Issue 29
July 2023
Flood Control District presents state of Cedar Bayou Bond Implementation Program with H-GAC
Members of the Flood Control District team attended the Houston-Galveston Area Council’s (H-GAC) Regional Flood Management Committee Quarterly Meeting on July 19. Jonathan Holley, Xin He and Ben Castleberry gave a presentation to give attendees an overview of the Flood Control District and the projects and initiatives included in the Cedar Bayou Bond Implementation Program, and closed the presentation with a brief Q&A session.
H-GAC is the regional organization through which local governments consider issues and cooperate in solving area-wide problems. Through H-GAC, local governments also initiate efforts in anticipating and preventing problems, saving public funds. To learn more about the organization, visit www.h-gac.com.
Flood Control District Executive Director presents at National Association of Flood and Stormwater Management Agencies Annual Meeting
Leadership from the Flood Control District also attended the National Association of Flood and Stormwater Management Agencies’ (NAFSMA) 45th Annual Meeting from July 24 - 27. During the event, Dr. Petersen moderated a panel on how local communities are implementing environmental justice with leaders from across the country. Ataul Hannan also participated in a panel to discuss the Flood Control District’s Urban Flood Risk study, which was funded by FEMA.
Members of NAFSMA have convened regularly for more than 40 years in order to help each other better serve their respective communities by advocating for effective public policy, securing essential funding, and promoting innovative technologies.
To learn more about the association, visit www.nafsma.org.
Flood Control recruits at Houston Community College Career Opportunity Fair
Team members from the Flood Control District attended the 6th Annual Career Opportunity Fair hosted by Houston Communications College on July 13. It was a great day for everyone involved and gave graduating students the chance to explore the fantastic benefits of joining the Flood Control District team.
If you know someone who may be interested in joining the Flood Control District team, send them to HCFCD.org/jobs
The Work Continues
Construction continues as concrete is poured to form the sidewalls of the approximately 420 acre-feet South Shaver Stormwater Detention Basin in the Sims Bayou watershed.
When completed in Spring 2024, the basin will hold more than 136 million gallons of stormwater to reduce the risk of flooding for properties in the area north of Hartsook Road and south of Wilson Memorial Park.
For more information, visit www.hcfcd.org/C10.
Click here to read the most recent tips to stay safe!
In the News
Construction Advisory: Morningside Place Drainage Improvements Project
W. Texas Ave business owners give feedback for drainage project
Intern Recognition
Andrew Malcolm, Alexandria Castro,
Van Le and Sean Choate
What is your title and Department?
Andrew: Project and Grant Analyst Intern
Alexandria: I am the Forestry Intern for the Facilities Maintenance Department.
Van: Human Resources Analyst – Intern
Sean: Construction Intern, Department: Construction
What does your job at the Flood Control District entail?
Andrew: My job has entailed activities such as providing details to project expenses, along with aiding in the closeout and reimbursement processes for Flood Control projects.
Alexandria: I inventory tree planting areas. This includes recording the number and species of the trees, the number of stressed trees (due to the environment, insects, diseases, animals, or vandalism), and then calculate the percent mortality and stressed trees. I also update the polygons for the Tree Planting Area shapefiles on ArcGIS to include new planting areas or to adjust the polygon to the updated imagery. I have also created a few maps to help out in a couple different projects in the department.
Van: My tasks involve cleaning, analyzing, interpreting, and displaying data using different approaches and business intelligence tools.
Sean: Assisting PMs/APMs with their projects and producing detailed guides for the Construction Life Cycle.
What is your favorite thing about working at the Flood Control District as an intern?
Andrew: So far, my favorite thing about working here is the variety of work that I get exposed to just in one department and that one department can cover so much of the business activities here at Flood Control.
Alexandria: Being able to go and meet so many people and to see how the Flood Control District operates. I got to job shadow a few times and have had the opportunity to talk to many different people about what they do. It is really interesting to learn about everything happening in the Flood Control District and with its partnerships.
Van: meeting smiling faces everyday is what I like about coming to work here. Seeing how people welcome you giving you a sense of belonging, so you are more willing to put all your effort on your job.
Sean: Being able to learn more about my given field, especially in a position where I am providing a service to the public.
What’s the coolest thing you’ve worked on over the past few weeks of your internship?
Andrew: The coolest thing that I've gotten to work on so far was putting together journal entries and funding transfers, since it showed me how money gets moved around projects which is a very big part of what is done in PGA to keep projects budgets in balance and keep them moving forward.
Alexandria: The coolest thing was probably inventorying the Willow Waterhole detention basins. In total it took me about two and a half weeks, but I ended up tallying just over 10,000 trees. It was such a beautiful project, and seeing how the city came together to create this space was really awesome to see firsthand.
Van: I have created the most complicated pivot dashboard in Excels than I have ever done in my entire student life.
Sean: I got to work on a program that can automatically plots reviews by month so we can analyze a projects progress.
Current Projects
