Discussions on improving Railroad Ave. commence

By FREDDY JIMENEZ
editor@sbnewspaper.com

 

Jesse Robles is shown at the City Commissioners Meeting on Jan. 15 waiting on City officials’ Railroad Ave. improvement ruling. Robles spearheaded the initiative late last year and even has a Facebook page (“Railroad Avenue”) to spread awareness on the road’s status.

At a City Commission Meeting held on Jan. 15, commissioners passed a motion to begin dialogue and efforts toward the improvement of Railroad Avenue. As previously reported, Railroad Avenue has deteriorated over the years allowing potholes and dips of various sizes to form, making it difficult for the residents, and even city agencies, to pass through.

Efforts to enrich the conditions of Railroad Avenue came after residents living on the access road began to organize to collectively bring the matter to the City’s attention.

Jesse Robles, a resident who has lived on the road for the majority of his life, and after coming back home from earning his degree in Kingsville, spearheaded the initiative, but not before realizing that his neighbors, too, were in the same position and therefore began to offer throwing away their garbage using his small pickup truck.

Robles, in a previous interview with the News, said that residents often had a difficult time driving through the road, let alone throwing their trash away at the dumpster placed at the road’s entrance. Because the dump truck wouldn’t drive through the road to collect the garbage bins in front of each household, Robles began loading his neighbor’s bins onto his truck to take to the dumpster, which then enabled him to bring them together to address the problem.

During the public comments section of the same Commission Meeting, Robles presented documents unto City officials dating back to 1986, along with a signed petition by the Railroad Ave. residents, which outlined a letter of agreement between then-Mayor Cesar Gonzalez, former Director of Public Works Hector Jalomo and the Union Pacific Railroad Co. The letter allowed then-city officials permission to improve and work upon Railroad Avenue as long as it was under the terms and conditions set by Union Pacific.

“I know it’s been a big issue as far as who owns the road. It says here they (Union Pacific) do own the road, but they do give us permission to go ahead and maintain the drainage ditch and the road itself,” said Robles unto the Commission.

“Right now, the ways we’re living are some of the worst conditions in my entire life,” said Robles. “It’s actually the worst conditions for those who have lived there since the 1950s.”

 

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