By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
City officials at a recent town hall meeting fielded questions about the placement of data centers in the area, international bridge toll increases and rentals of city buildings from the handful of citizens who attended.
The town hall meeting was hosted by Councilwoman Carmen Gutierrez in the city’s municipal court building on East Martin Street. The first half of the meeting featured a presentation by Municipal Judge Kassandra Flores about the work of the court.
After Flores’ presentation, Gutierrez invited Interim City Manager Manuel Chavez to join her at the front of the room to
meeting hosted by Councilwoman Carmen Gutierrez at the city’s municipal court building on Monday. (Photo by Karen Gleason)
help answer citizens’ questions.
Gutierrez said council members are not supposed to involve themselves in the city’s day-to-day operations. She said when citizens contact her with a complaint, she tries to gather all the information she can, then gives that information to Chavez, who, she said, has been very responsive.
Gutierrez asked Javier Martinez of radio station KWMC to ask two questions that had come up on a radio show he hosted earlier in the day.
Martinez said the first question dealt with toll rates the city charges on the international bridge to Mexico. He said the city had raised its toll rates to help fund an annual subsidy for American Airlines when the company provided commercial air service to Del Rio.
Martinez said the caller wanted to know where that toll increase is going now that American Airlines no longer serves the city.
Chavez replied the bridge toll was increased through an ordinance passed by the city council.
He said the funds raised by the 25-cent toll increase were used to pay the airline subsidy, and once the subsidy was paid off, city council members passed another ordinance allocating those funds to serve as the city’s match for a federal grant to renovate taxiways at Del Rio International Airport.
Chavez said once the grant match is paid, staff will bring another ordinance to the council to use the money generated by the toll increase on another transportation project.
Gutierrez then asked about County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. mentioning concerns about data centers, saying the development of data centers should concern citizens “because of the amount of water that would be used and the fact that Val Verde County does not have a groundwater conservation district.”
“So the question I’ve been asked: Has anyone approached the city to see if something could be established out in Val Verde County?” Gutierrez asked.
Chavez replied, “As of right now, there hasn’t been anyone who has approached the city in that capacity. The data centers require a lot of infrastructure, mainly electricity and water, and so I would imagine if that were to be the case, either directly or indirectly, we would know that’s being done. As of right now, that hasn’t happened.
“If they’re approaching someone else other than the city, at this point, I’m not sure,” the interim city manager added.
Gutierrez asked if there were questions from the audience.
Del Rioan Bea Vallejo asked about a possible “crypto mining project” in the county and said she understood the property on which the operation is to be located has been acquired.
“We need for the city and the county to be vigilant with that,” Vallejo said, adding the property she was referring to is “owned by the Chinese between Highway 90 and 277.”
Chavez responded, “So something between the city, county and the school district, we are trying to work with our state legislative representation, and that’s something that, if we do work on any groundwater conservation district, we need to start now, but that is something that we would all have to be in agreement with, but we are starting those discussions. We are trying to meet as a group, and individually, anything that affects one or the other, those are the things we want to work with hand-in-hand.”
Gutierrez reminded the audience the last effort to establish a groundwater conservation district failed because there was no local consensus.
In response to another question, Chavez clarified the three entities — the city, county and school district — are not actively working on legislation to create a groundwater conservation district.
Vallejo also asked about city buildings and facilities.
“We have places that we rent out, the civic center, the nutrition center, the park pavilions and others. The money from the rental fees does not appear to be going back into the fund of that building, and so those buildings are not being repaired, and we’re running into a problem where now we have to come up with extra money to repair these buildings,” Vallejo said.
She said she would like to see building rental funds placed in a separate account to be used only for the maintenance and repair of those same buildings.
Vallejo also said the city allows renters to come in before their event to set up, but noted that in some instances those setup times occur when elderly users of the buildings are also present. She said she believes the setup hours should be billed to the renter as well.
Chavez replied, “Under the best scenario, that would happen. The reality is that fees charged for the rental of some of these facilities aren’t enough to cover the operation, which includes maintenance, let alone anything set aside for repairs or upgrades. The two that you mentioned, the Joe Ramos and civic center, are tagged to have some sort of remodel or upgrade this year.
“In the regular operation, we don’t recover enough through that rent in order to maintain those facilities and at this point, we’re having to subsidize both areas with the general fund,” Chavez added.
Gutierrez added the city council has reallocated some of the funds borrowed for a new City Hall to make repairs to the Joe Ramos Center and the civic center.
Del Rioan Dolores Martinez asked if anything has changed at the Del Rio Civic Center now that the city employee in charge of the facility, Leno Hernandez Jr., was elected to the city council in May.
Chavez said other city personnel are taking over those duties and assured Martinez the hours of operation and rental fees have not changed.
Gutierrez invited Chavez to speak about the city’s Fourth of July festivities and afterward thanked everyone for attending the town hall meeting.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com.
