Nueces County Commissioners are looking for ways to boost economic activity in the western parts of the county.
On Wednesday, they will discuss the creation of an advisory board with the hopes of accomplishing that.
A primary area of concern is the Richard M. Borchard Regional Fairgrounds. The complex is primarily associated with the Nueces County Junior Livestock Show, but the facilities there often look like a ghost town.
Fairgrounds Field was formerly the home of the Coastal Bend Aviators. The facility cost nearly $7 million to build. But with low ticket sales and the arrival of another minor league baseball team, the long-term financial payoff has not been a grand slam.
“You know, we built two. You’ve got one in Corpus with the Hooks and you’ve got that one, and when they were doing it back then I thought, ‘Are you kidding me? We’re gonna do two?’ It’s craziness,” Carolyn Vaughn said. “So this one right here, some high schools have used it, but it needs to be utilized. It is a really nice field.”
Vaughn said games and tournaments alone aren’t pulling in the economic profit needed to fund other county operations.
“We need revenue. I mean we are down. They raised taxes a little bit last time. I didn’t vote for that, but I don’t want them to do it this time because we’ve got the contract with the Sheriff’s Association coming up,” Vaughn said. “If we want to give them a raise, which they deserve a raise, we’re going to have to have some money from somewhere.”
The first step is to create an advisory board. Nueces County Commissioners could potentially vote on that Wednesday, March 13.
