County explores options to save coliseum, ice rink by redirecting BOTA expansion
EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14) — El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego and members of the community expressed their concern about the Bridge of the Americas expansion plans in Monday’s Commissioner Court.
“We’re very concerned about the connectivity, the connectivity it’s going to have with the rest of the community,” said Samaniego. “$600 million is a lot of money. This is one of the biggest projects, so we’re very interested in the impact.”
Samaniego said he is dissatisfied with the federal government’s communication thus far over the proposals, which include potentially tearing the county Coliseum and ice rink, among other impacts.
“They just can’t put an outlay of structures that big and then not worry about the connectivity to I-10. Is it going to be more congestion,” said Samaniego.
“We’re looking for more legal advice as to what we can and cannot do," he added.
He says the county is exploring other options to present to the General Services Administration.
“I want Tornillo [port of entry] to be the option so that we can challenge anything that they’re doing here that they don't have to do. If we don’t have an option for them, then how can we block them?” said Samaniego.
Samaniego believes the current expansion plans have more negatives than positives for the people of El Paso.
“It might bring value to them as agents and a value to them as how they’re going to move people and transportation and commercial. But that’s not all there is to it; it’s also the community that’s going to be impacted,” he said.
The judge said the next step is to put an item on the agenda for the public to discuss.
On Monday, County Commissioners met with the legal team behind closed doors and he says he wants those conversations to become public.
He also said they do need to consider looking for options as to where they could build another building such as the coliseum in the event it does get torn down.
Meantime, some El Pasoans expressed their concern over the possibility of losing the ice rink during public comment.
“We have the kids leagues, we have the adult league, we have figure skaters, we have high school teams,” said one person.
"I think that removing it [the rink] would be removing a big part of our community,” said another person.
Construction at the port of entry is scheduled to begin in 2027 with the renovations being completed by 2031.
The El Paso Rhinos are asking the community to fill out this form to try to keep the ice rink in place.
They ask that the form be filled out by Tuesday and emailed to daniel.partida@gsa.gov.
To stay up to date with the project, click here.
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