Big fish, big crowds, big money for Del Rio in April! Here's why you should care
By Ron Castle
Special to LIVE!
They’re baaack! Well..... not quite. Next month, the Bassmaster 2008 Elite Series brings their exciting fishing show back to Del Rio for the third year in a row, and I for one can hardly wait!
For you bass fishing fans out there who may have been living under a rock for the past two years, the Bassmaster Elite series is arguably the most prestigious professional bass fishing tournament circuit on the planet, and in 2006 Lake Amistad made history by hosting the very first Elite series tournament. The Elite Series has been on the march ever since, and this year Lake Amistad will be the fourth stop on “The road to the Bassmaster Classic.” The 2008 Elite Series season consists of fishing eleven lakes, and just before coming to Lake Amistad this year, the circuit will be making history by stopping at Lake Falcon in Zapata, Texas, for the first time ever. Lake Flacon is our sister lake to the south which is also part of the Rio Grande river system.
If the pros still have some energy left after fighting it out with Falcon’s “bass on steroids” (as the Zapata locals like to call them), they should be in for some more intense action here at Amistad. It has taken a four-day total of over 100 pounds to win here for the past two years, and my prediction is that this year’s April event may be the one that breaks the Bassmaster all-time four-day record of 122 pounds, 14 ounces. I’m going to really go out on a limb and also predict that the all time one-day record total of 45 pounds, 2 ounces may also be in jeopardy.
The reason I think both of these records could fall is the timing of this year’s Amistad event. April is without any doubt the most exciting month of the year to be fishing for bass here at Amistad, and with the now widespread use of swimbaits, I think some one is going to have some monster days. The swimbait category of baits has a well-deserved reputation of catching big fish, and with Amistad’s huge population of fish over 10 pounds, someone is bound to hit the mother load during this year’s tournament.
Pre-tournament practice for the 100-man Elite Series field begins on Monday, April 7, and the first day of competition will be Thursday. The field will be cut to fifty after the completion of day two’s fishing with the top fifty professionals and co-anglers fishing on Saturday. After Saturday’s competition, the co-angler champion will be determined, and the professional field will be cut down to the top twelve anglers to fish the final day on Sunday.
The professional winner will pocket a cool $100,000 and collect top points which will accumulate throughout the year to determine the Toyota Tundra 2008 Bassmaster Elite Series Angler of the Year. The total payout for this most prestigious award in professional bass fishing has been raised to more than $1 million for 2008! The final day of the Amistad competition will be the focus of ESPN-2’s one-hour national broadcast of The Bassmasters show which will first air the following Sunday, with multiple repeat broadcasts following throughout the remainder of the year.
It was this national television coverage which started in 2006 and continued in 2007 that has propelled Lake Amistad into the collective consciousness of bass fishermen literally all over the world. This has resulted in a real economic boom for the city of Del Rio and Val Verde County. For some local fishermen this has been a mixed blessing with traffic congestion at launch ramps, and the extra fishing pressure on the lake, but the extra revenue being collected by the National Park Service should eventually result in improved facilities for all park users.
One segment of the local economy that’s reaped a huge windfall is the real estate sector. Property sales and values anywhere near the lake have sky rocketed, and building activity is visible everywhere you look.
In addition, local motels have seen an increase in occupancy rates, and restaurants and gas stations have been blessed with increased business as well. Donna Langford, the director of the Del Rio Visitors Bureau, estimates a direct economic impact of $750,000 from the Elite tournament and of course the national publicity provided by the ESPN broadcasts has incalculable value. It’s a well known economic fact that money brought into the local economy by out-of-town fishermen circulates throughout the community and is multiplied many times over. Even though gas stations, motels, and restaurants are the more immediate beneficiaries of the money, everyone in the local economy eventually benefits from this influx of cash.
Schedules for the weigh-ins will be announced prior to the tournament, and the public is encouraged to attend. It’s quite an exciting show that the Bassmasters team puts on during the weigh-in, with their version of a jumbo-tron showing clips of the day’s fishing action, and the master of ceremonies providing colorful commentary throughout the proceedings. If you haven’t seen one of these shows, you owe it to yourself even if you’re not a bass fishing fan.
Local support of these events is also a big factor in the ESPN decision to bring events into a given community. The final day’s weigh-in is especially fun since the suspense of determining the final winner is heightened by use of a “hot seat” during the weigh-in. The starting leader takes the seat, and as each subsequent contestant weighs in, the seat is up for grabs. This can make for some exciting drama toward the end.
Weigh-ins aren’t the only fun to be had during the Elite Series week. Local fishermen can learn a lot by following their favorite pro angler(s) with their boats during the competition. By being able to observe the locations and the techniques the pros use (from a respectable distance), this can be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The pros will also be available to the public at the Civic Center parking lot Wednesday afternoon to sign autographs and pose in pictures with their flashy, graphics-adorned “wrapped” bass boats.
So...... this week-long event promises to be a great time for everyone and is deserving of all the public support possible. Don’t miss the opportunity.
Editor’s note: Ron Castle is a passionate, active fisherman who lives with his wife Sara on a bluff overlooking the Lake Amistad. Castle fishes the reservoir aggressively, and serves the Del Rio Chamber of Commerce as advocate and volunteer on behalf of the economic potential of tournament fishing here. Castle will cover the Bassmaster Elite Tournament for LIVE! so look for more of his informed, concise writing in April.
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You have no shame,
You have no shame, Smiley!
Bill Sontag
Feature Writer
Southwest Texas LIVE!
it wasn't just the city
it wasn't just the city council. I know for a fact the Bassmaster's were trying to come to lake Amistad for several years before they actually did. Between the chamber and the city not working together and, not investing the money the Bassmaster's requested, it didn't happen. Lucky for us it finally did happen.It tickles me how people live in Del Rio and not know how much the lake is used and how much our local economy could benefit from it. Thats like living in Dallas and not knowing theres a football team there. This tounrment is a guaranteed investment return,but yet the city decided to promote some things like that stupid pagent for MTV. It's beyond me.
Can you imagine where we
Can you imagine where we would be now if our past City Council's had listened to a certain few people and had pushed or even at a minimum cooperated to get these televised tournaments to come here before now??? I certainly can. I attended a Chamber meeting a couple of years ago right after we got the tournament thing into full swing. If I remember correctly they briefed about 11 million alone in added income brought into Del Rio from the promotion of the lake brought about by the tournaments alone, and that was over two years ago. It has to be more now. Anyway I can do the math over 15 years of neglecting that resource, how about you guys?
This, our lake is a treasure as well as a goldmine. And yes the two are different. Ask the owners of the Ramada and they will tell you it's a goldmine. Ask the residents out there and they will tell you it's a treasure. I always look forward to seeing some of the wild wraps on those boats. And the fishermen as a whole are a bunch of great people. I haven't run into one yet that didn't have a moment to tell me how good the fishing was when asked.
I like your analogies, Amor.
I like your analogies, Amor. It is very much like a goldmine and a treasure.
Problem is, though, the treasure is like a priceless painting hanging in a private home where no one can see it but the owner, and the goldmine that has never been opened and the owners are waiting for the gold to come to the surface by itself.
Back in 2004, when I first came here to visit, I could find virtually NO information on Amistad. Google and Yahoo had only limited info that consisted mainly of Forever Resorts and NPS websites. Boating forums that I participate in had never heard of it. Had it not been for my own curiousity about what 67,000 acres of water in the middle of the desert looked like, we would have never landed here. As it was, we only planned to spend a day and then go on to Big Bend.
The economic potential that could be realized by making this treasure known to the rest of the world is staggering. With our climate and long boating season, this area could be a mecca for watersports of all kinds, rivaling even Lake Meade, But alas, it remains mostly in obscurity only because no one freaking knows about it!
One of the newest crazes sweeping the country is "Ecotourism". A large part of the population wants to go green and spend their vacation time being closer to nature. Where better to do that than here? We have what those people are looking for: clear blue water, historical and archeological sites like Seminole Canyon, Panther Cave, and the Devil's River pictographs. A fishery that is second to none anywhere in the world. Thousands of square miles of natural, unspoiled, beauty. Scuba Diving, kayaking, canoeing, water skiing, boating, fishing, the list goes on and on.....
And the best that we can come up with in the form of advertising all of this is a banner hanging over Veteran's Blvd welcoming fisherman and waiting for the Bassmaster Elite Series to stop by once a year. Pathetic! Where are the ads in national periodicals devoted to outdoor sports? Where are the 15 second spots on ESPN and OLN sports shows? I'm certain that there are those reading this that are saying; "We can't afford that". Bull! we can no longer afford not to! It's not an expense, it's an investment in our future.
A lot of opportunity has been missed since the dam was completed. It's time to start taking advantage of the resources that we have been blessed with and been missing out on. As I've said in other posts, we could have the same advantage that many other areas around the country have. A tax base and infrastructure that is supported by those that come here for recreation, instead of shouldering it ourselves. It can be done, but only if we want it and are willing to work for it, and invest in it.
I would love to see others have the same experience that I had when I came here for a visit. It took me all of 2 or 3 days to fall in love with Del Rio. I know I'm not alone.
And for the record: I still haven't been to Big Bend.
Veni, Vidi, Velcro ---- I came, I saw, I stuck around......
There are many ways in which
There are many ways in which people would love to have your help in getting the word out with the Lake Committee at the Del Rio Chamber of Commerce or as part of the volunteer cadre at Amistad National Recreation Area.
What puzzles me is that you're complaining about what was not done in years past when we usually hear comments about what should be done now and in the future. In any case, having served for a few years on the chamber's Tourism and Convention Committee, I know there is quite a bit of room tax money used to advertize in national magazines of all sorts.
And I think you'd be surpised at the amount of national broadcast publicity the chamber has arranged on behalf of Lake Amistad. Furthermore, ESPN spots are nothing in impact compared to the last three years of wall-to-wall ESPN coverage of the Bassmaster Elite Tournament here. (See Ron Castle's article on line here now.)
In addition, I know the chamber folks have produced and distributed families of brochures, classy video spots, and set up booths at travel, boat and recreation shows around Texas. They have a well-stocked inventory of information brochures at their Civic Center office, and much of that goes into mailed packages to businesses, telephone inquirers, and relocation packages.
Finally, if you're really interested in what they're doing, ask for some reports of how they spend their room tax money, or attend city council meetings when Donna Langford is reporting accomplishments once a month
To get your own clear idea of what the chamber has done, call Donna Langford there at 775-3571. I'm certain she'd like to give you a recitation of what has been done that is behind the scenes, and the economic impact the efforts have had on Del Rio.
And no all this hasn't just been launched recently; they've been at it quite awhile, incredibly criticized by some local folks who think they've placed too much emphasis on Lake Amistad! Get involved - be surprised.
Bill Sontag
Feature Writer
Southwest Texas LIVE!
Well, Bill, I have tried to
Well, Bill, I have tried to get involved. Almost 2 years ago, when I first landed on these shores, I visited the Chamber to volunteer my services. I met with Ms. Langford, outlined my experience and told her that I was, for all intents and purposes, at their beckon call. I gave her all my contact information and even supplied references.
I happen to know a few things about generating tourism. The area where I grew up and lived until coming here is largely dependent upon tourism. I see what has worked for them, and I know it can be applied here as well. If you can get a bunch of New Yorkers to drive 3 hours to look at people riding in horse drawn buggies, it isn't much of a stretch to get people to drive 3 hours to see what we have to offer. And trust me, we have much more.
I also have over 25 years of experience in planning and conducting large fund raising activities. One of which was a 3 day auction of entirely donated items. In all, the events I was involved in (either planning or helping execute) accounted for the bulk (75%) of a $250,000 annual budget for the Fire Company I was a member of. We weren't supported by tax dollars, only a token donation ($5,000) by the municipality. We had to raise our own money, and we did. By soliciting for donations and holding fundraisers. Individual donations accounted for just about 20% of our operating budget. Income from investments totaled about 10%, so if you do the math, it was a sizeable amount of money that had to be raised EVERY YEAR to provide emergency services to our first due area.
A funny thing developed out of that meeting: Absolutly nothing! Almost 2 years later and my phone still has not rang, nor have I recieved any indication that my help is either desired or needed. I don't know about you, but I am not about to go begging to help anyone.
If my phone rang tomorrow, I'd gladly help in any way I could. But I did my part and offered myself up, I'm not going to beg. Either they want my help or they don't.
I have been here long enough to know that there are a select few that get the privelege of calling the shots around here. That's OK, it's part of the price tag for being here and I alone can't change it. I can spend my time just as well up here on the hill looking at the lake or fishing. I can also spend it griping on the internet. I would much rather spend some of it helping to better the community, but either way, I'm not losing any sleep.
Veni, Vidi, Velcro ---- I came, I saw, I stuck around......
I know exactly what you're
I know exactly what you're talking about and have experienced the same thing in Del Rio when volunteering. Mostly, it appears that "they" (whatever group, Chamber or otherwise) have their own way of doing things and simply cannot handle good suggestions or changes. I agree with all of you who have posted here that we are missing out on monies that could benefit our community. What is wrong, I think, is that there is no basic master plan of ANY kind for growth of the city. If we start just grabbing at whatever seems like a winner at the time, we'll wind up with uncontrolled growth and myriad problems. Our Mayor and Council should organize a task force with a responsible growth planner and GET US MOVING FORWARD. Growth and money do not necessarily equal progress. Responsibility and proper planning are essential. I lived in Austin during its "bomb and boom" years and saw what happened there--developers ran amok, nothing was really planned, and look at the place now--a disastrous hodge-podge that frustrates us all. Maybe you could present this at a Council meeting and bypass the Chamber. It's a thought, anyway.
There IS a Comprehensive
There IS a Comprehensive Master Plan completed last year, and it's not bad. Not as detailed as you might like, but the contractor stipulated that some parts - such as the section on parks - need a stepdown plan to qualify the city for state funding and grants. As Councilman-at-Large Mike Wrob posted below, look at it here:
http://cityofdelrio.com/index.asp?NID=287
It's a damned important starting point, and a lot - I mean a LOT - of community folks worked on this with the very professional planners. The plan is imperfect, but it's got some very strong points that beg attention, and many have already gotten it.
Whether we've got the wheels (tax base, community interest, political integrity) to forge ahead to implement it is another thing. By political integrity I mean that one of the greatest flaws in such a document is the propensity of new leadership coming in that wants to trash the work of his/her predecessors, and the most common way of doing that is to simply ignore documents such as this, and make a mark by starting all over again.
It's discouraging, and I saw it throughout my federal career, every time there was a change in administration in Washington DC. Good people tossed aside, good planning ignored, decent policy reversed. Some of the worst people elevated, planning launched that reinvented the wheel, and politically-inspired policy advanced.
Doesn't have to be that way if cities would simply "plan their work, and work their plan." Failure to do so - coupled with political chicanery - is where the waste comes in that keeps critics riled up.
Bill Sontag
Feature Writer
Southwest Texas LIVE!
Frances Rodriguez has done a
Frances Rodriguez has done a very good job of initializing implementation of the plan. At the Aug 2nd meeting she presented us with a list of goals from the master plan for this year that the staff planned to accomplish for the year. So far, they are on track to hit most if not all of them.
One thing that is hard to remember is that we are a poor community. I was visiting some people in Noblesville, IN last week. Noblesville is about the same size as Del Rio and they told me that their budget is about $60 million. Ours in Del Rio is $20.3 million for this year. About half of that goes to the fire and police departments. For the people wondering what the city does with their tax dollars, the city receives only about $3.6 million in property taxes.
One way we can try to work around this is to obtain more grants, something Ms. Rodriguez and her staff are working hard to do.
Mike, I wouldn't say poor so
Mike, I wouldn't say poor so much as poorly managed. No I'm not talking about meeting budgets. I'm talking about missed opportunities. In the past our inability to see the future and give breaks [writ incentives]to industry to move in has hamstrung us.
Yes [although I haven't seen it] I understand that we now have an economic package to offer prospective industry, but we have missed out on so much. The missed opportunities that I know of dismay me and I'm sure that there are many that I do not know about. Those that we have missed out in the past are effecting us now and for the foreseeable future. Yes that effect is intangible but I guess that's my point we don't know how much better we would be if we had supported economic incentive packages in the past, all we do know is where we are now and where we are now is not where we should be. I don't even know if the economic package that I understand that we have is competitive or too conservative, because again I haven't seen it.
A community can entice outside industry in by providing one or all of the following; tax breaks, skilled workforce, community involvement, a ready consumer base, low cost workforce, access to needed production materials, or a lowered cost of doing business by helping in any number of ways. I've probably forgotten a few since these are just off the top of my head but I'm sure many of you can see the ones that we either physically can not offer or we simply fall short of "like skilled workforce". This is where we should play towards our strengths. And if we don't have any then we create them.
If local businesses get cranky because we as a City didn't offer them an incentive, well too bad they're already here. I wasn't offered one in any of the Cities that I have opened businesses, but then I don't employ 100's of people and that would bring in millions of durable goods purchases, taxes, home sales and so on and so forth, so I'm not complaining about it at all. I just hope that each City that I do business in gets it together and grows so that my business will have a larger consumer base.
Please, Patrie, don't try to
Please, Patrie, don't try to put "poorly managed" on top of "poor." Pitifully low wages paid to employees here are excused as, "Well, after all, this is just Del Rio." That's poor by anybody's standard of comparison.
Yes, it's managers who use that excuse, and advertisers that thrive on it, as well as the kinds of retailers who are attracted because they know that they'll never have any real "upscale" competition. That's why quality restaurants struggle and often fail, while fast food is everywhere. It's why the core of the city is a five-mile-long strip city of unmitigated visual pollution, and downtown may never recover, despite the best and most sincere efforts of a few.
"Poor" is a city where the best qualified people - such as you - refuse to run for public office for all kinds of reasons, thereby contributing to the poor management so often decried.
"Poor" is a city where those well-meaning folks who do run are constantly assailed for not "fixing the streets" that have been allowed to deteriorate, because of what? We're poor, or we're poorly managed? Hey, with a limited tax base, and an inability to get the best qualified people to run for or hold public office, the answer is a toss-up, isn't it?
Would that all the talented complainers would step up to the plate, pay people what they're worth, and get involved in civic stuff that will really make a difference, not just noise and public image.
And, until they do, they've pretty well abicated their right to criticize people who have stepped up. Mike Wrob is my unvarnished example. He's a smart, articulate, educated businessman who is deeply involved in this community. He holds public office, not because of aspirations, but to serve and hopes to make a difference. He's a mentor and job provider to high school kids, without much public notice of it.
Most importantly Mike walks in his mocassins every day, and doesn't have a lot of company competing for them, just critics. The same may be said for many other public officials who deserve support. If they had it and it was tangible, they might be far more successful in dealing with our economic condition and our ability to manage it. The two are inexorably linked, one no more debilitating than the other, until we start a bugtussle about which one needs to be attacked first.
Bill Sontag
Feature Writer
Southwest Texas LIVE!
Mr. Sontag, Maybe you should
Mr. Sontag,
Maybe you should run for public office.
One thing is for certain, Del Rio has a low tax base but that is also a product of a poorly managed city planning. Let me expand on that, there are many pockets within city limits and within city neighborhoods that are not annexed and these folks do not pay city tax, they receive all the benefits and protection of our city, yet they pay no tax. If you ever examined the city map, you'll see just what I'm referring to by the shape of the city with all its jagged edges and indentations of county subdivisions. I think our council has had several opportunities to annex these neighborhoods and be equitable to all citizens, yet raising the tax base for the greater good.
Thanks for the suggestion.
Thanks for the suggestion. I'd push for an Independent ticket of Maureen Dowd for president and Shepard Smith for VP at the national level, except they're doing more to keep us informed right where they are, thank goodness.
My understanding of this annexation mess is that, as Mike Wrob comments below, an annexation plan is in progress. Not having it when all those squiggly boundaries you mention were drawn is, on the surface at least, a graphic illustration of poor management.
But, I'm betting that some of that was an effort to gain development control where the city needed it most. Others were probably a result of political pressure to keep owners' property tax-free: more bad management. Simply saying we should just clean up and consolidate our boundary, however, is anything but simple.
As I understand it - and I sure hope Mike or someone will correct this, if needed - is that the city cannot annex until an annexation plan is approved, the exception being "voluntary" annexation in which the landower is not only willing, but requesting to have the land annexed into the city limits.
Otherwise, the spectre of eminent domain looms as a recourse for annexing land when the owner(s) are not willing. And for that, an annexation plan is required before the city can proceed.
Remember, that "voluntary annexation" is what brought Monarch Crossing - a.k.a SE Ranch - into our municipal sphere of influence. Had David Earl not been so anxious to be in the city limits, he would not have been eligible for the tax increment reinvestment zone that only the city - then - could bestow, and the current city council saw fit to rescind. Many people view this as an act of courage and good management, however late in the city's history.
Bill Sontag
Feature Writer
Southwest Texas LIVE!
I don't know about
I don't know about annexation opportunities in the past, but city staff, led by city planner Janice Pokrant, is putting together an annexation plan to be presented for council approval in the next few months. Can council count on your support when this issue comes up?
I do still contend that poor
I do still contend that poor management at the City level has left us where we are today, however I do admit though that my "base contention" is based upon supposition of what might have been. And trust me I can imagine or suppose quite a lot. And with good grounds I do believe. I guess that it's down to the fact that I'm an attack the problem kind of guy and saying that we are poor feels to me like we are giving up, while poor management is simply a problem to be fixed.
I would like to point out one factor in mine and many business owners defense, and I would also ask that you query other business owners on what I'm saying here as well; a large part of the low wage problem here in Del Rio is the lack of a qualified work force coupled with employee turnover, in that the costs of training new employee's draws down an employer's financial ability to pay incoming new hires over time. Yes on the surface it's a human resource hiring issue but when all measures to combat it are taken in good measure the fact remains that there are simply very few good "available" employable people here in Del Rio. I invite the LIVE Staff to interview my managers to obtain not just mine but their views on this matter, and trust me be ready to get an earful. Training new staff involves time and effort taken away from the primary objective. And many times that employee simply quits or is fired during the train up period causing a complete loss for the business, while the X employee simply bounces into another job and no bad for them.
It is frustrating for businesses to be denigrated by the very people that fail in their life’s test and due to our new societal norm of “it wasn’t me” blame the employer for their own faults. Not enough pay [even though I didn’t deserve or work for it], no benefits [even though I didn’t deserve or work for it], not enough training [even though I was sent to training, read the training manuals, received on the job training and signed that I understood it all, all while being paid]. Ok off my soap box now.
The bottom line here is that an employer cannot simply throw money at an employee and hope for performance. A $7 an hour employee will many times continue to perform at the $7 level even if he or she is paid $15 an hour. The onus is always on the employer to provide training and mentorship and we employers accept that to some extent. But when that fails we throw in the towel and the employee's still bitch and complain about it even when they were told to dress for work and wonder why they are in trouble for not wearing shoes.
I've asked this of my employee's before so maybe someone here can answer this; just how much work should you and I expect of someone for $8 an hour? I have yet to find this answer.
I truly do respect Mike for what he has done. I admit and in a sense regret that I no longer [I have served my time] have the ability to put myself out there like he has done and I respect him for that as well as for the time, effort and dedication that he puts into his elected office. Don't get me wrong though, that doesn't mean that I agree with all of his decisions, or with everything he has said. He and I have discussed a few of these. I am not shy about telling people what I think. But you know that Bill ;) As always, thanks for the discourse.
Dear me. Does the word
Dear me. Does the word "entitlement" ring any bells? That seems to be the motto for the 21st century in the U.S. A sad statement of condition.
Funny thing, up north they
Funny thing, up north they are struggling to get volunteers for ANYTHING. Here I can't give my time away. Go figure.
The concept of aggressivly marketing the area shouldn't be limited to just the city, though. It needs to be a collaberation of both the city council and the county commissioners court. I realize that, in and of itself, is a pipe dream. We have the new road at the Port of Entry as the only benchmark, but it speaks volumes about how these entities work together.
Veni, Vidi, Velcro ---- I came, I saw, I stuck around......
Still struggling with this,
Still struggling with this, Diablo! Can't give away your time for ANYTHING? What's wrong?
Have you tried the National Park Service's Volunteers In the Parks (VIP) program at Amistad National Recreation Area? How about the Whitehead Memorial Museum? The Laughlin Heritage Foundation Museum? The Del Rio Council for Arts? Casa De La Cultura? Look at their Web sites, or give them a call; they're all in the phone book, except the Laughlin museum. For that one, call President Jim Long, 719-9380.
Furthermore, the Chamber maintains a long list of non-profits in town. I can see no reason whatsoever why you can't find an organization that needs help.
Bill Sontag
Feature Writer
Southwest Texas LIVE!
Still struggling with this,
Still struggling with this, Diablo! Can't give away your time for ANYTHING? What's wrong?
I was referring to my experience with the Chamber, not with volunteering as a whole.
To be brutally honest, when I researched Del Rio prior to visiting here, I was left with an impression that was less than, well, impressive. The scant info I could find on the interwebs painted a pretty dim picture of this area. So dim, in fact, it was originally going to be just an overnight stop. A stepping stone, if you will. Had Mother Nature not intervened and gave both Mrs. Diablo and I a bad case of sunburn that caused us to hang around longer, Del Rio would have been in my rearveiw mirror the next morning.
Now imagine, if you will, all those people out there that follow the Bassmaster series. They are sitting in front of their TV sets and see Amistad for the first time. Like most people in the 21st century, they go to Google or Yahoo to find out a bit more about the lake and the area. I can guarantee that what scant info they do find shines a less than bright light on Del Rio. Take an objective look at this data page: http://www.city-data.com/city/Del-Rio-Texas.html and tell me what your first impression would be if you didn't live here.
We all know that Del Rio is a much, much better place than these numbers and statistics show it to be. We are not the Border Barrio that these statistics imply. This is the challange that the Chamber and it's Tourism Board face, and frankly, they are not doing a very good job handling that challenge.
This is where I wanted to focus my attention. It is the contribution that I wanted to make to my adopted home town. I take volunteering as seriously as any job. I intend to be in it for the long haul. My last commitment lasted over 30 years.
I still intend to become involved in a volunteer capacity. In what capacity remains to be determined, although I am leaning towards the Park Service (ater all, they are my next-door neighbor).
Veni, Vidi, Velcro ---- I came, I saw, I stuck around......
That was a very interesting
That was a very interesting link Diablo, thanks. Yep if I used that site as a basis
for moving here I wouldn't be here.
I know that the park always
I know that the park always needs volunteers and they will welcome your help. There are a lot of things for volunteers to do and have fun. I have volunteered places and gotten no response but the park isn't one of them.
They can put you in touch with projects that need help in the area.
Hope to see you soon as a volunteer at the park. Talk to Joe or Lisa.
You can view the master plan
You can view the master plan here:
http://cityofdelrio.com/index.asp?NID=287