By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Val Verde County Commissioners Court members April 26 rescinded an order to remove all animals from the county fairgrounds.
The court reversed its decision, made earlier in April, but several court members said they still aren’t happy with the facility and its current operation.
“The fairgrounds is a disgrace. We set aside $1.9 million in insurance money to renovate (it), and I haven’t seen anything for it. But we set it aside, to redo the stalls, to fix them up, all the stuff that needs to be done and we haven’t gotten there,” County Commissioner Pct. 3 Beau Nettleton said.
The commissioner also took issue with reported bad behavior from tenants and others.
“The drinking, the fighting, those are things that everybody has to take responsibility for, not just the court, but the individuals at the fairgrounds. They have responsibilities to control the issues that are going on up there and bring it to somebody’s attention, and you all may have; I don’t know,” the commissioner said.
“I think we need to make the improvements. I agree with that. That’s what the money was there for, to make the improvements, to fix the stalls. That’s what we got the money for. I don’t know what’s going on with it, but it needs to get done if that’s what we’re going to do,” he added.
Nettleton said he believes the fairgrounds should be controlled by the court and that the court should hire a fairgrounds manager “to promote it and do something with it.”
County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. asked the tenants present at the meeting to email or text the fairgrounds manager about problems so there could be a record of problems reported.
He also said he did not agree with the vote he had taken during the previous meeting.
County Commissioner Pct. 1 Martin Wardlaw said he had received numerous phone calls from people following the court’s vote earlier this month to remove horses from the facility.
County Commissioner Pct. 4 Gustavo “Gus” Flores said he believed the court had “taken the wrong vote” on the motion during the last meeting.
Flores, who had asked for the item to rescind the previous action to be placed on the April 26 agenda, said, “I totally agree with you all. The fairgrounds are there, the horse stables are there, and they’ll stay there forever. Nobody’s going to ever have you guys move your horses out of there.”
Flores then made a motion to rescind the court’s April 12 order to remove horses and other livestock from the fairgrounds “and to allow the people that have horses out there to conduct business as normal.”
Wardlaw gave the second.
“You used to term ‘business,’ and I know that there’s a question as to businesses being out there (at the fairgrounds), and I think you need to clarify that point in your motion as to what you mean by ‘business,’” Martinez said.
“I will make a motion to rescind, remove, overturn Court Order No. 22-304,” Flores said.
Wardlaw again gave the second.
All of the members of the court then voted in favor of the motion.
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