By Michael Robinson | Uvalde Hesperian

03-24-26

   If you’ve ever driven in a rural part of Texas and stopped at an old gas station back in the day and asked the manager on duty for directions to a location and have been told. “go straight for two miles and turn left at the intersection where the old dance hall used to be,” this little story might be a good segway into a topic that has a real basis in reality here in Uvalde County. 

  The Uvalde Hesperian recently spoke with Uvalde County Commissioner Roy Kothmann after the Monday, March 23rd, Uvalde County Commissioners Court meeting. Hesperian asked, when has the Uvalde County road map been officially updated. He stated the last time a group was appointed to review all county roads was maybe 26 years ago and they designate roads based on input from citizens.

Why it matters:

  While Kothmann went on to say the county isn’t actively paving new county roads, over time existing county roads become shorter as sections of public roadway are abandoned by the county and turned over to private property owners who petition the County to abandon parts or all of a county road. 

   This happens when a landowner buys land on both sides of an existing county road and effectively surrounds the public road with land owned by one private owner. 

  Such an occurrence was made official at Monday’s Uvalde County Commissioners Court meeting where the court voted to abandon one entire county road and a portion of another. 

 This happened in 2025 with another county road. In both instances, a private gate is placed over the once public road creating a dead-end not reflected on the official Uvalde County map. Additionally, Google maps and other maps may not get the memo either and show a road on map that appears to be one or two miles in length when in reality the road dead-ends much sooner,

 With parcels of land being bought and sold over the years, county road sections that are abandoned continue to create a greater level of inaccuracy with road maps.

03-23-26

By Michael Robinson

  The Uvalde County Commissioners Court meets two times a month on the second and fourth Monday of the month. At this morning’s meeting, the chair reserved for the Uvalde County Attorney was empty. At the meeting two weeks ago, the Uvalde County Attorney’s chair was empty.

When was the last time John Dodson was present?

Where’s Waldo? Where’s John Dodson?

by Michael Robinson| Uvalde Hesperian

Top image credit: Google Map

03-22-26

A landowner is requesting Uvalde County abandon a portion of CR379 and CR380 in its entirety.  Marshall S. McCrea, Ill and Castle Rock Ranch, LP claim to own private property on both sides of these two public roads and currently has a fence over CR 379 which connects to CR380. Also included in the agenda packet is a picture of a sign posted near the entrance of CR 329. The property and two county roads up for consideration are located between 3-5 miles southeast of Utopia.

The item is Number 7 on Monday’s March 23rd Uvalde County Commissioners Court meeting scheduled for 10AM in the 3rd floor Uvalde County Uvalde County Courtroom.

In the motion submitted to Uvalde County, is says, “Over 15 years ago McCrea followed the statutory process to abandon County Road 379 and County Road 380 just east of where they connect in Uvalde County as shown on Exhibit ·B”. The County records still show that such abandonment is not represented on County maps. McCrea owns the real property on both sides of the portion of County Road 379 and County Road 380 further described in Exhibit “A”. McCrea is once again requesting the County to abandon Country Road 79 and County Road 380 at McCrea property line.

McCrea erected a gate located on the McCrea property line and has been locked for over 15 years. By this Motion, McCrea asks the Commissioners’ Court to abandon the portion of County Road 379 described in Exhibit “A” and abandon County Road 380 in its entirety, described in Exhibit “A” attached hereto.

Also, the motion states, “Uvalde County records indicate that County Road 3 79 and County Road 380 both “dead end” and do not connect with any other existing County maintained road. ”

Uvalde Hesperian questions: According to the motion included in the Uvalde County agenda packet pertaining to this item, it states the owner stated a statutory process to abandon CR 379 and 380 and the property owners placed a gate over the county road. While the county maintains the roads as county property for 15 years, the public has not had access to the county roads beyond the gate. Why hasn’t the county acted sooner?

What is the total combined length of two county roads that the property owner wants the County to abandon? What is the valuation of the roadway to be abandoned?

A rainy afternoon couldn’t dampen the energy in downtown Sabinal on March 7, as the grand opening celebration for Rustic Charm by The Ranch Wife brought together local businesses, musicians, and community members. During a live broadcast from the event, Robert Miguel of Uvalde Radio welcomed a surprise guest to the microphone—Sabinal native and rising musician Kay O’Neill.

A Hometown Musician on the Rise

Balancing Music and College

New Music on the Way

Supporting a New Local Business

By Michael Robinson | Uvalde Hesperian

Thursday, March 12th, 2026

    On December 7th, a $756,348.69  Uvalde County awarded to DKM Enterprises LLC a contract to build seven low-water crossings on tributaries of the Leona River.

CR 428 is one of the seven low water crossings that is included. In order to construct the low water crossing, it was stated by Uvalde County Appraisal District Grant Writer Carl Esser that temporary access to adjacent private property be acquired.

  At the Monday, March 9th, Uvalde County Commissioners Court meeting, agenda item #13 was approved by Uvalde County which is a contractual agreement for temporary access of a strip of privately owned land referred to as Williams Ranch (5W), a Series of J & C Williams Investments LLC.

   County Road 428 located in the Deer Valley area north of Uvalde, CR 428 is one of the Leona low water crossings awarded to DKM Enterprises in December 2025. DKM will begin work within the next few months. According to County Commissioner Ronald “Ronnie” Garza, there are a number of residents who use that road as well as school buses.

  The County approved the terms of the contract for temporary access which will cost the county $500 a week for a maximum of five weeks. 

  According to Uvalde County Grant Writer Carl Esser, who presented the agenda item to the Court he said, “It will require a temporary bypass road (484 linear feet in length) to allow both incoming and outgoing traffic.” 

  Other considerations include a strand fence and a 14-foot gate on the north side of the bypass road to be installed by a private contractor. Esser stated a quote from Kimball fabricating to build the fence is estimated at $3,800.  According to Esser, the fencing is needed to keep livestock from venturing onto the Wright County Road.

  He went on to say limestone base will be laid down for the bypass road and at the end of the day, the limestone base material will be retained by the private property owner.

 Carl Esser responded to a public records request submitted to Uvalde County by the Uvalde Hesperian with additional details bypass roadway including the width of the road as well as the amount of Limestone base to be used and its cost:

Breakdown of Costs for Temporary Access Agreement

1. $500/week for maximum of 5 weeks                       $2,500.00
2. Fence and Gate Cost estimate:                                    $3,500.00
3. Temporary bypass road cost of materials:
4. Total estimated cost of materials                               $1,834.00

       Total costs for Temporary Access Agreement           $7,834.00

02-23-26

By Michael Robinson| Uvalde Hesperian

Top Photo: Diana Olvedo-Karau; Uvalde Hesperian File Photo

Diana Olvedo-Karua spoke to the Uvalde County elected officials where she addressed issues that she claimed might not be illegal but are, in her opinion, unethical.

Karau addressed the county court during citizens’ comments portion of this morning’s meeting.

“A few years ago, County Commissioner Mariano Pargas moved from Precinct 2 to Precinct 1 and the argument from Judge Mitchell was that he already been elected and he’d finish out his term,” Karau said,

She added that a few more years passed, and the court decided, during required redistricting, the court decided to gerrymander, a little nook out of the east side of Uvalde so that Commissioner Pargas could continue to be in Precinct 2.

“Then a few years more…County Attorney John Dodson no longer lives in Uvalde County, but there’s loopholes, and he continues to be in that position though he no longer lives in this community and is not adequately serving the residents of Uvalde County,” she said.

Additionally, she pointed out that Uvalde County Commissioner John Yeackle filed to run for Uvalde County Judge in November 2025, the same month, Uvalde County Judge William “Bill” Mitchell was suspended. “There was no judge to fill that seat, she said.”

“This court has always argued that if someone is running for an election, it gives them an unfair advantage to remain on the court.” she said.

Karau went on to say Interim Judge Jerry Bates has the ability to appoint someone to fill the Precent 1 seat on the Uvalde County Commissioner’s Court held by Yeackle.

by Michael Robinson |Uvalde Hesperian

Top Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

02-22-26

  Many elected officials as well as local government entities and law enforcement officials and other agencies often post their respective “press releases” directly to their respective Facebook pages.

  Occasionally one of these will contact the Uvalde Hesperian and ask if their “press release” could be copied and pasted and run as an article on the Uvalde Hesperian news website?  As the publisher of the Uvalde Hesperian, the answer with some rare exceptions, will generally be “No”.

  Some government officials and politicians find it easier to bypass both traditional and digital news media and just share on their Facebook pages.

  While this is an option, for sure, Facebook is a for-profit quasi-government platform and a “press release” or “news release” becomes a newsletter article for followers or fans.

  The Uvalde Hesperian and other serious news outlets strive to publish original news content or news releases specifically for the press. You will see some of the latter published on the Uvalde Hesperian.

  If something is published on Facebook first, then every other news outlet is an afterthought. 

  As for individuals who contact the Uvalde Hesperian and say, ” I published something really good on my Facebook page, can you run it? Again, with a few exceptions, the answer is “No.”

  While in the past, The Hesperian has published complete content from Facebook, it will not anymore.

  Social media has made actual news reporting outlets work much harder to generate authentic news and also as a place for actual press releases meant for the press and the general public rather than affinity groups that follow said political and/or government entities.

  While Facebook pages do reach a lot of people, “news” shared only on specific Facebook pages, such news does not reach a wide audience.

  Many news reporting outlets view political/government or agency Facebook posts as a prompt to dig deeper and ask hard questions and expand the topic adding more information.

The public has access to more information than ever before, but curated news directly published to Facebook, X, or TikTok by government agencies and officials is news published with an official filter. 

It is and has always been the calling of news reporting outlets to dig deeper and ask, “What is really going on here?”

By Michael Robinson |Uvalde Hesperian

02-20-26

Wednesday afternoon, February 18th, a tractor trailer hauling produce was spotted along FM1049 about 3 miles north of Knippa as workers inspected and secured what appeared to be a trailer hauling heads of cabbage.

The spill appeared minor. A few days prior to this incident, a man was seen picking up some cauliflower dropped along FM1049 in the Knippa area.

Sometimes produce spills off of trucks coming from the fields. At times it could be just a few onions, bell peppers, cabbage or other produce. A few years ago, the Uvalde Hesperian’s editor was a few miles north of Knippa on FM1049 and a truck hauling bell peppers dropped several boxes on the highway.

After stopping to help the driver pick up the load, the Hesperian editor was rewarded with a big box of bell peppers.

Sometimes farmers will open a gate to their fields to glean from a pile of small onions too deemed too small for the market. While it is not advisable to assume an open gate to a field is an invitation to forage for fresh veggies, word does get around locally if you know who is in the know. Word of mouth sometimes equals food in mouth!

Not exactly a traditional farmer’s market but living in a farming area sometimes pays off.