During the last two rounds of wintry weather in Denton County, we have taken lessons learned during the pandemic and last year’s weeklong ERCOT outage and applied them in ways that benefit everyone.
As you have often heard, communication is key when dealing with challenges. My philosophy has always been that communication is key all of the time whether situations are positive or challenging. From early 2020, we reached out to our community partners and fellow counties in an effort to collaborate about how to handle a never-before-seen situation.
We collaborated with our mayors and school district superintendents through regular Zoom calls to ensure everyone could receive and share the most up-to-date information. We contacted our food pantries to see how we could assist them in handling the growing demand for assistance. Through scheduled bi-weekly calls, we learned of challenges food pantries were having. They needed to expand refrigeration to store more food as the number of clients grew by 300 to 350 percent year over year. Even now, we meet regularly, recently determining a need for funds to help purchase meats, milk and cheese as costs climb ever higher.
Last year, we added our utility providers and local representatives to the conversation to figure out how we could address any concerns as one day without electricity turned into multiple days. These meetings resulted in everything from sharing supplies such as sand to figuring out how to help a municipal utility district keep its pumps going to supply the water its residents needed.
Just last month, we reached out to our communities, school districts, police and fire as well as the National Weather Service to determine how the cold fronts would affect Denton County roads. Our utility providers gave updates on the status of electrical and gas supplies. The shared information helped everyone make the determinations they needed to best support those they serve.
These are just a very few examples of how communication leads to collaboration, which results in solutions to address whatever needs arise. This helps not only each other but every resident in Denton County. By sharing knowledge and resources, we can save taxpayer dollars and find smarter answers to any issue.
We will continue these efforts to foster collaboration across the board. As a whole, each entity can bring so much to the table. Collectively, we can address outstanding issues and, together, make Denton County the place where everyone can live, work and play safely.
Connect With Us
If you have any questions or comments, please let me hear from you. My email is [email protected], and my office number is 940-349-2820. For more information, register for my newsletter at www.Dentoncounty.gov/countyjudgenewslettersignup
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