County officials and Border Patrol: ‘No one told us.’
This is a developing story and may be updated.
Heavy road equipment rolled on to Chispa Road northwest of Marfa on Tuesday with the goal of improving the road for contractors working on the border wall project—infuriating Jeff Davis and Presidio county officials who were not given notice of the project on their county roads, according to officials who were actively gathering information on the construction on Wednesday.
“I’ve got a problem with it. I’m not happy with it,” said Jeff Davis County Judge Curtis Evans. The judge said, for starters, he was going to meet with the contractors today to get their explanation, check with legal counsel, then see what next steps need to be taken.
The equipment can be seen in an Instagram video post by Yolanda Alvarado, whose family owns a ranch on the river that’s accessed by Chispa Road. Pictured are bulldozers and large excavation and road-grading equipment. The location is south of Highway 90 on FM 2017—about 17 miles west of Valentine—after pavement ends, where a dirt road begins that eventually winds its way down to two Presidio County roads near Candelaria on the border.
Lisa Morton, a general manager at the Van Horn Advocate newspaper, also was at the scene to take photos and videos. In a conversation with contractors, she was told they intended to work on a mile a day and make it a road acceptable for 50 mph speed limits.
“I’ve talked with the Border Patrol, and they were unaware of anything that was happening,” said Presidio County Commissioner Deirdre Hisler. The commissioner said she knows a subcontractor involved with the project and will be inquiring how it was possible that the Border Patrol was never notified, nor were any county officials responsible for governing county roads.
“My deal is no. You come to the Presidio County Commissioners Court, and you make a presentation and tell us what you’re doing,” Hisler said. In the meantime, I have [County Commissioner candidate] Susan Hays researching whether they can legally do that on the county road.”
Presidio County Attorney Blair Park is also looking into the legality, but could not be immediately reached for comment. Hays, an attorney, said her initial look at the law tells her the contractors can’t work on county roads without permission, but she said she will be looking into the fine details of the law today to make sure the county’s position is iron clad. County Judge Joe Portillo said he will await word from the attorneys before deciding what to do next.
The Border Patrol did not return a request for comment.
April 4 update:
Presidio County Attorney Blair Park said the item would establish a procedure to deal with special uses of county roads, which she is modeling after other counties that have heavy oilfield equipment traffic. However, she noted that in those instances it didn’t involve any changes to the actual roads. Park added that a key question for the contractors will be if they intend to widen the road to a width that would go on to private property, at which point each landowner would have to dedicate that property—which could be an extremely long process.
Presidio County Commissioner Deirdre Hisler added an agenda item that states: “Presentation, discussion with action to approve the use/modification/reconstruction by Federal Contractors on Presidio County Roads.” Hisler said this would be a formal action for commissioners to approve or deny the county road use and construction by contractors, which would require details on what they intend to do. She requested that the primary contractor, Barnard Construction, have its field manager, David Spencer, attend to answer questions.
Hisler said Spencer told her he was given assurances by the Department of Homeland Security that all agreements were in place for the road upgrades, something the commissioner said was impossible since the counties weren’t informed.
Jeff Davis County Commissioner Albert Miller said yesterday that he and County Judge Curtis Evans rode out to the Chispa Road site and asked the contractors to halt their work, which they agreed to do. When contacted this morning, Hisler was on her way to the site to see if the work was still stopped.
On April 2, Jeff Davis County posted its agenda for a Thursday, April 9, special Commissioners Court meeting to discuss whether it should allow contractors to work on Chispa Road, a county road. The agenda item states: “Discuss and take desired action to approve a gift from Barnard Construction to reconstruct Chispa road from FM2017 to the Jeff Davis County and Presidio County Line.”