MEET THE CANDIDATES: Ryan Martinez, Candidate for City Council

BY ROBERT MORALES

Ryan Martinez is running for one of two seats on the city council. His opponents include Cody Davis, Domingo (Mingo) Corralez (Incumbent), Cheri Friday (Incumbent), Rudy Hinojos and Isaac Badillo.

Mr. Martinez was born in El Paso, but he grew up in Van Horn. He graduated from VHHS in 2006. After graduation, he attended Western Technical College in El Paso and earned Associates in Computer Technology. He has worked for the U.S. Border Patrol as an agent and the United States Postal Service as a carrier in Monahans.  He is currently employed at Blue Origin.

Mr. Martinez said he wants the city council to work together and work with the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) and other organizations. He said he would like to see more oversight.

“If elected, I’d like to see more oversight over the EDC board,” Mr. Martinez said. “We need to work for more change in our community. I hear about the cleanliness of the town a lot. We already have ordinances in place that should be enforced. In relation to keeping our alleys clean, it’s all part of city ordinances, and if we all work together, we can keep our town clean.”

“Let’s change Broadway. How long has it been since we’ve had a change on Broadway?” he asked. “We have our lighting issues, let’s fix it.” Mr. Martinez was referring to the pole-mounted street lamps along the south side of Broadway that were placed only a few feet apart and many of them no longer work. “I don’t think the city thought ahead about the maintenance aspect of the street lights. They got a grant and they put as many lamps as they could buy.”

Mr. Martinez said that as a younger resident of Van Horn, he would like to see more planned activities for the town. “We should have more festivals here, like the recent Buzzard Festival,” he said. “Let’s make sure we have a Cinco de Mayo [celebration]. Let’s make sure a fireworks display every year for our community to have more people visit our town. And let’s make sure we have something going on every so often in our town to get more people here.” He added that he would be interested in pursuing a walking path for tourists.

Mr. Martinez has been attending city council meetings to get a feel for what takes place during a meeting. “If you want to see change, change doesn’t happen from that seat that you’re sitting on in the city council chambers,” he said. “If you have concerns about something you’re not happy with, go to the city council meetings and express yourself. Change is only going to happen when you speak up and say what’s wrong.”
Mr. Martinez said that he gets the feeling that many of the residents in Van Horn “have given up on the city council, and we need to bring it back to life,” he said. “I think once people see leadership in our city council, I think it will get everything going.”

This is the message Mr. Martinez would like to tell the voters: “We need change in our community. We can make that change happen and I respectfully ask the voters of Van Horn to vote for me in the upcoming May 10 election. If elected, I’m not going to serve on this council to make friends. I’m  going to be on the city council to make the best decisions for our community.”

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