By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
City of Del Rio staffers celebrated Earth Day 2026 with a creek clean-up and fun projects for the young and young at heart Saturday at Lt. Thomas Romanelli Memorial Park.
Before the start of the events in the park at 9 a.m. Saturday, volunteers roamed the banks of city-owned property along the San Felipe Creek, picking up trash. The Earth Day events had initially been scheduled for April 11, but were postponed due to the threat of severe weather that day.
Several city departments set up booths and tents in Romanelli Park.
The city’s natural gas department, led by superintendent Daniel Jalomos, gave away notebooks and pens
accounting department; and Community Services Director Esme Esparza, right, put together tiny
wooden bird houses at the city’s Earth Day celebration. Children attending the event were given
birdhouses to take home, and some of the birdhouses will be placed in city parks to attract
cavity-nesting birds like wrens. (Photo by Karen Gleason)
made of recycled materials. The gas department staff also gave away kites and glider kits.
The gas department also held several raffles throughout the morning, giving away potted Calla lilies and two Weber barbecue grills, each complete with a bag of charcoal and a set of grilling tools.
Other city departments giving away a variety of items and providing information were the WIC department and the transportation department.
Rosy Cruz, the city’s transportation superintendent, provided information about the city’s bus routes and how Del Rioans can take advantage of local public transportation. Cruz handed out client applications, which she said Del Rioans must fill out and file to receive service, and she also gave out passenger handbooks filled with information about the services the department provides and information on city bus routes.
Other city staff members ran stations where youngsters attending the event could paint garden rocks to take home with them.
Community Services Director Esme Esparza helped other staffers put together tiny wooden birdhouses to be handed out to visitors. Some of the little birdhouses, Esparza said, would be placed in city parks along the creek for birds like wrens.
Esparza said, “These birdhouses are part of our Keep Texas Beautiful/Our Texas Our Future grant that we got from H.E.B., and they are going to be placed in the Rincon del Diablo area. Kids will be able to paint two birdhouses here, one to keep and one to donate. So since that area is used for birding, we wanted to put them there to attract some nesting birds.”
Esparza said the city will also be placing “bat boxes” in parks along the creek to attract roosting bats. Bats are well-known predators of flying insects like mosquitoes.
“This will help us expand on our Earth Day activities and keep them going throughout the year,” Esparza said.
But not all of those with booths were members of city staff.
his station at Saturday’s Earth Day celebration, organized by the city of Del Rio. Arreola, who
works in watercolor and other media, said he draws his inspiration from the beauty of the natural
world. (Photo by Karen Gleason)
Del Rio artist Marco Arreola had his own tent, where he sold a variety of original artworks and prints, as well as repurposed wine bottles, which he had formed into planters.
Arreola’s art is inspired by the natural world, especially landscapes, plants and birds, he said.
Arreola works mostly in watercolor, but has recently created a number of cyanotypes, a kind of art in which images are created on a type of paper that reacts when placed in sunlight.
Arreola was also selling used wine bottles that had been cut and sanded and filled with soil and small plants.
More of Arreola’s work can be seen on Marcissimo Art at The Marcissimo Art on Facebook or @themarcissimoart on Instagram.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com .
