Leaders and concerned citizens who were here to make suggestions, voice concerns or simply to take advantage of the expertise of the panel which included John Kelly, CH2M Hill, Ports to Plains Public Information Support, who was in charge of presenting the basis for the expansion of IH-69 in East Texas, Melissa Montemayor, TxDOT District Administrator, Cary Karnstadt, TxDOT Transportation Planner and Mayor Glen Robertson, City of Lubbock who were all on hand to answer questions. 

What was discussed mainly was the attempt of the initiative to connect the major ports along the border from Mexico in order to ease traffic on major thoroughfares such as IH-35 by expanding others such as IH-69 and IH-27.

"This would be something that would be very important for us to support," stated Ramsey English-Cantú, Mayor of Eagle Pass who was here along with City Manager Gloria Barrientos (who informed the gathering that Eagle Pass had spent $8,000,000.00 last year in street repairs), Bridge Director Mario Diaz, MCDC Director Raul Perez among other local leaders and businessmen were also there in support of the initiative, "I believe that as we continue to look towards the numbers that are increasing at our ports of entry and the continuation of commerce that is flowing through our ports, this is something that we could see is beneficial"

When asked of the impending energy boom in Mexico as a continuation of the Eagle Ford Shale Project, Karnstadt had the following to add, "The infrastructure on the other side of the border is not something we're used to dealing with and it's not just Nuevo Laredo.  It's Acuña, Piedras Negras and Juarez."

"I meet with the mayor of El Paso and Juarez next week and we are saying that if we can connect our port cities together on the US side of the border, it's going to be tremendous for every port city along the route."

Another suggestion and or question fielded was that of a possible expansion of Highway 44 by Lowell McManus which was acknowledged by the panel as being the type of suggestion they are seeking in similar gatherings in Amarillo, Lubbock, Midland and San Angelo.