Agua Dulce (KIII News) — The City of Agua Dulce will be using a generous donation from a neighboring ranch to create a local marshal's office.
Wyatt Ranches has donated $200,000 to the City of Agua Dulce. The mayor and council members earmarked the funds to resurrect the City Marshal's Office.
Residents of Agua Dulce said they were thrilled.
"I think it will help our little town," Karen Pressley said.
"I think that's great. That's great. We do need a marshal full-time here in the City of Agua Dulce," Manuel Ortiz said.
"Every time we call, we got to wait like 30, 40 minutes, maybe an hour at most before a cop can even get out here," Josh Garza said.
"We don't have any kind of protection. We do whenever they want to get here and give it to us, but other than that," Duvelsa Hernandez said.
"There's always trouble or something like that and by the time they call the constable, it takes about 15, 20 minutes. Longer sometimes," Hector Vargas said.
City Councilman Ramon Ovalle, who credits Mayor John Howard for working with Wyatt Ranches, said their City has become the forgotten spot on the west edge of Nueces County.
"We're kind of like the orphan child from Nueces County, so we don't have nobody come over here," Ovalle said. "If we have some kind of problem and some neighbors get into it, we're probably going to have to wait an hour or two before they get here."
Residents in the town of more than 800 said they appreciate the Wyatt Ranch and think of them as great members of their community.
The City has had several items stolen in the last couple of years including a backhoe, a grass cutter and other power tools. The City is accepting applications for City Marshal and, shortly thereafter, applications will be accepted for a Deputy City Marshal.
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