By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Commissioners court members voted unanimously Wednesday to authorize County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. to send a letter opposing the placement of a border wall west of Lake Amistad.
Owens initiated discussion of the proposed wall, saying there is a website dealing with plans for the wall that will be linked on the county’s website. He said the proposed wall plans have gone from a physical wall to a virtual wall and, most recently, a vehicle barrier.
Owens said, “I don’t think the right hand knows what the left hand is doing, and I really don’t think the right hand knows what the right hand is doing. . . There’s nobody out there; there’s no need for a wall.”
The county judge said he has received calls from landowners who also have concerns about the placement of portions of the wall on their properties.
Owens next recognized Val Verde Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez and asked him to speak to the court about the issue.
Martinez told the court, “I’ve been getting some of those same calls that you’ve been getting, and I visited with some of our federal partners, and they have very limited information, our Border Patrol partners, and it’s all based on conversations. No one has seen a design plan. Right now, all this is in the planning and contracting department or committee or whatever you want to call it.
“Part of the problem that they’re facing is that the language in the bills states, ‘permanent structure,’ so, by definition, a virtual structure is not considered a permanent structure, so funds can’t be expended. So they’re going to be sending some crews out to do some studies, to contact the landowners.
“I was told last week that a contract was going to be awarded for that process, probably this week or next week, and what they are considering are vehicle barriers, basically a guardrail, for lack of a better word, a post and rail, that’s what they’re calling it, and that’s from our federal partners,” Martinez said.
Owens said, “But the contract is not actually to put them up, it’s a contract to award the study.”
Martinez concurred, adding, “I was told nothing will happen on anybody’s land until the landowners are in agreement. That’s what I was told.”
Commissioner Pct. 4 Gustavo “Gus” Flores said he, too, had received calls from concerned property owners in his precinct.
The sheriff also mentioned there is also talk of placing buoy barriers in the Rio Grande, but added that information about this part of the border wall plan is also limited.
Owens said, “So the bottom line right now, they’re going to award a contract to do a study, not to build a wall. . . So at this time, we’ll just keep monitoring it. At the end of the day, the landowners really don’t want it, and the people I talked to, like you said, some our local federal partners, don’t understand why it would be put up.”
The county judge then recognized two persons in the audience. Both own ranches in Val Verde County, and after listening to the first, Owens said he would seek the court’s permission to send a letter to the county’s elected representatives questioning the placement of a physical wall in western Val Verde County.
After listening to the second speaker, Owens said, “We will, at the bare minimum, send out a letter, expressing our concern about landowner rights.”
Owens asked landowners who got phone calls or encountered contractors demanding access to their land to call him or one of the commissioners.
Owens then said he would entertain a motion to give him the authority to send a letter.
Commissioner Pct. 3 Fernando Garcia made the motion, with Commissioner Pct. 1 Kerr Wardlaw giving the second. The court passed the motion unanimously.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
