NEWS — Court votes to ask city to reconsider routes to bridge

By Karen Gleason

The 830 Times

Val Verde County Commissioners Court members voted Wednesday to lobby city officials to reconsider routes linking proposed a second international bridge with local highways.

The court took the action during a special meeting in which dozens of homeowners complained proposed routes linking the planned new bridge with U.S. Highway 90 will adversely affect property values and the standard of living in several neighborhoods northwest of Del Rio.

About 50 homeowners attended the meeting, which was held in the county court-at-law courtroom on the second floor of the county courthouse.

Before the meeting began, County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. asked homeowners who wished to speak to the court to limit their comments to five minutes.

“The problem is, (the city has) taken off without us, so what we’re going to try and do is come up with suggestions to take back to them as to where we want to put the road,” Owens told audience members before the meeting started.

Owens opened the meeting by saying he would like a member of the court to make a motion regarding at least one of the possible routes being proffered to link the proposed second international bridge with Highway 90 northwest of Del Rio.

After Owens described the first route, which would have intersected Highway 90 across from the entrance to the Rancho Agua Vista subdivision, County Commissioner Pct. 3 Beau Nettleton made a motion to recommend that route be discarded, with County Commissioner Pct. 1 Martin Wardlaw giving the second. Nettleton’s motion passed unanimously.

After the vote, Nettleton told the audience, “This is simply a recommendation from the county. This is not particularly our project. We can’t tell them not to build it there. This is simply our recommendation to the city that this particular route does not work, so that’s all this is. It doesn’t mean it won’t get built there because this is a city project.”

Owens then recognized members of the audience who wished to address the court.

Lake Ridge resident Jordan Ediger spoke first, saying he believed placing the second bridge upstream of the existing bridge, will cause “a safety and security issue for everybody on the north side of Del Rio.”

Ediger said he favored siting a new bridge downstream of the existing bridge.

After he finished outlining his opposition to siting a second bridge northwest of Del Rio, Ediger said he started a petition against that site, adding he has already gathered more than 400 signatures.

Owens said he and the commissioners had discussed a “southern route” crossing the Rio Grande southeast of Del Rio, traversing the old Moody Ranch to intersect with U.S. Highway 277 and State Loop 79, but said soon after that route was built, there would likely need to be a commercial truck route connecting it to the Del Rio Industrial Park, and that route would impact hundreds of homeowners in south Del Rio.

Sundance Estates resident Rochelle Rempfher asked to whom residents should speak at the city regarding their concerns, and Owens suggested they speak with Mayor Al Arreola and City Manager John Sheedy.

“It would be wise for the city to have a special meeting like this one to hear you all’s concerns,” Owens said.

The court then heard from a number of other residents of the Lake Ridge area.

Luis Maldonado, another resident of the area who had addressed the court during prior meetings about the bridge routes, claimed city officials or staff had tried called the employer of at least one person who previously spoke to the court and charged that “the only people that are going to benefit (from the proposed second bridge) are the ones from (Ciudad) Acuña.”

After hearing from several other residents of properties north and west of Del Rio, County Commissioner Pct. 4 Gustavo “Gus” Flores said it sounded to him that the court was leaning toward recommending a route south of Del Rio.

The court then took another vote to ask the city not to consider the connector route that would intersect Highway 90 across from Lorena’s Cantina.

Further into the meeting, Owens told again audience members they need to request a meeting between themselves and the Del Rio City Council, the governing body that will make the final decision about the bridge routes.

La Caleta resident Kelly Pratt told the court she believed owners of two large properties adjacent to the proposed second bridge site have agreed to have those properties annexed into the city.

Owens spoke about the issue later in the meeting.

“They’re probably going to give their land in order to be annexed, and I’m going to put myself in their shoes. If I was a developer, and I owned both those tracts of land or either one of those tracts of land, I’d be raising my hand wanting to be annexed, wanting to get water and sewer, wanting to get a bridge over one of the canyons that is on one of the properties, in order to be able to get all the infrastructure that’s needed to do a development,” Owens said.

“The other (landowner) doesn’t need a bridge; he just needs water and sewer,” the county judge added.

Another property owner, Richard Phipps, asked how the construction of the new bridge would be funded.

Owens replied, “There have been comments made there is enough money off the first bridge to pay for the second bridge. . . The city makes about $8 million in revenues off the first bridge. There’s about $4.8 million that they put into the (city’s) general fund. So they have about $2.5 million that would actually go to pay for a second bridge, but it’s not enough money to pay for the bridge and the route.”

“So when you ask who would fund it, it would have to be TxDOT and the federal government to help pay for at least the road, and if they wouldn’t pay for the bridge, the city would at that point need to borrow money to pay for the bridge, and they would have enough income to pay for the bridge,” he added.

“The city of Del Rio has enough funds from the first international bridge, to pay for (a second) bridge. They don’t have enough funds – I don’t care how you slice it – to be able to pay for the bridge and the roadway. The numbers ain’t there,” Owens said.

Phipps also asked about staffing at a new port of entry and the number of commercial trucks crossing the existing bridge.

Resident Bruce Henderson also spoke against siting the bridge and any connecting routes to the highway though the Lake Ridge area.

“I’m asking you guys as our county reps to fight for us,” he said.

Katelyn Hurda, who owns property just south of the Del Rio city limits, asked the court if its members “would go to bat” for property owners if the city would not listen to their suggestions.

“We will do everything in our power, once this court makes a decision, which way we’re running, to move forward with that decision. If they (the city) take off and go another route, at that point we’ll have to make a decision to argue our point,” Owens said.

Toward the end of the meeting, Owens called for a motion, and County Commissioner Pct. 1 Martin Wardlaw said, “Like the judge said, we’ve been listening, and we’ve heard what you have to say. We’re with you, and I’d like to make a motion that the southern route be accepted, with access along the vega.”

Flores gave the second, and the court voted unanimously to approve the motion.

Owens said the county would send a letter to the city notifying officials of the court’s action.

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