Karen Gleason
City council members on Sunday extended for one week a weather emergency declaration enacted as winter weather rolled into the area on Feb. 14.
The Del Rio City Council took the action during a special meeting held mainly to discuss some of the fallout of the once-in-a-generation cold weather event.
Mayor Bruno “Ralphy” Lozano called the meeting to order, then moved on to a review of the Feb. 14 emergency declaration, which had included a three-day curfew.
Lozano told the council the emergency declaration was prompted “due to the extreme weather.”
Lozano said the extension of the emergency declaration lifted the curfew that had been in place for the first three days of the weather event. He said the council would again review the declaration during its next regular meeting on Thursday.
When the mayor opened the floor for questions, Councilman Jim DeReus asked, “Is there still a restriction on movement in the city?”
He added language referencing travel restrictions remained in the document.
“No, that should be omitted. That was only pertaining to the curfew,” Lozano replied.
“So, given that we don’t have a curfew and travel restrictions, the main point of this is keeping the declaration of emergency in order to (seek) public funds, from either the state or federal (government)?” DeReus asked.
“Absolutely,” the mayor replied.
“Because at this point, there’s no snow on the ground anymore, so there’s no reason to limit travel,” DeReus added.
“Council, the background on this document, it was written during the middle of the travel restrictions, so please forgive the city attorney and myself for that, but there’s no restrictions inside the city limits, none whatsoever,” Lozano said.
No other council members offered comment on the document, and Lozano made a motion to approve extending the weather emergency declaration for an additional seven days.
Councilman Steven Webb gave the second, and the council unanimously approved the mayor’s motion.
