By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
The leader of a local activist organization urged city council members Tuesday to pass a slate of new fees for the city’s development services department and told the council her group had initiated a new community water coalition.
Sandra Fuentes, a co-chair of The Border Organization, spoke to the council during the citizen comments portion of its regular meeting.
Fuentes told the council she would be covering two issues in her comments.
Fuentes began, “The first one is that about a month ago, I was here in front of you, telling you about the dire situation we’re in because of the severe droughts we’ve had, and that The Border Organization was planning to bring different organizations together to see if they were interested in forming a coalition, and we had that meeting about two weeks ago, and it went very, very well.
“The different organizations that have agreed to form a coalition – and by the way, we’re going to be called the Southwest Water Coalition – are The Border Organization, the Del Rio Parks Foundation, the Devils River Conservancy, Rotary Club of Del Rio, San Felipe Creek Coalition, Familias Unidas, Las Moras Springs Conservation, Casa De La Cultura, Eagle Pass Border Coalition, Texas Parks and Wildlife, the Nature Conservancy, Whitehead Memorial Museum, Lowe Estates Landowners Association,” Fuentes said.
She said the meeting also included representatives from Laughlin Air Force Base, Del Rio Buzz, The 830 Times and the city of Del Rio.
“We are going to meet again on Nov. 1 with the objective of coming up with a plan of how we can conserve water, amongst other things. We’re hoping to bring in people, meaning people that are water experts from Austin, and we look forward to partnering up with the city of Del Rio and also with Val Verde County,” Fuentes said.
Fuentes said she also wished to address the council about a new schedule for development services fees on the council’s agenda later that evening.
“We, The Border Organization, encourage you to adopt the new fee schedule. If you will adopt this, it will give the development services department an opportunity to be self-sufficient,” Fuentes said.
“Right now, I think a lot of the departments are getting money from other departments. Notoriously forever, that I can remember, money from the water (department) is being taken to feed other departments. For two to three years, this department has not collected what they should.
“If we were collecting what we should, up to par, we should be collecting $258,000, and they’ve only collected $68,000, because people were not getting the permit or they were not being charged.
“The council, I believe, or two of the council members, gave direction to city staff to bring contractors together and they did, and they had a wonderful meeting and had a great turnout. None of the contractors had a problem with what city staff was presenting to them. So, I encourage you to adopt 10e (the resolution/ordinance containing the new fee schedule,” Fuentes finished.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com.
