By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Concerns ranging from loud noise complaints, north side traffic patterns, neighborhood flooding and baseball field lighting were among the wide range of issues discussed during a town hall meeting at the civic center Wednesday.
District II City Councilman Jim DeReus hosted the town hall meeting. Also attending the event were City Manager John Sheedy, Public Works Director Albert Quintanilla and Communications and Marketing Director Anita Pruneda Mariner.
DeReus welcomed the handful of citizens who attended the event and reminded those present that while he could look into their concerns, Del Rio’s council-city manager form of government prevented him from giving direct orders to most city employees.
Olalla Gonzalez, who identified herself as a resident of the Palomino Park Mobile Home Village off Veterans Boulevard, said some of the residents of the adjacent Aster Villas Apartments are creating chronic loud noise problems in the neighborhood.
“At 4 o’clock in the morning, you have the radios, and not just the radios, but the booming. Boom, boom, boom . . . It’s just not right, and I don’t know what can be done,” Gonzalez said.
DeReus thanked Gonzalez for her comments and said he would look into her concerns.
Jake Carsten voiced concerns about issues with flooding in the Del Rio Hedges area of the city east of Veterans Boulevard and asked if plans for a subdivision just south and east of that area will exacerbate flood problems there.
“A retention pond is really what’s needed, because we’ve had (flooding) problems there forever,” Sheedy commented.
Dee Money thanked DeReus and Sheedy and the other city staffers who attended the event.
“Thank you for all you’re doing. I appreciate you all,” she said.
Money did voice concerns about the arrays of lights around a new baseball field in the city’s new Field of Our Dreams off Kings Way.
Quintanilla said the city is making final adjustments to the lights.
“One of the things we haven’t talked about is what the hours of use (for the fields) are going to be, because clearly, just like the noise issue, we don’t want people playing there too late,” DeReus said.
Sheedy added the city woul build a policy about lights, usage and a fee structure before the fields are released for use by local leagues.
Money then asked about how the city decides where to place new stop signs, saying she was asking specifically about the sign placed at Alta Vista Drive and Fox Drive recently.
Sheedy replied new stop signs are usually placed at intersections along roads where the city has chronic speeding problems.
“We had a lot of people who live there (on Fox Drive) complain about the speeding,” Sheedy said.
Sheedy said the city is also planning a comprehensive traffic study for the city to determine where additional stop signs and traffic signals should be placed.
Money suggested the city look at placing some type of traffic signal or sign on Kings Way, noting it is sometimes difficult for her to turn from her street onto Kings Way.
The conversation then turned to the enormous increase in traffic that is expected to occur when a new elementary school opens on the city’s far north side next year.
DeReus and Sheedy spent some time discussing the history of the project, including concerns about anticipated traffic issues at the intersection of Agarita Drive and Veterans Boulevard/U.S. Highway 90.
“Everyone who lives in Del Rio has seen the line at the schools 45 minutes to an hour before school lets out, and that’s what I’m afraid is going to happen on Agarita,” DeReus said.
He and Sheedy said the city is working with the school district to mitigate those issues as much as possible.
Carole Cooper, who attended the meeting with her husband Bill, said she is concerned about how the community looks, saying she is particularly “bugged” about grass growing in the streets.
“Amistad Boulevard is a nightmare,” she said.
Cooper said years ago, the garden club of which she was a member would give monthly awards to businesses that beautified their properties. She suggested a program like that be reinstated.
“We just want people to have pride in their community,” Cooper said.
“It’s a great idea,” Sheedy agreed.
Sheedy said the city has also hired several new code compliance officers to assist the city in its efforts to deal with problems like those mentioned by Cooper.
He said the city is “making tremendous progress” in this regard and is working to publicize the work being done.
Carsten suggested an app that could be used to report problems, and Mariner said the city is working on just such a project, adding it will be about 90 days before it can be launched.
“It’s going to be transformative,” Sheedy promised.
DeReus thanked everyone who attended the meeting and said he plans another in the near future.
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