(Seguin) — Even as major construction nears completion, Seguin city leaders gathered to break ground on what they call the “final leg” of a sweeping, multi-million-dollar effort to reduce flooding across the city.
Last week’s ceremony signifies both the start and near completion of four priority drainage projects funded through a $37.8 million grant from the Texas General Land Office. The funds were provided to help with recurring flood damage tied to heavy rains, hurricanes and tropical storms that move across the area.
Seguin City Manager Steve Parker says it’s important for the public to know just how rare this funding is for a city of this size.
“Cities this size do not get this kind of allotment when it comes to federal funds. Usually, I’ve seen it really twice in my career. One was San Marcos, which I worked at before and now Seguin. So, we’re very, very privileged. You know, Seguin is extremely old community. 1838, very flat community, not a lot of drainage infrastructure and the drainage infrastructure that is here is very old. And we’ve experienced that just as last July 5th. You can see that. And one of the major initiatives when I got here and Melissa took the lead is we’ve been trying to implement a drainage utility for a number of years because we saw those issues. And so, we implemented a drainage utility fee program. That’s where the matching dollars can come from for projects like this. And it’s allowing us to do drainage master planning all over our community. And when you’re shovel ready and you know where these projects should go, You’re going to be first in line for these grant dollars, right? Because the federal government doesn’t want to waste taxpayers’ money. And so, when they see communities that are ready to go, have their stuff in order, it just says mountains and it makes mountains move when you actually are able to align all these things and let them know that you’re going to do this. And now that we’ve actually proven ourselves and got these projects done on time, the next round of grants that come through, I think we would rate very, very highly because they know we’re not going to embarrass them, right?” said Parker.
The projects — Walnut Branch, Mays Creek, North Heideke Street and North Guadalupe Street — are all designed to tackle long-standing drainage challenges. Improvements include expanded detention ponds, upgraded culverts, new stormwater systems, bridge construction and additional access routes for residents during flood events.
Melissa Reynolds, the city’s director of engineering and capital projects, says the initiative has been years in the making and is now entering its final stretch.
“This was huge. It allowed us to conquer a lot of drainage issues across the entire city. It was four different design projects, six different construction projects, and all of them have been running very well — on time for the most part and under budget for the most part so that’s another win no pressure D&D but the last phase is kicking off as of now so this was our last chance for a groundbreaking — we will be executing the final leg of these projects with a new bridge and we’ll be ending it with the ribbon cutting as we reopen that roadway,” Reynolds.
On hand to represent the Texas General Land office was Heather Lagrone. Lagrone, the director of the disaster recovery programs at the Land Office, says Seguin stood out for its preparedness and strategic planning in securing this competitive funding.
“I am the director of our disaster recovery programs at the Land Office. I am not Commissioner (Dawn) Buckingham, but she sends her best regards. She wished that she could be here too but thank y’all all for including us. We get to spend a lot of disaster recovery money on the coast. We don’t get to spend a lot of money in your area, but I will tell you that Seguin has done an amazing job at getting a very large amount of money to your community. But you are getting over $40 million here in the city, $55 million in the county. And looking at how you’re prioritizing that money on flood and drainage is super obvious that you all take this very seriously and you are working to achieve some things that probably would not have been achieved otherwise. So, we just love the fact that we’re getting to be a partner with you all and getting us to this last project in this whole program that y’all are working on with us and we’re looking forward to continuing and finalizing that with you all,” said
Parker says the improvements are not just about infrastructure, but about peace of mind for residents who for years have faced “repeated flooding.”
“I just can’t say enough about our whole entire team, finance, our new grants administrator has just done a phenomenal job. Our consultants that does the grant stuff with us as well. Our engineering firms and our contractors have just performed phenomenally. And our drainage utility, I can’t say enough about Adam Rossing being a new addition to the team. They’ve been going out and taking care of our existing infrastructure. And just since the start of the fiscal year, they have taken up out of our manhole covers for our drainage utility system. He did some numbers the other day. We would have taken enough out of our dirt and silt out of our drainage system that would have filled up the Seguin Coliseum. So, we’re going to bring that presentation back to the next council meeting. Those are the type of maintenance programs that we have to do to keep up with our infrastructure and make sure it’s taken care of and it maintains and so forth. So, I just can’t say enough about this team, about this community and the support. We really do want to change lives and when you have people that get scared every time a thunderstorm pops up because they’re not, they’re concerned about what’s going to happen to their house, their garages, all those types of things. It just really does say these are the life-changing, quality of life things that we want to do. So, I just want to say thank you to everybody that’s worked on this project and the partnerships that we have with everyone,” said Parker.
Also thanking staff and the contractors who have all helped to make this happen was Seguin Mayor Donna Dodgen. Dodgen says she credits the long-term vision for making these projects possible.
“We’re sitting in a pecan bottom, and we are flat and we are very old, as Steve said, and haven’t done many, many things. But when Steve came on board and when the directors and as we’ve continued to move with council members and mayors, we’ve continued to take that bar to the next level to see how we can make things work. How can we get it ready to make it work and to take advantage of everything that’s available to us. And we’ve done that and you are part of that. And the staff is to be commended because I say this all the time and our council truly believes this. We’re the ones, the elected officials change, the staff stays the same. We must trust and move within them and we do. That’s what makes us successful. That’s what makes us successful is trusting each other, believing in each other and having that relationship,” said Dodgen.
The projects were all funded through a Texas General Land Office disaster mitigation grant, awarded in response to repeated storm damage in 2015 and during Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
Additional funding was also approved for the city of Marion. The funds are part of more than $47.8 million allocated in Guadalupe County for the improvement of water, wastewater and drainage systems.