In The News
THE MONITOR: Starr County sets sights on economic boost from infrastructureTXDOT, developers aiming for more roads; DPS says expect more troopers
RIO GRANDE CITY, Texas,
September 6, 2015
Posted: Sunday, September 6, 2015 5:00 pm Posted on Sep 6, 2015
RIO GRANDE CITY — A decade ago Starr County economic development leaders asked developers for the chance at building a movie theater.
“I left the meeting, went back to Dallas and said to myself, ‘They are insane. A theater will not go into this size of community, it just won’t happen,’” said Troy Battham, owner of St. Ives Inc., a Dallas-based retail development company.
But local leaders kept pushing and asking Battham, one of dozens who spoke during an economic development forum Thursday at the South Texas College Starr County campus, what they could do to make it happen, he said.
“We soon realized that this dream was not going to go away,” he said. About a year later, a representative of a theater chain visited the county and saw an opportunity — especially for school students that were regularly bused more than 30 miles away to Mission for field trips.
STARR MOVIES In May 2008, the Starplex opened to bus loads of children from local schools. At the same time, Battham’s company was developing the commercial shopping plaza where the Wal-Mart now sits a few miles before Rio Grande City’sstill sleepy downtown district.
That behind the scenes process is just one example of how economic development projects take years before they may come to fruition, officials said.
Now that much of the south side of U.S. Highway 83 has been developed in that stretch and there are plans to continue on the north side, drainage issues remain. During a heavy downpour, the streets tend to flash flood as water rushes to the lowest point of the somewhat hilly town with twisty roads.
“It came to a point where we had interest from tenants but we didn’t have available infrastructure,” Battham said.
Major road construction is also on the table, particularly for a realignment of Texas Highway 755 — one of the only north to south direct routes that connects much of the rural county to the east-west highway corridor.
Future plans for a new expressway bypass would cut out the historic downtown of Rio Grande City, Escobares and Roma entirely. The goal would be to expedite commercial traffic between the Rio Grande City-Camargo International Bridge and Laredo.
“People don’t even drive through Highway 83 to Laredo anymore, there’s too much congestion,” said Sam Vale, owner of the international bridge and Starr County Industrial Foundation chair. “TXDOT (Texas Department of Transportation) said you probably need a road here but you’ve got no funding for it.”
There’s now about $13 million earmarked for some improvements along Texas Highway 755. To construct the new loop would cost upwards of $159 million, according to a master plan.
It seemed there was also a point of contention on how the new traffic loop was being sold to the community — whether it was for economic development or a relief route for residents hoping to escape flooding.
“We welcome every business but we have at least five accidents a day in that area from the first light (near Wal-Mart),” said Eloy Garza, Starr County commissioner. “We are going to try to work with them but it’s not going to alleviate what they are telling them it will — they are going to build out there (central Starr County) and have legs come down here.” Overall, securing funding for infrastructure projects at bridges along the Texas-Mexico border is tough, officials said.
“It’s easy to work out a bill but it’s hard to figure out how you pay for it,” said U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo. “Now what we need to do is find more funding for our bridges over here.”
Cuellar introduced a bill that intends to reinstate the coordinated border infrastructure reserve fund that was used for local port of entry projects across the U.S.-Mexico border.
ECONOMIC BOOM? There was an influx of National Guard troops along the border last year, but now it seems they are set to be replaced by more Texas Department of Public Safety troopers.
Green and white U.S. Border Patrol cars are often seen nearby dark DPS patrol cars, both tucked away in the brush in Starr County.
There are about 3,000 Border Patrol agents in the Valley and 450 agents are stationed in Starr County since it’s the busiest sector, officials said. As a result, Rio Grande City has seen a windfall in hotel occupancy tax collection from its law enforcement visitors.
The city’s hotels and motels saw a 20-percent increase in revenues from the first quarter of 2013 compared to the same time in 2014. Best Western and Holiday Inn pulled in revenues of about $431,000 in the first quarter of 2013 — in 2014, they saw $536,000.
While there’s a transition away from the National Guard troops toward more DPS troopers it’s still going to be about a year and a half of training before they are all deployed. But the strategy has shifted.
“We have DPS troopers out there riding side-by-side with Border Patrol,” said Raul Ortiz, deputy chief patrol agent for Border Patrol’s Valley sector.
Ortiz criticized stories covered by the national media about warzones. “We reduced assaults and cut down on deaths out in the ranch lands but nobody is writing that story,” he said.
On the other hand, cars are often seen sitting on the side of the road after being pulled over by DPS for traffic violations. It’s also a common occurrence to see suspects lined during a traffic stop while Border Patrol detains people. But officials stressed that they want to be a positive impact on the local community.
Others said they’d prefer to see more emphasis on curbing human trafficking and drugs — not just cracking down on wild drivers.
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