Calvert speaks on benefits of new county facility

Tommy Calvert greets supporters during an Oct. 28 campaign stop at the Claude Black Center in San Antonio. Tommy Calvert greets supporters during an Oct. 28 campaign stop at the Claude Black Center in San Antonio. Photo: TOM REEL / Photo: TOM REEL / Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Calvert speaks on benefits of new county facility 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

Creating a neighborhood reinvestment fund throughout unincorporated Bexar County is one goal on Bexar County Precinct 4 Commissioner Tommy Calvert’s crowded to-do list. The commissioner, in his sixth month on the job, outlined his approach to the new position and fielded questions during a June 25 town hall meeting at Rackspace Hosting in Windcrest.

Explaining that he and the four other county commissioners administer several budgets — including the sheriff’s department, district attorney’s office, county court, justice of the peace, constable, juvenile court, University Health Systems, and others — Calvert told the audience the county commissioners’ budget was “50 percent justice, 40 percent health and 10 percent everything else.”

Calvert highlighted some of his accomplishments and contributions in his first 200 days.

“We are about to get a 52-acre facility on Rocket Lane across from Boysville, which will house a $4 million health clinic, a tax assessor’s office, a $7 million sheriff’s substation, a constable’s office, a fire substation, and a lot more,” he said.

Calvert noted that the county constable and justice of the peace are currently housed in an office at Loop 410 and Rigsby Road that the county rents for $500,000 per year.

“We’re going to save the taxpayers half a million dollars a year just by building a permanent county facility and moving the precinct 4 offices to the facility on the 52 acres,” he said. “We will have the first Precinct 4 community offices, we’ll have parkland, a veterans park, all of the county services there.

“Precinct 4 desperately needs facilities for our sheriff’s deputies,” Calvert said. “They are currently operating out of a trailer on the South Side. They have to come a long way to respond to anything on the Northeast Side. As such, we’re wasting money on gas, tires and maintenance. And this is going to hugely reduce response times.”

Calvert also noted concerns over animal control issues, and said the county is working with the city of Kirby to build a new county animal shelter, which Kirby will administer. He said the new shelter will have 60 kennels with the ability to double its capacity.

He listed several accomplishments of his term, including an agreement with Holt Caterpillar to build a $20 million, 85,000- square-foot headquarters in the county, and a recent job fair at the AT&T Center that drew 1,800 job seekers.

He then identified several key goals, including: improving lighting on county roads; installing surveillance cameras throughout the precinct to deter illegal dumping and vandalism; and refurbishing and reopening Southeast Skyline softball fields, built by the county in 2008 at a cost of $3.3 million, then shuttered last month because of mismanagement.

One of Calvert’s most significant goals is the creation of a Neighborhood Reinvestment Fund.

“I’ll be meeting with HOAs in the county to discuss this. The goal is to revitalize run-down neighborhoods. If old neighborhoods, those at least 20 years old, are renewed, it prevents the need for building new substations in newly constructed areas,” he said.

He noted projections that 1.5 million people will move to Bexar County over the next 20 years.

“It’s more economical for the county to fix up old neighborhoods and attract these new residents than to have them settle in new neighborhoods, which increases the demand for fire, EMS and sheriffs, and all the expensive infrastructure that goes with them,” he added.

Calvert also addressed the controversial subject of annexation of territory by San Antonio.

“The only tool I have for opposing the annexation of land in Precinct 4 is persuasion,” Calvert told the audience. “Legally, we can’t do anything to stop it. San Antonio’s annexation process has handcuffed my ability to move forward on improving our Emergency Services District.

“Let me put this diplomatically,” he said. “There is a financial impact data sheet that says Precinct 4 is the only area targeted for annexation by San Antonio that has a negative financial impact because of the need to build fire, EMS, and sheriffs’ substations. I think that ‘negative impact’ label is nonsense, and I interpret that to mean the city plans to put in the needed infrastructure last. I’m going to call them on that early.”