Alpine Avalanche

Marfa PD requests funding for drug analyzer

Council deliberates antenna lease agreements, grants

By Kara Gerbert
Managing Editor

The Marfa City Council held its regular meeting on Thursday, June 25, at 6 p.m. in the Casner Room at Marfa’s City Hall. All council members were present, with Marfa Mayor Manuel Baeza out due to illness. The meeting was presided over by Mayor Pro Tem Mark Cash with help from City Advisor Teresa Todd.
Multiple agenda items were discussed, with the most concerning yet important item presented by the Marfa Police Department. Rene Gonzales, grant administrator working on the Operation Lone Star Grant, explained to the council that he’d written and had his grant approved for $40,000 in reimbursement to the city for the purchase of a TruNarc handheld narcotics analyzer. The analyzer itself had a price tag of $39,000.
Questions were raised by the council as to whether or not the money could be better spent on other items the department might need, but they were informed that it was specifically for this item.
Gonzales said, “This is a handheld laser analyzer that allows our officers or our EMS employees to determine what sort of drug is in a container without the risk of being exposed to fentanyl. As we witnessed last year in Alpine with two deaths due to this dangerous substance, it is in our small communities and here to stay.”
Marfa Chief of Police Gilbert Carrillo said, “This would ensure that our officers and EMS employees are safe, as well as give us an idea of how to treat an overdose. This unit has a library of over 250 substances that it can detect, so if there’s a small baggie of sugar, it can tell it’s sugar. If there’s a random pill, it can tell us if it’s something like ibuprofen or something more hazardous.”
Mayor Pro Tem Cash asked for a motion to approve the funding for the TruNarc analyzer. A motion was made by Councilor Raul Lara, with a second from Councilor Travis Acreman. The motion passed unanimously.
In other news, the council deliberated on water tower lease proposals from Verizon partner MD7. It was determined by Verizon that there was a crossover of service, where an antenna on the purple and white water tower should be removed because it was redundant in terms of service.
A representative from Maguire Water told the council that antennas were a great revenue stream and that, as long as none of them interfered with his company’s ability to maintain the water towers and they remained structurally sound, he had no issue with them. The offer from MD7 was a one-time payment of $500,000 to acquire the Verizon lease on the purple and white water tower only, not the historic silver tower. This proposal, as well as one from 307 Digital, which proposed a cost-sharing deal and a payment of $650,000, according to Todd, would be subject to approval on a case-by-case basis by Maguire Water. Both items were approved to be tabled unanimously by the council.
A discussion ensued on five items relevant to the Texas Water Development Board Grant that is being written for the city by Trey Gerfers. Gerfers joined the meeting via Zoom to go over each item with the council. The Application Affidavit to request financial assistance was approved with a motion from Acreman and Emily, authorizing the mayor to submit the application. The Application Resolution-Certificate of Secretary was also approved for the grant by the same council members.
Gerfers told the council that he recommended tabling the other three items, which consisted of designating an authorized representative for the grant, obtaining a financial advisor, and bond counsel for the Water Supply and Infrastructure Grant program of the Texas Water Development Board. Gerfers recommended to the council Paul Braden for the bond counsel and Maria Urbina as the financial advisor. All three items were tabled with unanimous approval.
Finally, the council deliberated on the newspaper of record for the City of Marfa, which has historically been the Big Bend Sentinel. Recently, the Sentinel suspended print options and will only be offered in digital format for the foreseeable future. Sentinel Editor Rob D’Amico and Alpine Avalanche Publisher J.T. Maroney joined the meeting via Zoom, both stating their case for the city to decide whether to remain with the Sentinel since it is only in digital format or to switch to the Avalanche, which offered their services with a print version of their paper as well as a digital option for subscribers. Discussion ensued in which the council deliberated on what the correct choice for the city was: a physical paper for those local residents who are not well versed in technology, or to continue with the digital versions of legal notices with the Sentinel.
Cash called for a motion, to which Councilor Acreman motioned to keep the Big Bend Sentinel as the newspaper of record for the City of Marfa. The motion died due to no second.
Todd commented, “We have to make this decision each year; the only reason we’re doing it now is that the Sentinel no longer supplies a physical print option. We will revisit this in October when we begin our new fiscal year and can continue as we have been, or if we so choose, go with the Avalanche as the other option.”
The next regular meeting of the Marfa City Council is scheduled for July 14 at 6 p.m., with a special joint meeting with the Parks Board scheduled for 7 p.m. on Tuesday, June 30, with a site visit to Sunset Park.