NEWTON, Texas — Newton County may have to pay back almost $1 million in FEMA funds from a flood buyout program because several homes were not demolished as required
The issue stems from when the county applied for FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. The county wanted to buyout seven families and demolish seven homes in flood zones.
Those seven homes were supposed to be demolished within a 90-day period.
“Those seven homes are still standing today that were part of the buyout program, so the state and FEMA said we have to pay that money back,” Newton County Judge Ronald J. Cochran said.
Here are when those 90-day periods expired:
- August 2019
- December 2019
- April 2020
- March 2021
- May 2021
The Texas Division of Emergency Management informed Judge Cochran on Thursday that the county would "likely" have to pay back $968,171.36 to FEMA according to a Facebook post by the judge. However, he thinks taxpayers could be on the hook for more than $3 million when all is said and done.
“The taxpayers will be on the hook for a total of, a little over $3 million,” Judge Cochran said. “It's their tax money. They should be upset. They should be seeking answers. How did this happen?"
The Newton County judge feels former county administrators mishandled the grant from FEMA, and now, county taxpayers may have to foot the bill.
Judge Cochran took office at the beginning of 2023 and is now having to deal with this problem. He feels he inherited a mess.
“I’m disgusted,” Judge Cochran said. “I ran on a platform of transparency. I come into the office in January, and this was unexpected. We need to find out why it happened, how it happened, and make sure it doesn't happen again."
The Newton County judge has called for an investigation into why the homes were never demolished. He feels one way to make sure this does not happen again is to make sure future grants get added attention.
“We didn’t have a grant administrator at the time for this grant," Judge Cochran said. "The county had its own grants department, so the county was basically handling everything to do with this grant."
Judge Cochran wants county residents to know he is being open and transparent. He is working with the Newton County Commissioners Court and a third-party vendor to check the status of current grants the county is involved in.
The county has paid nearly $4 million of a total of $5.2 million to purchase homes and property as part of the flood buyout program he said. The county is now working to get all seven homes demolished according to Cochran.
12News reached out to the Texas Division of Emergency Management. They told us the process is ongoing, and as of today, they have not issued a formal demand for the money.
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This is a developing story. We will update with more if and when we receive more confirmed information.