BEXAR COUNTY, Texas – Anyone driving in the East Central area near Loop 1604 may see signs after signs promoting new subdivisions.
“Oh gosh, it’s crazy. I mean, there’s still communities coming up and down 1604,” resident Hilary Garcia said.
Garcia and her family are part of that growth. They moved to the area almost a year ago and said they love it.
“I have three kids that are in East Central District,” Garcia said. “We’ve loved the district for a while.”
That’s why she voted “yes” to a $309 million bond that would pay to build another high school and two new elementary schools.
The bond passed, showing the majority of the community supports adding those schools and supporting local families.
Garcia said her children tell her how crowded their schools are, saying, “Especially my high schooler.”
In previous statements, the East Central Independent School District told KSAT that this bond was necessary. They said they have five campuses that will be over capacity by 2028.
Statistics like that cause some stress for cattle farmer Martin Holub, who’s lived in the area since 1990.
“Moved here in 90, but we’ve got a farm out here, so I’ve been coming here since I was born,” Holub said.
He’s noticed the growing pains for a while now.
“The traffic, we live on 1604, and now it’s hard to get out of the driveway,” Holub said. “Even the country roads are real congested now. I think they’re building so much here that they’ve overwhelmed the infrastructure.”
More importantly, he said a lot of farmland is disappearing.
“That’s what my farmer buddies and I talk about. We’re going to have to feed a lot more people with a lot less land,” he said.
While it’s a constant concern for Holub and others like him, there are other priorities involved.
Holub said he did vote for the school bond, even though he’s not thrilled about the growth in the area.
“My wife works for a certain school district kind of thing, and I was told, ‘You better vote,’” he laughed. “It was, ‘Sleep outside or vote for the bond!’”
While he joked about a “happy wife, happy life” situation, he also said he does want the local kids to have good schools.
“They almost can’t build them fast enough anymore,” Holub said. “I think if they would cut back on the architecture and the design, the cost wouldn’t be so high.”
His opinions exemplify a complex situation for an evolving community like East Central.
Holub said he hopes the area can find some balance between multiple things of extreme importance.
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