Commissioners green-light Vaughan Road illumination
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Frio County commissioners have voted to install five new street lights along Vaughan Road after learning of repeated reports regarding undocumented immigrants traveling along the poorly lit thoroughfare.
Vaughn Road, located along the city limit line on the far northwest side of Pearsall, is part of a three-stage lighting project Pct. 3 Comm. Raul Carrizales proposed during budget season.
“I went out and I found the funding for this,” the commissioner said during a phone interview Monday, March 20. “This funding will allow the court to fund multiple light projects.”
Carrizales told commissioners during a Tuesday, March 14, meeting that the project was budgeted and approved during last year’s budget season.
“I went out there and did research and found poles that are in a good location for proper lighting,” Carrizales said.
Frio County Judge Rochelle Camacho supported Carrizales’ desire to drive the project quickly.
“I know there have been concerns about this,” the judge said. “There is absolutely no lighting; I do not foresee any problems since it is already in the budget.”
Carrizales told the court that residents along Vaughn Road have video surveillance footage supporting their claims of undocumented immigrants crossing the open field and traveling down the unlit county road.
“Right to the west side of north Pearsall is IH-35, so what is happening is they are parking their cars and letting people out and [those people are] crossing a big open area and coming down Vaughn,” the commissioner said. “There are people with camera footage. So, like the judge was saying, there are residents sitting outside armed.”
Carrizales said he has examined existing electrical poles along Vaughn Road and has identified poles that already have transformers.
Earlier this year, the commissioner completed what he described as a ‘test-run’ on an electrical pole and noted it took two months from start to finish.
According to County Attorney Joseph Sindon, AEP will send an engineer to inspect the poles, develop a site plan and provide the county with a quote, and then commissioners will come back and approve the final project.
The second phase of the commissioner’s lighting project includes adding additional light poles to Horizon West and Armadillo Road. The third phase involves talks on an inter-local agreement with the city of Pearsall to ‘light up Power Plant Road.’