Mayor Garry Watts has been selected to serve as one of four new board members on the Houston-Galveston Area Council. This will be his first term on the 36-member board.

H-GAC, which serves 13 counties in the Greater Houston area and more than 6 million people, oversees how local, state and federal tax dollars are spent.

The agency also provides information for local government needs.

The city of Shenandoah will benefit from his representation on the H-GAC board, Watts said.

“The H-GAC has many opportunities to get involved, and they also have resources for funding projects, such as mobility or transit programs, and clean air and flood prevention initiatives,” Watts said.

The city of Shenandoah and its neighbors, including The Woodlands, can take advantage of county, state or federal alternative funding, Watts said.

“The H-GAC also has a high degree of expertise in what they do, and there is value from getting involved.”

Watts said his first priority on the board will be to identify resources that can benefit Shenandoah and the surrounding areas.

“Many current issues affect us all, and we share in the responsibility of working through them and in the benefit of solutions,” he said.

Watts is serving his third two-year term as mayor of the two-square mile city of Shenandoah.