NEWS — Judge disputes ‘false’ claims about sports complex plans

By Karen Gleason

The 830 Times

County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. recently disputed what he termed were “false” claims about the cost of plans for a county sports complex at the fairgrounds.

The claims about the cost of plans for a sports complex at the fairgrounds were made by Sandra Fuentes, a co-chair of The Border Organization, during the May 9 meeting of Val Verde County Commissioners Court, when she used the cost of the plans as one example of how she believes the county has “misspent, misused” taxpayer money.

Owens publicly replied to those claims during the May 23 session of commissioners court. He addressed each of the claims as separate items on the court’s agenda.

“There was also a comment in open session under citizen comments two weeks ago, that we had spent all this money on a sports complex at the fairgrounds, and $70,000 to $80,000 that we had spent on consultants for the fairgrounds for a sports complex. That statement is also false,” Owens said on May 23.

“The plans for the fairgrounds, the only thing we spent on plans for the fairgrounds, which is this plan right here, that we drew for the fairgrounds, did not cost the county anything but a little bit of time between me and our county engineer, Carlos Velarde,” the judge said.

“As a matter of fact, all these little fields and stuff that you all see here (on the plans), he (Velarde) literally cut those out for me, that way I could put them on a map of the fairgrounds, and that’s the way we started (planning for) the sports complex at the fairgrounds, by literally taping and gluing little stickies to the map,” Owens added.

The county’s plan for a sports complex on the fairgrounds property was eventually shelved. Owens told the 830 Times after the meeting that commissioners court has voted to move ahead with other improvements at the fairgrounds.

“That (statement) we spent money for plans, for the sports complex, that statement is also false. There were no monies that we contracted out, other than a little bit of time that the county engineer (spent) and just for complete transparency, we did spend money on a consultant for the fairgrounds, but it had nothing to do with the sports complex,” Owens said during the May 23 meeting.

“Those monies and that project that was brought back to the court, and we will begin to implement different phases of that, at the fairgrounds, which would be the pavilion and some other buildings that will be built, and that will be brought back to the court for discussion,” Owens said.

“Anything on that one?” Owens asked when he was done.

There were no comments from the court.

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