Brooks County reviews EPA climate-resilience grant opportunity with housing, drainage and landfill projects on the table

The Commissioners’ Court held a workshop on an EPA climate-resilience grant opportunity. Presenters (Francisco Briones, RMA, and Jorge Lazaro, Fulcrum Engineer) characterized the opportunity as a $20 million local-project award with no upfront local match for eligible projects and noted broader national funding figures and prior awards; a November 2024 deadline for some application elements was cited during discussion.

The presenters outlined a range of candidate projects the county could propose: a roughly $4 million key project south of town; drainage improvements in the northwest part of town; a rural storage tank; an emergency storm shelter/decontamination/cooling/training center; housing projects including new construction, rehabilitation and mobile-home repairs (roofing, solar panels, HVAC and weatherization); infrastructure projects (road improvements focused on children, elderly and veterans); landfill expansion and a county recycling facility; and county electric-vehicle charging and fleet electrification. Court members asked questions about administrative costs; presenters noted typical grant admin/engineering fees (presenter examples cited roughly 1% for admin/grant-writing and 5% for engineering, which on a $20 million award would consume roughly $1.6 million for engineering). The court agreed to place the grant proposal on a future agenda for formal decisions and next steps.