By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
City council members discussed the city’s gas system during their most recent meeting on July 14 following a presentation about an upcoming gas rate study.
Interim Finance Director Roxy Soto introduced the presentation, telling council members the city’s last gas rate study was completed in May 2021.
Soto told the council, “Best practice is to update our study or any rates that we are looking into every three to five years.”
Soto introduced Raftelis, the firm with whom the city has contracted “to assist in development of the next gas rate study and the five-year implementation plan.”
She said Collin Drat, Raftelis project manager, was joining the meeting via Zoom to go over the study.
Drat first introduced himself and other members of the Raftelis team, then moved into the scope of work for the gas rate study.
He said the first task, project initiation and management, would include gathering the data the company needs and getting familiar with the operations of the city’s gas utility.
Drat said, “Then tasks two through five are the analytical phases of the project, where we’re really digging into the data, developing the forecast and the analysis to do the study, and task six is reporting phase.”
Drat spent some time going through the details of the work he and his Raftelis colleagues planned to do and how that information could be used by the city.
After Drat’s presentation, Councilwoman Carmen Gutierrez asked Interim City Manager Manuel Chavez if the city is still running a promotion for Del Rio residents who want to connect to the city’s gas system, and Chavez replied there is no current promotion for gas connections.
Gutierrez asked if there was an increase in demand for the use of gas.
“At this point, no,” Chavez responded.
Gutierrez said, “The reason I’m asking is that I had several citizens contact me about a year ago that the city of Del Rio was bringing gas lines into their neighborhood on the north side, . . . and they said they’re extending the gas lines, but no one’s hooking up.”
She added she had asked if there was a current demand for gas service and whether city staff anticipated any increase in that demand.
Public Works Director Greg Velazquez replied, “Those are very good questions, and when I came into public works, those are questions that I asked.”
Velazquez said when city staff met with Drat and Raftelis, his question was whether the city could “actually reflect a reasonable cost” for gas.
Velazquez said the city passed an ordinance in 2025 requiring new subdivisions to have gas lines so residents could connect to the city’s gas system if they wanted to. He added there was no cost to the developer to have the lines installed and said he has seen demand for gas fluctuate over the years.
Councilman J.P. Sanchez commented, “One of the things, as a builder, is the high cost of plumbing, and as it is, residential rates are high, when you’re building a new home. When you add gas to it, it’s going to be even higher, and that was one of the reasons why I didn’t agree with the northside extension (of city gas lines) into the Reservation area.
“This was an established residential area that was all electric. Then the city came in and tore up the streets and put in gas lines and whatnot, and all Mr. Chavez has gotten is calls for the streets coming undone because of the trenching that was done. . . Nobody is connecting. . . It is really not feasible for a person to connect to a line like that when you already have electric,” Sanchez said.
“Now, the new subdivisions that are being opened up, they have new gas that comes in, at no cost to the developer. But there again, you have to have a customer that wants gas, and when they (see) the added cost of the $10,000 to $15,000 to plumb a house for gas, they say, ‘No, we’ll go all electric.’ So it’s a double-edged sword,” Sanchez added.
Councilman Leno Hernandez Jr. asked, “Are developers required to have these gas lines or can they opt out of it? In other words, I guess what’s being described right now is we’re providing services to areas that aren’t requesting them. So are we mandating that requirement or are they able to opt out?”
Velazquez responded, speaking about the city’s laying of gas lines, noting that the city’s gas division staff is required by the Texas Railroad Commission to conduct periodic tests on gas lines. He added if a discrepancy is found, the gas division must go back in and replace those lines, which contributes to retrenching of roads.
“And there’s no guarantee that we even have customers wherever these lines exist that are being trenched,” Hernandez said.
“There’s no guarantee,” Velazquez said.
“So if developers are willing to opt out then it leaves us without having to do that extra work and put ourselves in those types of positions where we’re going to go back and have to repair something that’s not even being used. Is that a possibility? Because you mentioned it was by ordinance that we provide certain utilities,” Hernandez said.
Velazquez replied, “If a customer comes in, it’s just like water and just like sewer, based on the ordinance, if it’s so many feet, right, if it’s 100 feet, 200 feet, if it’s nearby, you do have a responsibility as a utility, as a municipality, to extend that line, right? But on water and sewer, we charge. The gas, it would be free.”
Velazquez asked Daniel Jalomos, the superintendent of the city’s gas division, to address Hernandez’s concerns.
Jalomos said, “. . . It’s a shared cost, it’s not all free. They do the trenching, and we go install the gas lines. One of reasons we install it is you need so many certifications to actually install gas lines, so we’d rather do it ourselves and do it right, than allow somebody else do it, and they don’t meet qualifications, so then we have to take in the system, and we don’t know what’s underneath. So that’s why we install the gas lines.”
Hernandez said, “But we install them without even knowing if we’re ever going to have a customer in that subdivision.”
Jalomos responded, “The ordinance says, I believe, if you’re within 1,000 feet or 2,000 feet, then (the developer has) to connect to the gas system.”
Hernandez thanked staff members for answering his questions, then said perhaps the council could discuss the gas system again with the city manager in the future.
The council took no action following the presentation and question-and-answer session.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com.
