A shovel used during the ground breaking for County Road 3344, the first new road in Smith County since the 1950s. The ARPA-funded County Road connects Tyler Interstate Commerce Park from State Highway 155 North at Interstate 20 to CR 336.

Smith County Commissioners Court met Tuesday to review its ARPA-funded projects, establish a comprehensive emergency management plan, and approve an interlocal agreement to conduct elections.

Smith County was allocated more than $45 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds by the federal government, intended as relief funding from the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic downturn.

Commissioners reviewed completed and ongoing projects using ARPA funds.

Several completed projects include:

Information Technology (IT) department remodeling

Radio and security upgrades

Vehicle purchasing and fitting

Rural water projects

Construction of the Road and Bridge department facility

The East Texas Municipal Utility District, Wright City Water Supply, Star Mountain Water Supply, and the City of Lindale received money to fund water supply projects.

The county broke ground in January on the ARPA-funded County Road 3344 to connect Tyler Interstate Commerce Park from State Highway 155 North at Interstate 20 to CR 336. The county also donated to the Children’s Advocacy Center of Smith County’s renovations and local hospitals during the pandemic to retain medical staff. Four million dollars was earmarked for mental health service initiatives.

The commissioners approved spending $100,000 in ARPA funds to start a spay and neuter program available to all of Smith County. The funds will be given to Angel Paws Advocates, a local nonprofit animal rescue partnering with the new nonprofit, The No Strays Project.

The goal is to help spay and neuter dogs and cats within Smith County to decrease the amount of unwanted litters and strays in the area.

“We have faced a challenge with high numbers of stray animals in Smith County for many years, but the issue escalated during COVID, and we have yet to see a decline,” Smith County Judge Neal Franklin said. “We desperately need the public to take personal responsibility and spay or neuter their pets.”

The county is also streamlining its emergency management response in planning future infrastructure and animal control efforts.

The court approved Emergency Management Coordinator Brandon Moore’s establishment of a Comprehensive Emergency Management program, which includes emergency management’s preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery phases.

“This order lays out the foundation for a structured and coordinated approach within emergency management. It compiles many different documents into one federal and state document,” Moore said. “It gives us backing during an emergency.”

This is a preliminary measure of a complete emergency management plan. Moore will be returning to court in several months to present.

The county also approved interlocal agreements for conducting elections with the cities of Bullard and Lindale, Arp, Chapel Hill, Troup, Tyler and Whitehouse school districts, Tyler Junior College and Smith County Appraisal District.

In other business:

The county approved the sale of fireworks for Texas Independence Day.

Set March 19 as a public hearing date to address the road closure of County Road 3109, Precinct 3.

Authorized the purchasing director to advertise, solicit, and receive sealed bids for paving and drainage improvements for CR 336.

The court approved multiple road and bridge projects, final plats, and the installation of fiber optic cables, power poles and underground cables.