Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services is extending its contract with the city of Port Arthur by one year to provide funds for its Nurse-Family Partnership Program through Aug. 31, 2021.

The program provides educational, health, guidance and other resources for low-income, Medicaid eligible, first-time pregnant women and during the first two years of the infant’s life through visits with registered nurses. The program serves 125 families.

The Department of Family and Protective Services, or DFPS, will award funds for approximately 90 percent of the total annual base budget of the partnership, with the city expected to contribute the remainder from match funds.

The contract is being extended from Aug. 30, 2020. The DFPS is increasing its total funds to $3,913,754 since it first established the program with Port Arthur in September 2015.

In other city business:

• Port Arthur’s budget has been amended to add $300,000 to the Pleasure Island Fund and $46,700 to the Port Arthur Fire Department. The allocation to Pleasure Island will cover the cost of license plate readers, which will be used as security cameras at different locations on the site, cover the necessary repairs and furnishings for the golf club house to be rented for events, and improve lighting at the parking lot and walkways at the club house.

The fire department will purchase six portable radios and five mobile radios.

• The Port Arthur Police Department will undergo roof repairs at the station. SETEX Facilities and Maintenance of Beaumont will perform the work for $72,844.71.
• A cost-sharing agreement with the Sabine Neches Navigation District will be negotiated. The Sabine-Neches Waterway Channel Improvement Project, which began in early 2019, will increase the channel depth from 40 to 48 feet, and the city owns a waterline that crosses the waterway that prevents the deepening of the canal.

The projected cost of the project is $360,000. The city seeks to be reimbursed for 50 percent of the cost.

• A contract will be negotiated between the city and LSPS Solutions of Victoria for consulting services in relation to America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018. The act requires community drinking water systems serving more than 3,300 people to develop or update risk assessments and emergency response plans.
• Willdan Financial Services of Plano will conduct a water and sewer rate study at a cost of $56,460.