The Southeast Texas Regional Planning Commission (SETRPC) approved Wednesday distributions of disaster recovery funds. Orange County will be one of the biggest recipients.
Orange County Commissioner Barry Burton who has served on the regional planning commission indicates the details of the distributions are $4 million for acquisitions or buy outs and $10 million for infrastructure repairs. The stipulation on the funds for infrastructure is that 70 percent of those funds must be used to help low to moderate income areas. “That will be our priority to find projects that fit that category,” Burton explained.
The SETRPC held several meetings in Orange County and elsewhere in the three-county area to receive information on the extent of damage from Harvey. The commission developed a formula based on reports from FEMA and the data received from the government entities to determine the distribution of the Community Development Block Grant disaster recovery funds.
Orange County will receive close to $14 million, but that is just a portion of what the whole county could receive in grants. Burton said all the municipalities in the county could get close to $67 million for infrastructure repairs and acquisitions or buy outs.
The recommendations of the regional planning commission will now go to the Texas General Land Office (GLO) for final approval. Burton believes the GLO will put its stamp of approval on the disaster recovery distributions in the next few weeks or in a couple of months before the funds become available to the various entities.
-Dan Perrine, KOGT-
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