It's days like these that we really could use a waterpark

Current temperature 108 degrees, feels like 110

Uno, si, uno no.  The article below by Ashley Richards, then of the Laredo Morning Times, is from June 6th, 2007. It deals with former district VII councilman Juan Ramirez's protracted attempt at securing a water park for Laredo. It also talks about how Most of the other councilmen, including current district I representative Mike Garza opposed those plans. Another project that was then in the planning stages, the city's municipal golf course did manage to survive however.

On hot, triple-digit temperature days like today, who will most likely benefit from the golf course? Mostly "ricucho" types who are always trying to impress one another. On the other hand, who would benefit from a cool, refreshing water park? Of course, most of Laredo would; families, the young and the old, people from Laredo as well as visitors.  It simply makes to much sense that if only one of the two projects should have taken precedence, it should have been the water park. Of course, it didn't and here we are, a city of about 250, 000 people with no water recreation park to call our own and enjoy. With this kind of thinking, the city council should probably adopt "doing for the rich, at the cost of the poor" as their motto.


From the June 6, 2007 edition of the Laredo Morning Times

Laredo City Council members are already proposing changes to a list of projects in a nearly $73 million bond issue approved this week.  A long-awaited water park on the list, originally planned to be located near Lake Casa Blanca, was a point of contention for some councilmen at Monday’s meeting.
 
In the proposed bond issue, the municipal water park, now planned for an area southwest of the Laredo Entertainment Center, could receive $5 million. District I Councilman Mike Garza, however, said liability issues for the city to run a water park are reason enough to reconsider undertaking the project.
Instead, Garza and other councilmen said there should be a private venture so the city does not get “in the business” of managing a water park.
 
District VIII Councilman Juan Ramirez, a strong proponent of a municipal water park, said the city faces the same liability concerns with its municipal swimming pools and it should not be deterred from the project.
“I’m against using a private entity in conjunction with the city,” Ramirez said, adding that he worries the city will lose control of the water park as he said the city has at the Laredo Entertainment Center.
 
Ramirez said he plans to force the water park project to a vote by starting a petition soon to prove the park is what citizens want. To force a referendum and bring the issue to a vote, Ramirez must get signatures from 10 percent of the city’s registered voters, which he said is approximately 10,000 Laredoans.
 
Because of the non-specific language that will be used when selling the bonds, the $5 million for the water park could be allocated to similar projects. District III Councilman Michael Landeck said he would like the money for the water park and the $5.6 million set aside for a municipal golf course — two projects he is uncomfortable having the city fund —instead be divided among the councilmen.