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.

Zoning amendment triggers continued friction over Lytle mobile home park

By Anton Riecher
By a vote of 4-1 the Lytle City Council approved an amendment to local zoning ordinances March 6 establishing a separate designation for mobile home parks previously classified as “secondary businesses” under municipal regulations.
Molly Solis, serving as city attorney during a special session of the council, stressed that the change would not affect the Harris MH Park project underway north of the Interstate 35 access road which is effectively grandfathered under state law.
“You can’t change the game in the middle of the game,” Solis said.
District 5 Alderman Charles Cate was alone is voting against the amendment.
“I do not believe we have provided proper notice to everybody involved in…

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Application for courthouse renovation grant moves forward in Hondo

By Anton Riecher
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.
“We are getting ready to submit our plan to the Texas Historical Commission,” County Judge Keith Lutz told the commissioners during their regular meeting Monday.
Gabriela Fierro with McKinstry Company, LLC, experts on maintaining government buildings, presented details on the timetable to meet the May 13 deadline to apply for the Texas Historic Courthouse Preservation Program.
“We had a really successful meeting last week in Austin at the THC,” Fierro said. “This was the time for us to go through the first stage of draft plans with…

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Natalia discusses terms for new EMS station

By Victoria Arredondo
Staff Writer

On March 18, the Natalia City Council held their regular meeting. The council passed a motion to accept the interlocal agreement between the City of Natalia and Medina County Emergency Services District No. 4 regarding construction and operation of a 24-hour EMS station.
“I think this is going to be something that’s very much needed,” council member Ruby Vera said. “Some of you may or may not have been on council back when EMS and ESD was established, one of the things we insisted on — but didn’t have a place to put the ambulance — was to have an ambulance here in Natalia on a 24-hour basis, and this is going to…

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Two contested races for Devine Council

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.

Local EMS board approves financing for two ambulance units,big changes coming in October

By Anton Riecher and Kayleen Holder
The Medina County Emergency Services District No. 4 Board of Trustees voted unanimously Feb. 6th to finance the purchase of two additional ambulances through Southlake, TX-based Government Capital Corp., a public sector financial services firm with a goal of the local entity running its own ambulance service for the Devine and Natalia area (like the ESD did many years ago). The current contract with the for-profit…

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Natalia Council discusses concerns of hazardous material being burned, votes for flat fee to rent ballpark

By: Victoria Arredondo
Staff Writer

A Natalia City Council member raised concerns of hazardous material being burned in town.
“The last few months, there’s some major burning in the city. I got some calls on it saying that a few people are burning copper wire and all kinds of stuff in a pit in town,” council member Darin Frazier said at the council meeting Jan. 22. “They were written up apparently multiple times — I got like 15…

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