FOR DAN SANCHEZ: TROUBLE IN PCT. 4 PARADISE

By Juan Montoya
On the heels of Cameron County Pct. 4 Commissioner Dan Sanchez's announcement that he will seek the Democratic Party nomination for county judge in the March primary, trouble has reared its head in his own back yard.
We have been told that a number of Pct. 4 residents are attempting to get an audience before the commissioners court to accuser the portly commish of neglecting his precinct and focusing on furthering his political career instead.
In that effort, they say they will present a petition to the court outlining the needs of their rural roads and the lack of attention or concern on the part of Sanchez since he has held office. Sanchez won the election last November, but just a year later (in December), he formally announced he was resigning his office to run for judge.
County Judge Pete Sepulveda has stated that he will allow Sanchez to remain Pct. 4 commissioner and will not appoint anyone until the results of the Pct. 4 primary come in.
For residents in Sanchez's precinct, this is too long.
"We have serious problems with out county roads," said a resident who will seek an audience with the commissioners. "We have lived for more than 10 years and our county road has not been reconstructed or maintained. Several times we have called commissioner Sanchez to help us with this problem and to date nothing has been done. At times he has not even answered our phone calls."
Another resident of the Pct. 4 rural area also signed on to the petition to talk with the commissioners said that the tall Johnson grass lining the county's bar ditches have led to increased littering on their roads and fostered burglaries in his area.
"There have been three break-ins on our road and people throwing trash because of the high grass and neglect by the county to maintain the road," he wrote.
Residents there say that during one of the break-ins, an elderly resident was struck by the would-be burglar who had crept undetected in the high grasses in the ditch along his rural home and struck the victim when he was confronted inside the home.
"The old man suffered a broken shoulder," said the writer. "The burglar fled after he struck him. He had to spend some time in the hospital."
"We are requesting this open meeting with the commissioners court as per our rights as taxpayers and voting residents of this county," their letter states. "We are requesting an answer to our request in the immediate future."
Sanchez is facing at least two other challengers for the nomination to the county judge's position. They are former Brownsville mayor Eddie Treviño and Brownsville attorney Elizabeth Garza. At least two Pct. 4 residnets have said they will run for the vacated position.
This is not the first time that the issue of the condition of county roads in the precinct have drawn the ire of the Pct. 4 residents. During the 2014 primary, many resident in El Ranchito charged that Sanchez's inaction on servicing the road alongside the local cemetery had led to hardship during burials when it had rained. A neighboring landowner allowed the family members burying their dead to drive though his property instead.
Two former commissioners and local residents say that the road had always been serviced by the county in the past, but stopped when Sanchez became commissioner.
"Sanchez has been too busy running for higher office and trying to ingratiate himself with people in Austin and even in Mexico and neglected the quality-of-life issues in his own precinct," said one of the residents seeking the audience with the commissioners. "We want to address the court since he has shown he doesn't care about what's happening in his precinct."