By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
The mayor and city council members are listening to the concerns of the community, Mayor Al Arreola said.
Arreola made his comments during the “mayor/public announcements” portion of Tuesday’s regular city council meeting. Arreola began by thanking several city staffers for their work on the city’s annual Fourth of July events.
“First of all, I want to thank Esme Meza, Leno Hernandez and staff, Peter Ojeda and staff, the parks (department) and the police department for a great July 4 and July 5. You guys did tremendous. I think everything out there was to the point and spectacular,” Arreola said.
The mayor went on to say that he and the council are listening to the citizens.
“I also want to remind the citizens that this council is listening to the concerns and are full aware of everything that’s happening. On my two years as mayor, and I think it’s already been brought up, we have brought a lot of things to administration, but the focus has been diverted into other things.
“Number one that we had to address was our water lines, replacing our old water lines. I understand there was contamination, but we had never gotten the report. Number two, replacement of lights around the city. We’re getting darker and darker and darker.
There’s got to be a plan out there that brings this in light and bring it to us.
“The third thing was, and I think one of the speakers mentioned it a minute ago, was our creek. If there’s $1.5 (million) out there, we haven’t seen it. There is a lot of things that need to be improved,” Arreola said. The mayor then launched into a litany of other problems he said he’s seen.
“We had events there on the Fourth of July, and if you guys had gone to those bathrooms, it’s not the best of places. We did have toilet paper, but there was no soap to wash your hands. When you have over three, four thousand people out there and you have no soap and you have Covid out there still hitting us, we have to be addressing that. There have to be paper towels there, but the dispensers on the actual toilet rolls are on the ground. The women had to pass toilet paper from one (stall) to another. That’s unacceptable,” Arreola said.
“I think one thing where we have to focus on and this is something the citizens of Del Rio have been saying for the last three-and-a-half, four years. We’re not focusing on the little things. Our creek is very important. We need to clean the banks. In 1998, it was destroyed, but we never went back to do anything, and we still haven’t had a plan to bring to us where we’re going. The cleaning of the cane. There is such a thing that we’re throwing out there, but we still haven’t touched anything.
“The other thing, the Joe Ramos, the Nutritional Center for the Elderly, we haven’t done anything. What about the gym? We haven’t done anything. This is where the kids, more and more and to the point, the citizens of Del Rio think we’re not listening? Yes, we are.
“If go and do a tour of the Boys and Girls Club, we are hosting kids there daily for events. It’s not appropriate. This administration and the previous administration have seen what’s out there. The citizens have been crying in desperation,” he said. Arreola added, “It’s not the mayor. It’s not the mayor saying this is what we want.
“Swimming pools. We have two, but we’re only operating one. What’s going on, guys? Do we have to go out there and search and find out what’s happening?” he said.
Arreola also spoke about the city’s purchase of a building on Hernandez Street, formerly owned by the Our Lady of Guadalupe Church.
“The 830 Times brought it out, we’re not approving a certain state-of-the-arts gym. Well, we haven’t even touched what we own. And this is what is frustrating on this council, that we have to leave things out there that are still pending. We’re still waiting on studies and surveys and everything that’s out there. It’s frustrating.
“You know, yes, some of us have been sitting on the dais and making decisions, but are we doing it for the right reasons? And I’m here. When I ran for this, it was under community service, not to put my name out there, but to do the right thing.
“The other thing that I want to mention and this is hopefully, the, I’m going to say again, on the (former) Guadalupe property. I did vote against it, because it was going to be maintenance and operation. We decided to divert and use it for other things. I still believe that we have to slow down and finish a lot of projects,” Arreola said.
He continued, “We haven’t even had a final result on an audit. We don’t know where we’re at on our audit. That’s the other thing. We want to stay consistent. (Interim City Manager) Mr. (Manuel) Chavez is doing a terrific job. I don’t know why you all are saying that he’s not. He’s moving forward, but I think there are a lot of projects that need to be done, and there’s a lot of little things that our constituents say, but there are big things that we need to do and improve.
“What I want to say to this council and to the administration is that if we’re going to go out there and borrow $9.75 million for a new City Hall, let’s put it back into streets. Let’s put it back into parks. Let’s put it back where the citizens can see progress in our community. I think that’s one of the key things.
“And I’m sorry, I really wanted to focus and let the community know that this council, all of the people on this dais, are really concentrating on the needs of the citizens. Thank you,” Arreola finished.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com.
