Mayor, County Judge address post efforts following Winter Storm 2021

Seguin, TX, USA / Seguin Today

Cindy Aguirre

(Seguin) – Post winter storm work continues for the city of Seguin and Guadalupe County. The city of Seguin over the weekend began by assisting those families who were left without water. Assistance began with the announcement by Seguin Mayor Donna Dodgen that a free water station would be provided over the weekend for any resident in the area who needed it.

“City folks have water, but our city encompasses areas that do not have water that have other systems that service them that are not up and running and or maybe have boil orders going on and I want people to have access to water as easy as they can and that’s good drinkable water right now. We are just trying to help everyone else out — the county folks who need water. We are just trying to be really good neighbors and good citizens and good people to each other to help out. We have it. We might as well use it,” said Seguin Mayor Donna Dodgen.

While water has been restored at many homes, others throughout the area are still having to haul water in and or having to boil it for consumption.

Dodgen says the work this Monday also begins for those who might have the basic services but who are now left with other issues like leaks and plumbing issues. She says to make that work easier, the city has developed a place for them to go for some of their answers. Plus, she says the city is already working on ways to help mitigate the cost of this historic winter storm for local families.

“I want them to know that we’ve already started a Winter Resource Recovery page on our website to help them with some questions that they may have for plumbers and electricians and that sort of thing. We are planning to take to council and working on a plan for mitigation to help with the cost of extra electricity and water. We will probably be waiving permits. Again, that has to go to city council, but we are looking at that sort of thing. Our planning department is working on how to help with that sort of thing with contractors and permitting and that sort of thing and so, what happens in an emergency, you can repair, you can do emergency repairs and heating and plumbing lines, and that sort of thing so don’t feel like you can’t do some things because you can. We really want to work on a plan to help mitigate that and help our citizens to move forward with as minimal expense as they can because this has been a terrible time for all of us and we need to come together,” said Dodgen.

Dodgen says there is still a lot of work that needs to happen and the city is doing all that it can to address many of the issues that people are still facing.

With a new week now underway, Dodgen ask that people support local businesses as they too have suffered a great loss and could use a deserving jumpstart.

“I want people to shop downtown and shop local, help everybody out. I want you to share what you have, and I want you to check on your neighbors and I want you to say thank you to city, county, radio, TV, newspaper persons that have been out and about helping other people. Remember to be gracious but you know we are a community, and we are working hard, the city and county and city staff are working hard to mitigate these expenses and to get out what we need, and we’ll learn from this. I know we’ll learn from this and do better, but we are great together. We need to think about things and think outside the box about how we can help our community and stay here because we have all suffered and we’ve all been put out. Things have changed in this last week and even in this whole last year so be gracious, be a good neighbor and thank you for all that you do Seguin,” said Dodgen.

Guadalupe County Judge Kyle Kutscher says while most of us were left in the dark at home, there was plenty of behind-the-scenes work – work that truly was a team effort. He says not only is the county still trying to address those without water or who have other needs but it is also making sure that it applauds the true Texas spirit that is being illustrated countywide.

“This has been an extremely challenging and unprecedented event and work week for a lot of folks, law enforcement, fire fighters, first responders, our emergency management team, road and bridge crews, TxDOT — everybody has been out working tirelessly trying to take care of citizens. I know our emergency management folks have been hauling water. We had a great partnership with Niagara here in Guadalupe County and in Seguin. They delivered a bunch of cases of water. They were delivered to the hospital and other places and while it’s been extremely challenging, it’s also another example and representation of the kind of partnership and community that we have because a lot of people have come together and worked through the night many many times this week just trying to do what is right and take care of people, so I’ve seen a lot of acts of kindness. The rest of the country has been giving Texas a little bit of a hard time because we weren’t’ prepared as they might have been up north for this type of winter event but at the same time, seeing tremendous partnerships and like I said acts of kindness where people helped each other out and that’s what Texans do. We just do what needs to be done to take care of each other and that’s what we’ve seen this (past) week,” said Kutscher.

Kutscher says he also understands that were a lot of questions and frustrations on the handling of services for the public. He says these were definitely challenging times and believes decisions were made carefully.

“Everybody is trying to do their best. I know the city of Seguin, Schertz and Cibolo and other cities are trying to help out with their residents and get supplies to them if needed but again, it’s challenging to create these centers and warming places when you don’t have utilities at those facilities or the driving conditions are just so bad that you can’t get citizens to those facilities so it’s going to be a lot of after action planning where we reassess how things went and look at what we can improve upon because there are a lot of improvements that can be made statewide and locally,” said Kutscher.

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