Local residents frustrated with City Hall responses

Editor,

I understand the frustration felt by Ms. Cynthia Gonzales in her letter to the editor four weeks ago about the left lane turn at the corner of Wonder World Drive and Craddock.

I have been at odds with the city for years, and it seems like any ideas we may propose to the city will only end up in the trash can. It seems like they are only interested in making life as miserable as they can for the citizens of San Marcos. 

Take for instance, the fence along the river. When they first started, I went out there to talk to them and asked them why they were cutting down all the beautiful trees and putting up a fence to keep us out. They promised me it was only temporary while the “new native” trees they were planting took root. I told them this was our river and we used the banks to fish from. They told me the fence would only be up for three years and then we would again have access to the river. Well, that was like six or seven years ago, and even more river land has been fenced. And the city manager and council people who started that? Well most of them are long gone to mess up other cities.

The big HEB entrance from the front, the synchronization of our traffic lights, the continuous flow traffic at IH35 and Highway 80 and Aquarena Springs Dr., the turnarounds on Cheatham (one even caused two deaths), the Rio Vista Terrace project, have all been big flops. Things are actually worse than they were before.

Now they are working in my neighborhood – Victory Gardens. After delaying our project over a year, I kept calling city hall every few months. Finally they told me to not talk to the city manager because he was new and didn’t know much about the projects going on. What? Six months on the job and he didn’t know what was going on?

They finally started last August and it has been a nightmare. They started cutting down trees where a new sidewalk will be installed. Camacho Street has been dug up so many times one wonders if they know what they are doing. They started piling up mounds and mounds of dirt on Railroad Street until I finally complained to Ray Garcia to ask where all the dirt was coming from. He assured me it was all from our project. Two Saturdays they even brought in 18 wheelers to remove the mounds of dirt which made our streets pretty messy, not to mention our driveways when it’s wet. Last week some dude from city hall told me to stop calling the city manager’s office because he was in charge of the contractors doing the work, and that much of the dirt was coming from a 20-foot deep ditch they were digging. I know Texans exaggerate a lot but to lie to me is one thing I don’t like. Maybe he thought he was excavating a subway in New York City. We have potholes on every street. They are using the same dump trucks from our project to work in the Dunbar neighborhood. They have so many streets blocked off (as if the train was not enough) that driving through San Marcos is like driving through a maze.

Yes, Cynthia, city hall is run by a bunch of idiots, and we have to put up with it, like it or not.

Sincerely,

Ezekiel Enriquez Sr.