The Coalition brings $55 million infrastructure project to Harris County

After a six year strategic advocacy campaign The Coalition's Public Policy Committee had reason to celebrate when the long-awaited funding for the Federal Flood Damage Reduction Project on Greens Bayou was announced in early February. The origins of the project can be traced to Congressional authorization for a flooding study on Greens Bayou in 1948. The project, which spans from Cutten Road to Veterans Memorial, was authorized by Congress in 1990 and the property was purchased by local taxpayers in 1997. In 2009 The Coalition's Public Policy Committee kicked-off a focused advocacy campaign which included building relationships with the US Army Corps of Engineers, the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, the Administration's Office of Management and Budget and Congressional leaders.   An important part of the winning strategy was support by area stakeholders. A citizen's letter writing campaign in the summer of 2014 was part of the final push to success.

 

Beyond the Bayou: 6th Annual Meeting and Luncheon

This year's Annual Meeting served an additional purpose beyond our annual awards and stakeholder update. This year we honored our retiring board chairman, Bill Franks, for his dedication and amazing leadership and direction of The Coalition's efforts and mission. Bill began his service to The Coalition upon its inception as a task force after tropical storm Allison. For more than a decade he has provided excellent vision and direction of GBCC's efforts in community engagement, advocacy, and flood mitigation efforts. If you would like to make a donation to The Coalition in Bill's honor, visit our website and become a donor or a member.

                                                                                                  

We opened the meeting with a great address from Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. Congresswoman Lee had only moments before participated in a press conference where GBCC announced the fruits of our years-long advocacy efforts for flood mitigation in the watershed. Congress recently approved the appropriation of funds to begin construction on a federal detention basin in our West Reach. This success was won through the tireless efforts of our public policy committee, our elected officials, and a grassroots letter writing campaign from residents of the watershed. Congresswoman Lee, Congressman Ted Poe and Congressman Gene Green were honored during the luncheon for their efforts in making our advocacy efforts successful.

 

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee receives an honor from GBCC Executive Director Jill Boullion and GBCC Chairman of the Board Reginald Lillie

We had a lot to celebrate this year, including the completion of our Paddle Trail Master Plan, created over two years with a services grant from the National Park Service and a volunteer committee of professionals and community members. Our paddle trail will span 27.5 miles from Greenspoint to Galena Park. To celebrate and acknowledge our years of partnership with the National Park Service and our dedication to getting youth involved in projects on the bayou, our guest speaker was Robert Ratcliffe, Division Chief for the National Park Service's Conservation, Recreation and Community Assistance Programs. Bob is passionate about his mission and dedicated to helping organizations like ours promote recreation, health, youth involvement, and accessibility to park spaces for everyone. In addition to Mr. Radcliffe, we had a last minute speaker from the Houston Texans, J.J. Moses. J.J.  played for the Texans from 2002-2005 as a kick returner, and is now a motivational speaker and youth advocate.

 

In the theme of celebrating our Paddle Trail, we announced the Greens Bayou Regatta of 2016! In partnership with the City of Houston and other local organizations, GBCC will host our first annual Greens Bayou Regatta in June of next year, creating a trifecta of regattas in Houston.

 

Gary O'Neill receives the Volunteer of the Year award from Reginald Lillie and Jill Boullion

As we do every year, we honored our Volunteer of the Year and Bayou Buddy. Volunteer of the Year went to Gary O'Neil of CenterPoint Energy. Gary is a forester with CenterPoint and has been an incredible asset to GBCC and our tree-planting events. Over the years, Gary has been an invaluable asset to our community events, willing to help deliver trees, demonstrate proper planting techniques, work with students to educate them on the importance of planting trees, and working tirelessly to make sure our events are successful and educational. We look forward to many more events with Gary and his team from CenterPoint, and we thank him for all he's done and continues to do in his community.

 

Members of Radcliffe Bobbitt Adams Polley receive their award for Bayou Buddy

This year's Bayou Buddy award, given to a company or organization that shows exceptional dedication to GBCC's mission, went to Ratcliffe Bobbitt Adams and Polley. Regina Adams, long-time board member and current Secretary of the board, and her partners worked with MUD 33 to orchestrate a tree planting event in our West Reach where volunteers planted 25 trees, and Bob Ratcliffe provided a tailgate style lunch after. The firm has put hours of volunteer work and in-kind professional assistance to The Coalition, making it possible to continue moving our mission forward.

 

Bill Franks poses with friends and Councilman Jerry Davis

Of course, events like this would not be possible without our generous sponsors. The Greenspoint District, East Aldine District and EHRA supported us at our highest sponsorship level of Trail Blazer. Radcliffe Bobbitt Adams Polley was our Conservationist sponsor.

 

Many of you had very positive things to say about our theme and silent auction this year. The new elements of our event would not have been possible without help from Encore Marketing. This year we did things a little differently and partnered with an event and marketing company to make our annual meeting bigger and better. The partnership was a success. With their help, we were able to reach more audiences and bring in new and exciting elements like our speaker from the Texans and the silent auction.

 

You can find photos from the event on our website. Look for your own smiling face! We look forward to seeing you next year!

 

 

West Reach Chair, Katie Golzarri of EHRA presents to attendees of workshop

Excitement about the pending construction of the $55 million Federal Project was high at a recent trail workshop held for directors from eight utility districts that border the project. The workshop was hosted by Northwest Harris County MUD 24 and EHRA. West Reach Chair Katie Golzarri developed the workshop format that featured speakers from Harris County Flood Control, Harris County Precinct 4 and a MUD attorney. The goal of the workshop was to increase the director's knowledge of how to fund and build parks and trails and allow them to collaborate on their planning efforts. 

 

Said Coalition Executive Director Jill Boullion, "This group of director's is really motivated to provide parks and trails systems for their communities and create synergy with the Greenway projects that are underway in our region. It's a great way to leverage everyone's investment and create a regional system that provides more bang for the buck. We're delighted to facilitate this type of workshop."