By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Citizens who attended a town hall meeting hosted by Mayor Pro-tem Jim DeReus on
Wednesday voiced complaints about an array of issues, including overgrown properties,
road paving, storm drainage, a new airline and progress on the renovation of a historic
theater downtown.
DeReus opened the meeting, held in the Red Oak Ballroom at the Del Rio Civic Center,
by welcoming those present and saying, “I just want to hear what people want to talk
about, and normally what I do is, I take notes, and I send the city manager an email about
people’s concerns, but I don’t need to do that tonight.”
or the city to clean up an overgrown vacant lot near her home on West Bowie Street in
south Del Rio. Nieto made her comments during Mayor Pro-tem Jim DeReus’ town hall
meeting on Wednesday. Listening at right is Paul Mancha, a local business owner and
executive director of the Del Rio Comic Con event. (Photo by Karen Gleason)
City Manager Shawna Burkhart and several other members of the city’s leadership team
and staff attended DeReus’ meeting. Burkhart hosted a separate town hall meeting on the
proposed city budget immediately after DeReus’ meeting.
DeReus first called on Del Rio resident Debbie Nieto, who, along with a handful of others, is a
regular attendee at his meetings.
Nieto said she normally brings up issues from around the city, but added, “This time, I
have a concern from right behind my own backyard. I live on West Bowie Street, and at
the back (of my property) is Martinez Street. At the back of my house is a canal, full of
brush and everything just growing.”
She said former County Commissioner Pct. 1 Martin Wardlaw regularly cleaned out the
area, but said she called the county earlier in the day because the brush in the area is
getting high again and was told, “It’s a city issue, and the city has to take care of it.”
“So I am coming today to ask who I need to talk to,” Nieto said.
Nieto also said animal control had to come to her home to remove a large Indigo snake
that had curled up in the back of her clothes dryer. She said she believes the snake came
from the overgrown lot.
“The county has always cleaned it. Why? When I asked them, they said it was because
they wanted to, but they don’t have to if they don’t want to, and I guess right now they
don’t want to, because that’s what they said when I called,” Nieto said.
DeReus commented, “Since you brought that up, I have a serious problem with the
county saying, ‘Well, we can’t do anything inside the city limits, because that’s the city.’ Well, you’re getting 70 percent of your tax funds from people inside the city limits. What
are they getting for it? That mentality bothers me. I have had that conversation with a
couple county commissioners, and I have not had any luck changing it yet.”
Burkhart provided Nieto with the name and number of a city official who might be able
to help.
DeReus next called on Paul Mancha, who introduced himself as the owner of a small
business downtown and organizer of the annual Del Rio Comic Con event.
Mancha said he came mainly to listen, but added he would like to see the city restore
commercial air service at Del Rio International Airport so that more people could visit
the city and see what it has to offer.
DeReus thanked Mancha for attending and joked he would love to see Mancha bring in
actor Nathan Fillion “in full Captain Mal,” referring to Fillion’s role in the television
series “Firefly.”
The next citizen DeReus called on asked about the paving of roads in the Jap Lowe
Estates area on the city’s east side.
DeReus said, “The Jap Lowe roads situation is a conundrum, and that’s being generous.
It is messed up, because of the property lines. The property lines don’t actually stop at the
roads’ edges. That is not actually a city road. Individuals own those roads. The property
line goes into the middle of the road. It has just been dedicated for public use, and, so,
any work the city or county does on those roads is misuse of public funds, so until that
part gets taken care of, which we have tried to work on, we can’t repave those roads.”
“What about the money we’re paying in taxes? That’s what we’re trying to find out
about,” the man asked.
DeReus said he has discussed the situation with the president of the Jap Lowe
homeowners’ association, “and it’s a thorny issue, to say the least.”
DeReus next recognized Bea Vallejo.
Vallejo, another regular attendee at DeReus’ meetings, said she had questions about the
storm drainage area off Kings Way.
She said she believes the city should deepen the drainage channel in the area of Kings
Way and Mary Lou Street to prevent flooding, and DeReus replied improving the low
water crossing over Kings Way in that area is part of the city’s drainage master plan.
Burkhart added, “It is not funded, currently, but it is part of the plan.”
The city manager said the city is currently working on the Carranza Park detention pond
and after that, will move on to a drainage project in the San Felipe area.
Vallejo also said any sidewalks the city builds need to be ADA (American with
Disabilities Act)-compliant. She pointed out the sidewalks downtown are not ADA-
compliant, noting a gentleman has been riding his electric scooter from the Roswell
downtown to the Joe Ramos Center every morning and has to ride in the street.
Vallejo also said she believes the city needs to charge a fee for people parking in the lot
behind the South Main Street building it bought as its new City Hall.
San Felipe resident Arturo Talamantez, also a regular at DeReus’ town halls, said he is
concerned about the drainage problems in the neighborhood between U.S. Highways 90
and 277 in south Del Rio, adding he doesn’t like the city’s idea of constructing a
detention pond for drainage off Dr. Fermin Calderon Boulevard.
Talamantez also said he believes the city does not need to pursue another airline.
“It costs too much money. We can’t afford it,” Talamantez said.
DeReus next recognized Carole Cooper, also a regular at the town hall meetings.
A long-time champion of the city’s Paul Poag Theatre for the Performing Arts, Cooper
asked about the progress on renovating the facility.
City Purchasing Director Luis Menchaca replied the documents to put the renovation out
for bids are being completed and should be presented to city council for approval later
this month.
Burkhart added, “We’re still on track to be done (with the renovation) by the end of
April.”
DeReus then asked Andrew Pavlinski to speak.
Pavlinski asked about the estimated time of completion for the reconstruction of Losoya
Street.
Burkhart said the council recently increased staff’s ability to obtain items or services
worth $100,000 and under without going out for bids to reflect a recent change in state
bidding laws, which, she said, will allow staff greater flexibility in obtaining items or
services and which may shorten the time line on certain projects.
Menchaca said he believes paving of Losoya will begin before the end of September.
Pavlinksi also spoke about using federal funds at the airport, then DeReus said, “I feel
like there’s a lot of people pointing at the city and poking the city in the chest, whether
it’s city council or the city manager, saying, ‘You guys need to get an airline service,’ but
what are they doing to help? For instance, the hospital loves to say, ‘You get us airline
service. We’ll be able to spend less on doctors because they’ll be able to fly directly in
for a week.’. . . If you’re saving money, can’t you put some of that toward (helping the
city obtain) airline service? The chamber talks about that, county talks about that,
everyone talks it’s going to be great. Okay, join us on trying to figure this out, because,
by ourselves, as you said, the last airline has been gone for two-and-a-half years now and
we’re still paying (on their revenue guarantee).”
“I have no problem getting an airline if it makes sense, but we can’t do it by ourselves,
and we don’t have all this extra money laying around,” DeReus added.
Pavlinski urged DeReus and city officials to lobby their state and elected leaders for
assistance.
Former city councilwoman Alexandra Falcon Calderon was one of the last attendees to
speak.
She circled back to parking downtown, noting the city owns a parking lot across from the
Rotary Pocket Park on South Main, but added that most people don’t know it is a lot open
to the public.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
