By Emily Banks Wooten
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Lonnie Hunt and Brandon Prescott were the guest speakers for the quarterly membership luncheon of the Livingston-Polk County Chamber of Commerce Tuesday.
In addition to serving on the chamber’s 2024 Board of Directors, Prescott also serves as the newly-installed president of the executive committee of the Deep East Texas Council of Governments (DETCOG) and as Polk County’s minority representative.
“I’m just a local kid from Livingston … didn’t know I’d take on all this responsibility for DETCOG and the chamber and represent other counties in our 11-county region,” Prescott said.
Hunt, who serves as executive director of DETCOG, is also from Polk County originally, having graduated from Corrigan-Camden High School in 1975, although his family moved to Crockett shortly following his graduation and he eventually migrated and settled there as well.
“Corrigan was a great place to grow up and I wish everyone could have had that experience,” he said. The former owner of a radio station, Hunt also formerly served as the county judge of Houston County before coming to DETCOG in 2016.
“Many people don’t know what it is and it’s many things to many people,” Hunt said of DETCOG, which is a voluntary association of local governments in an 11-county region that is both a political subdivision of the State of Texas and a federally chartered economic development district.
It is one of 24 regional councils of governments, or COGs, in Texas that was founded to facilitate planning, eliminate duplication and promote economy and efficiency in the coordinated development of the region. And while it is a governmental agency, it has no taxing or ordinance making authority.
Asking who all remembered Charlie Wilson, the deceased former state senator and subsequent U.S. congressman, Hunt said that Wilson was the first president of DETCOG.
“Arthur Temple was mover and a shaker and Charlie was someone Arthur helped support. Arthur was an orchestrator, bringing people in the region together,” Hunt said. He added that membership is voluntary but comes with a lot of value and that the government decides the boundaries. For example, at least two-thirds of the 54-member board must be elected officials.
In addition to Prescott, others from Polk County serving on the board include County Judge Sydney Murphy and Precinct 1 Commissioner Guylene Robertson who represent Polk County; Alderman Elgin Davis who serves as the City of Livingston’s minority representative; Mayor James Arnett who represents the City of Onalaska; Nita Battise who represents the tribal council of the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas; and Project Manager Chad Holton who represents the Trinity River Authority.
“We’re a very diverse board. It’s 54 cats to herd. I guess if I can keep 28 of them happy, I can keep my job,” Hunt joked.
“When we get together each month to have our business meeting, party politics plays no role. I like to tell people, ‘We don’t run our local governments, they run us,’” Hunt said.
DETCOG offers many services that all fall under various programs it manages. These programs range from waste initiatives to youth services and there are many programs that are for the benefit of various sectors and demographics of the region’s community.
Some of the programs offered through DETCOG include:
• 2-1-1 Texas, which provides information and referral assistance to all persons seeking access to local programs and services;
• Area Agency on Aging, which provides services and funding to enable older citizens to live dignified, independent and productive lives;
• Community Development Block Grant Support, which provides communities with resources to address development needs;
• Disaster Recovery, which works with the Texas General Land Office and local cities and counties to rebuild and repair damages following natural disasters;
• Economic Development, which works to identify and assist with job creation opportunities in the region;
• Public Safety, which provides assistance and support to governmental entities and first responders in formulating a regional strategy to access funding for any disaster;
• Regional Housing Authority, which improves access to quality housing for everyone and encourages self-sufficiency for low-income families;
• Regional 9-1-1 Network, which is the administrative authority for 9-1-1 emergency communications in State Planning Region 14;
• Retired Senior Volunteer Program, which is one of the largest volunteer networks in the nation for people 55 and over;
Solid Waste Grants, in which hundreds of thousands of dollars are invested into local projects for environmental cleanup, recycling and community beautification;
Transportation Planning, which provides administrative support for the Deep East Texas Rural Transportation Planning Organization;
Youth Services, which provides counseling, crisis intervention, parent education and many other services;
Law Enforcement Training, which utilizes criminal justice grant funding to provide free law enforcement training to law enforcement communities within the region; and
Broadband, in which DETCOG continues to make progress toward the goal of ensuring every household in the region has access to affordable, reliable broadband.
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