By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Val Verde County voters on Saturday will seat two of seven candidates seeking election to the Val Verde County Hospital District’s elected board of directors.
There are two seats up for election on the hospital district’s elected board, the Precinct 3 seat and the Precinct 4 seat.
Candidates for the hospital district are elected by plurality, so there will be no runoff in either of the elections for the two seats. The candidates with the most number of votes will be declared the winners.
Precinct 3 candidates
The following candidates have filed for a place on the ballot for the Precinct 3 seat: Seferino Gomez III, Linda Arranaga Freitas and Ryan Horning.
Gomez is the executive director of Southwest Assisted Living, the only assisted living facility in Del Rio.
Arranaga Freitas has been a licensed vocational nurse for 24 years. She currently works for Centene Superior Medicaid, but spent the last three years working as the staff development coordinator for Val Verde Regional Medical Center.
Horning is in federal law enforcement in the area.
Precinct 4 candidates
The following candidates have filed for a place on the ballot for the Precinct 4 seat: Diego Taylor, Javier Calderon, Ruben Martinez and David Goodson.
Taylor is a career health care administrator, who served as the administrator of Del Rio’s Rio Bravo Cancer and Blood Clinic. Since then, he has also worked in humanitarian health care with Customs and Border Protection and currently is a health care consultant for small and mid-sized health care clinics.
Calderon has been a real estate agent since 2009. He currently works with Legacy Realty Group in Del Rio.
Martinez has been a registered nurse for 20 years. He served in the U.S. Army for four years and has worked as emergency room director at Val Verde Regional Medical Center, as well as being a nurse educator at the junior college here. During the COVID epidemic, he joined other medical professionals from across the country to serve at the White Plains Hospital in White Plains, New York. He currently works at the Ft. Duncan Medical Center in Eagle Pass, but lives in Del Rio.
Goodson served as a paramedic working at Val Verde Regional Medical Center for more than a decade and also worked for the Del Rio Fire Department. He currently is semi-retired and works locally in property management.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
