U.S Military to Marfa and Presidio Airports
On Wednesday in my updates to Commissioners Court I gave an overview of what (little) I now about a plan by the U.S. Military to bring in and/or build barracks at both the Marfa and Presidio airports.
The airports are County property and are operated by the County. We have stakeholders who own hangars and lease ground space for those hangars, with all monies collected from lease payments reverting back into the airports maintenance and operations budget. All fuel sales at both airports also fund the maintenance and occasional capital improvements to the airports system in Presidio County.
Since 2012 we have had an airports manager to run the airports. That’s a misleading title, as the primary job of the airports manager is not to be present as an attendant or laborer, but is to keep books, order supplies, manage fuel inventory and apply for and operate grants from the FAA and TXDOT aviation. The latter part of this job description takes very specialized skills and communications abilities. Our airports manager Chase Snodgrass has proven to be a uniquely qualified individual to do this job, and I greatly appreciate his experience, expertise and dedication to improving our airports.
About two weeks ago I received a message from Chase that he had been contacted by the U.S. Army about a planned deployment of troops to Marfa and Presidio. The mission is to support the U.S. Border Patrol (CBP) in their efforts as our border security.
I have not yet had any contact with anyone from the military, but I presume Chase was contacted because he is known to be our representative for both airports and also he is a former Border Patrol agent and has multiple contacts within CBP.
At this point there have only been a few telephone conversations between Chase and the military. Only general concepts have been discussed and they are as follows:
1) The military is seeking permission to house approximately 300 troops at the Marfa airport and set up lodging, in modular container type units. for the Presidio airport the idea would be the same but the troops would number approximately 100.
2) Support and auxiliary functions would be constructed at a rapid pace adjacent to the barrack sites.
3) The deployment would be of an open-ended length of time.
I had not come forward publicly with this information as I had expected, based on the timeline they said they were considering (immediate). I was expecting to receive more detailed information that I could then bring to the public and Commissioners Court but I have not yet received any.
What I have done since receiving this information is discuss this with the County Judge and also our Treasurer’s Office. I forwarded our existing lease with CBP for the shooting range at the Marfa airport to our County Attorney Blair Park for review to make sure that document doesn’t already provide for terms of an operation like this one (I don’t believe it does). I have had multiple discussions with Chase and have now also been talking to our Emergency Management Director Gary Mitschke about how this could affect us and whether there are County operations and/or facilities that could benefit from capital the army sets up which they may leave for us once the deployment is completed.
Generally, after thinking a whole lot about this I have come to the conclusion that it’s in the best interest of the County to have the greatest possible level of open communication with the military and provide host service to them as best we can. I don’t agree that the troops are going to have any significant role to play in “securing the border” in this part of the Big Bend, and I have some trepidation about having so many troops in the area without clear tasks and goals. That history (Ezequiel Hernandez) could repeat itself is my greatest fear.
That being said, after reflection, if troops are coming to our area it’s best to have them as partners. We have a water well within the “non-aeronautical” designated area at the Marfa airport. It is functional but has no storage tank. The Army will need a tank and we could have a permanent benefit if they build one. This is but one small example of how we, as a County government, can try to make some lemonade out of this for ourselves. I commit to trying to get what’s best for the citizens and the County in this situation. A year ago this all would have seemed bizarre, but things are very different right now. I promise to share anything i possibly can with you all as soon as I hear anything or see any documents.
Lastly, I do know that yesterday there was a closed-door meeting in Alpine hosted by the military for law enforcement and Border Patrol. I expect we’ll hear more soon.
Sincerely,
David