Rumors Persist

By Gregg Wendorf
Advance News Journal

The rumor that the new Hidalgo County Courthouse is still a disaster continues even though it should open for business next month. God willing.

Earlier this week, the same rumor was floating around dating back to last year — the new $180-million-plus courthouse structure is unsound, so the whole building needs to be completely razed, reminiscent of the 31-story condo at SPI, Ocean Tower (December 2009), which had a big problem — it was sinking, quite literally, into the sand.

Then there was and is the rumor that the old structure is infested with mold, from top to bottom, and that the contractor, Morganti Texas, has walked off the job (again).

Those rumors were still floating around recently on Valley social media, always a good source for factual news.

Granted, some of the rumors may have something to do with the overgrown grass standing tall around the new courthouse, but the county can’t cut it until it takes ownership. Still, progress remains on track, even though, granted it’s two-plus years behind its original completion date (November 2021), give or take.

During an interview with Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez published in this newspaper last November, the news was, the project was back on track. Indeed, Morganti Texas, the job contractor, had walked off the site, but was back on the job, working side by side with the subs, the architect, including project manager, Jacobs Engineering.

In fact, during a Commissioners Court regular meeting Jan. 23, 2024, approval was given to pay Morganti Texas Inc. two payments — $102,629.69 and $974,983.43 — for courthouse work and to approve a change order worth $1,026,298.10.

If work at the new Hidalgo County Courthouse had indeed fallen off track, again, the county wouldn’t be paying diddly. The attorneys would be raking in all the cash.

For those without a life, they can go online and watch Commissioners Court meetings dating back to August 2015, so transparent has the process become. The Minutes are also posted online. It beats reading a FB post, which may or may not be true.

The Real Story

Newspapers across the country are now dying off at a rate of 2.5 per week, so that may be where the information age is headed, into Mark Zuckerberg land, where the so-called "news" isn’t vetted. But for now, at least The Advance is still around, including a handful of other legit Valley news outlets, to give you the real scoop.

Meanwhile, it’s safe to say that the dreaded lawsuit that would have cost taxpayers more money and delayed the new courthouse job even longer (all of 2024) is no longer a concern. All the parties did indeed return to the table last year and are now working toward completion of the new courthouse.

That’s not to say that the county still isn’t under the gun. I spoke to several people who confirmed that some insurance companies aren’t happy with the two-plus-year construction delay, and if the county doesn’t take ownership next month, project insurance may be canceled.

Then again, there is one thing that insurance companies like, and that’s money. Not sure, but I can find out, how much county taxpayers are paying to insure the new structure, the ongoing work there, etc., but even if the county doesn’t take ownership in March (next month), which seems unlikely, I’d bet they’d be willing to collect premiums for at least one more month (construction and performance).

Last year, rumors were floating around the ether that the new courthouse would remain abandoned, so to speak, all of this year, while attorneys got to work launching lawsuits, filing motions.

Not so, based on a news story published in The Advance on Nov. 1, 2023, which included an interview with County Judge Richard Cortez: “According to Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez, who is also the former mayor of McAllen, the good news is, it (the new courthouse) could be open in as little as three months. No guarantees, but certainly at least some hope for a change.”

Before the story went to print, the judge said he wasn’t sure that he was happy with saying “in as little as three months,” but I reminded him that he also said that there were no guarantees.

Even if it takes four, I said, with a finish date by March 2024, that’s a lot better than the rumors floating out there that say this project is going to turn into one huge lawsuit and the building won’t be occupied all of 2024.

Instead of “in as little three months,” which would have been this month, February, it now looks like the building will be occupied by March, next month. Still, pretty good compared to where we were at last year (March 2023). Depressed, with county departments and staff battling feelings of despair.

Considering where this was headed last year — Morganti Texas had walked off the job, all work on the project had stalled — one still has to admit that the new courthouse can now be counted a success story.

Sure, it’s more than two years late on arrival, more than four years after construction began in the summer of 2019, but it’s not DOA.

Considering COVID — which is still hanging around like a bad hangover — construction and design problems along the way, another month’s delay sure beats a lawsuit that might have dragged on all of this year.

Not to sound like a cheerleader, but kudos to all the parties that never let up on this job, despite the delay, construction and design defaults, and kept on banging away until the final nail is indeed close to being hammered.