The continued cold weather has forced the cancellation of several municipal public meetings originally slated to take place Tuesday evening.
In Mercedes, the weather prompted the cancellation of two meetings — the city commission’s regular meeting, and a tax increment reinvesting zone board meeting. Mercedes officials typically meet on the first and third Tuesdays of the month.
“The Commission meeting and TIRZ meeting scheduled for today, February 16, 2021 at 5:45 and 6:00 PM have been canceled due to the inclement weather and power situations,” the city posted on Facebook.
“We will post the rescheduling, if any. Stay safe,” the post further read.
Mercedes city leaders had been set to again discuss the issue of who would represent them in three lawsuits the city filed against a former city attorney last spring.
Mercedes’ current city attorneys, who have been under contract since 2019, have told the officials they hope to continue representing the city in the suits on a contingency fee basis because of the “risk” involved.
But a new state law mandates that municipalities follow strict public notice requirements when entering into such an agreement for legal representation, including listing why a contingency-based pay agreement is beneficial to residents versus an hours-based contract.
The city of Weslaco also canceled their regular city commission meeting.
“More than half of our elected officials have not had power in their homes or businesses for about two days now,” said Weslaco City Manager Mike Perez.
Officials in that town were slated to hear updates on one of the city’s largest flood drainage improvement projects — the Pleasantview drainage project. Weslaco is seeking bids on the next phase of that project.
City leaders were also set to hear an update on plans to build a new public safety building, which will eventually house the police department and a fire station.
Many of Weslaco’s critical operations centers were also dealing with power issues. Both the water plant and the sewer plant were operating on generator power, Perez said.
And conversations with AEP officials have yielded few answers, he said.
“We’ve been talking to AEP and they can’t repair anything until they get electricity to those areas,” Perez said.
Weslaco firefighters have also responded to several fires caused by people trying alternative means to stay warm. No injuries have been reported.
But the widespread power outages prompted Weslaco Mayor David Suarez to declare a state of emergency. The declaration came just as Hidalgo County Judge Richard F. Cortez issued a similar order for the entire county.
Over in Edcouch, the entire town of approximately 5,000 people have been without power since before dawn Monday, according to Edcouch City Manager Victor Hugo de la Cruz.
The electrical outage affected the city’s water plant, which switched to a backup generator, but the city lost water when that also failed.
Crews attempted to connect the city’s water to nearby lines from the North Alamo Water Supply, but the pipes froze, again cutting off water to the city.
The only facility with power is the Edcouch fire station, de la Cruz said.
With both utilities out of service for days, officials sought to provide as many hot meals as possible to local residents.
“We have a thousand plates, so we’re gonna concentrate on the elderly,” said Edcouch Mayor Virgil Gonzales, speaking of a meal distribution city leaders had planned for Tuesday evening.
Staff would deliver meals to the elderly throughout town, while those able to were invited to come to the Edcouch fire station for plates of chicken, rice and beans.
A hotdog plate distribution is planned for lunchtime Wednesday.
As with other Mid-Valley cities, the prolonged power outages affected Edcouch’s city council, even though their next meeting isn’t scheduled to meet until Thursday.
We’re not gonna have one. And if we need to we’ll make a special (meeting),” the mayor said.
“Right now, we’re just trying to keep everybody safe,” he said.
