Irion County Commissioners Court September 23 2025
- G. Noelke
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Agenda Analysis | Meeting Review | Meeting Documents | Commentary | Last Meeting
This meeting includes discussion of the Community Center renovation/new construction project. This map done for the City of Mertzon in 2023 shows that 518 acres drain towards the 29 acre City Park, where the current Community Center and Football Stadium are situated.
A. Agenda Analysis
Community Center Project, item 8: My interest in this meeting is largely this one item. My regular readers know that I have opposed additional development of City Park. I am not opposed to a new Community Center, but I am opposed to local government continuing to develop the City in a way that stormwater drainage becomes an ever increasing burden on taxpayers and private landowners.
2025 Tax Role approval, item 5: This is a pro forma vote that is required now that the tax "roll" is finalized. I mention it here because IC ISD is doing the same thing at this meeting. (The City of Mertzon is approving the roll next week.) There is a standardized process for funding local government, so notwithstanding how dysfunctional state and federal government are at the moment, the process of figuring the income for local government for the next year is almost complete. The tax collection after this vote is what remains.
A total of 547 acres drain through these small 4 barrels that go underneath Highway 67. And then, 150 - 200 yards down the same water has to drain through even smaller barrels underneath a railroad track. As the city has developed, the capacity for stormwater drainage has not developed with it.
B. Meeting Review
Community Center Project, item 8: The Court took no formal action, but Judge Criner tasked herself with synthesizing into a list some "needs and wants" from the Community Committee presentation and other resources. There was considerable discussion on how best to use the limited space available to the County at City Park, and in this regard it was readily apparent from this meeting that the Court wasn't going to jump into this without a lot more study. The next step with the design team, Komatsu, is for the Court to tell them how they want to use the space. Drainage is definitely on the list of their concerns. (It should be!) New to me was their concern about the aging swimming pool and whether to move and enlarge it. There was also some discussion of size and cost of a new community center. An initial size proposed by Komatsu was in the 25,000 sf area at an estimated cost of $10 to $11 million! Judge Criner noted that price dampened her enthusiasm for the project. That is probably close to an accurate price, however, because only 4 years ago IC ISD paid roughly $10 million for their new 30,000 sf gym.
In any event, there was plenty of discussion on this item and, thankfully, the Court wasn't rushing to make a rash decision. Alternative Location: The County owns half a city block immediately north of the Courthouse that currently houses the County's road crew barn and equipment, as well as the museum. All of that road department area, which is a terrible eyesore, could be relocated elsewhere and a new community center could be located next to the Courthouse. There's lots of potential for this space if one makes the paradigm shift that the Courthouse and the area around it can also be made into a "community center". The views would be stunning…
Tax roll, item 5: Tax Assessor Collector Dr. Joyce Gray brought it into the meeting room, and I snagged a picture. Here is the Irion County Tax "Roll":
The 2025 Irion County Tax "Roll"
There was no drum roll as the Court voted without discussion to approve it.
C. Commentary
The assassination of Charlie Kirk has stirred a national dialogue about free speech. I think every day is a good day to discuss free speech (this website is born out of the previous IC ISD Board and Superintendent effort to suppress my speech), but it is unfortunate that our national dialogue often tends to come about after a terrible event like this one.
Those things said, I would like to point out that not all our presidents have felt the same about free speech. Here is an example of one that contrasts with President Trump:
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.” Theodore Roosevelt
One of our national treasures, writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin, had this to say:
“I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.”
Copyright 2025 G. Noelke