County jumps off Alamo sidelines
Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said the “good and the bad” of the Alamo’s history should be on display at a proposed museum next to the historic site.
It’s time for the county to get involved, Wolff said Tuesday.
Bexar County commissioned a diverse group of historians and scholars to work on an interactive website detailing the area’s history. The project is beginning its third phase, and Wolff said the county should use its resources to support the proposed museum.
“I think at some point here we need to become more active, quite frankly,” Wolff said. “We have an opportunity to have a major impact on what will happen in the Alamo museum.”
His colleagues agreed, saying they want to be sure the county’s project includes unbiased representations of Native Americans and other people of color.
Early mission burial records simply attributed a person’s death to “killed by Indians.” Commissioner Rebeca Clayflores said historical context is needed to avoid stereotypes.
“Just because the history is racist, we as a community need to be careful that we don’t continue to perpetuate the racism,” she said.
Mario Salas, a member of the county’s historical commission who has taught African American studies, said most people don’t know that Santa Anna had an all-black regiment here in 1836 because that part of the story has been marginalized.
“No one should write history with a big eraser, and that’s
kind of what happened over the course of time,” Salas said while answering questions from Commissioner Trish Deberry.
The city has been working with the 30-member Alamo Citizen Advisory Committee on a $450 million project to give Alamo Plaza a makeover and construct a 130,000-square-foot museum. The Texas General Land Office and nonprofit Alamo Trust also are involved. The county has remained primarily on the sidelines. However, Wolff previously supported preserving the 1921 Woolworth Building, site of one of seven lunch counters that peacefully desegregated in 1960, and keeping the plaza open and accessible.
In 2018, Bexar County started creating detailed interactive web pages featuring the history of the area to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the founding of the Mission San Antonio de Valero, along San Pedro Creek, and the presidio that once stood in the area of today’s Plaza de Armas, or Military Plaza. Called Story Maps, the first phase of the county project focused on the city’s origins. It won an Excellence in Media award from the Texas Historical Commission, and the county moved on to a second phase covering 1810 to 1876.
On Tuesday, commissioners approved a $175,845 contract with the University of Texas at San Antonio for the third phase, focused on the 1870s arrival of the railroad to the end of World War II in 1945. It will include information on about 20 specific topics, such as labor leader Emma Tenayuca and the 1938 pecan shellers’ strike; development of early women’s organizations and the League of United Latin American Citizens; and the evolution of local park sites such as the former Hot Wells resort and Japanese Tea Garden.
The third phase is expected to be complete in October 2022.
Jail overtime
In other action, commissioners agreed to give the Sheriff ’s Office $2.6 million to pay 64,251 hours of overtime at the Bexar County Jail from March 13 to June 11.
Commissioner Deberry continued to voice concern about the ongoing costs. The budget office projects overtime expenses will be about $13 million, $4 million over budget, by the end of the fiscal year.
Deberry asked Sheriff Javier Salazar to keep pursuing ways to recruit more staff and improve retention to reduce “tax dollars being spent.” That should include loosening spacing standards and other measures put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, she said.
Salazar is trying to fill more than 200 vacant uniformed guard positions. He said he’d been successful, thanks in part to a $2,000 signing bonus. A county memo noted 30 detention cadets graduated last month, and 44 more are set to graduate in late June.
Meanwhile, the Sheriff ’s Office has had 54 recruits complete a 40hour course that qualifies them for limited roles in the jail. Another 25 will finish soon. The office reported a reduction in mandatory overtime from 6,208 hours the first full week in March to 5,270 hours the first week in April. Overtime hours are projected at about 4,500 per week this month.
The sheriff said the jail is offering COVID-19 vaccinations to inmates, and he expected about one-third would opt to have the shots. But Salazar wanted to move cautiously, in consultation with University Health staff at the jail, before relaxing any spacing or isolation standards at the facility.
“I think it’s too soon to start getting too ambitious about that,” Salazar said.
Homeless housing
Commissioners also authorized staff to negotiate a contract with The Housing First Community Coalition for Towne Twin Village, a 205-unit complex for homeless people over age 50. The project includes 100 500-square-foot “tiny homes,” 80 apartments, 25 RV trailers and seven community buildings. The county manager’s office was directed to identify potential funding sources to provide $4 million, matching $7.8 million in city and private funds, for the first of two construction phases at 4711 Dietrich Road on San Antonio’s East Side.
Commissioner Tommy Calvert said the complex uses a model that’s been successful in Austin and other U.S. cities to deal with homelessness. The community, set to break ground May 12, will have medical, dental and mental health clinics and other support facilities with onsite caseworkers.
“Every council district should have one of these, and every county commissioner’s precinct should have one of these,” Calvert said.