TEMPLE — David Basinger of Deport was re-elected on May 7th, to serve a successive two-year term on the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board (TSSWCB).
Basinger represents TSSWCB State District IV, which consists of 52 counties in the Piney Woods and Eastern Gulf Coast regions. State District IV encompasses 37 Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCDs).
Established in 1939, TSSWCB administers Texas’ soil and water conservation law and delivers coordinated natural resource conservation programs through the State’s 216 soil and water conservation districts. Additionally, TSSWCB is the lead agency for planning, implementing, and managing programs for preventing and abating agricultural and silvicultural nonpoint sources of water pollution. TSSWCB also works to ensure that the State’s network of 2,000 flood control dams are protecting lives and property by providing operation, maintenance, and structural repair grants to local government sponsors.
The TSSWCB board of directors consists of five elected members and two gubernatorial appointees who must be actively engaged in farming or ranching. The five TSSWCB elected members are chosen in a convention type election by SWCD directors in the State District in which the TSSWCB member represents.
Basinger currently serves as Chairman of TSSWCB as well as Chairman of the Lamar Soil and Water Conservation District, which he has been a member of since 2002. Basinger is a former vice president on the board of directors of the Association of Texas Soil and Water Conservation Districts (ATSWCD). He is also past president of the Northeast Texas Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts.
In other areas of leadership, Basinger served on the Prairieland School Board for over 27 years, currently is a member of the Lamar County Farm Bureau, Deport Cemetery Board and the Region 2 Lower Red-Sulphur-Cypress Regional Flood Planning Group as well as a past member of the Lamar-Delta Levee Improvement District.
Basinger helps run 3,200 acres in the Sulphur River Bottom where he farms corn, soybeans, and hay. He and his wife of 42 years, Connie, have two children, Matthew and Christopher. He also has four granddaughters.
