CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — There were many disappointed residents in the small community of Tecolote, southwest of Alice, after the Jim Wells County Commissioner’s Court voted down a plan to bring them running water, which many don’t have.
Outgoing Commissioner Margie Gonzalez had been working with the court on a water project for that community for several years.
She told 3NEWS she thought her fellow commissioners were all onboard. But they weren’t and voted against getting water to those residents at their meeting on Monday.
Just last year, a house fire in Tecolote claimed the life of a young man. There was no running water to the house to put out the fire.
The tragedy helped to spur Jim Wells County Commissioner Margie Gonzalez to try and get running water to this small community.
"We have $2.2 million on the table to do a municipal utility grant and so we were going to use the property here on the far northwest corner we would build a water well," Gonzalez said.
Tecolote sits near Highway 281 right across the way from the Navy training field and houses about a thousand residents.
Some residents have well water while others don’t have any water.
Gonzalez's idea was to put the community water well on property the county owns.
She says the Nueces River Authority then said it would run the whole operation.
"Well according to the Nueces River Authority, once we signed the contract it became their baby, it became their liability," Gonzalez said.
The commissioners court however, turned down the plan after it had been worked on for two years.
Several residents met with 3NEWS to discuss that decision that left them without the running water.
One of those residents, María Eavila, was the grandmother of the young man who died in the fire.
"I think they’re not doing their job. That’s what I think because I’ve been going through this, I've been living here in Tecolote for over 20 years," she said.
Community activist Bianca Matthews says everyone in the community was upset about the commissioner's decision.
"We had over 150 residents, whether they had a water well or not, sign forms saying, 'Hey we're interested, we want this, we see the need for it in our area,' " she said.
County Judge Pete Treviño said there was a lot of work put into this project and just because it didn’t get approved this time doesn’t mean commissioners aren’t going to continue to work on getting water out to the residents of Tecolote.
Gonzalez says when she leaves office in January that she is going to form a 501c and get the water project done that way.