City Manager's Blog

National Night Out

October 2, 2014
National Night Out has been an ongoing event across the United States for the past 31 years. Here in Alpine, we participate annually in an effort to promote crime prevention and help our residents get to know our Police Department better.

I would ask all of you to support our Alpine Police Chief (Russell Scown) and his team with your attendance Tuesday October 7th. The event will be held at Kokernot Park and they will be serving hot dogs and have some different activities for the kids.

We all appreciate living in a ‘safer’ community and recognize that it’s through the support of our law enforcement and citizens that Alpine continues to be the best small town in America.

Thank you in advance for your support and participation.

Erik Zimmer, City Manager

School Is Back In Session

September 19, 2014
Our students have been back at school for about a month now and it’s good to see all the fall activities in full swing. Sul Ross is higher in enrollment and Alpine Independent School District has a wonderful group of kids this year. We also have several thriving private schools in our community.

Learning is important because to achieve anything in life you need to know where to start, what to do and how it is going to affect you and the people around you. The institutions we have here in Alpine continue to work to meet these goals to build a better community.

I have been asked many times since we returned to Alpine – ‘how do the Alpine schools compare to other districts your children have attended?’. My response always resonates around three points:

Learning at the Secondary education level is a reflection of parental involvement. The more we are involved as parents, the better result our children will have.

We have kids coming out of Alpine going to Ivy League schools, the Naval Academy, all the top tier schools in Texas…enough said.
Most importantly, our teachers and administrators care about the children personally. In larger communities, you may get a handful of folks who care, but in Alpine, it’s cultural and helps set us apart. We are fortunate.

Sul Ross State University has done a wonderful job at being a pillar in our community for almost a century. Having a thriving university presents many additional opportunities for the youth and adults in Alpine. Dual enrollment for our high school, theater programs, countless seminars, and many other programs are some of the ways we see the university enrich the community.

I urge the community to support our youth in their learning endeavors. Participate, engage and continue to help in the process. Those efforts help shape Alpine.

And remember, learning is not limited to the young. As Henry Ford once said “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.”

Erik Zimmer, City Manager

Back to School

Code Enforcement – Building Permits

August 14, 2014
Earlier this week, our Code Enforcement Officer (Robert Polanco) and I had the opportunity to conduct an interview with Ray Hendryx at our local radio station. We felt it would be a great venue to share some thoughts on our local ordinances, permitting process, etc… in an effort to enhance our communication with the citizens of Alpine.

Ray and his family have been great ‘Advocates for Alpine’ through the years and we appreciate his willingness to invite us in for the discussion. Any opportunity the City has to summarize the key items that arise within our departments and share publicly will come as a benefit to our citizens.

We had candid discussion about illegal dumping, junk vehicles, when to get a permit, etc… Please take some time to listen to the interview and get some of your questions answered.

If you’re in doubt as to the requirements of an ordinance or the permitting process, please feel free to call Mr. Polanco or City Hall and ask for direction. We are here to serve the community and help facilitate the ordinances and laws that are in place.

Have a great day,

Erik Zimmer, City Manager

Fiscal Year Coming To A Close

August 11, 2014
Fiscal Year 2013-14 is fast coming to a close and we have just released our proposed budget for FY2014-15 to City Council. This past year has provided many challenges to our Finance Team, and I am very pleased with their willingness to help reconstruct process/procedures to help the City of Alpine to operate with a greater sense of fiscal acumen.

Beyond putting the nuts and bolts in place for the enhanced processes, it also required greater training and coordination with our Department Heads and Finance Staff. Through this diligent work, we have been able to start the restoration process of confidence with our taxpayers.

Our city staff has been pragmatic in much of its spending this year, but did make a conscientious effort to spend money where it counts. Examples of this are the dollars invested at our wastewater treatment plant and the dollars spent with our street renovations. A big thanks to Hector Ramirez and Eddie Molinar for getting work done on: Brown St, Peach St and 14th St. They are planning to rehabilitate Sul Ross Ave (between 13th St and Tom’s Triangle) beginning tomorrow.

As always, we welcome questions, comments and feedback from our citizens here in Alpine. Please feel free to call City Hall at 432.837.3301 or email me directly at: erik.zimmer@ci.alpine.tx.us.

Erik Zimmer, City Manager

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Brown Street Project Underway

April 25, 2014

Our Public Works team has started the first paving project of the year. They are focused on reconstructing Brown St. between Fighting Buck Ave and Loop Rd.

Please excuse the dust and traffic re-routing through the duration of the project. The City is excited to get this project complete as Brown street hosts a lot of traffic for Alpine daily.

Please listen for updates weekly on the radio and feel free to call the City offices with any questions.

Erik Zimmer, City Manager

Texas Trash Off

April 25, 2014

Saturday April 5, 2014 marked another great year for Alpine participating in The Texas Trash Off. When all was finished, we collected over 19 tons of trash from across the City. Ward 4 led the way with 30 truck/trailer loads of trash.

The City of Alpine ended up the winner with great volunteer efforts and participation from our community. Some of the groups participating were: Twin Peaks 4-H, Montessori School, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, Daisy Scouts Troop 28112, Alpine Ambassadors, Chamber of Commerce, Sierra La Rana, Rio Grande Research Center, Kiowa Gallery, Big Bend Telephone, City of Alpine employees and Plaine.

Thanks to everyone for your efforts. Our Keep Alpine Beautiful coordinator Patsy McWilliams was so inspired she wants to host another event this fall.

Erik Zimmer, City Manager

New Website Welcomes You

March 31, 2014
City of Alpine, welcome to our newly updated website. Earlier this year we opted to transition from the older website platform to one that is easier to manage and more interactive for our citizens.

Hats off to one of our employees, Glenn Losoya, for developing the site (with the help and input from many of our staff team). This has provided great benefit to the city: 1. it gives us more latitude in making updates and changes 2. it helps us keep our costs down by not having to outsource the building and modifications to the site.

We continue to embark on many changes within our operating parameters as a city and look forward to a more transparent approach with our citizens. We believe the newer website will be a part of realizing this goal. Part of the new site will be a City Manager’s blog. I intend to use the blog to share ideas and thoughts with the community.

Take a look at the site and enjoy. Please feel free to offer any suggestions or comments as you see fit.

Erik M. Zimmer


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