By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
An unpaved road serving a small rural subdivision in southern Val Verde County isn’t a county road, and until it is, the county can’t apply for grants to install water and sewer services for residents there.
That was the message given about two dozen residents of the Moreno Valley Subdivision when they attended county commissioners court July 19 to once again petition the court to seek grant funding to provide the subdivision with water and sewer lines.
County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. opened the discussion, saying he had asked County Engineer Carlos Velarde “to do some homework” on the road, known as Old Foster Road, which leads into the subdivision. He said he and Velarde have looked up documents filed by Antonio Moreno, the owner of the land that became the subdivision, in the 1970s and 1980s.
“The bottom line is that road has always been referred to as a road easement . . . We can’t find anything from 1982 until now that says it’s a county road,” Owens said.
He said there are several records that refer to the road as a public road, but he added no records show the road was ever dedicated to the county or indicate the county accepted the road for maintenance.
Owens said the road is on the county road log for maintenance, then asked County Attorney David Martinez, “We couldn’t find anything where it’s a dedicated road to the county, so my question is, if it’s on the county road log, but we can’t find where Old Foster Road was ever dedicated to the county or the county accepted (it), is it a county road?”
Martinez noted the county attorney’s office has been working on the issue of the road since the term of the previous county attorney.
“I’ve also had extensive conversations with our engineer, as well as with the attorney general’s office. So even though the road appears to have been listed on the inventory of county roads, that in and of itself does not make it a county road,” Martinez said.
“I believe that that was done in error. The risk that we run as a county, if there is no proof that the road was ever accepted by Val Verde County as a county road, then if we were to (accept it), we would be in violation of the model subdivision rules, and that has some consequences. The simple fact that the road was dedicated by Mr. Moreno as being a public road, (and) it is that, it is a public road, but a public road is not necessarily a county road,” the county attorney added, noting a public road “still has to go through the formal procedures of being accepted by the commissioners court.”
“So although it’s a public road, it is not a county road,” Martinez said.
Owens then asked the commissioners for their comments.
County Commissioner Pct. 4 Gustavo “Gus” Flores, in whose precinct the area in question is sited, said, “My only comment is that I hope in the future we can come up with something that will take care of this public road and maybe it can be dedicated to the county for road maintenance.”
“We need to take action now, not in the future,” Sandra Fuentes, a co-chair of the Border Organization, who had addressed the court during the citizen comments portion of the meeting, called out from her seat in the audience.
Fuentes said Flores “has been maintaining” the road and pointed out emergency and law enforcement vehicles regularly use the road.
“Would it not behoove the county to accept it, this morning, as a county road to make it easier for those emergency vehicles, number one, and number two, to bring much-needed water? The model subdivision rules – and we’ve also had conversations with the attorney general’s office, and (their representative) told us, ‘Although I do not work in the department that gives out grant money, I can assure you that the state of Texas will not penalize a county for bringing water to a group of people that need water.’ The model rules have been violated since they started selling those lots over there, and everyone knew, except for the buyers, that it was not an improved area,” Fuentes said.
Fuentes said there is a “giant billboard” at the entrance of the subdivision that everyone has seen, “but no one put a stop to it.”
“There were missteps everywhere, missteps from the people that bought there, missteps from the county, missteps from the real estate agent, missteps from the commissioner (of the precinct),” Fuentes charged.
Flores replied, “I’ve never maintained the road. What I’ve done is two courtesy bladings. I’ve never hauled material down there or nothing. Water projects, the way they work, is they’re not funded by the county. They’re state funded, and we go through a grant process, and to do a water extension done there, we have to go through the state, and we have to go by their rules. It’s got to be a county road (first).”
Fuentes reiterated her belief that Flores “maintained” the road, charging he continued to perform those actions even after he was told by the county attorney he needed to stop.
“The residents asked me to help them out,” Flores said.
Owens said he believed there is some way the county could accept the road, “but that way is not present on the table today.”
“As of today and right now, my opinion, it’s not a county road, and in listening to our county attorney, I can’t vote to make it a county road today,” Owens said.
“When?” Fuentes called from the audience.
“Well, somebody bring us back a plan as to how this would work, and we’ve all had the conversation, if it’s used as an emergency exit, emergency ingress and egress . . .” Owens said.
Martinez said he has spoken to Fuentes and other members of the Border Organization about that angle.
“We have also talked to the attorney general’s office about that potential angle or exception, if there is one, because I understand during flood events that road is relied upon a lot by first responders, so that is an angle we are looking at, but we just don’t have a conclusion at this point,” Martinez said.
He added last year the attorney general’s office was prepared to take action on behalf of Val Verde County and the Moreno Valley residents against the subdivision developer, but he has died “and that has complicated things for the attorney general’s office.”
Fuentes asked if a month were enough time for Martinez to further review the potential “emergency use” question.
Owens said he does not believe a month is enough time. He added that if the court votes to accept the road, “we will be opening the door to at least three more roads that I know of that are in the same shape.”
After some additional discussion, Owens called for a motion to leave the matter with the county attorney and the Border Organization and the Moreno Valley residents and allow the county attorney to bring back a possible plan to the court.
The court approved the motion with an abstention from County Commissioner Pct. 3 Beau Nettleton.
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