FEMA gives $7.4M for new Port Aransas police station after Hurricane Harvey damage

A long negotiation with the Federal Emergency Management Agency ended in a settlement with the city of Port Aransas that will send just over $7.4 million to build a new police station.

The new facility will replace the one damaged in August 2017 during Hurricane Harvey.

FEMA did not return requests for comment Thursday and no statement about the settlement was found on the agency’s website.

The Wednesday announcement by Joanna P. Ragas of Del Sol Consulting described a lengthy negotiation process complicated by impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic and supply chain issues that threw some extra rocks on an already rocky road.

An arbitration hearing was scheduled in March, and negotiations “resulted in a settlement prior to the hearing that resulted in FEMA agreeing to terms favorable to Port Aransas,” Ragas wrote Wednesday. “The recovery team put together a compelling argument to support a favorable determination from the arbitration hearing.”

City brought proof of local building costs

The city and FEMA were originally far apart on how large the new station should be and how much it should cost.

Consulting team manager Michael Dorris of Del Sol Consulting said Thursday that FEMA was using a model for estimating construction costs that didn’t match the reality of what it costs to build in the Coastal Bend. Negotiators provided bids as proof of local construction costs.

FEMA’s original offer was $3.9 million, the team’s announcement stated. After early efforts stalled, the process eventually moved toward arbitration.

City staff directed its Hurricane Harvey recovery consultants, Broaddus and Associates and Del Sol, “to put together the facts showing the square footage and cost inaccuracies on FEMA’s part,” the news release stated.

Arbitration was originally scheduled for early February, but FEMA extended the date by four weeks, according to the news release.

Armed with facts compiled by the city’s consultants detailing what the city saw as FEMA’s “inaccuracies” in cost and square footage estimates, Port Aransas City Manager David Parsons, Finance Director Darla Honea and representatives of Broaddus and Del Sol traveled to New Orleans recently to argue the city’s case.

“Faced with a preponderance of supporting documentation, FEMA decided a settlement prior to the arbitration hearing was in their best interest,” Ragas wrote.

Next steps for rebuild

With negotiations in the past, the project is moving forward.

“Gignac Architects will begin finalizing the drawings for Council approval to move forward with sending it out to bid for construction around late-April 2023,” the news release stated. “Construction will take 15 months once the project is awarded.”

Dorris, whose firm joined the FEMA negotiations in 2018, told the Caller-Times that the final award is “going to cover 100% of what was lost.”

A call to city officials about the final cost of building the new station was not returned by press time.

The email stated that Parsons, the city manager, thanked FEMA and the consulting group “for their efforts in coming to this satisfactory outcome that benefits the City and the citizens of Port Aransas.”

A Port Aransas city official weighed in on the Wednesday announcement.

“Fantastic news and congratulations to the whole team,” Mayor Wendy Moore said via email. “I truly am grateful for everyone’s hard work on this and excited to see the reconstruction begin!“

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