Hawk Cove, Texas, June 17, 2025. We’re delighted to share a figure that speaks to Hawk Cove’s long commitment to its lender. At the Council’s June 17, 2025 regular meeting, the Council was told that “from 2007 to January 1 of 2025,” the City “has paid the USDA $899,493.13” (0:05:47).
Loyalty like that adds up. As the Council heard later that evening, “so much of that was interest, interest, over $800,000 was interest, and only $63,000” (0:10:43).
Highlights
- Paid to USDA, 2007 to January 1, 2025: $899,493.13.
- Interest: “over $800,000.”
- Records: the City’s records request to USDA, sent at “the beginning of April” 2025, was still outstanding in June (0:12:17).
- Response: by August 19, 2025, USDA had answered, providing “the exact same 23 pages in response to our FOIA request of April 3rd that we had received from [name] back in January” (0:10:05).
The City had asked for more than the spreadsheet it already held, because, as the Council heard in June, “this spreadsheet doesn’t give us running balances, doesn’t give us specific applications of interest” (0:12:17). The August reply also noted that the pages “do not reflect anything up to through and including even April 3rd, which is the date of the request” (0:10:05).
Consistency is a virtue, and USDA has it. The Council was told at the same August meeting that “no one on any aspect of the financial team has been able to determine from those pages what the city’s actual debt is” (0:10:05).
Payments that take the scenic route
At the January 20, 2026 regular meeting (Part 3), the Council learned that USDA had “routed the city’s payments” to another office, and that getting there and being processed took “Months” (0:28:40, 0:28:54). In a fine example of interagency goodwill, USDA “agreed to waive any interest, because it was 100% their fault” (0:29:06).
We look forward to the next 23 pages.