TEMPLE — David Basinger of Deport was re-elected on May 3rd, 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 Vice-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 has served on the Prairieland School Board for over 20 years, is a member of the Lamar County Farm Bureau and Deport Cemetery Board as well as a past member of the Lamar-Delta Levee Improvement District.
Basinger runs 3,200 acres in the Sulphur River Bottom where he farms corn, soybeans, and hay. He and his wife of 40 years, Connie, have two children, Matthew and Christopher. He also has three granddaughters.