By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Members of the Amistad Community Action Group and a former city council member are calling on the Del Rio City Council to call a public referendum on the city’s plans for the construction of a second international bridge.
The action group was formed last year in response to the city’s plan to place a second international bridge and its connector routes northwest of Del Rio, adjacent and through it has become a fast-growing residential area.
Five members of the group, along with former District III City Councilwoman Alexandra Falcon Calderon, arrived at City Hall at noon Tuesday to again voice opposition to the proposed bridge site, with several members planning to address the international bridge board, which is chaired by Mayor Al Arreola.
But the meeting had been canceled in advance, so members of the action group and Calderon, spoke to The 830 Times about why they had attended.
Nicole Ediger, a member of the Amistad Community Action Group, said she had planned to address the bridge board during the citizen comments portion of its meeting.
Ediger, reading from a prepared statement, said, “I’m here to talk about the second international bridge. The agenda for today’s meeting states that the city is still waiting for an alternate route. Who are they waiting to hear from? Who’s selecting this route? Who’s looking at the map and trying to determine the best possible route? Is it the people who live in this area? Is it the people who will be affected by the bridge location and the route?
“You need to listen to the over 1,200 constituents who will be greatly affected by your decision. Is there any chance you guys could be more transparent and communicate with us a little bit more? Your notes and your updates in the meetings seem like a smokescreen. There’s no real details released to the public. Selecting an alternate route to a bridge on the north side of town seems like such a waste of time. I don’t understand why you guys don’t see it that way,” Ediger continued.
“And I’m not going to understand until you actually talk to us and help us understand, but until that happens, we will just keep showing up and fighting every effort you make to put a bridge on the north side of town. It doesn’t make sense. It’s not for the benefit of any of the homeowners and landowners on the north side of town. We actually don’t know who this benefits; again, because you won’t talk to us,” she finished.
Jordan Ediger, one of the county residents spearheading opposition to the bridge, said the bridge board has a standing item on its agenda to hear updates on the new international bridge.
“That means that they can talk about it, and I was going to ask questions and open it up to the bridge board to actually have a discussion with them, as part of the update, during their meeting, and that was my intent, but it’s rare or unexpected to me that zero folks show up to a meeting. That was planned,” Ediger said.
“To not have a quorum is one thing, but to have no folks show up is something else, and that would be something that, as a citizenry, I would be concerned that we’re not actually doing everything that we can, because that is what I would have expected of myself, as the previous chair of the (city’s) airport commission,” he added.
The 830 Times asked Ediger and the other members of the group present what they saw as the best outcome of all the questions they have been asking and the comments they have made in opposition to the current site of the new bridge and the two prior routes proposed to link the bridge with area highways.
“I expect the city of Del Rio to not get a presidential permit (for the construction of the bridge),” Ediger replied.
Another group member, Lori Reyes, who has also spoken out repeatedly in opposition to the city’s plan, said, “It should be put to a public vote for city and county residents, not just the city.”
“And to continue to pursue this location, knowing that it’s going to be fought against the entire way, it’s irresponsible not to consider alternatives that will find little to no resistance, if the city actually wanted a second international bridge. To continue with the current location, should tell the city that they actually do not want a bridge that badly, i.e, they don’t need it,” Ediger said.
“They should say, “Because we need this, we’re willing to put in in a place where there is little to no resistance, but to continue with this location, against all of this resistance, it could be futile, and it could be in vain,” he added.
Alexandra Falcon Calderon said she believes she was “left to the side” concerning information about the new bridge and said, “I don’t very much about what’s going on. I’ve been to only one meeting that was not public, just for council, back in March. That was the only meeting where I felt we were given a lot of information, and that’s the only meeting like that since all this started.”
Asked if she felt that, even as a member of council, she was not informed about plans for the new bridge and its accompanying routes, Calderon replied, “No. It’s one or two in the council that know more than the entire council. So, actually, I’m going to be very involved with this and other (issues) where I feel there is not a lot of information out there, and I was going to come up to citizen comments and ask the mayor, because he is more involved than any on council, to give an update during the regular city council meetings, because there is a section of the meeting where he can do that.”
Calderon also said she found it unusual, as did the members of the citizens’ group, that the entire bridge board did not show up for the meeting.
The former councilwoman said she was aware that there was a business ribbon-cutting ceremony planned for the same time as the meeting and said she believed that was where the mayor had gone, but she pointed out the board could have met without the mayor.
She said the city easily could have posted the meeting cancellation on its social media page.
Calderon said she also agreed with Reyes that the bridge issue should be put to a public vote.
“We’re missing a lot of information, and we have an election coming up in November. Put it to a vote then,” she said.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
