By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
The co-chair of a local activist group praised one county elected leader and chastised another during the most recent meeting of county commissioners court.
Sandra Fuentes, a co-chair of the Border Organization, made her statements during thecitizen comments portion at the start of Tuesday’s meeting of Val Verde County Commissioners Court.
“On a good note, I was over at – I don’t know what they’re called – on Frontera Road, the soccer fields. Good job. Kudos the county. The county has really stepped up in providing for youth sports and thank you very much for that. I know a lot of it was grant money, but I am sure some of it was county money from the taxpayers. Thank you for that,” Fuentes told the court.
“However, sometimes this court is not a good, vigilant steward of our monies. It is our understanding that Commissioner (Pct. 2 Juan Carlos) Vazquez was the only one who attended a very important TxDOT (Texas Department of Transportation) meeting in Laredo recently,” Fuentes said.
“I took the liberty and called TxDOT. $142 billion on the table statewide available for any projects a community would have. I know that the county engineer was there too, but nothing speaks louder than elected officials being there and advocating for our community.
“Now case in point. This court just voted for $8.5 million, and the bulk of that money is going to go to Cienegas Road. Our understanding is that the reason we did not qualify for a grant from the state of Texas (for the road) is that the road was never maintained,” Fuentes said.
Though she did not single him out by name, Cienegas Road lies in Commissioner Pct. 4 Gustavo “Gus” Flores precinct.
“That’s not looking out for our taxpayer’s money. Had we maintained, perhaps had we maintained that road, we could’ve gotten part of the $142 billion to fix that road and (the cost) would not come from taxpayers’ pockets. So please, be vigilant. Every one of you got an email (about the TxDOT meeting), but only Commissioner Vazquez went,” Fuentes added.
“Second, Item 17 (on the court’s agenda). More people would be here if these meetings were in the evening. Please, please vote to change that meeting time,” Fuentes said.
Fuentes spoke more about that issue later in the meeting.
Flores did not respond to Fuentes’ criticism after she finished speaking but disputed her conclusions during the commissioners’ comments item at the end of the court’s meeting.
“Judge, I want to make a comment, a statement concerning the project on Cienegas Road,” Flores said.
“It was stated earlier that the project, the road, was needing to be rebuilt for the lack of road maintenance, which is not true, for the simple reason that it’s a 35-year-old road. We’ve been maintaining it since I’ve been a commissioner, but it’s just deteriorated. It’s falling apart. That’s my comment,” Flores finished.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com .
