expect the design and engineering phase to take about 1 year, followed by another year of construction.
- The City continues to apply for federal and state grant money to help offset the costs of our flood mitigation projects. The golf course berm project and the Wall Street neighborhood improvement project were both identified as likely candidates for grant funding. Council authorized the City Manager to move forward with the grant applications, which will have a multiplying effect on our own local tax dollars. I applaud the City Manager and his staff for recognizing the need to bring our own tax dollars back into the community to help pay for these solutions.
All of this great news should absolutely be celebrated. However, it’s important to manage expectations (sorry, corporate speak is bleeding in here). Short of spending an estimated $20 Billion or more to implement sweeping infrastructure improvements, our region will always face some level of flood risk. There’s a reason it’s called flood mitigation and not flood elimination.
“There’s been no project, nor will there likely be any project, that will reduce the flood risk to zero,” Harris County Flood Control District Chief Engineer Steve Fitzgerald said. “There is always a residual floodplain.”
This is the County managing expectations and it’s vital that we also maintain perspective when it comes to the City of Jersey Village’s scope when it comes to flood mitigation. Our Long-Term Flood Mitigation Study and the resulting recommendations address the full scope of what the City can and should do (and we are doing all of them now). It also highlights the need for citizens to understand that they are not only citizens of the City of Jersey Village, but also citizens of Harris County, the State of Texas, and the United States of America. All levels of government are accountable for solving this complex problem and all levels of government should be held accountable by you, the voter and taxpayer. I implore citizens to find out who your representatives are at these higher levels of government and become a polite, cordial, constructive squeaky wheel. Jersey Village consistently delivers votes to the individuals currently occupying the Precinct 4 Commissioner seat, State Representative District 135 seat, State Senate District 7 seat, US Congressional District 7 seat, both US Senate seats, and the Presidency. It’s within your right to let those officeholders know that your vote comes with expected results.
City Council, the Mayor, and City Staff are taking an active role in lobbying for infrastructure improvements that fall outside of our scope. You can, too. We have approached Harris County Flood Control District leadership and asked if there’s any land the City should condemn and contribute to their cause. The answer, so far, has been “no” (see comments section, unfortunately). We will continue to be a proactive partner and will deliberate necessary steps if asked to do so by the County. Staying “in our lane” is the best approach and one that requires discipline, patience, and a cordial attitude. Straying from this approach risks the City of Jersey Village being perceived by the County (with whom we have little to no leverage) as a hurdle rather than a partner.
With the recent good news, our Long-Term Flood Recovery study has reaped a high return on investment– $5.40 in Federal matching dollars for every $1 spent on the study up to today– and we stand to make that return even higher (as much as $13 for every $1 spent) if the grants for the berm and Wall Street drainage projects are approved by the State later this summer. That could go even higher as each year we apply for more home elevation grants. When I asked City Manager Bleess, the man who actually writes the grant applications, how beneficial the data contained within the study has been in the grant application process, his answer was simple: “EXTREMELY beneficial.”
The projects within the City’s scope identified by the study for implementation are well underway and barring any major setbacks should be in effect by the start of 2019’s hurricane season or shortly thereafter. The County’s project to widen and deepen the bayou channel and the bypass channel should be in effect by the end of 2020. I will continue to advocate on behalf of our City to higher levels of government, continue to meet with citizen groups seeking collaboration and advocacy, continue voting to fund opportunities for improvement within the City’s scope as they become available, and continue to support candidates (local and higher) who show an understanding of the problem and the processes we must follow to generate effective solutions.
I have always been approachable and easy to reach. Feel free to email me any time with your questions or concerns. I’m also happy to grab a beer and chat.