58 service calls

The biggest activity this week was found at the gas stations. People poured in to get gas and then stations ran dry, that situation has repeated itself over and over again. One guy actually told me he had to drive into San Antonio to find gas so he could “top off” his tank, I’m not sure that was very productive. We haven’t had any issue with keeping fuel in our police vehicles, a couple times the officers had to wait in line but that’s not a big deal. Maybe this whole situation will let everybody refocus on fuel usage, we really just take an unlimited fuel supply for granted until something like this happens.
Police wise we had 58 calls for service and issued 36 traffic citations this past week, nothing major going on here. I feel bad because we are here in what is “paradise” compared to what was going on only a few hours away in Houston. Our very own Reserve Sgt. Mark Montgomery had been deployed down there as a Medical Incident Support Team Leader (Emergency Medical Task Force 8-1), he has been in Corpus, Pasadena and when I last talked to him they were evacuating a hospital in Beaumont. He said he has been living on MREs and bottled water and when he called me he was in search of a hot meal for his team of about 60 people. Please continue to pray for and do what you can to support what will now become a huge rebuilding effort.
Now on to our other activity this past week, again there was nothing too exciting. Property crimes included the attempted burglary of a vehicle at the park and ride on IH-35 and the big theft this week was an iron bench valued at $100 taken from a residence on Martin St. We did arrest one fellow for public intoxication but he was cited and released to his wife. We assisted SAPD with serving a search warrant on Star Cross Trail, some stolen property was recovered. We had an incident where a Lytle ISD cross country runner was struck by a motorcycle, the motorcyclist didn’t remain on the scene. The incident happened near the Methodist Church at Benton and Mesquite St. around 7 AM on Wednesday, August 30. We would like to find the motorcyclist.
The VFW Freedom Walk that was scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 9 has been cancelled; they will be walking during the homecoming parade that will take place on Saturday, Sept. 16.
It might just be time for our city to take advantage of all this Confederate monument removal stuff. I bet we could pick up a statue of Robert E. Lee pretty cheap, modify it, and then put it in front of city hall. We could replace the sword with an iPhone and tell everyone it is Mayor Mark Bowen. It wouldn’t surprise me if before long the government will start selling civil war battlefields, that’s another opportunity for us. Now we are a small city so we couldn’t afford Gettysburg and would need a river for Vicksburg but maybe we could buy a smaller more obscure battlefield. I could get with public works and we could take the bobcat, backhoe, dump truck and some trailers and head east. We could reassemble the battlefield in Lytle with convenient parking and dining options and voilà (I had to do some research to make sure I got that word right, I hope) instant tourist attraction. The possibilities are endless we just have to “think outside the box.” This is just another example of how I always have the best interest of the city on my mind. I don’t charge extra for my ideas, it’s a bonus the taxpayers get when they have a police chief like me.