By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
County commissioners court members took no action following another discussion Thursday of the city’s plans to build a second international bridge.
County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. initiated the discussion, saying he had placed the item on the court’s agenda, but noting there was “nothing new” concerning the city’s plans for a second international bridge.
Owens told the court, “My understanding is the city’s still, from the last meeting, was they’re looking at the bridge to be placed in the same place it was before, on the north side of town. They were looking at a different route, that would not affect the recharge zone, that hole in the ground that’s out there. I don’t know what that route is. I was told that sometime in January they (city officials) would be presenting a route.”
Owens also reviewed the actions commissioners court has taken in reaction to the city’s plans.
“This court, a couple of years ago, voted not to support any route or a bridge that would go on the north side of town, basically anything between the bridge we have now to Amistad Dam. The court voted and passed, anything that would go in that area, that the court would not support.
“The court has hired attorneys and we have visited with them. Their conversation with us was, let’s wait until they (city officials) pick something (a route), in order to be able to file something or move forward, and there’s no sense in trying to move forward with something until they (city officials) pick something and say, ‘This is the route, this is where the bridge is going to be,’ and it’s definite. So that’s where we’re at right now,” Owens said.
He added he had developed an alternate route from the city’s proposed site for the international bridge, which would intersect U.S. Highway 90 at Spur 239 to Amistad Dam and had presented that proposal to the city.
“Our attorneys thought that we should present (the city) with a route we might be able to look at, and we’ve done that, but right now we’re waiting on something from the city,” Owens said.
He turned in his seat to address the two new commissioners, County Commissioner Pct. 1 Kerr Wardlaw and County Commissioner Pct. 3 Fernando Garcia.
“As soon as the city votes or takes action, it will be brought back to the court, just to make sure everybody’s on the same page. We do have attorneys in place, and we have a court order as to what action we should take moving forward. If that action needs to change, then at that time we could do that, but we need to wait on the city to take action,” Owens said.
“I don’t know if you all had any questions; I just figured I’d put it on the agenda in case you had some,” the county judge added.
Hearing no questions or comments, the judge announced no action would be taken and moved on to the next item on the court’s agenda.
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