Sabine River Authority representatives and city of Tenaha officials gathered at the Tenaha City hall for the grant presentation held Tuesday, August 11, 2026. Pictured are (from left): Bill Holmes, Tenaha Alderman; Travis Williams, Deputy General Manager for Sabine River Authority (SRA); Orinthia Johnson, Tenaha Alderman; Michael Davidson, Tenaha Police Chief; O’Neal Jones, Tenaha Mayor; Don Iles, SRA Regional Manager; Cliff Todd, SRA Board President; Stacy Cranford, Tenaha Water/Wastewater Administrator; Amanda Treat-Brock; Tenaha City Secretary; Tom Beall, SRA Board Member; Darrin Rudolph, SRA Board Member; and Zach Johnson, SRA Director of Governmental and Legislative Affairs.
August 12, 2026 - Sabine River Authority representatives visited the city of Tenaha on Tuesday, August 11, 2026, to present a grant for $30,000.
Travis Williams, Deputy General Manager for Sabine River Authority, spoke on the grant funds and how the authority is able to make them available.
“I appreciate everyone coming today, Zach’s been working with the city, I know we got our grant process and I know y’all are aware that our board did award a $30,000 grant to the city of Tenaha at our last board meeting,” said Williams.
He highlighted that the city is currently performing work on their water tower and the Sabine River Authority board’s interest in the program.
“These are funds that our board allocates every year in our budget, and they enjoy the process, they enjoy the project and I know I’ve even heard our president Cliff Todd say it’s his favorite program that we have,” said Williams.
Williams explained that Todd’s affinity for the project is because it gives back to the communities in the Sabine basin.
“What you may not know about these grant funds is that they come from a contract that we have on Lake Fork and they come from their contract between the Sabine River Authority and the City of Dallas where we’re sending them water out of the basin to the city of Dallas,” said Williams. “In exchange, they pay for the reservoir, they also send money back to the basin at large so we kind spread it across, and it’s been very well received.”
Williams elaborated that communities everywhere are in need of funds for all kinds of projects. The board is limited to grant $30,000, which does help to get some projects accomplished.
Don Iles, Regional Manager, also interjected that the funds don’t come from the taxpayer.
Cliff Todd, Board President, commented on their enthusiasm in being able to help local communities with their projects.
“It’s small rural communities, which I live in one, money is always a project to keep some of these things going and we’re just honored to be able to help y’all,” said Todd.
Amanda Treat-Brock, Tenaha City Secretary, shared that two of the city’s current projects are grant funded and will benefit from the assistance of the SRA grant.
“We applied for some of these grants back during Covid and the prices just skyrocketed so we were kind of short-ended so you see the construction on our tower here, that helps us out with that,” said Treat-Brock. “Wastewater, we actually have two going in the process and this helped us find money we couldn’t find in other ways to help with that. It’s very appreciated.”
Iles asked how much it costs to rehab the water tower in the city and Treat-Brock shared that one of the projects the city has ongoing is $2.6 million and another one is $3.9 million. She explained the granting agencies are from the General Land Office and Texas Department of Agriculture. Iles inquired how many customers Tenaha serves and Treat-Brock said 516, which are inside and outside of the city limits.
