Harris County prepares to ramp up flood project maintenance following Prop A approval

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- After Harris County voters approved spending more in taxes on flood maintenance last year, steps are being taken to use the money.

In November, voters approved Prop A. It's a measure to increase taxes to fund flood maintenance.

On Thursday, we learned the flood control district plans to tackle 30 major maintenance projects this year because of the money, which usually only five to eight are done annually.

The commissioners' court is looking to create new maintenance positions to make this happen. Harris County Flood Control District says Prop A will allow them to generate an extra $100 a year.

The extra money will allow the flood control district to upkeep ditches and grass and trim trees. However, the flood control district needs more workers.

That's where Thursday's vote to create eleven new maintenance positions comes in. To pay for these new workers and maintenance, taxpayers will pay, on average, $60 more per year.

When you may see these workers performing maintenance, county flood resilience task force members said they've been told it'll be soon.

"We're expecting it within the coming months," Harris County Flood Resilience Task Force Chair Billy Guevara said. "I'm expecting it myself so I can go over it, analyze it, and probably gather questions from my community members as well as members from my community as well."

ABC13 reached out to the flood control district to see when you might see the increased work, but they didn't say precisely when.

However, the department says the extra funds are already making a difference.

It has a reporting program, and because of the extra cash, they've been able to respond better to maintenance requests.

Update from the Flood Control District on Proposition A efforts:
We were thankful to voters for their support of Flood Control District Proposition A. The additional revenue represents more than $100 million for us to invest in much-needed maintenance work across Harris County. We're committed to moving quickly to make progress while we efficiently scale up the organization. Making quick and tangible progress on the deferred maintenance backlog was one of the priorities we heard from the community during our education outreach. The moment the proposition was approved, we got to work to implement and deliver an expanded maintenance program. We're putting the pieces into place to dramatically scale up our work. Historically, we've only had funding to move about 5-8 major maintenance projects (including sediment removal, concrete repairs, channel erosion, and other major efforts) into design and eventually into construction. This year, we'll be able to move more than 30 major maintenance projects through the pipeline - spanning across Harris County. This means we're adding field crews and maintenance staff, contracts with construction and engineering teams, and new equipment to support this work. Some of those items have already been approved by Commissioners Court, and there are more to come. We're also already making an impact through our Fast Action Service Team (FAST) program, where we respond to resident inquiries and move quickly to address them. We've been able to quickly respond to reports of debris, tree blockages, dumping, outfall repairs, and other items that would have threatened our system.

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