New software to solve hard problems
Throughout the year, issues of old and failing water infrastructure from meters to pumps and routing systems were a recurring theme at City Council meetings.
The year started with City Council members and city staff optimistic about solving the city’s water billing issues as complaints from residents flooded in.
Complaints sent into city offices and posted on social media centered around errors in accounts that had some residents paying bills twice, some not able to determine how much they owed and some not receiving bills at all.
During a February 2025 meeting, Customer Service Clerk Supervisor Carmen Rodriguez described the company that ran the city’s online billing system, USTI, as less than responsive to issues and frustrating. “‘We don’t know.’ That’s not an answer I can give our customers,” Rodriguez said. “And unfortunately, that is a very common answer from them.”
At the same meeting, City Council members and staff agreed that a change was needed and the search for a replacement was narrowed with Continental Utility Solutions Inc. (CUSI) leading the options.
The City Council unanimously approved a five-year contract with CUSI for software for cloud hosting, utility billing, meter reading, work order management, and customer web portal at its March 4 meeting. The contract calls for a first-year implementation fee of $36,750 plus $2,259 monthly.
While the cost of the software was an increase over the city’s former system, it would provide greater reliability, payment options and customer service, city staff said. Councilmember Reagan Stone added that he hoped to work with city staff to find cost savings for postage and office supplies resulting from the new software.
The city launched the new utility billing system in October and initially had problems with the autopay function of the online system. Because of that problem the city put the option on hold, said Interim City Manager Geo Calderon. But since then, the issue has been cleared up, he added.
An announcement on the City of Alpine website states, “The City of Alpine advises utility customers that the ACH (automatic bank draft) process has resumed. For customers enrolled in automatic draft, utility charges for October, November and December will be drafted on Monday, December 15, 2025.”
While there was an issue with the automatic draft option at the software’s launch, the city is hearing praise for the new system and what it has to offer, Calderon said.
Infrastructure initiatives to solve water issues
In April 2025, Alpine City Council approved a pilot project testing new smart water meters, hoping to improve the efficiency and accuracy of meter reading.
Then City Manager Megan Antrim, who has since resigned her position, proposed a pilot test of new meters that she described as having the ability to link to a base station that would allow for the collection of data without city staff having to visit individual properties and would allow residents to access their own usage data via an online portal.
The pilot project would consist of a mixture of 50 residential and commercial meters and cost about $27,795, Antrim said. She also estimated that the cost of updating the meters throughout the city would be about $1 million if the pilot project proved successful.
In July 2025 the pilot project, which had not yet started, was put on hold until November 2025 by the City Council after concerns over the costs of the pilot project and eventual replacement of meters across the city, and whether the meters could be integrated with new utilities billing software scheduled to be installed in October 2025.
“We thought it would be premature when we’re launching new software,” said City Manager Geo Calderon. “So, we should at least wait until November [2025] to kind of give a month after launch.”
New estimates for the pilot project and replacement across the city were set at $40,000 and $1.4 million, respectively.
By the end of October, the new utility billing software had launched, and city staff were working with the software company to clear up glitches, but the future of the smart meter project was uncertain.
According to Calderon, after reevaluating city finances, and with the knowledge that city staff were still working at bringing city audits up to date, the City Council and staff thought it was best to put the project on hold.
October also brought City Council approval of two major water initiatives including the final Wastewater System Asset Management Plan and a plan to solve the water pressure issues at the new Skyway Gardens II development.
The Wastewater System Asset Management Plan, which had been contracted by the firm of Jacob/Martin in 2024, will guide wastewater system management, budgeting and infrastructure planning for the long term, according to the city’s summary of the resolution.
The City Council also green-lighted a project to realign water planes in the city to support Skyway Gardens II, a 44-unit addition to the Skyway Gardens development.
The realignment is scheduled to be completed by the end of summer 2026, just in time for the opening of the development and residents to move in.
Antrim resigns, leaving the city in search of a city manager
Megan Antrim abruptly resigned her position as city manager on June 4, following the election of a former city staffer to City Council and a contentious council meeting.
The June 3 City Council meeting included an open review of Antrim’s performance after newly elected Councilmember Robert Ruckes added it to the agenda and Antrim requested that discussion be public, not held in closed session.
Ruckes ran unopposed for the Ward 3 council seat after resigning his position as a city building official in November 2024 and after publicly clashing with Antrim over changes to city zoning ordinances. Ruckes was sworn in as a council member in May.
Ruckes said he added the discussion item after questioning why Antrim did not have a regular performance review in April, as is typical, and because her contract at the time would automatically renew in September 2025.
According to Mayor Catherine Eaves, it was Antrim’s responsibility to put her review on the council agenda. Concern over Antrim’s performance came from multiple council members and centered around city spending.
Councilmember Lucy Escovedo wondered if too many services were being outsourced rather than performed in house and why Antrim’s salary of $157,000 was so high.
“I think that there should be things that a city manager should be doing [that] we’re constantly paying somebody else to do,” Escovedo said.
Following Antrim’s departure, City Secretary Geo Calderon was appointed as interim city manager and a search for a new city manager was launched.
On October 7, the City Council voted to offer the position to Edgar Garcia, who they said had experience in city government; however, Garcia declined the position and pulled himself out of the search.
Holland Ave
After being walled off since May 2024, the area from 109 to 115 on West Holland Avenue gutted by fire was cleaned up and sold in 2025.
In April 2025, work crews were seen disassembling the temporary wall and accompanying “Alpine will rise from the ashes” mural from the site as then owner Bill Ivey cautioned that the clean up would not be a quick process.
“It’s going to be kind of a slow process in the beginning, to sort through things, and then [we’ll] come in with the heavy equipment to really abate it, to clean it,” Ivey said.
Ivey also said that while the city had put up an offer on the site, he had a better offer in mid-March and pointed to requirements from the city as reasons for the delay in clearing. The city had issued dangerous building violations regarding the site and required Ivey to have an asbestos inspection done.
In June, Ivey officially announced the sale of the site to Blue Wing LLC, a property holdings company.
A Blue Wing owner wrote in a statement that the company had contracted Fabrica for the redevelopment of the property. He told Big Bend Sentinel plans for the site will be announced at a later date, but that the goal was to make the property safe and secure.
Changes at the helm of the police department
Following an October announcement from Police Chief Darrell Loysoya of his retirement at the end of the year, city officials announced the appointment of Alpine Police Lieutenant Kirk Coughman to the position.
Coughman, who will officially take office on January 1, grew up in Alpine, graduated from Alpine High School and has a long history of experience with the department.
Coughman said he grew up knowing that he wanted to serve his community and volunteer with the department while in high school as an Explorer Scout. He later joined the department as a dispatcher and worked his way up. He had hoped to be a department head but did not imagine he would attain the chief position, he said.
Coughman said he hopes to continue the growth in the department that Chief Losoya initiated.