On the record is brought.

To you by Steve and Adele Dufilho.

San Antonio is a fast growing, fast moving community with something new happening every day.

And that's why each week we go on the record with the newsmakers who are driving this change.

Then we gather at the Reporters Roundtable to talk about the latest news stories with the journalists behind those stories.

Join us now as we go on the right.

Hi, everybody, and thank you for joining us for this edition of On the Record.

A lot to talk about this week.

We're going to start with a new push to get business tourists and locals back to the Riverwalk.

They actually started during the pandemic, but recently they have expanded their group.

We're really a new push.

Joining us to talk about that is Marco Barros, who is the trustee for the River Walk business Group.

Thanks for coming in.

First of all, tell us about this group, how it started and what you're trying to do right now.

Thank you, Randi.

We appreciate you being here today.

The group really started during the pandemic.

A lot of business owners on the room walk, both restaurant operators and co-op traders who are very concerned about their future and what was going to happen in our business when you're stopped.

I mean, within March and April 20, 20.

So the first thing that happened, a lot of business owners, a lot of them were clients of mine.

I was doing a lot of business development for them, so we brought them together on a weekly basis about safety and security.

And the police department and the bike patrol unit played a major role in keeping all that area very secure.

They were very concerned about that.

So the group started me for a different purpose of safety, security for locals and how to bring people back to the Riverwalk.

So they kept meeting weekly and monthly, and then a new vision was started that they wanted to create a masterplan.

They wanted to see how we could improve the Riverwalk experience, both for locals and visitors, just like it happened with Pearl.

Pearl has been a great success story with the focal point water features a gathering place and new places to meet new retail.

And it was like the place that was completely abandoned many years ago.

So the idea was to bring all these folks and ideas and the group formalized last September last year, but it became with new officers in early in the year 2023, this year.

So we have a the main goal is to create a master plan to create it.

And now this started it came out of the Paseo del Rio Association that's been around for a long time.

And then it kind of morphed.

Why?

Why did it change?

Well, we have some issues with funding that because of the pandemic they couldn't do the event.

So we have luckily it was absorbed by UC San Antonio, which is an independent agency now.

So this is certainly will be responsible for the role of marketing parades, fairs and special events that grew up on the Riverwalk.

This group is mostly interested in development and bringing the right combination and improvements on the Riverwalk and finding the funding to do the funding.

We would think that the city is going to do that or different groups, Economic Development Foundation or whatever it's called now.

Is that not the case that the city is not going to have the money or you are a lobbyist group?

How does it work?

Well, no, the group would look and apply for grants.

It's going to be in partnership with the city and other organizations.

So we're going to be very, very inclusive.

There's agency in town that do a great job like this.

We keeping the quality of the water.

We're not going to get involved in that.

We're going to ask them for their help.

The city plays a major role in the leases of the real water.

That money should be used for improvements of sidewalks.

One of the things that you informally worked on to do a major survey of seven or eight organizations how to Improve the River Walk.

One of the things that came out in the conversations is that we've got to improve the sidewalks, the bridges.

There's not enough lighting.

Some groups have also said to us that folks in wheelchairs don't have better access to the river walk.

So we need to look at the next five, 15 years, how we could also build elevators in for better access.

And you were.

Comparing this to SeaWorld and Texas in that they have new rides or attractions every year and that the Riverwalk needs this kind of thing to to get locals to come back, even tourists to come by.

Exactly.

The owners and the officers of the organization are major stakeholders on the real walk, doing a lot of real estate.

So the chairman, Terry Portlaoise, owns the Mad Dogs Restaurant Group, which now has seven locations, which is not only a developer but part owner of the Canopy Hotel, the Esquire.

Hagman Oasis.

So there's a lot of people behind some friendship also with the Big three and other investment that we have on the Riverwalk, the aspect.

So they're very focused on how to improve the experience of the Riverwalk and bring something new.

One of the ideas was to make it a better experience for Christmas in the holidays.

So maybe brighter.

Lights on the trees, just the.

Thought is in the words.

So really, with the help of the city city manager's office and a lot of the folks, there is funding to improve the lighting.

One of the conversations been for years, Randi, is how to have a light system.

Where is a concert conventions in town.

We've probably put the lights red or pink or whatever, or we say congratulations and a team with green lights or blue lights or yellow lights.

So that will be something that will happen in the next couple years.

And we're talking basically the old Riverbend area, not the toward the mission reach of the museum reach, or is that going to be part of it?

No, it's mostly the main focal point from about Castroville on commerce all the way through the Drury Hotel, same areas that will be the focal point.

And with all the changes at the Alamo right now, the corner of the Alamo, they have a big cannon up there that's right in front of the walkway, the Presidio Del Rio that goes down to the river walk that you say is going to be taken away.

And that's going to be change.

That whole the sand over.

That entrance should be a focal point for the Alamo.

I think that you're going to see a lot of improvements at the Alamo right now with the great management of Rogers, of the executive director.

The Alamo trustees are also putting a lot of effort so that in parts of Alamo Blast, it's going to change and it will either a focal point or new entrance to the Alamo, the Future Museum Visitor's Center also.

So I think all of that will complement the new entrance to the Riverwalk from the Hyatt Hotel.

Any new businesses in the pipeline that you're hearing about, or at least you could say maybe different kinds of businesses coming out?

We're we're trying to attract the fortune.

I think Randy said almost 95% of the Riverwalk is Leeds.

So we've got to figure out exactly what mix of retail, restaurant experience that we can bring to the table.

But I think the best thing right now is we looked at a master plan that looks at the whole picture from safety and security, illuminate the bridges that are lighting more water features.

And how about art, which is how much is for tourists and how much is for locals right now?

How's the business for tourists versus locals?

And what do you want to see?

What are you going to focus on?

Well, there are gold on the officers will be bringing more locals to town that have not been on the real walk in the many years of a lot of times, like even my family, we bring a lot of people to the Riverwalk and we have family.

Celebrations in town.

Birthday and early wedding.

But we want to see a lot more of that.

And I think working with the city on other issues like fighting the actions will really improve the parking.

Yeah, that's that's one of the things you hear about.

I know where to park, but thank you very much for coming in and telling us all about it.

This is the Riverwalk business Group.

You'll be hearing more about that.

Marco Barros, thanks for coming in.

Thank you, Randi.

With all the growth in the Hill country recently and especially up in the Burnie area, there's some concern there about just how it is being managed, especially in terms of roads, transportation.

And there are some concerned citizens that have been meeting and not real happy with some of the plans right now.

Joining us is the niece, Dever, who is a spokesperson for There's a Protect Our Hills group going on up there right now.

You also had a couple of meetings recently.

You have some more planned.

Tell us about this controversy, if you will, over two different but related plans.

The burning building master plan was presented last night to the city council and it actually was approved.

That plan is the foundation that they will utilize for their current structures and improving those current structures.

And that's.

Within.

Burning and burning.

The addition to that, though, it sets the foundation for a fair plan.

The thoroughfare plan is what they see in their future use future land use map and their future use of land that is privately owned.

And that is basically a ring around burning a loop.

They need it to connect.

They need connectivity.

So they have planned it to connect.

Yes, but citizens aren't happy with that.

What happened at these meetings and the ones coming up April?

Last night at the public hearing, we had the chamber films, the war room in the hallway and city Hall.

People were trying to the council know that even though they cannot vote for them and that people are not going to be able to have their ear as their council people, they are affecting their lives and their land by drawing lines on the map through their private property.

And so are they looking at possible eminent domain down the road?

They are saying no.

They're saying that eminent domain is not their first choice.

But if they don't plan that, they cannot want a piece of land south.

Request that right away be said stop.

And they can't do this because the city of Burnie may have the power to do this in their city limits, but there's an extra trail, extra territorial jurisdiction, T.J., And they really have no have no jurisdiction over any of that at all.

Who does, if anybody there?

They have some jurisdiction for an answer.

Local agreement with Campbell County Commissioners, court and county representatives that that they have to coordinate.

They have to coordinate because eminent domain can only be used in two ways.

That is, you have the power or you work with them to do that.

But in Burnie, there's basically a limited population.

But all of these developments right around it, Why not do something to do some kind of network of roads, or at least because that that population is booming and needs more thoroughfares somehow?

Correct.

I believe that they are trying to plan.

The problem that we ran into now is that the planning in all of this House has ignored the environmental and actually the detriment to other land.

That's next to what they're planning.

So they plan by the subdivide idea of what will help that subdivision.

So it's an island.

An island, an island in between is everybody else.

In after a subdivision is developed, it has to have the approval of every individual owner to do something in that area now.

Now, a developer can approve something, but after they sell a house, it has to be that homeowner there, right?

Well, usually what's been happening since the law changed in 2019 is that the developer comes in and asks for annexation or ask for a development agreement ahead of time.

So then when the private property owner comes in and buy a lot more house, they have no choice.

It's already settled for them.

A subdivision such as what?

I'm in myself.

That was well established out in the country, not even in Maine, T.J. originally would have to have individual owners vote on a ballot to become part of the city.

What about the existing roads and expanding those?

Is that not being done right now?

Is that being looked at as well?

That was actually addressed very thoroughly by our Citizens Committee of the Kendall County Burning Fair Oaks Transportation Committee.

They met for almost three years, produced a wonderful document that called County at a Crossroads that's available online at their website.

And what happened to it?

It's there.

It's a document is only as good as the people that utilize it.

And it's text helping with this at all.

Or is it counties that have to do this themselves?

What cities?

It's county cities and working with text that they have to utilize any of Texas roadways in their plans.

So what do you see happening right now?

What's going to happen at this next meeting and and who's going to give?

I guess it didn't sound like the city council was interested in changing their minds terribly, but they've got a lot of details that need to be ironed out as far as the citizens are concerned right now with you have a line over your property and your immediate, T.J., the way they have it structured.

If you have to come in to class that property in order to do anything with it, and if you plant that property and have a right of way there up here lying on your property, you have to designate that in your plan.

Now, this isn't specific to burning with all the growth in the whole Hill country, the whole area between here in Austin basically is going to have 1 million or two more people in the next 20, 30 years.

Are you looking at other areas to find ideas from?

Yes, we did.

The Transportation committee did a very good job of that.

They especially brought to the table two very big ideas.

One was narrow roads, larger nodes.

Your intersections are your choke points.

And, of course, planning was built over many, many years.

They have lots of checkpoints.

They were built originally for horse and buggy.

So now we've grown this tech that brought in and changed the main street to business highway, actually two streets, business highway that we have in the town that intersect.

And those areas are checkpoints.

We know that roundabouts being utilized for the first time have been brought to the table and have been now accepted.

So they're brought to the table.

But what kind of access to more property will you need to expand those?

They wanted more property.

There.

They will have to work out negotiating with owners in the areas where they put roundabouts and who's going.

To pay or who can pay.

Is the state ready to help out the county?

The city?

They have asked the state through the Transportation committee, the citizens committee.

They put a plan for spring, the Alamo Area Metropolitan Planning Organization that was accepted for one road in.

Which roads at 46.

Cascade Caverns.

Okay.

What about 46?

Because that's also a choke point at different times of day.

That's that's where we come in to a large problem because the Alamo Area Metropolitan Planning Organization wants to regionally plan 46 as a round go around their county or its entrance through I-35.

They want it to come from Sydney to Pipe Creek and be utilized as a event.

And so 46 is taking the city.

All right.

Well, thanks very much for coming in.

Again, there's another meeting in April, April 11.

Denise Deaver, thanks for coming in, spokesperson for Protect Our Hills.

Thank you.

Several stories making news this week in the San Antonio Current Interesting stories by staff writer Michael Karlis.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Always good to be here.

First of all, the Moses Rose Bar situation right around the corner from the Alamo on Houston Street.

Eminent domain.

The city had threatened or talked about six weeks.

There were supposed to be a deadline.

What happened this week?

Because the Alamo expansion plan calls for that bar to be used for the owner doesn't want it wanted.

So what happens?

Right.

There was a major update this week, Randy.

So as you may know, the Land Office offered to Mr. Vince Carter, the owner of the bar, $4 million for his property, which was double their initial offer of $2 million.

However, Mr. Kanta gave a counter offer, which was a total of ten and a half million dollars, $4 million for the business, and then $6 million for the actual property.

And this was something that he valued for taxes at about a half million dollars last you.

Right.

Right.

So as first reported by the Express-News, they found out that Mr. Cantu valued his property at, I think, about $527,000 for tax purposes.

However, he's actually said it's worth 17 million than that.

Coming down to ten and a half is actually.

And he says because of the Alamo plan renovation, that that's what it's really going to be worth.

So it'll appreciate in value to that.

Right.

That's that is our.

So what's going to happen now their lawsuit.

So they're planning to him and his attorney are planning to file a lawsuit against that General Land office because the actual location where the bar's located is supposed to be used for a 4D movie theater.

And they're arguing that the land office doesn't have the right to eminent domain of property for a profitable venture.

It's not public domain, but it's not just a museum.

It's also a movie theater that people have to pay.

But you're also you've checked out the bar and in that area right along the street right now, it's not doing too well.

Well, you know, I went down Saturday night just to check it out.

And it was wasn't wasn't that happened.

Wasn't.

Happening wasn't enough.

And some of the businesses down and around the corner, they have been vacant in the past.

The rocket is went out and there was a another business on the corner that's gone out the bar across the street.

Is it in your crystal ball going to be that much better after the Alamo plan?

Well, you know, I don't have a crystal ball.

Just report what people are doing now.

Shoot the messenger now.

What do you think is going to happen with this?

Now?

He did come down 17 to 10.

The city went up from our state, one up 2 to 4 million.

Can they meet?

No arbitration out of the lawsuit.

From from the statement that his attorney sent out yesterday to the media that ten and a half million counteroffer was their final offer.

So now it's up to the courts.

So it's going to be longer than a 13 day siege at Moses Road.

Rose Coward of the Alamo Bar.

How are the Harlan Dale School District also making news?

And this is something that's been a problem for some of the smaller school districts.

The population enrollment is dropping.

And so they're going to have to close schools and people are not happy.

What's the latest?

Right.

So this week, Harlan voted to close several elementary schools due to a low enrollment.

All the schools decided to close of less than 50% capacity.

And of course, those closures comes a week after South San Antonio's.

He also decided to close several schools for the same reason both school districts are facing budget deficits in the millions.

However, I've been going to a lot of school board meetings lately.

North Side, far west Side, a bunch of them.

A lot of people are starting to become concerned about the school voucher school choice legislation in the Senate that actually just came out of the Senate committee last night.

So it's up for a vote in the state legislator.

But the concern is that all this money is being taken away from public schools, especially in the poorer school districts.

It could lead to more school closures.

What are you hearing from the bigger school districts now?

There are also concerned as well.

But they have had problems with too much in terms of enrollment and having to expand.

Is that still the case?

You know, it's tough to say.

I mean, there's been a lot of support on both sides of this for need.

And I mean, a lot of parents are concerned about school security.

And the last night, an ISP board meeting.

A lot of people are complaints about stuff going on in the bathrooms.

And so a lot of these parents are saying, well, you know what, if you're not going to protect my child and you're not going to enforce rules at these schools, I'm going to pull my kid out.

And do you think it's going to happen in Harlan Dale again, asking your crystal ball.

Other school districts have had to close because the population is aging, so there's not as many school age kids.

Is is are these schools, you think going to close?

It's tough to say.

I can't say one way or another, but I know that I personally have everyone.

That's right.

A public education.

And the more schools are closed, the harder it is for people to go to school, especially low income folks.

You know, sometimes only one card in the household.

Some people don't even have cars.

So you close the neighborhood school while these folks go to another school five or six miles away.

And the magnet schools are also, I guess, causing a little bit of that across district lines or at least in the district in those areas.

All right.

Let's move on to another story that I don't understand or I haven't seen much of UFOs.

Explain.

Explain the UFO mystery.

Right, Randi.

Very underreported story this week.

Over the weekend, Nora scrambled some military jets to intercept a UFO that was flying over South Texas.

I guess they caught up with it as it was reaching the Gulf of Mexico.

Now we're talking they caught up with it.

We're talking like fighter jets.

Yeah, yeah, fighter jets.

I think it was two or three military jets, varying degrees that a a you know, got people money to send up and check out this balloon ultimately said it was a hobbyist over.

But of course that comes after all the rockets in February about the Chinese bible and shooting down of a balloon over the last year there might have been one more.

But when you say a hobbyist balloon, what what kind of thing are they talking about?

And big obvious balloon.

Well, you feel these hobbyist groups around the nation and they they send up these recreational other balloons cost about 12 or $18 and they send them up.

However, it's funny that this group in Illinois isn't the weather balloon.

And then about the same time that one of the balloons was shot over Canada in February, they lost contact with their boat.

So there's been speculation that the government spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to shoot.

How obvious?

Well, you know, drones, similar issue, a little bit lower as a certified drone pilot, I know that there are different kinds of airspace is that you're not supposed to be in as a hobbyist or as a certified drone pilot.

So any other UFO sightings that you know of out there, have you seen a UFO yourself?

Not not yet.

But, you know, San Antonio is one of the best cities to see UFOs I've previously reported on.

And why is that?

I don't know.

But they always laugh about New Year's Day, the most frequent time you might catch a UFO in San Antonio.

Well, thanks very much.

I am going to keep abreast of all that news in the San Antonio Current.

The byline is Michael Karlis staff writer.

With all this and more, Thank you very much for coming here.

And thank you very much for joining us for this edition of On the Record.

You can check out more on the record at KLRN.org You can also download the podcast there as well.

We'll see you next.

On the record is brought to.

You by Steve and Adele Dufilho.