By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Val Verde County Commissioners Court is seeking ideas and input from the public on the use of the county fairgrounds property off North Main Street.
The court has set a public meeting for 6 p.m. Monday, March 21, at the Del Rio Civic Center, 1915 Veterans Blvd., to hear from citizens about potential uses for the fairgrounds.
A year ago, the court seemed in agreement that it would place a new community sports complex on the property, but that idea became a bone of contention among commissioners court members earlier this year, when three commissioners abruptly voted to move the proposed sports complex to the former SE Ranch property adjacent to Laughlin Air Force Base.
County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. said it’s important for people to attend Monday’s meeting and voice their opinions.
Owens spoke to The 830 Times about the meeting after Tuesday’s county commissioners court session.
“This court has been amazing; it really has, and I want to start off with that. We are about kids, and I really believe it isn’t, ‘Do we need a sports complex or do we want a sports complex?’ I think we can all agree we need it. We need to have it. The discussion that this court is having now is where do we want to put it? One, out at the SE Ranch or at the county fairgrounds?” Owens said.
“There was a motion, a 5-0 vote, on a court order, during our last meeting, to have input from the community. I thought that we’d already done that, because we’d put a committee together in 2018, a fairgrounds committee, and they looked at an overall picture and then in 2020, I was asked to maybe go out to the sports leagues and maybe figure out what they would want if we were to do (a sports complex) at the fairgrounds,” the judge said.
Owens said a plan for the proposed sports complex was approved by a unanimous commissioners court on several occasions in 2021.
“It did change in January of this year, that plan changed, on a 3-1 vote, to move the sports complex out to the SE Ranch,” Owens said.
“And let’s not even talk about encroachment (on the base). Let’s take that completely off the table. In my opinion, if you look at which way Del Rio is growing, and you look at the mileage and what it would take you to get from the fairgrounds to the base and from the fairgrounds to the farthest point at Lake Ridge (subdivision northwest of Del Rio) . . . the fairgrounds is pretty much centrally located,” he said.
“Why is it important for people to attend the meeting? We need people’s input. And at the end of the day, the court will make a decision. I’ve had people come up to me and say, ‘Well, you’ve got an election coming up; why don’t you put it on the ballot, let the citizens vote.’ I think that would divide us a little bit more, so I would really rather not do that,” the judge said.
“What I’d rather have – you have a commissioners court meeting (on Monday), let people come in and have input as to where they believe (the sports complex) should be, and we’ll get to listen, whether it be the people from 4-H, the horse people, all the sports leagues, what we’d be able to do if we partnered with the school district on their plan, and people need to come out and exercise their right to give us their opinions,” Owens said.
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