WESLACO — Law enforcement officials from around the region gathered here Friday afternoon to celebrate the groundbreaking of the city’s newest public safety building.
The nearly 52,000-square-foot complex will sit on an expansive plot of land just east of city hall along Business 83. Once complete, it will become the headquarters for the police department, as well as the fire department administration.
(Dina Arévalo | [email protected])
“This is a long time coming. It is a blessing. It is reality today,” Weslaco Mayor David Suarez said just before he and other local dignitaries ceremoniously turned over the first clods of earth to usher in the project’s construction.
“They built that police station and fire station when Weslaco was 15,000 population. Today, Weslaco is over 40,000-plus population, according to the census,” Suarez said, referring to when the current cramped police and fire headquarters on Airport Drive was first opened.
The city has long since outgrown the 40-year-old building, with some 100 officers and other staff juggling for use of the limited space. So much so that some facets of the police department’s services, such as those provided to crime victims, had to be moved offsite, Police Chief Joel Rivera said during one of numerous planning discussions over the last year.
The department’s dispatch operations, which also serve as a regional dispatch center for nearby cities, is also located offsite, the chief said.
The new public safety building, which Rivera referred to as a “campus” for its multiuse functionality, is the latest in a series of infrastructure investments Weslaco has committed to.
In 2019, the city broke ground on a fire and EMS station on Mile 11 North Road on the city’s north side. The city also began development of an expansive park next door to that fire station that will ultimately include a walking trail, sports fields, a splash pad and other recreational amenities.
And while officials broke ground on the public safety building Friday, many were already looking ahead to the city’s next public investment: a new building to better serve the second busiest library system in Hidalgo County.
The city’s ability to invest millions in improving its public service buildings could not have been possible without the leadership of City Manager Mike Perez, whose attendance at Friday’s groundbreaking marked his last as Weslaco’s administrator, the mayor said.
After more than 40 years in public administration, including seven as Weslaco city manager, Perez retired Friday.
But it was his fiscal conservatism that allowed Weslaco to take steps to improve the city’s infrastructure not long after the city was sent reeling from a fraud scandal involving former public officials, as well as back-to-back-to-back natural disasters that wrought havoc on residents and businesses alike.
“I want to thank Mike for leading the charge on that, for hiding money in the budget, lying to us. No, I’m joking,” Suarez quipped, to the laughter of those in attendance.
Suarez was referring to Perez’s penchant for planning the city’s finances five years into the future — of being conservative with expenditures, all the while, socking away pennies here and there for the city’s so-called “capital improvement plan,” or CIP.
(Dina Arévalo | [email protected])
The new public safety building, the proposed library, and a bevy of other things, such as six-figure fire trucks, police units and more, are all a part of the CIP.
“Our capital improvement plan here in Weslaco is meant to guide us into the future, and budget to meet the needs of our community and citizens,” Commissioner Letty Lopez said.
“When you hear of capital improvements, this is referring to major, non-recurring expenditures, such as land, building and public infrastructure that we are saving for now and to build in the near future,” Lopez said, referring to the public safety complex as one of the highest priorities for her and the rest of the current city commission.
“We’re really excited to be able to start this new day for the Weslaco Police Department,” Rivera said, adding that the public safety building will allow his department to realize “operational efficiencies.”
“That’s investigators not sharing desk space, that’s police officers having dedicated areas for things like entering and processing of evidence, all those kinds of police daily operational things that we have to do day in, day out,” Rivera said.
The current police station is only about 20% the size of what the department needs, he said.
Fire Chief Antonio “Tony” Lopez was also excited to see the new complex come to fruition.
The fire department’s administration is currently housed in the city’s historic fire station downtown. That building was built around the time of Weslaco’s founding a century ago.
“A facility that was meant for a fire truck in the 1920s is where the crews are living right now. You go into that building and you do step back in time of where the first firefighters, the first PD was housed and the first city hall was,” Lopez said.
Twenty years ago, responding to 20 calls in one day was considered a busy — if rare — day for the fire department. Now, the department’s 73 firefighters and paramedics regularly respond to 50-60 calls per shift, Lopez said.
“Let us all reflect on the hard work it has taken to finally come this far,” Letty Lopez said.
“This is more than just a ceremony for us, this is something special,” she said.
