At the June 5 meeting of Seadrift City Council, Mayor DeForest gave his “State of the City”.
City residents continue to struggle through the process of repairing and restoring damaged structures containing mold and mildew this long after Harvey. Most of the problem of timely distribution can be attributed to the “bureaucratic process” of the Federal Government. Congress passed major disaster funding in September 2017 with supplementals later in 2017. HUD, in its infinite wisdom, has now pre-allocated 80% of housing recovery funding to particular areas and zip codes in the Harvey disaster area. This means that the remaining 20% of housing recovery funding is un-allocated. The “un-allocated” funds may be distributed, probably, on a competitive basis, between 22 other entities (parts of counties) and particular zip codes where HUD split funding within counties.
In the case of Calhoun County, whatever funds are to be used within the county for housing recovery, HUD has pre-allocated 80% to zip code 77979. This means that the remaining 20% of any funds provided to Calhoun County will be split between the other zip codes of the county because HUD has determined the remaining zip codes in Calhoun County were not as impacted as 77979. This 20% will most likely be awarded on a competitive basis. There will be two public hearings regarding the Method of Distribution.
I urge everyone in zip codes of Seadrift, Point Comfort and Port O’Connor to attend one of these public hearings and make their voice heard about this, seemingly un-equal distribution method. The Public Hearings will be held on June 18th and July 9th. The location is the GCRPC 2nd Floor Boardroom, 1908 N. Laurent, Victoria, Texas at 6:00 p.m.
Further in the State of the City, the Mayor, shared that the City has taken a $6,089,634 hit in property de-valuation decrease as a result of Hurricane Harvey damages to private property. This is a decrease in overall valuation of approximately 10%. In terms of tax revenue this is a decrease of approximately $32,580.
The Mayor further reported that the City sustained estimated infrastructure damages of $6,571,000. This is the amount that has been estimated so far. There are still items pending estimation. damages and will increase the amount of estimated infrastructure damages. This is City property and structures. Further the City is still awaiting reimbursement from FEMA for expenses the City spent from its own sources to perform cleanup immediately after Harvey. This amount is around $225,000.
