By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Alfredo “Fred” Contreras is seeking election to the position of mayor on the Del Rio City Council.
“I was born and raised in Del Rio, and I’m proud to be a Del Rioan. My family’s from Del Rio, and I’ve got my roots in Del Rio,” Contreras said.
Contreras graduated from Del Rio High School in 1991 and took some college classes at Southwest Texas Junior College and Sul Ross State University.
“I was very lucky. Straight out of high school, I took the post office exam, and I was one of the lucky few that actually passed it with a high score,” he said.
Contreras began working for the U.S. Post Office in 1991 after passing his exam and worked there until 1994, when he went to work with Central Power and Light for four years.
Contreras returned to the post office in 1998 and has been working there ever since.
“It’s been a learning journey for me. I started as a letter carrier, and I was a carrier for about 15 or 16 years, and then I went into management and traveled all over, doing route inspections all over Texas, doing audits. Then I applied for a postmaster job and I got a little office, and the postmaster job opened up in Del Rio, and I applied for it and was lucky enough to get it. I’m the first Del Rioan to serve as the postmaster in Del Rio,” Contreras said.
He served in the position for two years, then applied for the position of postmaster in Eagle Pass when that position opened up, noting the Eagle Pass position is considered a higher-level management position because of the size of its operation.
He currently serves as postmaster in Eagle Pass and said he commutes back and forth from Del Rio every day.
Contreras first ran for political office in 2010 after encountering problems while trying to open a business.
“I had some commercial property and between 2009 and 2010, my dad and I wanted to do a little drive-through car wash, and I had so many problems trying to get that going that it was unbelievable. I couldn’t believe that here you had a local investor, a local person trying to do a business, and I was getting so much trouble trying to start that business because they gave me so many problems that eventually it never happened because I just gave up,” Contreras said.
He was elected to the At-Large, Place C, seat on the council in 2010 and was re-elected to a second term in 2014.
Contreras said the construction of the new toll plaza, the relocation and expansion of the Del Rio Port of Entry and the construction of the FedEx business at the airport were among the highlights of his terms on the council.
Contreras has also served as an elected member of the San Felipe Del Rio Consolidated Independent School District Board of Trustees. He was elected in 2018 and continues serving on the board.
Contreras said seeing the school board’s accomplishments as a unified group spurred his decision to run for mayor.
“I said why not take what I’ve learned with the school board and what I’ve picked up from my former service on the council, why not do that at the city? That led me to say, you know what? I think I could be that leader, and move the city forward, unite the council, and really get things going in a different direction,” he said.
“First of all, I’ve got the best interest of the city in me. I have my roots here, my family. I’m high enough in the food chain with my job that I could move just about anywhere, but I opt to stay here because I want the best for Del Rio. I want us to move forward. I want to make it grow,” he said.
“I want to revitalize downtown. I want to bring another mission to Laughlin Air Force Base, if we possibly could. I want to do more with the creekwalk,” Contreras said.
He said working in Eagle Pass has given him new perspectives as well.
“I know what they’re doing and how they’re doing it, and I want to apply those things that I’ve seen in Eagle Pass in Del Rio because that’s what people always say, ‘Why is Eagle Pass doing this or that?’ I can tell you why. We just have to believe in the things we’re doing and buy into them so we can get there, and that’s what I want to do,” Contreras said.
“I humbly ask that the people believe in what I have to say, believe in the experience that I have, look at it with an open mind. I’m going to do things differently, because I don’t want to do the same things other people have done. I want to see results, and I humbly ask for their support and votes once again,” he added.
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Contact the author at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
