Before the start of their business meeting, the Deep East Texas Council of Governments Board heard an update on the agency’s Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) from RSVP Program Director Pam Dunn. “RSVP Volunteers are in your communities. They are real people, with real solutions, meeting real needs like food, shelter, clothing and education,” Dunn told the board. Her presentation went on to highlight the number of volunteers the program has in non-profit organizations in every one of the counties in the DETCOG Region. In the past two years over nine-hundred RSVP volunteers worked over two-hundred fifty thousand hours at city and county governmental offices, food banks, libraries, Head-Start centers, museums, hospitals and senior centers throughout the12-county region. RSVP places a value of over six-million, three-hundred twenty-six thousand dollars on their service.
In their business session the DETCOG Board heard a report from the chair of the Deep East Texas Regional Review Committee (DETRRC), Tyler County Commissioner Martin Nash. DETRRC sets regional criteria for projects funded through the Texas Department of Agriculture’s Community Development Fund-HUD Community Development Block Grants (CDBG). The committee set first priorities of water, sewer, streets, roads, bridges and drainage. Applying cities and counties that did not received funding for projects in the last round of funding will get +20 points as a secondary scoring factor. After grant applications are received and scored by the DETRRC they will go on to the Texas Department of Agriculture for another round of scoring before any are funded.
The board also voted to de-obligate job-creating Forgivable Loan program funds that were committed to four businesses. Difficulties in getting environmental clearances and changing markets have caused them to be unable to finalize their loans. Those funds now go back into a regional pool for future allocation.
During his report DETCOG Executive Director Lonnie Hunt asked and received approval to use the accounting and consulting firm of Urlaub & Co. PLLC of Ada, Oklahoma to work with DETCOG’s Section 8 HUD rental assistance program. He also received approval to solicit proposals for an “Internal Controls Review” of DETCOG operations. “I would like to have a totally objective and independent review to ensure our policies and procedures are up to date and reflect best practices for efficiency and transparency,” Hunt told the board. He went on to say that he thought every agency should go through a “controls” review every 5 to 10 years.
The board also voted to award the contract for transit planning assistance to HDR Engineering Inc. of Houston. Public hearings to gather comments on transit needs start next week and will take place in each DETCOG county.
The date of the next DETCOG Board Meeting was changed to Tuesday, August 16, 2016 because of a conflict with other governmental meetings. It will be held at the community center in Groveton, Texas.
