Del Rio leaders unite

Del Rio Leaders Unite in Austin: Advocate for Airline, Infrastructure, and Healthcare Needs

With vital airline service, infrastructure projects, and rural healthcare support topping the agenda, local officials met with state lawmakers to make the case for Del Rio's needs.

Representatives for the city of Del Rio along with the hospital, our CEO Jorge Jurado, our superintendent of schools Dr. Rios, and a couple of commissioners, Commissioner Kerr Wardlaw, Commissioner Vasquez were all there. It was awesome, man. It was a great day.

Tx Tms: Mayor, briefly we talked earlier, tell us the rundown, how was it? I know there's a lot of things that Del Rio needs. What were a couple of things that you, the people that you met with, officials, how was the day there?

Mayor: We actually, you know what, man, it was an honor to be here this morning because Chief Parriman, Seminole's tribe, which is out of Del Rio, Bracket, Musquis, were presented with a proclamation this morning. And I was honored to go up to the floor. And that was a surprise for me too. And then we went ahead and started with our visits. I know Dr. Rios visited with the Chief Bernal, which is one of the actual lobbyists, or actually not lobbyists, he's the one that represents the educational part.
That went well. For us, we went ahead and sat down with Eddie Morales and presented to him, our state representative, presented with actually with the thoughts that we presented in Washington was a wastewater treatment plant and our new well.
Those are the two key components that we came to Austin to really support and get the support from them because those are the needs of our community. Along with that, we threw in the package of our airlines, which is another site that we wanted to kind of touch base with them. It went awesome. We went and visited the Roland Gutierrez. I know he only gave us a couple of minutes, but I know everybody's busy right now because the Senate and the House are passing bills left and right. And our Senator Roland went in and really supported one of the bills that's pushing forward that it's going to support the Val Verde County area too and the city of Del Rio, which is great.

Tx Tms: Mayor, and you spoke about the airline. One misconception is that the airline was failing in Del Rio. That is not the truth.  The airline was completely full. It was a success. It was just things that happened, a lack of pilots, Covid, but now that we don't have it, now we know that we need it more than ever.

Mayor: Well, that is the actual truth. American Airlines was never suffering the last couple of years before they left us. There were shorter pilots, but they never came to the negotiation table to give us one or two flights a week. Their idea was to shut us completely down, and they did it. But this does not stop the city and the county and the hospital and everybody working together to get a second airline to come and do business with us. We're working on it. Two years ago when we went to Washington, we presented that package, and we continue fighting. This year, myself and Mrs. Burkhart went up there, and we got a surprise, but we can't cross our T's and dot all our I's until we finalize the contract. And that's something that my friend Jorge Jurado has been pushing because he needs specialists and doctors to stay in our hospital. And that's one of the key things that he's working with myself. And this is where I put to play something, Mr. Martinez. The city of Del Rio and the county, there's always rumors out there that we cannot work together. The school, the hospital, and the county, we're working together. There's only one difference of opinion, and that's on the second international bridge. The rest, we're all working for the progress of our community. And that's one of the key things.

Tx Tms: Yes, that's very important. You hit it right there on point. There's so many things that we agree on, but everybody just loves to focus on that one thing. But there you guys do work together. And being Del Rio Days in Austin, this is the day where you see everybody out there. I know you said you have our CEO, George, Commissioner Vasquez, Commissioner Wardlaw, Dr. Rios there. So a lot of Del Rio out there right now communicating with everybody out there in the state capitol saying what we need in order so we can grow ourselves.

Mayor: Hey, Javier, and remember one thing. What if the county commissioner Vasquez and Jorge Jurado just opened up within a partnership? And that is something that is going to continue growing.  That partnership with the county is going to continue growing and bringing. And it's something that we're working. I'm constantly, you know, my heart is still with the hospital. I was there for five years. I loved it. I think there's a lot of potential. And this young man, Jorge Jurado, is going to push that hospital to be one of the best in the state of Texas. But we got to give them the tools. And that's something that we need to work. As a county, as a city, we need to support them. And put everything into play that without a hospital, we don't have a city.
Because that's where we all end up. We're all going to end up somehow, somewhere there. And he's providing that services for us.

Tx Tms: Next we spoke with our CEO of Alvaro Regional Medical Center, Mr. Jorge Jurado. George, good afternoon and thank you. And how's everything over there in Austin? Give us an update of everything that happened.

Jurado: Yeah, good afternoon, Javier. It is going well. Like the mayor said, we're here supporting each other as a whole, right? We want to move our community forward. And we want to make sure that we're all supporting each other. But things are going well for the hospital, really advocating for our community, right? Advocating for resources, advocating for support. You know, health care is challenging and rural health care is even harder. So just asking for the help, the support we need to continue to move forward. We want to make sure that we bring additional service lines, additional positions, because we deserve that. Our community deserves that higher level of care. And with the support of everyone, we can move towards that. I'm very happy and very pleased with the effort and the support that our employees have at the hospital and our board of directors and all the leadership that's going right now. So I had a great meeting today with senators and representatives. So again, just supporting each other and trying to move our community forward.

Tx Tms: Now, George, a couple of things that you might have pushed to these elected officials. What are some needs that you could let us know that you said, hey, this is what we need here in our rural and here in Del Rio, especially via VVRMC?

Jurado: Yeah, one of the big things is the airlines, right? For us, recruitment and retention of our physicians and specialists is at the top priority. You know, we can't take care of people without the physician. So really advocating for that support is huge. The other is ensuring that our voices are heard. A lot of rural hospitals throughout the United States, unfortunately, have closed. And, you know, what would happen to our community if that happened to us? So we want to make sure that our hospital remains strong and healthy, that we make good financial decisions, but that we also advocate for resources. And, you know, labor and delivery is one of those things that some hospitals in other areas are losing. We can't afford that. We deliver 800 to 900 babies a year. So we want to make sure that we advocate and that we are knocking on doors and talking to the right people because that's important to us. And like the mayor said, without a hospital, that is critical infrastructure to any community. So it's really nice to see everyone working together. And again, you know, being born and raised in Del Rio, Val Verde County, it's a lot of pride that goes into, you know, representing and making sure that we move our community forward.

Tx Tms: Now, George, you spoke about the airline and how important it is for doctors because, you know, doctors, you know, you're trying to sell the city. Why is Del Rio? You need to move down. And it is one of the most critical things that we have is an airline to make Del Rio attractive so we could get these doctors. A lot of people say like, oh, why do we need to an airline? These are things that bring good doctors when you're trying to bring them into Del Rio. So, you know, a lot of people don't see that side. And I'm glad you brought that up.

​Jurado: Yeah, quality of life is one of the, you know, the biggest attractants to anyone, any professional, whether it be in the maquila industry, it be in health care. You know, quality of life is something that Del Rio can offer because it's a slower pace. You get to spend time with your family. You know, if we have an airline that only makes that even nicer, you know, you can get away quickly. Go, you know, go check on your family out of state or out of the city and then come back and take care of the community. So definitely we're hoping that that moves forward. And we know that our recruitment efforts will be that much stronger if we're able to do that.