Mertzon City Council July 7 2025
- G. Noelke
- Jul 9
- 5 min read
A. Agenda Analysis
Trimming trees by pavilion, item 5: The trees along Spring Creek are City managed trees, so it appears that trimming is needed for this new Lions Club project.
Close alley, block 152, item 6: I'll reserve my analysis for the meeting review below. Below is my best guess of the location of the alley. It is on the north side of Mertzon. Note that the alley, approximately marked in red, is undeveloped. 4th and 5th streets on its east and west sides are also undeveloped.
Block 152, Mertzon Texas
B. Meeting Review
Here are the meeting documents for this meeting.
Tree trimming, agenda item 5: Mr. Dolan appeared before the Council to ask permission to trim trees around the new Pavilion. Perhaps there is a bit of mission creep here because Mr. Dolan's stated reason is to put in a pad for a bbq'er, something not discussed when the initial proposal for the location was requested. Mr. Dolan agreed with the Council's request that he coordinate with City staff regarding the trimming before it occurred.
Closing alley at Block 152, item 6: Apparently using only City Ordinance 93.07.02 for authority, the Council voted, apparently, to abandon the entire alley of Block 152. I say "apparently" here because from the discussion it wasn't clear whether the City was retaining a portion of the alley to access the water and sewer line that is being abandoned. City Ordinance 93.07.02 has, for so long as I have been following the issue of closing streets and alleys in Mertzon, has never been openly discussed. Because it is not on the City's online ordinance page, I am transcribing Mayor Stewart's version here: No structures or obstructions shall be erected in City alleys or streets. It is the landowner's responsibility to determine the property line. Request for opening or closing an alley and/or street right of way shall be considered on an individual basis by the City Council."
The motion, as proposed by Mayor Stewart, appeared to include a proviso that the City was abandoning or closing the alley but still retaining access to sewer and water that service Mr. Bolen's nearby residence. One problem here, of course, is that the ordinance does not include the word "abandon" as used by the motion sought by Mayor Stewart and made, seconded and approved by the Council members. Another problem is that state law governs street and alley abandonment and closure. See Texas Transportation Code 311.008, which provides:
Sec. 311.008. CLOSING OF STREET OR ALLEY BY GENERAL-LAW MUNICIPALITY. The governing body of a general-law municipality by ordinance may vacate, abandon, or close a street or alley of the municipality if a petition signed by all the owners of real property abutting the street or alley is submitted to the governing body. So, clearly what was not done in this instance was, like I argued here in 2023 at City Gym, the Council failed to pass an ordinance to abandon or close the alley. There was no hue and cry from the public at this meeting that the public interests were not being served by effectively donating City land to Mr. Bolen. (I didn't object because to do so I would have to have offered a legal opinion. That is the role of the City's attorney, Jeff Betty, who was not present at the meeting.) The rub is that time will pass, as will Mr. Bolen, and a future owner or potential purchaser of Mr. Bolen's lots will have reason to need legal certainty about the ownership of the alley, just like the Tillman's (see B.1. on this page) needed to have about the encroachment of their property into a city street. I think the City is being too discreet, and perhaps inconsistent, with what law it thinks applies to street and alley abandonment. When I argued that the City should not close 4th Street and the alley for the new IC ISD gym at this hearing, there was no public discussion at all of either Transportation Code 311.008 or City Ordinance 93.07.02. This lack of transparency, then and now, I think may allow Council members to think they have a degree of discretion in the "individual basis" language in 93.07.02 when, by law, 311.008 trumps 93.07.02 every time. Like it or not, the City needs to pass an ordinance in this case, just as it should have when it closed 4th Street and the alley for City Gym. And, like I said before, there's no amount of squatting that IC ISD or, in this case Mr. Bolen, can do that will change the ownership of the alley. If the transfer is not done to the letter of the law the City will always retain ownership because, as adopted from old Common Law, no one gets to squat on the King's property and claim ownership. The City of Mertzon is a sovereign when it comes to its streets and alleys, whether or not a city water or sewer line inhabits the space. Even the land under City Gym remains the property of the City of Mertzon to this day.
C. Commentary
One thing that all levels of government, federal, state and local, ought to excel in is emergency management in times of natural disaster. At the time of this posting, over 100 lives have been claimed in the July 4 Texas floods, including one person next door in Tom Green County. Irion County, thankfully, has avoided these torrential rains that have taken lives. But, this is a wet summer, and there are citizens, young and old, living in Mertzon that are vulnerable to these kind of storms. (One reason I remain focused on localized flooding in these posts is that there are folks downhill from me that are in a far more precarious position than I am.)
Lack of coordination during natural disasters among the various levels of government is nothing new in our system. What appears to be new, however, is the intentional failure on both the federal and state level to fund the kind of programs and agencies that help citizens in crisis during natural disasters. That should concern us all. That shows a lack of empathy by our elected officials for our fellow citizens, as well as a misunderstanding of what good government should remain focused on - the safety of its citizens.
Batten down the hatches. Our federal and state governments are sending a clear message that they do not intend to proactively manage natural disasters.
Copyright 2025 G. Noelke
