Celebrating 126 Years of Serving the communities of Devine, Natalia, Lytle, Bigfoot, and Moore in Medina, Frio, and Atascosa Counties
Category: City & County Politics
Information you need to know about the City of Devine, Medina County Commissioner’s Court, City of Natalia, City of Lytle, and our local Emergency Service Districts.
By Anton Riecher A controversial mobile home park proposed in Lytle faces potential legal obstruction following a city council executive session May 30 to review an opinion by City Attorney Molly Solis that a 27-year-old zoning ordinance favoring the park may not be technically enforceable. Other than to read the agenda item prior to the closed session, neither Mayor Ruben Gonzalez nor the five council members present made any public comment on the matter. The agenda stated as follows: “Consider and Possible Action Concerning Resolution Number #24-21, a Resolution of the City of Lytle, Texas, Recognizing Possible Procedural Defects in the Adoption of Ordinance No. 217 Amending Zoning of Real Property from R-1 Single Family Dwelling District Zoning to B-2 Secondary Business District Zoning and Resolving that as a Result of Concerns of its…
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…
By Anton Riecher City of Lytle finance officials expect an estimated $1.86 million in property tax revenue based on more than $279.8 million in preliminary taxable value anticipated to support the 2024-2025 city budget, City Administrator Zachary Meadows told the city council during a May 20 special session. Meadows told the council that the $279.8 million is a conservative “low-end estimate” based on advance figures received from the Atascosa…
By Anton Riecher Medina County commissioners have approved an agreement with Microsoft under the Texas Local Government Code to provide fire inspection services at the company’ new 106,012-square-foot data center near Castroville. The action was taken May 13 during the commissioners regular session. “This is a culmination of something started several years ago when Judge (Chris) Schuchart was still here,” County Judge Keith Lutz explained. Starting with the new Microsoft campus the objective was to position the county government to conduct commercial code inspection countywide. The three-year agreement with Microsoft will bring the county $100,000 a year to perform fire inspection services at the new $230 million data center on FM 1957. Under chapter 381 of the Texas Local Government Code counties are allowed to provide incentives encouraging developers to build in their jurisdictions. In other development news, a public hearing on levying assessments on property located within the Haby Farms Public Improvement Distrtict improvement area number one drew no comment. Commissioners passed an order accepting and approving a service and…
Congressman Gonzales is working in Congress to deliver a $4.5 million community project to build a new emergency operations and training facility in Devine. This building would serve as an emergency operations center, emergency services training facility, warming center, voting center, and provide educational services. This project would improve emergency services, bolster economic development, as well as provide educational and occupational opportunities. “This project will help everyone in the region from age 1 to 100 and would not have been possible without the diligent efforts of Congressman Gonzales and his staff. Two years of planning and hard work to…
The City of Lytle will be hosting a townhall style meeting soon to ask citizens their opinion on the establishment of a Drainage or Stormwater Utility, and if taxes or a fee should be used as the funding source. It is a viable strategy for local governments to respond to the challenge of generating reliable revenue to support stormwater management activities. Setting up a drainage utility allows a community to establish a user fee based on the demands property owners place on the drainage system. Fees The council voted to go to the public to ask their opinion on how to proceed at their April 22 council meeting.
By Anton Riecher By a vote of 4 to1 the Devine City Council approved drafting a contract to lease Hangar 10 at the city-owned airport to a construction contractor offering to supplement a modest monthly rent of $500 with an estimated $120,000 in capital improvements within two years. “My purpose is to beautify the facility and make it look like we know what we’re doing because we are going to try to sell services to the aviation community,” Devine resident Dallas Collins told the council at its April 16th regular session. City Administrator David Jordan agreed to work with City Attorney Thomas Cate to draft a five-year lease agreement for presentation to the council for final approval. District 5 Council Member Debbie Randall was alone in opposing…
By Anton Riecher A lack of director-level experience in applicants to head the revamped EMS/ambulance program proposed for Medina County Emergency Services District No. 4 led to an unscheduled executive session during the district board’s April 2 meeting, but the board decided to proceed with the committee interview process as planned. As of press time April 23 several applicants of the nine that applied for EMS Director have been interviewed by the 3 member committee already. And two doctors have been interviewed for the Medical Director position. Another meeting was conducted by the ESD4 last week. Minutes are not available yet. The following information if from the April 2, 2024 meeting: MCESD No. 4 treasurer Juan Zamora, participating in the meeting via internet connection on April 2, brought his concerns about attracting experienced leadership before the board. “We’re starting…
MVISD enrollment was at 3,870 just a little over 10 years ago, and is expected to explode to more than 18,000 within the next 10 years.
By Anton Riecher In the Devine-Natalia-Lytle region, Medina County voters will decide on more than $54.4 million in bond issue proposals for their respective school districts this May. While certainly significant, that burden pales by comparison to what Medina Valley ISD alone is asking on its May ballot — $290 million. MVISD board member Jason Bonney attributes the need to phenomenal expansion in enrollment experienced by the district. “For the past few years we’ve had a crazy amount of enrollment and growth,” Bonney said. “We rank as the fifth fastest growing school district in Texas.” The $290 million request comes only about a year after voters approved a $376 million bond issue for construction of a second high school and other district improvements, district superintendent Scott Caloss said in a video posted to the district’s website. “In last year’s bonds we addressed the overcapacity at our high school,” Caloss said. “In this bond, we are having to address the capacities of our middle schools and elementaries.” If approved, the new bond issue would cover the addition of a middle school and two elementary campuses, among other district improvements. Medina Valley ISD covers 296 square miles of Medina and Bexar counties including the communities of Castroville, La Coste, Rio Medina, Dunlay and Mico. The district boasts more than 8,700 students distributed across eight campuses – five elementary schools, two middle schools, and one high school. Despite the trumpeting of development along the Austin-San Antonio corridor, a generous amount of San Antonio’s metropolitan growth is moving west into Medina County. The county subdivision map displays an explosion of housing projects west of Loop 1604 bearing names such as Potranco West, Alsatian Oaks, Megan’s Landing and Hunter Ranch. That expansion shows no sign of letting up. Only last March plans for a new $700 million subdivision between Castroville and San Antonio was announced. Add to this Microsoft’s new $1 billion data center just outside of Castroville and the result is a school district swamped by incoming families. “Because the growth in the San Antonio-Bexar County area is so overwhelming the current middle schools and high school just cannot facilitate the number of students projected,” Bonney said. “We are projected to be at our maximum in our current middle schools and elementary schools by next year.” As of 2023 district enrollment stood at 8,727 students, of which slightly more than 5,225 attend elementary schools. Even with a new elementary opening this fall, that attendance is expected to be over the district’s capacity by 2025-26. By 2028-29, elementary attendance is projected to reach 7,000 students. The district’s middle schools, with slightly over 2,000 students in attendance, are also expected to be overcapacity by 2025-26. Middle school attendance is expected to hit 3,000 students by 2028-29.
Within a decade, total district enrollment is projected to swell by at least 1,000 new students, projections posted on the district’s website state. While Texans continue to struggle with high property taxes, a key point in winning support for the MVISD bond issue is that no tax rate increase is tied to the latest bond proposal. Each new home sold increases the appraised value of the property it stands on, Bonney said. The projection on population growth in the next few years stands at between 10 and 12 percent. That represents 14,000 new homes either…
By Anton Riecher Medina County Judge Keith Lutz cast the tie-breaking vote Monday on whether the county would grant the Texas Historical Commission a “preservation easement” as a condition of receiving a courthouse preservation grant. “In my opinion we are putting another person at the table with us when it is time to make decisions about the courthouse,” Lutz said. In March Medina County commissioners unanimously approved the intermediate step in a three-phase program to qualify for a potential $10 million in state funding to renovate the county courthouse in Hondo. That application was submitted to the THC April 5. As part of that application the THC is asking the commissioners to grant…