By Jason Clay Jansky

The city of Runge is continuing to face problems with its utility infrastructure and emergency services, according to discussion at the town’s regular meeting August 8.

City crews are working day after day on fixing the pathways along which water and sewer flow. The current outlines were poorly planned and illogically laid out, according to Mayor Homer Lott.

He’s made it his personal mission to increase efficiency in the utility department in order to save the city money in the long run, and has been viewing utility issues in the city for several months.

"We dug in there and we couldn’t believe this," he said during the meeting of a recent utility service project he’d supervised. "Why they did it like that, we’ll never know."

Lott assured council the city would be working diligently on fixing problem areas, and asked for one part-time worker to be moved to full-time status to help things move along.

Lott also brought up issues the city is facing with its emergency services.

The town’s first responder unit no longer will be on call at Runge High School football games now that the school is paying a private ambulance service to do the job.

Lott and council members Irma Ortiz and Eloy Nunez said they weren’t happy the school was taking money out of the county.

Runge’s first responder program is already very short on funds. Council members voted to move $200 from the fire department fund in order to pay for crucial first responder supplies, namely defibrillator electrodes used to start a patient’s heart after it has stopped beating.

Lott also mentioned the Runge Volunteer Fire Department has been putting out fires, but still is lacking in leadership and needs direction.

The department’s fire chief — who also is a first responder volunteer — has faced several health issues in previous months.