From time to time, there may be pressing issues that you may want
to voice your opinion on or even attend a commission meeting to hear the facts
and see how our elected representatives are voting. You can stay informed by
going to www.AlamoCitizens.org. To ensure you don't miss important information,
please sign up to receive our alerts by contacting us here: http://alamocitizens.org/get-involved.html
For years many of us have allowed our mayor and commissioners to
act without fear of repercussion. But that changed when many of us were
surprised to discover that the commission had voted to change the name of our
City's namesake road to the name of our former mayor. So Alamo Road became Rudy
Villarreal Road. While we don't really have a strong objection to the former
mayor's interest in leaving a legacy by having things named for him, we did
object to the choice of the street that was renamed.
Commissioners were put on notice when more than 200 residents
filled their chambers and demanded that they act on petitions to change back
the name to Alamo Road. On Tuesday, May
7, the Alamo Board of Commissioners signed our resolution to rescind/nullify
the renaming of “Alamo Road” to “Rudy Villarreal Road.” But our work is not
done. We must wait until the 2015 state legislative session for a resolution
that will make it official.
Once we became
aware of the favoritism and good-old-boy, backroom negotiations that have
often been the basis for contracts, rather than basing decisions on what is
best for the City of Alamo, its businesses and its residents, we realized that
we must remain vigilant in order to hold them accountable for their actions.
And, if they continue to act on their own behalf, rather than on what's best
for our community, perhaps it's time we elect new commissioners.
Another issue that directly impacts our health and welfare is the
contract that commissioners approved for our city's ambulance and EMS service.
Fire Chief Rolando Espinoza presented the commissioners presented a list of
complaints and concerns about the ambulance service, Pro-Medic EMS, and
information that other cities had canceled contracts with this company because
of similar issues. But instead of canceling the service, our commission voted
to keep it – even though it takes 1 hour to get an ambulance in Alamo, when it
should take only 10 minutes!
