The Levelland City Council held a regular meeting Monday which included the extension of the disaster declaration related to the storm that devastated the community in May and a presentation from Love Levelland. Levelland City Manager James Fisher presented Resolution 2024-15, the extending the May 29 2024 Disaster Declaration and continuance of the Levelland Emergency Management Plan.
Fisher explained that an extension is necessary as the community is still in the clean-up stage of the disaster.
Councilman Max Ledesma was absent from the meeting, however, the vote was unanimous as Councilwoman Jaime McCabb made the motion to approve the extension which was agreed upon by members of the council.
Dallas Pena and Megan Tyler were present to represent the Love Levelland organization to offer a presentation to the council regarding their newly established Long Term Recovery Committee.
Pena is the president of the organization along with one of the founding members. He explained that their group felt that they needed to do something following the May 29 storm that devastated the community.
“We started networking, making phone calls and eventually we were reached out by the city, this leadership group to help raise funds for people in need,” said Pena. “We were able to do that and the community responded in a positive and overwhelmingly positive way. We were excited by that.”
Pena explained that have had a lot of funds come in over the course of a month and a half. During that process the organization began having discussion about what the best way was to distribute those funds throughout the community for those in need.
“Over the past few weeks we have been working individually with those in the community that need the held, but we also wanted to formalize that process a little more,” said Pena. “We also wanted to include members outside of our organization such as those who had a good pulse on what community needs were.”
As a result, the Long Term Recovery Committee was formed and met for the first time last week and will chaired by Tyler who will be working with nine voting members. There is also other members of the community that serve in advisory roles.
“We are very blessed to have a big group of community members while also coordinating with FEMA, American Red Cross and the Catholic Charity,” said Pena. “Our goal is to meet the needs of the community where FEMA and the Red Cross left off. Whatever needs are not met by those groups, we want to step in and try to be helpful.”
The group is currently working on putting together an application that will be made available to the community with more information to be made public in the coming days.
Mayor Breann Buxkemper thanked Pena and the organization members for their work following the storm and their continued work moving forward.
Pena also added that a lot of the work done on the organization’s end has been through networking with other organizations or individuals with resources to get things done for the community. Pena added that with the help of those individuals, the group has yet to tap into the funds accumulated from donations and other means.
“One of our motos at Love Levelland is neighbors helping neighbors and that is exactly what we have seen,” said Pena.
Pena added that while a process is in place, the goal is not to complicate things further for those in need. There is a process in place for those who need immediate assistance.
Moving forward, Buxkemper urged the public to continue to apply for FEMA assistance if they have not done so. While the disaster center physically closed down at the civic center in Levelland, community members can still apply online until August.
Moving forward, all debris sites are closed that were opened through TCEQ permit. Community members are encouraged to take their debris or items to the municipal dump. All site areas are being monitored by law enforcement as individuals found dumping in those are will be prosecuted.