Mertzon City Council November 17 2025

Agenda Analysis | Meeting Review | Meeting Documents | Commentary | Last Meeting

This is an aerial of the foundation construction at the new transportation facility at IC ISD in September. Any property owner can put up a similar facility without answering to the City of Mertzon because there are no zoning laws in place. It’s a great place for Libertarians to live, but not so much for those who have a neighbor with unlimited funds to build, raze and rebuild.

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A. Agenda Analysis

1. Zoning ordinance consideration, item 5: The City is considering a zoning ordinance. There are no zoning laws currently in place. Stay tuned for the meeting review on this subject.

2. The rest of the agenda is the standard fare.

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B. Meeting Review

1. Meeting documents here.

2. Zoning ordinance, item 5: This item was tabled until the next meeting.

3. Items from the Council, other announcements, item 8: Mayor Stewart gave a brief update about the goings on with IC ISD, and it was as I reported here at B1 in my Meeting Review for the last IC ISD Board meeting. In short, the District was ready to dig across the street that is the object of the exchange to the District for the District installing the flood control structures set forth in this MOU. Mayor Stewart said, no, build those flood projects first. And so, between the IC ISD special meeting on October 27 and their regular meeting on November 12, a bow was tied on the ABA bid for the flood projects.

   Keep in mind, these projects are voter approved. It is not as if I am the sole citizen in the community expecting their completion.

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OK Wolfenbarger Field

C. Commentary

William Faulkner wrote, "The past is never dead. It is not even past." As the bad blood between the City and IC ISD gets relived over and over again, it’s worth reflecting on how the past continues to impact us.

Some know that my father, MB Noelke Jr., was on the IC ISD school board that fired IC ISD teacher/football coach OK Wolfenbarger back in the 70’s. This is one and the same OK Wolfenbarger that the IC ISD football field is named for. I attended his termination hearing as a student, and the hearing later made up a part of my desire to go to law school. Few people know, however, that his widow, former IC ISD teacher and school board member Stella Wolfenbarger, was instrumental in getting the local library posthumously named for my father upon his death in 2012. Mrs. Wolfenbarger, of course, was also my 4th grade teacher, and she too is now deceased.

So, indeed, this past is not dead. It is not even past. It is the present. All of the bad blood…and good blood…from the past is with us in the present.

A Road Runner near the IC ISD campus recently posed for me just long enough to get this photo.

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Copyright 2025 G. Noelke