New Historical Commission launches
We entered 2025 with the appointment of new Presidio County Historical Commission (PCHC) members after County Commissioners wanted to shore up the commission with official appointments made by the court. Arian Velázquez-Ornelas now serves as chair, and the body set out to tackle new historical marker requests to the Texas Historical Commission.
The commission unanimously rejected a request from the Alamo Letter Society to erect a bronze plaque at the courthouse recognizing the Alamo. The plaque would include Colonel William Barrett Travis’ “Victory or Death” letter and would also “honor the two leading Tejanos of the Texas Revolution, Jose Antonio Navarro and Juan Seguín.” The society intends to fund plaques for every county willing to install them. The Commissioners Court would have the final say in the matter, but requests on historical issues typically go to the PCHC for its input.
Commissioners noted that the county shouldn’t agree to plaques for everything that happened historically in Texas. “We have so much here,” Velazquez-Ornelas said at the time. “We have to concentrate on the history of the area.”
On August 26, the PCHS hosted a ceremony to celebrate the official unveiling of a new marker on FM 170. The marker commemorates La Junta de Los Rios (“the confluence of the rivers”), where the Rio Conchos and the Rio Grande meet just upstream of Presidio.
Shafter gets a facelift
January brought new plans for the tiny community of Shafter, with renovations to historic buildings and plans for a new cafe. Billionaire John Poindexter, who owns the Cibolo Creek Ranch resort south of Marfa, purchased several Shafter Ghost Town properties, and has made an offer to restore the historic church at the gateway to the town. Pondexter’s goal is to rehab the properties and eventually let visitors explore the history of the area with exhibits on display in the old structures.
Shafter residents—about 25—had mixed feelings about the idea, but most seemed excited about the coming addition of a small restaurant and shop, since they must drive 19 miles to Presidio for the closest supplies. “We’re taking it step by step,” said Cibolo Creek Ranch Manager Tom Davis as he led Big Bend Sentinel on a tour of some of the renovations. “The idea is to first restore [properties] then look at what use they may be the best.”
As of December, many of the buildings have been renovated—at least on the outside with new adobes and plaster, and much of the core area of Shafter has been spruced up with cleared vegetation, rock walls, and antique additions like old farm equipment and 1920s cars.
This fall also brought news that James Bay Minerals—an Australian company with holdings in the United States and Canada—announced that it had “agreed to acquire” the silver mine at Shafter, pending an upcoming stakeholder meeting. The company announced in a press release that it had “firm commitments” from investors to finance the project to the tune of $18 million. With no comments coming in from James Bay Minerals, it’s uncertain what the future will be for an actual mining operation to open again in Shafter.
Hundreds of misdemeanor cases never prosecuted
An examination of court records by Big Bend Sentinel in late January revealed that former County Attorney Rod Ponton declined to prosecute 60 driving while intoxicated (DWI) cases and dismissed nine more as he was leaving his office in the fall of 2024 after losing his reelection bid to Blair Park. The charges—part of 259 misdemeanor cases he declined to prosecute and another 50 he dismissed—were old, can’t be legally prosecuted and needed to be removed from the county’s court system, Ponton told Big Bend Sentinel.
“My assistant and I were trying to make a final, meaningful review of pending cases, some of which extended all the way back to John Fowlkes’ tenure as county attorney, and sometimes even earlier,” Ponton said. (Ponton took over for Fowlkes in 2016.) “It ends up, there were a lot of what you might call bad cases, cases that have not been prosecuted for various reasons, frequently due to lack of evidence or to non-availability of an arresting officer,” he said.
Park, who took office as county attorney on January 1, said the large stack of unresolved cases put a stress on the county clerk’s office, which is tasked with locating bond amounts and defendant addresses for returns. Park said trying to find out what happened on all 309 charges would not be an effective use of her time, particularly if they were as old as Ponton said. “I have so many things on my plate right now,” she said. “I have to focus on rebuilding.”
City of Marfa hires, quickly fires city manager
The Marfa City Council voted to hire Andrea Walter as the new city manager (after Mandy Roane stepped down) in February, she started in March and then was terminated in mid April. Some council members at the time said Walter was difficult to work with and faltered because of a misunderstanding in which she thought she was hired as a “council-manager”—which allows for more power in managing city affairs without interference from the council. It turns out the council considers Marfa a “strong-mayor” form of government in which the council and particularly the mayor play more integral roles in management.
A controversy emerged over “zero-read” water meters that didn’t record any activity, and what was causing more than 200 of these meters also created a dustup—with Councilmember Travis tackling that issue.
The council retitled its job post for a “city administrator,” a role that has not been filled today. The ntal space, which now features an awning, has been relocated to the back, rather than the side, of the building, and a preexisting hallway that connected the rental venue to the Nutrition Center, pool, and other offices has been walled off. New bathrooms feature honeycomb tile, and a farm-style metal serving station is outfitted with string lights and a butcher block counter.
Tourism Director Jennifer Connors said the building updates were long overdue and should help attract more rental clients. She said she’s looking forward to local occasions filling up the calendar as well as out-of-town events like conferences, which will take full advantage of the large structure. “It’s been the way it was since I was in elementary,” Conners said. “So it’s really nice to see it change. It’s more versatile, neutral colors, I feel like more people will want to utilize our space.”
Dust storm winds wreak havoc
A lion of a dust storm hit Marfa in early March, leaving thousands of residents without electricity and leveling a long stretch of adobe wall at The Block, south of the Godbold Mill, in Marfa.
“Dangerous weather and severe storms moving across the southwest have blown over a section of the perimeter adobe wall at Donald Judd’s primary residence, the Block, in Marfa,” the Judd Foundation wrote in a statement.
Dust enveloped the tri-county region, with Marfa and Alpine residents facing grimy gales and clouded skies. Visibility south of Marfa on Highway 67 was extremely low with wind speeds up to 65 mph forming walls of dust blown up from drought-stricken grasslands. Brewster County faced much of the same, including in Paisano Pass on Highway 90 to Marfa.
American Electric Power (AEP)—the utilities company that serves much of the area—reported 3,600 power outages Tuesday afternoon, most in Marfa and south to Presidio. Presidio ISD released students early because of the uncertainty of how long the outages would last, but most communities were only affected for about an hour and a half.
Local governments join groundwater district to boost water protection
A long-considered initiative to amend the enabling legislation of the Presidio County Underground Water Conservation District (PCUWCD) was finally realized. This spring, the Presidio City Council voted in favor of a resolution designed to bring the city under the protection of the groundwater district. The Marfa City Council approved a similar resolution a week later. The measure, brought by Trey Gerfers of the Presidio County Underground Water Conservation District (PCUWCD), passed both chambers of the Legislature in May.
The district then quickly moved ahead with granting permits to Marfa and Presidio.
Gerfers explained that the groundwater in small municipalities in Texas is subject to something called the “Midland exemption,” engineered in the Legislature by Rep. Tom Craddick. As groundwater districts across the state were taking shape, Craddick was among a political contingent that worried about overregulation by these new authorities. He authored a legal loophole for municipalities the size of Midland (around 130,000 residents) and smaller to exempt them from water-use limits.
The exemption had already been jettisoned by virtually every municipality in the Transpecos region because it leaves communities vulnerable to entities seeking to buy up land and export the groundwater. “An exemption is the absence of regulation, but it’s also the absence of protection,” Gerfers said. “It poses too many unnecessary risks because it’s based on the empty promise that nothing is ever going to change. Permits define the concrete volumes of groundwater that a city is entitled to. Permits provide legal protection. It’s just the way things are done nowadays, and I was determined to drag the cities—kicking and screaming—into the 21st century.”
As part of the deal to convince the cities to opt out of the exemption, the city councils of Marfa and Presidio each have the right to appoint a representative to the PCUWCD board. The newly expanded board has been meeting since July.
Valentine man indicted after shooting incident
A Presidio County grand jury indicted Matthew “Matty” Gray, formerly of Valentine, on February 26 for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after police allege he opened fire with a pistol on a woman in the parking lot of Marfa Open in the early morning hours of August 7, 2024.
That night, security footage showed Gray urinating off the porch at the gallery and event space, then sitting down and firing a shot at a white sedan that had just pulled into the parking lot. Gray fired three shots in total and was pulled over by police later that night, who found the pistol in his truck and used the video to identify him.
After arrest, Gray was magistrated by County Judge Joe Portillo and released on a $20,000 bond. Irlanda Vargas, the driver of the car, told Big Bend Sentinel at the time that she didn’t know what Gray’s motive was, and she was alarmed that he had been let go on such a low bond. Gray, a former bartender at the Valentine Bar, has since left the area and did not respond to requests for comments. (This is not the same Matthew Gray as the artist who is working on sculptures west of Valentine.)
Unresolved Brite Ranch lawsuit has a defining moment
A March 11 district court ruling reinstated James “Jim” White III as trustee of the Brite Ranch, following an appeals court ruling in his favor. A September 2023 district court ruling had removed him from running the historic 65,000-acre ranch as trustee of the Jane White Trust and barred him from living on the property after a jury found he breached his fiduciary duties by not effectively managing the monetary distributions of the trust to other beneficiaries—his siblings.
In December 2024, the 8th Court of Appeals in El Paso ruled in favor of Jim, invalidating the jury findings and subsequent rulings and making way for a new trial with plaintiffs Mac and Beau White—seeking another removal of Jim as trustee. The siblings claimed a breach of fiduciary duty by Jim for not managing the ranch assets properly and providing adequate distributions to them.
Also at play in the legal proceedings are the intervenors—Jim’s son Cuatro, and two of Jim’s other children, Clint White and Marti White Wright—who have filed numerous petitions related to the cases and their own lawsuits. Attorneys and the judge also are considering naming numerous relatives as “necessary parties” in the lawsuits—Jim’s daughter Raphael White Woodward and Geoffrey Connor, a 61-year-old attorney in Bastrop whom Mac and Beau both adopted in 2022. Jim and Cuatro’s attorneys are arguing that the adoption was a “fraudulent” attempt to create an heir for Mac and Beau, who had no biological children. Beau died on June 23 before a scheduled new trial in August, but that trial was brought to a halt by motions from Jim and Cuatro’s legal teams. The parties are now working toward a settlement before legal proceedings continue. For more background on the lawsuits, visit bigbendsentinel.com/brite-lawsuit.
Former Marfa School Board member sentenced in fraud case
After pleading guilty, Ernie Villarreal was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison and ordered to pay restitution to Valentine ISD in the amount of $314,497 in a federal court proceeding in Pecos in March.
Villarreal, 43, of Marfa, pled guilty to eight counts of wire fraud and one count of theft concerning programs receiving federal funds in November for defrauding Valentine ISD, where he previously worked as the business manager and tax assessor collector. “The consequences of his actions go beyond the monetary loss—he has disrupted lives, fractured trust, and placed an undue burden on an already struggling community,” Valentine Superintendent Debbie Engle said after the sentencing.
Villarreal used several methods to defraud the small district where he was employed—including using ISD credit cards to make personal purchases totaling over $100,000, issuing unauthorized checks from ISD accounts to himself totaling over $10,000, and issuing unauthorized checks to cover personal expenses owed to a credit card company totaling over $20,000. He also generated fraudulent payments to current and former employees for work that had not occurred and routed the payments to his own personal bank account. The total loss to Valentine ISD was $314,497. Villarreal served on the Marfa ISD Board of Trustees from September 2021 to February 2024, at which point he resigned after a long absence.
Smallest library expands in Marathon
For years, Marathon had been home to the smallest accredited library in Texas. An expansion that opened in May more than quadrupled the library’s square footage, and thus the town had to give up that distinction.
“Our little library has served us and the community well,” said Marathon Public Library Director Dara Cavness. “But it was never designed to see all the action it’s seen in the last few years. We just don’t fit anymore!”
The 3,000-square-foot expansion of the existing 810-square-foot library is part of a $2 million project that also includes renovation of the existing library, creation of a town museum in a historic schoolhouse nearby, landscaping, and new furniture, fixtures, and equipment. The expansion has a large, high-ceilinged space with cork flooring and acoustic tiling, a conference room, two shaded outdoor areas, a second bathroom, an office, and much-needed storage space.
Water meter woes plague Marfa
After a City Council member alleged water meter issues and the departure of former City Manager Andrea Walter were linked, city officials later vowed to address an extensive list of meters that are designated as “zero-read”—meaning that they do not record consumption for a variety of reasons. Councilmember Travis Acreman wrote a letter to the editor in the April 24 Big Bend Sentinel stating Walter was terminated for being a “whistleblower” for bringing to light inaction on a long-known list of zero-read meters.
“I’ve had people from the community come to me in the past, before this came to light, saying that they had suspicions about the bills they were receiving, [they] weren’t tracking, they were irregular, unpredictable, in ways that didn’t make sense,” Acreman said at the time.
Utilities Director Chuck Salgado acknowledged the ongoing problem in an April 24 council meeting but denied bias, stating that the city treats all utility customers the same.
In May, the Sentinel obtained a copy of the zero-read meter list from the city, which shows 260 utility accounts—about 10% of the 2,000-plus residential and commercial utility accounts—with zero-read meters so far in 2025. The list dates back to 2020, with around 200 to 250 accounts listed each year.
The list the Sentinel received was redacted to only show the names of commercial properties since state law mandates that residential users’ utility records, the vast majority on the list, are not public. However, the Sentinel used another source to reveal those names, which will not be published to protect their privacy under law.
Former City Secretary Kelly Perez and Salgado walked through other possible causes for a meter appearing on the list: multiple meters at one site with only one used; broken meters not recording usage; or buried and inaccessible meters.
An answer to the problem is smart meters, which record water usage and transmit it back to the city with no human readers needed. City officials have expressed enthusiasm for the idea in the past, but with a price tag of $800,000 for a total overhaul of all meters, they had not moved forward with any purchases. But it is unclear why at least some smart meters were not explicitly budgeted for this year if the mayor and city staff were aware of the lengthy dead meter list. Then in September, the city included meter purchases as part of its $5 million bond package, which is also focused on road repairs. The City of Alpine recently approved a pilot project for 50 smart meters to evaluate their effectiveness and possible enhanced revenue.
El Cosmico closes, awaits new iteration
El Cosmico—a collection of “nomadic accommodations” including vintage trailers, tents, yurts and a lobby shop on 21 acres in South Marfa established by hotelier Liz Lambert over 15 years ago—officially closed on July 1.
The sunset of the existing El Cosmico, also home to the Trans-Pecos Festival of Music + Love, came at a time when the business is shifting its focus to an undeveloped 61 acres in East Marfa, where it plans to create a larger-scale luxury resort complete with 3D-printed hotel rooms and homes in addition to a restaurant, pool and bathhouse.
“I have a tremendous amount of nostalgia about the extraordinary times we’ve had in this place over the past eighteen years,” Lambert wrote to Big Bend Sentinel. “At the same time, I am enormously excited to begin building the new El Cosmico, and for what’s ahead at the new location.”
In July 2024, El Cosmico broke ground on the new site with the construction of a 3D-printed model home and hotel room. But no major progress has been made on getting city water to the site, although the City of Marfa did finish a feasibility study this summer on how to supply the resort.
Marfans finally show up to City Council
While it’s rare to see a packed house for Marfa City Council meetings, it was different on July 8 following the publication of a story in Big Bend Sentinel online earlier in the day that revealed Councilmembers Eddie Pallarez, Mark Morrison and Raul Lara discussed limiting the city administrator search to men in a public meeting. The meeting that night was packed.
The council listened to criticism from several citizens—the majority of whom were women—about their conduct.
Big Bend Sentinel was not present at the Thursday meeting but obtained the official recording. Councilmember Mark Cash was not present. About eight minutes into the meeting, in which the primary topic of discussion was the hiring of a new city administrator. Mayor Manny Baeza and then Interim City Administrator Kelly Perez left the room to print off missing resumes. No one was sitting in the audience.
After some brief back and forth about the candidates, Pallarez whispers to fellow council members—seemingly forgetting the public meeting was being recorded as is typical—“Guys, I’m looking at males. I’m looking at males,” Pallarez says, laughing and adding, “Shhhh.”
“I didn’t hear nothin,’” Morrison jokes. “I’m just drinking my water here.”
“Because with all these women here,” Lara remarks, later confirming with Big Bend Sentinel that he was referring to the central office staff at City Hall.
“But I ain’t saying you’re wrong,” Morrison said, which was then met with more laughter by Pallarez. “Ain’t disagreeing.”
“Absolutely,” replies Lara.
“Just between us men,” Pallarez says.
“And we have to make them understand how our government works,” Lara says before the mayor re-enters the room and proceedings get underway.
“I could not have been coaxed into these chambers for anything short of something this offensive, this outlandish and this ridiculous, but I will always, always stand up and fight against this sort of blatant and prideful discrimination,” Marfa resident Dana Goolsby told the council.
The lights stayed on for annual festival
In early summer, the Marfa Chamber of Commerce warned that the annual Marfa Lights Festival might have to be canceled if more volunteers weren’t recruited. But the appeal prevailed, and Marfans—and former residents, many who use the festival as a reason to come back to town—celebrated the 38th festival over Labor Day Weekend.
Sentinel News Project takes ownership, makes Sentinel nonprofit
Big Bend Sentinel launched its September 18 edition under new ownership and began operating as a nonprofit.
Roger Black, an art director for news publications around the world, is heading the Sentinel News Project. He purchased the newspaper from previous publishers Max Kabat and Maisie Crow, who will continue to own and operate The Sentinel restaurant in the same building in Marfa.
“The change to a nonprofit gives us great potential for growth,” Black said. “The new organization and its board members will focus on gathering resources, covering the news and culture of the Big Bend.
“We’re starting by engaging with the readers and the whole community to hear what people find valuable in both news—and what they want,” Black said.
Black’s experience as a designer for such publications as Rolling Stone, Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post promises to bring a fresh look to the pages each week. He was an early adopter of the web and led the design of the first MSNBC.com and other news sites.
Black grew up in Midland and has owned a ranch in Brewster County for 25 years, living at what he calls “Camp Cinco.” The structure, composed of five shipping containers, has won architecture awards.
His family recently celebrated a reunion at the Girl Scout Camp, Mitre Peak, which his mother, Eleanor Fox Black, started in 1947.
“One thing won’t change: our commitment to the traditions of a community newspaper that is entering its 100th year,” he said.
Council approves whopping tax hike for street repairs
On September 29, the Marfa City Council approved its budget and tax rate—a 70% increase over last year’s rate that would fund a $5 million tax note to pay for street improvements and new smart water meters.
The water meters were estimated to cost $800,000 in a previous presentation from a vendor, while the street repairs and other water infrastructure improvements would make up the rest of the debt proposed. The vote was 3-1, with Councilmembers Eddie Pallarez, Mark Morrison and Travis Acreman voting for the increase, Councilmember Raul Lara voting against it, Mayor Manny Baeza not voting and Councilmember Mark Cash absent.
Lara indicated the previous week and before the meeting that he would be a “no” vote. “It’s just too much,” he said. “It’s having two projects in one year and asking the taxpayers to pay for it,” he said at the hearing.
Baeza stressed that a combination of factors led him and the council on the path to take on debt: low interest rates, recent decreases from the city’s main revenue generators—utilities—and finally finding a reliable engineering firm to carry out street repairs.
Beebe to square off against Portillo after inadvertent resignation
On October 10, Presidio County Judge Joe Portillo appointed Frank “Buddy” Knight to the Precinct 4 seat on the Commissioners Court, which had been open for two weeks after David Beebe inadvertently resigned. Per the Texas Constitution, county officials who announce their candidacy for another office more than one year and thirty days from the end of their term are subject to the “resign-to-run” law, which states: “Such announcement or such candidacy shall constitute an automatic resignation of the office then held.”
Beebe would have had to announce his candidacy in early December to be clear of the prohibition, and said he didn’t know about it when deciding to announce. However, case law shows that an Aransas County attorney in a similar situation was allowed to follow a “hold over” state law, meaning they could stay in their seat as long as the county judge or commissioners court did not replace them.
Portillo said at the time that he did not want to have the liability of a resigned commissioner voting on items that could be challenged in court, so he appointed Knight. Knight’s appointed term will end December 31, 2026. Knight, who served in the seat from 2018 to 2022 before being defeated by Beebe in the Democratic primary, said emphatically that he is not interested in running for the seat in the March Democratic primary. (Presidio County is a bit of an outlier in Texas politics and is solidly Democratic. Thus, a win in the Democratic primary in March would make a candidate the shoo-in for the November election.)
By the December 9 deadline, both Portillo and Beebe had filled out ballot applications and will face off in the March Democratic primary.
The International merges with Big Bend Sentinel
It was a plan in the works for more than two years, and October 16 was the last edition of The International—sort of. With much of the content mirroring that of the Sentinel’s, it made sense to the previous publishers and the new publisher of the Sentinel to fold Presidio-specific and Spanish-language content into one paper.
Plans are for more Presidio articles and more articles in Spanish—making the Sentinel one of the few dual-language newspapers in the country and the only one in the Big Bend. This move isn’t taken lightly, since The International has a long, rich history. We’ll be writing a more in-depth article on that history in the Sentinel in the coming weeks.
Measure to take on debt for courthouse repairs fails
Only one local ballot choice was served up in the November General Election, which featured 17 up or down nods to Texas constitutional amendments statewide. That ballot item was only for Presidio County voters—Measure A, which would authorize the county to issue certificates of obligations for up to $5 million in debt, mostly for courthouse repairs in Marfa, but also for the county’s annex in Presidio, as well as some new Road and Bridge Department equipment.
Measure A failed with 226 voting for and 593 against. The vote took on less meaning as a majority of the Commissioners Court had indicated they would not utilize the bonds even if they passed.
A petition forced the county to put the measure on the ballot after some 300 residents—mainly from Presidio—objected to the expenditures without getting more investment in the South County area.
Golf course gets new lease on life
After a contentious budget process that nixed Presidio County funding for the Marfa Golf Course, behind-the-scenes work to save the course ended up in November with the county striking a six-month temporary management contract with a coalition hoping to keep the course alive.
Over the summer, the golf course and adjacent Vizcaino Park became a flashpoint for disagreements about how to best divide county resources between its two largest communities, Presidio and Marfa. Golf course funding has long been a sore spot for county leaders from Presidio, which has no county-funded parks—but the golf course in Marfa, which bears the designation as being the highest elevation course in the state, is one of few recreational opportunities in town and has become a source of pride for the local community, many of whom see it as one of the last vestiges of Marfa before its art world gentrification.
For at least the next six months, the course will be managed by an LLC formed by the Presidio County Golf Course Committee, a group of locals who banded together to try to save the course from defunding, and a booster group called High Desert Golf. Precinct 1 Commissioner Deirdre Hisler said that a short-term arrangement was in everyone’s best interest. “This gives them the opportunity to really look at what operations for the golf course are like and to help the county understand what we need in a longer-term lease,” she explained.
Joey Benton, one of the folks involved in the new management company, felt optimistic about the future of “the highest in Texas” golf course. “We’re very excited to see where it goes,” he said.
County gets new veterans officer
Presidio County veterans celebrated on October 22 when Veterans County Service Officer (VCSO) Denise Estrada was unanimously selected by the Commissioners Court—but it took a while for her to get started after a conflict over office space.
The county suffered a particularly bruising budget season over the summer that soured the tone of local politics and pushed everyone to be extra cautious about spending and commitments. At a particularly-packed August meeting, the court discussed axing both the position of emergency management coordinator and the VCSO, instead merging responsibilities for those positions under the umbrella of the county judge’s office.
Veterans from Presidio and Marfa spoke out, and the county instead opted to hire Denise Estrada, a triple Bronze Star combat veteran, to take over the position. Estrada’s duties will include meeting with veterans and connecting them to services through the nationwide Veterans Affairs Office, saving locals the trip to the next-nearest office in Fort Stockton.
Presidio man arrested on gun smuggling charges
A popular Presidio resident—Tiburcio “Butch” Acosta—was arrested on November 13 on charges of smuggling guns to La Linea cartel in Mexico.
Prosecutors allege cell phone records they obtained prove he was involved directly in the smuggling of weapons and ammunition to Ojinaga. Acosta’s attorney has countered that he was merely keeping weapons on his property for others who could not bring them legally into Mexico.