On Monday morning, Terrell County commissioners tabled final action on a lease with border wall contractor Fisher Sand & Gravel to use the county airport as a construction staging area. The discussion marked the official foray of Terrell County officials into trying to negotiate with wall contractors –– an issue that has dogged nearby counties for months as small, cash-strapped governments try to capture some of the large influx of federal money flooding the region.
Precinct 1 Commissioner Adam Johnson read the proposed contract aloud. The fine print explains that the lease will be $10,000 a month for at least a year for 344.5 currently unused acres, with the option to continue on a month-to-month basis. Fisher is allowed to develop the property into a man camp if needed, and will be bringing generators and water to cover utility needs. The county will remain responsible for covering property taxes, but damage caused by Fisher or “invitees” to the property is their responsibility. (No representatives for Fisher attended the meeting to answer further questions, but county officials made it clear that the airport would remain open for use, though services are limited.)
Tweny-four people submitted public comments, the vast majority against. Those in opposition wanted to make sure the county avoided conflicts of interest –– as landowners sign agreements with Fisher for materials and construction access, they wanted assurances that county resources weren’t being used to sweeten private deals. Jill Goodson, who has owned land along the river in Terrell County for 33 years, submitted a proposed code-of-conduct to the court she wanted them to review. “Any lease agreements or signed contracts to support this infrastructure are short-sighted and come at great expense to both the county and hundreds of private landowners in Terrell County who lose free access and use of their land,” Goodson said.
Opponents of the plan also had concerns about safety, pointing to research on temporary work camps that shows a strong correlation between transient workers in remote communities and an uptick in crime. Man camps for the wall elsewhere in the Big Bend are being built to house 200-500 workers –– at either end of that range, a large influx in a county home to less than 700 people. “We like to brag about not locking our doors,” said Keirstin Pratt, a local business owner and tourism booster. “Well –– get ready to lock ‘em.”
Four of the meeting attendees spoke in favor of the resolution, pointing to a critical need for the tiny county to bring in money. Some also hoped that the contractors could be talked into making improvements to roads, especially in places where washouts have slowed emergency response. “I’m for it because of the revenue it’ll bring to the town,” said local rancher Cody Carruthers, who is married to Terrell County Judge Dale Carruthers.
Terrell County Attorney Kenneth Bellah said that the contractors seemed open to making improvements at the airport during negotiations, but that those agreements would have to be hammered out separately from this lease.
Details of the contract were not made available before the start of the meeting, and some folks changed their opinions after hearing more details –– especially the price tag. The county stands to benefit at least $120,000 from the lease, but some felt that was chump change compared to the flood of federal money headed for Terrell County. “I came to this meeting thinking that this would be an opportunity for the county to benefit from a lease at the airport, and I’m a little shocked,” said Alex Nash-Ford, the chair of the Terrell County Republican Party. “It seems like very little money for the county having to go through what it’s going to have to go through, and it feels like selling our soul for $10,000.”
$10,000 a month seems to be a standard leasing rate for staging areas for border wall construction echoed by numerous local landowners who have reported these offers to the Sentinel over the past nine months. “If this was an oil and gas project, they’d be paying a lot more,” opined Jacob Yeager, who had previously launched an initiative to try to revitalize the airport. (That effort ultimately failed because the county was unable to put up matching funds required for a grant opportunity.)
Big Bend 5 –– the barrier project spanning Terrell County that includes 165.7 miles of vehicle barriers and patrol roads –– earned an initial contract for $2.6 billion, the highest up-front value awarded for a border wall project in U.S. history. In March, Bloomberg reported that CEO Tommy Fisher and his family were the first people to become billionaires off of the border wall. The eye-popping price tag, locals insist, won’t have much of an impact on illegal border crossing. “It would surprise me if there is anywhere in Terrell County where a car could drive across the river,” affected landowner Glenn Merkord wrote to the court.
Big Bend 5 and its neighboring project, Big Bend 4, are the only parts of the U.S.-Mexico border that will not see 30-foot steel walls, per statements from Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott. The agency quietly shifted its plans for a coast-to-coast wall over the spring after widespread public backlash. The lease agreement with Terrell County, however, makes reference to “fence panels and all other construction activities related to its border wall projects.”
Brewster County business owner Billy Bartko, who is also a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the wall, was of the opinion that references to the “wall” in the contract could point toward government dishonesty about the whole project or sloppiness in drafting contracts. He wasn’t comforted by either scenario. “It’s contradictory and it’s not transparent,” he said.
Bartko was ultimately so frustrated by the ordeal that he offered the county $10,000 a month to lease the airport for alternative revitalization projects –– an offer he insists is serious. On Tuesday morning, he formally submitted a proposal to the county to help recoup $2.2 million in lost grant money and help turn Sanderson into an aviation destination, in hopes of supporting the county’s burgeoning tourism industry. “People with money come by plane,” he assured the commissioners.
