SAN MARCOS CITY COUNCIL
There are several positions up for grabs on the San Marcos City Council in the Nov. election. Roland Saucedo has thrown in his hat for Council Member Place 5 and will be running against Griffin Spell, Atom Von Arndt and Lorenzo Gonzalez.
Saucedo was born and raised in San Marcos in a family of six. He has worked in the health field his entire life and considers that his passion in addition to serving the community, which he has been doing since before he was “old enough to vote.” He loves the river and has swam in “every part of it” as well as celebrating many birthdays and other special occasions there.
“I started working elections [and] campaigning for people when I was 12 years old. I've served on several boards, commissions and committees for the city of San Marcos and Hays County,” Saucedo said. “I love serving. I love the community I live in… Pretty much all the same people that I grew up with still live in and own the homes in our neighborhood.”
His love for the community has sparked another passion of Saucedo’s, which is keeping San Marcos neighborhoods pristine. He even served on the neighborhood commission until his term limit was reached after 12 years.
“I've advocated on numerous occasions for various neighborhoods throughout the city of San Marcos for whatever challenges that they were facing,” Saucedo said. “[People from those neighborhoods] have reached out to me and asked me to advocate and speak on their behalf in front of the city council and to work with city staff.”
Saucedo has noticed a trend in what he claimed were council members promising to take action then falling short on those promises later. He plans to remedy that, if elected.
“They do good in the beginning, and then they go on their own and don't really follow the requests or address the concerns that the citizens cry out for,” Saucedo said. “I feel that it's time that I step up, not only as an advocate that has gone before numerous daises to express and advocate and request to address the concerns of the community, but that I actually should run and have a seat on the dais to be able to have a stronger voice for the people.”
One of his favorite parts of San Marcos is the downtown, which has historical value that he’d like to see preserved.
“Growing up in the 80s, I recall that the majority of businesses in San Marcos were all mom and pop shops, locally-owned businesses, and it's unfortunate that a lot of them have disappeared due to the growth and development that we've had, which has brought in all of these chains,” Saucedo said. “I've been saddened by that. I've been saddened that we've lost some of our historical sites and buildings as well due to land development [in order] to knock it down and build something new, and, in some cases, it is really an eyesore and doesn’t match with the character of the neighborhood.”
One of those buildings that were lost to development that Saucedo is particularly upset by is the San Marcos Telephone Company, which was located on Guadalupe Street. He was also a part of a group aimed at restoring the old First Baptist Church in an attempt to preserve a beautiful mural that is hidden within the dilapidated building, but that project never came to fruition.
“I'd like to see the city take a more aggressive role in historic preservation and protection and restoration,” Saucedo said. “When we lost the telephone company, that land developer had said that he was going to donate the building; all we had to do was have it moved. A group of people from the historic district and Historic Preservation Commission were able to find a location to place this phone company. A few days before the scheduled demolition, the developer never responded. Then come the day of demolition, they demolished the old phone company. And it's just stuff like that that I feel the past daises have let the ball fall, [which has left us unable] to continue the momentum that we have to protect our valued treasures.”
Saucedo also plans to address the relationship between the city of San Marcos and Texas State University in order to ensure that residents and students can live harmoniously in the community.
All of the candidates running for San Marcos mayor and city council can be found at this link sanmarcostx. gov/4117/Current- Candidates.
