Community center is hot topic
Fort Davis
Riding championship rodeo for Sul Ross State University long ago might have prepared Jeff Davis County Judge Curtis Evans to hold on tight and endure the bucks that have been part of the county’s politics of late. In a solidly Republican county, infighting has been par for the course in the past few years over everything from EMS services to construction of a new community center.
With no Democratic primary candidate, the winner of the race will go on to likely win the general election in November.
Evans’ opponent in the March 3 primary for county judge—Lane “Buster” Mills—said the bickering and accusations hurled back and forth between officials and the public are a key reason why he’s running. “We’re just not unified,” he said. “The local government offices don’t function well together, and I can make them as a group to move forward with our community.”
Evans said he has his own criticism of how some county offices work, but he’s keeping it under his hat because he believes that focusing on success in his initiatives will put everyone on the same page. “There’s three major things that hold our communities together that make them sustainable, and that is healthcare, education and housing,” he said. “And we have the opportunity now to get those three things in tip-top shape going forward.”
Evans grew up in Marfa and graduated from high school there before heading off to college, ultimately ending up at Sul Ross. “I’ve been in the ranching business since I was 15 years old, when my mom passed away,” he said. “I was partners with my dad.” Evans now runs a construction company.
Evans said he first desired to be a county commissioner to “preserve the heritage” of the county, and it kept him in that post for more than 19 years before he was appointed county judge in 2019 with a vacancy. He then defeated a primary challenger, then Fort Davis ISD Superintendent Graydon Hicks, in 2022.
Mills also has deep roots in the area, and his great-grandfather was Rev. William Benjamin Bloys, who started the annual Bloys Campmeeting, a religious gathering held each year in the county. Mills served on the Upper Rio Grande Workforce Solutions Board for 16 years, and eventually served on the Fort Davis ISD School Board for 14 years. He now works as a contractor for construction.
Both men are adamant about running a clean campaign, despite what other conversations might be going on in the community. Mills was quick to point out a false rumor: that he would close the new Jeff Davis County Community Center, which was completed this year. “Let me dispel those rumors, and that’s all they are,” Mills said. “And actually, I have never said anything to anybody about anything like that. The community center is already there. It’s functioning, but it’s not functioning very efficiently.”
Mills said what he intends is to “streamline” the center’s $136,000 annual budget. “I’m going to get the community center in a position where it can function at a minimal cost instead of a maximum cost.” One area to look at would be the need for a center employee, currently budgeted at $26,000, he said.
Mills said the expectations of revenue to be generated by the center were too high, since the center has only had one event so far, bringing in $250.
Evans said the initial budget is higher this year because certain expenses are needed to finish off the interior, and he expects revenue to pick up with ongoing and new events. He stressed that it’s not just a community center, but also is intended to serve as an emergency shelter. “The main reason for that community center is a shelter because in the freeze of 2020, we had to sleep and house people between fire trucks on cots,” he said. “There wasn’t any power in our town. There was no water. There was no shelter. I never want to see that again, no matter if I’m the judge or not. I want there to be a place for people to go and they can have a shower. They can have a warm bed and a hot meal.
“Cutting the budget of a shelter is not a good idea when it’s the only one in the area,” Evans added.
Mills said another false rumor is that he planned to do anything with the Davis Mountain Medical Clinic, a healthcare facility built from a shipping container that opened in August and which relies on telemedicine. “It will be a vital part of our community,” he said.
Despite the chatter over the community center and health clinic, Mills said he is mainly interested in getting the county’s core functions operating smoothly. “I am very good at managing my workforce and making it more efficient,” he said. “I’m really gonna concentrate on our infrastructure, which is being ignored right now—such as paving, fixing potholes, road signs, repairs on the buildings, and that sort of thing.”
Evans lauded the medical clinic and said it’s a start for more of what is desperately needed—increased healthcare services. He has been meeting with area county judges to try and find ways to meet Big Bend residents’ medical needs.
“Our dream is to take these micro clinics and [have them] in every community,” Evans said. “So our healthcare for this area is going to change the dynamics of the growth. People will be able to live and die here.”
Mills said a key to stop a declining population and economic growth is tourism dollars. “The Chamber [of Commerce], as you know, their function is to bring in tourism, and they’re not being utilized to their fullest,” he said. “We’ve lost a lot of businesses and people because of limited tourism, and I’m gonna bring that back by working directly with the chamber.”
Evans also said tourism is the key for at least one pillar of revenue, but the other is providing a quality of life for people to want to move to and stay in the county—which creates a stable property tax base.
“We have to build forward,” Evans said. “We have to look to the future to be able to handle the potential growth that we could bring back to this area, because right now we’re losing it, and if people don’t have services that are provided by the county, what is the interest in coming?”
Mills emphasized that to move forward, county officials need to get on the same page. “What I’m going to do is unify all of the elected officials’ offices first, and once the county gets unified, we can move forward,” he said.