PRESIDIO COUNTY — At a meeting on Tuesday night, Presidio City Council voted in support of a resolution that could lead to the creation of a new port authority to govern the international bridge. Presidio County Commissioners Court followed suit on Wednesday morning — the matter will be presented to the county’s state representatives in hopes of designating the port as a “special district” under state law.
The project was spearheaded by Presidio County Judge Joe Portillo, who put together a presentation for city and county officials. Using annual Customs and Border Protection statistics, he stressed that the Presidio International Bridge was the border’s fastest growing port of entry.
The bridge has been in construction limbo for years, but Portillo was recently given the latest in a series of potential green lights — construction is expected to start up again on March 20 and finish by the end of August, with a “drop dead” end date of September 5.
Once that happens, Portillo is bracing for big things to happen. “There’s a lot of interest — once this bridge is completed — for this to be the preferred port of entry for many businesses in the Chihuahua area,” he explained.
The Presidio International Bridge is the only port of entry in Texas that is owned and operated by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). The pair of resolutions proposed by Portillo and approved by council members and commissioners would put that responsibility into the hands of a separate authority.
The other ports along the Texas-Mexico border are administered either by private entities or “special districts” administered by the city or county the bridges are located in — for example, the Gateway to the Americas bridge in Laredo is owned by the City of Laredo.
Creating a new entity to govern the Presidio Port of Entry would also pave the way for that entity to levy a toll on vehicles and pedestrians crossing the bridge. The possibility of tolling the bridge was brought up a decade ago as a way to grow revenue for the city and county — but because the road on the American side of the bridge is technically a state-run highway, it’s illegal to charge money for crossings into Mexico.
The potential new port authority could change all that. That change should be kept in perspective — as Precinct 4 Commissioner David Beebe made very clear at Wednesday’s meeting. “I think it’s important that the public knows this isn’t a power grab,” he said. “This is ceding power. I wouldn’t count on this being a big moneymaker for the city or the county, but this could make the operation of the port a lot better for everybody.”
At Tuesday’s meeting, Councilmember Arian Velázquez-Ornelas also cautioned against moving forward without weighing the risks to the port’s neighbors — in particular, levying a toll that would hurt locals with friends and family on both sides of the border the most. “We’re also having to raise water rates, to raise taxes — all the burdens are being put on the community,” she said.
Judge Portillo stressed that for now, everything was preliminary — he just wanted to bring the resolution to the attention of the county’s state-level representatives so that it could be discussed before the close of the legislative session. Further details — such as who would sit on the board, how to exempt locals from tolls and other pressing questions — had plenty of time to be ironed out. “This just shows that we are united, and we’re taking a stab at it,” he said.