San Jacinto County gets windfall in grants during DETCOG board meeting
San Jacinto News Times - December 2007

LIVINGSTON – San Jacinto County brought home checks totaling over $889,000 last week from the Office of Rural Community Affairs.
The presentation followed a regular monthly meeting of the Board of Directors of the Deep East Texas Council of Governments (DETCOG) who met last Thursday at the Alabama-Coushatta Indian Reservation near Livingston.
San Jacinto County received two checks, one totaling $350,000 and one totaling $478,669 to be used for emergency generators in government buildings in the event of a hurricane or power outages, according to Pct. 2 Commissioner Royce Wells.
“Part of the money is also to be used to pay for land the county purchased from the Texas Forest Service, which now houses the Department of Public Safety on FM 2025,” Wells said.
“Generators will also be used at local pharmacies to help preserve medicines that need to be kept cooled during power outages,” Wells said.
“$120,000 of the money will be sent to Pct. 3 for road repairs, following damage from Hurricane Rita and about $93,000 will be sent to Pct. 2 to help repair roads in Cherry Creek due to the October flooding,” Wells said.
The City of Point Blank received a check for $12,504 for generators and the City of Shepherd received $48,300 for generators, according to Wells.
Polk County Judge John Thompson opened the DETCOG meeting by welcoming those attending to Polk Couty. Tribal Chairman Jo Ann Battiste also welcomed the over 70 local elected officials and  guest present for the monthly board of directors meeting.
DETCOG President Charles Simmons started the board meeting by calling on Center Mayor John Windham to make the Transportation Committee report.  Windham noted the recent release of the Texas Department of Transportation’s Interstate Sixty-Nine study.  Saying the five volume study narrowed the prospective routes for the transportation corridor, Windham urged interested parties to review the publication at the DETCOG office in Jasper. In other committee reports, the vice-chair of the DETCOG Solid Waste Advisory Council Chris Fitzgerald announced the results of the regional review of the Solid Waste Grant Applications. The board approved the committee recommendations to fund the following grants: Hemphill, San Augustine, Crockett, Shelby, Diboll, San Jacinto and Trinity counties.  Each applicant received $19,600.
President Simmons then congratulated DETCOG Executive Director Walter Diggles on his recent governor’s appointment to chair the OneStar National Service Commission. The organization is responsible for the Governor’s Faith-Based and Community Initiative, the Governor’s Mentoring Initiative and the National Service Initiative.
In his report, Diggles, stated the agency’s Hurricane Rita Relief program has identified 129 eligible applicants for assistance under the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA)/Community Development Block Grant program.  Eleven purchase orders have been issued for replacement housing with five of them already delivered and installed.  Diggles announced that DETCOG and TDHCA would be working this next month to speed up delivery of assistance to victims of Hurricane Rita.
Diggles also reported that U.S. Congressman Kevin Brady participated in DETCOG’s Annual Holiday Food Campaign with Brookshire Brothers.  Brady presented bags of groceries for needy families as part of the Food Stamp/Medicaid/Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) outreach program.  Similar presentations will be taking place at Brookshire Brother’s stores throughout the 12-county regions.  DETCOG administers the outreach under a contract with the Health & Human Services Commission.
The next DETCOG meeting will be its annual Christmas luncheon.  The meeting will be held in Jasper County.