By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
A Val Verde County resident has presented city officials with a petition containing more than 1,000 signatures of county and city residents opposed to placing a second international bridge northwest of Del Rio.
Jordan Ediger presented the petition to the Del Rio City Council during its special meeting on Sept. 19. He made the presentation during the citizen comments portion of the meeting.
Ediger has been at the forefront of opposition to the placement of a second international bridge being proposed by the city for nearly a year. He has since become a fixture at county commissioners court meetings to speak out against the proposed site of the second bridge northwest of Del Rio and recently began attending city council meetings regularly as well to voice concerns about the site.
On Sept. 19, Ediger told the council, “I’m here to present into the public record 78 pages of over 1,100 signatures of Del Rio and Val Verde County who agree to this statement: The residents of Del Rio and Val Verde County demand that a new international bridge not be placed north of Del Rio between the city of Del Rio and Lake Amistad. A new international bridge north of the city of Del Rio places all the residents who live between the city of Del Rio and Lake Amistad at a significantly increased safety and security risk.
“In addition, the further development of international truck traffic north of Del Rio will reduce the valuation of the residential property of the residents of Val Verde County and affect the economics of the city of Del Rio.
“An international bridge south of Del Rio is the only feasible option for Val Verde County and Del Rio. The city council appears to be on one side of this argument, while over 1,100 Val Verde County and city of Del Rio residents are on the opposite side.
“Like C.S. Lewis said, ‘When everybody is headed in the wrong direction, it’s the one who turns around is the one who is the most progressive.’ And I’d like to enter this into the public record,” Ediger finished.
Ediger then handed the stack of petitions to City Secretary Mari Acosta and returned to his seat in the audience.
After the meeting, Ediger said he and other county residents opposed to siting the proposed second bridge northwest of Del Rio have been collecting signatures on the petition since July 1.
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