EDINBURG, Texas - All the stucco on the outside of the new Hidalgo County Courthouse has to be taken off and replaced, County Judge Richard Cortez has revealed.
The reason is that water is leaking in between the stucco and the outer wall. Cortez says the stucco cannot be replaced at the moment because we are in hurricane season.
Cortez first revealed the problem publicly on a Rio Grande Guardian podcast with anchor Mark Hanna. He then gave more information in an interview with veteran broadcaster Ron Whitlock of Ron Whitlock Reports.
Cortez said he hopes the stucco issue will not delay the timeline for getting a certificate of occupancy from the City of Edinburg’s health and safety department. However, he does not know when that certificate will be issued. He said certificate of occupancy has to be granted before Texas Jail Standards officials can give the green light to county inmates being housed on the bottom floor of the new courthouse.
Construction problems have dogged the new courthouse for years. County leaders had hoped to have moved in to the new facility years ago.
“The best information that I can give you is information given to me because I don't have first hand knowledge of the status of the roof and the status of other construction,” Cortez told Hanna.
“So, I am relying on the information that has been given to me. The information given to me is that the courthouse is finished enough where all of the life and safety issues are taken care of. We're looking now at other things that need to be fixed. But all those life and safety issues have been have been completed. That's the good news.
“The bad news is that one of the things that isn't completed correctly and properly as it was designed, was the stucco. If it were to rain there would be water falling between the hard wall on the courthouse and the stucco.”
Editor's Note: Here is an audio recording of Judge Cortez discussing the new courthouse with Guardian anchor Mark Hanna:
In his interview with Whitlock, Cortez said: "We think it would be unwise to start fixing the stucco knowing that we could be interrupted with a hurricane."
Asked by Whitlock if he knows how much the overall cost of the new courthouse will be, Cortez said, not yet. “That is still a moving target.”
None of the current members of Hidalgo County Commissioners Court were in office when contracts were signed with architects, designers, and construction companies to build the new county courthouse. These were mostly signed in early 2018. The county judge at the time was Ramon Garcia. The county commissioners at the time were A.C. Cuellar, Tito Palacios, Joe Flores, and Joseph Palacios.
Editor's Note: Here is an audio recording of Judge Cortez discussing the new courthouse with Ron Whitlock of Ron Whitlock Reports:
