By Anton Riecher A proposal to close Oak Hill Drive near Wal-Mart to overnight truck traffic is under consideration by the Devine City Council in view of ongoing street damage and concerns about traffic safety. Council newcomer Jeff Miller, representing district three, said that trying to exit the Wal-Mart parking lot “makes for a very tricky left hand turn when you have those trucks jockeying over there,” referring to 18-wheelers traffic. The heavy vehicles are also blamed for extensive…
All three incumbents have re- filed for office as well as two challengers Jeff Miller and Ray Gonzales. The City of Devine General Election will be held on Saturday, May 4, 2024 at City Hall. Filing began in January as usual and the deadline to file was Friday, February 16, 2024. The deadline to file a declaration of write-in candidacy is 5 p.m. on the 74th day before election day which is February 20, 2024 (press day). District 4 – Josh Ritchey (i) is the only candidate for District 4. District 3 race will be between the incumbent Stacy Pyron and Jeff Miller. District 1 race will be between the incumbent Rufino Vega and Ray Gonzales.
By Anton Riecher The Devine City Council voted to cast its 81 votes for former county commissioners Jerry Beck to represent the city as a member of the Medina County Appraisal District board of directors. The action made official the council’s previously announced decision to back Beck. Add Little League to city parks The council discussed at length a proposal by Cook for the city to take charge of mowing the city’s Little League Park in the off season as part of the city’s renewed contract with local Little League. “I personally would like the Little League Park to be part of our parks and rec system because we do own it,” Cook said. However, Ritchey…
By Anton Riecher SG Golf Management co-owner Scott Grego was a no-show at a Devine City Council special meeting Oct. 24 held to resolve an ongoing controversy about $37,000 owned for the purchase of lawn chemicals during SG’s administration of the city golf course. After lengthy discussion the council took no…
By Anton Riecher Nearly eight weeks of wrangling came to a close Sept. 26 when the Devine City Council voted 4-1 to approve a “no-new-revenue” tax rate for of $.5553 per $100 valuation to support a 2023-2024 city budget of $7,933,402.
By Anton Riecher By a 3-2 vote, the Devine City Council rejected a motion to release the management group previously in charge of the city golf course from responsibility for an outstanding balance of $36,000 due for lawn chemicals.
By Kathleen Calame Publisher, The Devine News The pump on the Edwards Water Well #1 went down last Friday, August 25, 2023 leaving only one well to service the entire City of Devine, prompting an emergency meeting. At one point in time the City of Devine had five wells.
By Anton Riecher A recent report from the Texas Department of Transportation’s Aviaition Division on the Devine Airport contained no “silver bullet” to quickly resolve the many problems plaguing the facility, airport board president Hap Squires told the city council Aug. 15.
Brian Navarro, golf course superintendent with the Devine Golf Group, revealed the existence of the tie-in during a status report on the golf course during an Aug. 19 session of the Devine City Council.
By Anton Riecher Mayor Butch Cook requested an investigation by the Medina County Sheriff’s Department of water drawn for private use from the city-owned Devine golf course water system by means of a recently discovered water line tie-in. “I think this needs to be turned over to the sheriff and have an outside investigation,” Cook said. “Whatever the sheriff determines is how we will proceed.”
Wyatt and Carter Noll, starting 1st and 3rd grade, are all smiles on the first day of school at Natalia ISD. More back to school pics on page 14.
By Kathleen Calalme Publisher In an interesting turn of events, Devine City Council decided to temporarily “terminate and stop advertising” in their search for a City Administrator until further notice, or September 18th, on a Debbie Randall/ Flipper Vega motion. The motion passeda 4 (Randall, Vega, Hernandez, and Pyron) to 1, with Josh Ritchey voting against stopping the progress. “I would like to terminate advertising for the city administration position until further notice or until September,” said Debbie Randall, District 5 Councilwoman. “Not until September…?” questioned Interim City Admin. Dora Rodriguez. “I think you need a time, September 15 or so,” suggested Mayor Butch Cook. “Okay, September 18”, Randall replied. After executive session at 8:11 pm the council reconvened and the mayor announced no action was taken during the executive session item, “Personnel matters- discuss and consider City Administrator issues.” Randall immediately made the motion to terminate advertising for a new city administrator. “The motion is to discontinue advertising for a city admin until Sept 18”, said Cook. “Any discussion? Already done?” Without any further discussion on why, Flipper seconded Randall’s motion and the motion carried with 4 ayes and 1 nay. Council and mayor responses After the meeting, The News offered each council person and the mayor a chance to express their opinion on this new turn of events in order to help the public understand why they are holding back on their search for a City Administrator. They were given the opportunity to elaborate on their “personal reasoning or opinion” for or against this motion to terminate the search, until Sept 18, about 48 days. Debbie Randall, District 5 response: “I’m sorry I can’t be more helpful, but my motion was based off of what was discussed in executive session, something I cannot discuss in public without breaking the trust of council”. Josh Ritchey, District 4 response: “Officially, I can’t share what happened in the closed session. In my opinion, it is extremely irresponsible to cease the search for a city administrator with our current lack of staffing and high level of debt. This reminds me of when Mayor Thompson simply stopped releasing resumes to council. While Mayor Cook is releasing resumes, the council has chosen not to interview until sometime in September, if I recall correctly.” Stacy Pyron, District 3 response: “While I can’t comment on discussions in executive session, I will say that I believe this was the best decision at this time. This is also temporary, and the position will be advertised again in September.” Flipper Vega, District 1- no response as of press time. Michael Hernandez, District 2- “All I can say is the only reason we put the thing on hold for hiring a city manager is because of budget. Interviewing 2-3 candidates in one day will take up so much time during budget session. The last 4 people we interviewed took almost 1 1/2 hours each and that was just 2 interviews per council session.” Butch Cook, Mayor- “It is my personal opinion that we should continuously and aggressively pursue hiring a competent and qualified City Administrator and it should be our top priority. In our style of government, the City Administrator is the most important person of all – more so than the Mayor or any individual Council member and until we accomplish this goal we will just be treading water.” Next on agenda was the budget workshop, something the council will continue to meet often to decide on priorities, the budget and tax rate. New Council and Mayor suggesting changes to several procedures The new City of Devine Council and Mayor are voicing some concerns over old procedures and suggesting new ones. Some would require changing of the ordinances, others not. Mayor Butch Cook just took office three months ago in May 2023 as well as council members Stacy Pyron and Michael Hernandez. Josh Ritchey was elected to the council last year. Flipper Vega has served several terms as well as Debbie Randall.
