A year after County Historical Survey was approved, it has yet to start

It’s been a year since the El Paso County historical survey of downtown was approved, but it still has not started.

The county court is currently reviewing potential bidders to conduct the $140,000 survey. The original plans indicated the survey would be done September 30, 2017. Precinct 2 county commissioner David Stout said it will take longer than that.

“I’m hoping by the middle of March we’ll be starting the survey and it’s going to take anywhere from 12 to 18 months to finish,” Stout said. “It’s quite extensive. It’s a large area.”

The survey will look at areas as north as Arizona Ave., as south as the border, as west as the Union Depot and east as Cotton St.

“We’ve had a couple of setbacks with the procurement process, but we’re finally here and I’m excited to see what comes of it,” Stout said. “We have made historic preservation one of our strategic priorities. On the commissioners’ court we’ve been talking about historic preservation especially downtown.”

Former vice-chair of the County Historical Commission Dr. Max Grossman said he was one of the main architects in bringing the study to the County.

“The survey downtown, [members of the historical commission who removed] we had a very important role there,” Grossman said. “We thought that we were partners, but at this point we’re under investigation.”

Grossman is referring to the historical commission being investigated for alleged violations of the Texas Open Meetings Act (TOMA). County Judge Veronica Escobar said the group was never specifically trained in TOMA. However, she cited the potential violations as one of the reasons both Grossman, and former chair Bernie Sargent were not retained.

Grossman said that he and no one from his inner circle will assist the County in any capacity with the survey, while they remain under investigation.

“I hope that some of the folks who are no longer on the commission would continue to be available to the county,” Stout said. “I know that some of the folks who left have a lot of institutional knowledge, and they’re experts in these fields. They may no longer be on the Historic Commission but that doesn’t mean that we won’t look for their help.”

Grossman was an admin of the El Paso County Historical Commission page on Facebook, which has over 38,000 likes. That page has since been changed to “El Paso History Alliance” and it is no longer affiliated with the county.

“The Facebook page is private property, we never received any money from the county to support it,” Grossman said. “Our networks, our alliances, our friends, our social media outreach — all of that is intact. The only thing that’s changed is we have lost our institutional backing.”