ANGELINA COUNTY, Texas (KTRE) – A $200,000 promise from a solar farm company to Angelina County nearly slipped through the cracks – until a newly appointed commissioner started asking questions.
Precinct 1 Commissioner Tim Sprinkle says when he took office in July 2025, he found unfinished business waiting for him.
“When I first came into the position, I had some paperwork on my desk that I had to go through, and one of them was the Azalea Springs Solar Farm contract with the county,” Sprinkle said. “After looking at it, I realized they had some obligations that they hadn’t fulfilled yet.”
Azalea Springs Solar Park, developed by EDP Renewables North America, finished construction on its roughly 180-megawatt solar facility in the county in October 2025.
Read more on the Azalea Springs Solar Park
Sprinkle says he found two outstanding items tied to the company’s agreement with the county.
The first, Sprinkle says, was a 2.2-mile stretch of Newman Cemetery Road that needed a couple inches of aggregate rock added. Sprinkle says a few phone calls got that project moving, and it was finished quickly.
The second, according to Sprinkle, was bigger: $200,000 the company had committed to put toward repairing and replacing the North Homer Alto and South Homer Alto roads.
“It’s a significant amount of money… to help facilitate repairs and replacement of the North Homer Alto roads and the South Homer Alto roads out in that area,” Sprinkle said.
Sprinkle says the roads weren’t damaged by construction traffic. Instead, he says the payment was a preventative commitment built into the county’s original agreement with the developer.
Sprinkle says the $200,000 sat unpaid for months, likely because no one in the county was tracking the obligation after it was signed.
“My guess is nobody was here to hold them accountable,” Sprinkle said. “When you start talking about a significant amount of money like that, people like to keep it in their bank accounts as long as they can to continue drawing interest on it. So, it can be tough trying to get that amount of money out of folks.”
Sprinkle says it took roughly six to seven months of back-and-forth after he took office to finally get the payment delivered.
That process, Sprinkle says, included multiple emails and phone calls with the company, and eventually required the county attorney to draft a new agreement spelling out that once the funds were paid, the company’s obligations would be considered fulfilled.
Amy Varghese, a spokesperson for EDPR NA, said in response to questions about the payment that the $200,000 was for road upgrades “as stipulated in the road use agreement,” but did not specifically confirm it was tied to the Homer Alto roads.
The county plans to use the funds in two phases, Sprinkle says. The first phase covers roughly 0.8 miles of North Homer Alto Road, running south from Highway 7. The second phase covers about 1.8 miles of South Homer Alto Road, stretching north from FM 2021.
“We’re going to try to replace and repair that road properly,” Sprinkle said, adding that he’d like to see work start this year, though it’s more likely to begin next year.
When asked whether residents should be concerned the payment almost went uncollected, Sprinkle acknowledged the stakes.
“It’s $200,000, so it’s a significant amount of money if it did fall through the cracks,” he said. “Essentially, we would just have to deal with the roadways that are the way they are right now. So, I’m glad we were able to hold their feet to the fire, get the money in for them, because it’s going to be a benefit to those residents on those roads, for sure.”
Sprinkle says going forward, commissioners need to stay on top of agreements with developers to make sure obligations are met on time.
He says there are currently no other outstanding agreements in his precinct that require similar oversight.
“They elected me to do a job, and I take that job pretty serious,” Sprinkle said. “I want to be a benefit to anybody that I can in Angelina County, and also Precinct 1, for sure.”
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