By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
A county resident criticized the Del Rio City Council for what she termed “fiscal irresponsibility” and called on the council to focus on providing water to its citizens instead of budgeting tens of millions of dollars for a new City Hall.
Lori Reyes lives outside the city limits and identified herself as a member of the Amistad Community Action Group. Reyes spoke to the council May 14 during the citizen comments portion of its meeting.
“I am here to bring attention to the fiscal irresponsibility of this government body. The recent budget that was proposed lists all of the COs, the certificates of obligation, otherwise known as loans, as revenue. I don’t know about any of you, but I don’t think about the mortgage that I took out on my house as revenue or income. It’s debt. But the city of Del Rio is playing a shell game with money to confuse taxpayers. Who do you think is going to make the payments for these certificates of obligation? The citizens of Del Rio,” Reyes told the council.
She next spoke about an early estimate for the renovation of a new City Hall, which the council has voted to site in a building the city purchased on South Main Street.
“The estimate for the City Hall renovation went from $9.5 million to $28.5 million. I understand the project has now been paused. As someone who has done very little on my own house, has no training, but I have done light fixtures, outlets, simple repairs, I can tell you just at a glance, that building from the outside, unless it has been remodeled from the ground up in the last 20 years, $9 million might not even be enough to handle demolition and disposal of the hazardous materials contained in that building,” Reyes said.
“Just starting from the ground. Waste pipes. Are they clay? Clay pipes collapse. They need to be replaced. Likely they are. I don’t know that for sure. Water lines are probably lead-lined. You’ve got to replace all of those. The flooring. Asbestos? Somewhere throughout the years, I bet one of those layers of flooring, if not more, is asbestos. Paint? Lead. Lots of lead paint in there, I bet.
“And I bet those single-pane windows are probably painted shut with lead paint. AC ducts used to be wrapped in asbestos. Unless all of the AC has been redone, more asbestos. Wiring is not up to modern standards, especially for offices that need multiple outlets within reach of every piece of equipment.
“How much knob-and-tube wiring is hiding up in the attic and in the walls? These are just basic things, minimal repairs on my own home I think about. Lead and asbestos abatement require special training, permits and disposal. Where is the nearest landfill that will even accept these materials? These are huge expenses. That is a big building. Nine million might cover that, but we thought to rebuild it. What about the elevator that’s going to have to be retrofitted?” Reyes said.
“Instead of spending so much money on a building for the city council, maybe you should have concentrated on making sure the citizens of Del Rio have water. Water is a basic need. If the city doesn’t have water, who’s going to pay taxes? Everyone’s going to be moving away.
“The citizens of Del Rio deserve water and should not have to worry about turning their taps on and having them be dry,” Reyes finished.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
