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HomeMy WebLinkAboutRon Silvia Pt. 4 Transcription City of College Station Heritage Programs Oral History Interviewee: Ron Silvia Interviewer: Unknown Date: 2013 Place: College Station, Texas th Project: 75 Anniversary Former CS Mayor & Councilmember Transcriber: Brooke Linsenbardt 00:00: Ron Silvia (RS): And I would present the plaque to the owners of the home and uh just before we started our meeting. Interviewer (I): And what about, the library? What, what was going on with the library system at that time? 00:18: RS: The, the, the. I: The College Station. 00:20: RS: College Station library. We had a good ex, or former mayor taking care of things. And you know, he’s, he’s done a great job. That library keeps growing and, and they st-, they during the, the last. And I was serving on the last uh bond committee and Larry was able to get a, a good part to, of that to expand. And that hasn’t started yet, but it will be very soon. I: I’ve, I’ve recently heard more about that. And I’m, I’m hoping that does happen. 01:05: Hmm-hmm. Yes. Oh it’ll happen. It, it’s, it, you know it’s, I guess is when they want to work it into the bonds. I: Was there any interest in promoting historic tourism during your administration? 01:20: RS: Well that was a, that was a question I was, I was, wasn’t quite sure of what it, what it meant. We’re were always, anything that we could promote for tourism, we were doing it. And as far as, as historic, we’d need a good program to be able to make that part of the, the tourism. I: I’m with you there. 01:52: RS: Hmm. I: The relationship of College Station and Bryan has been up and down over the years, and how would you characterize relationship with Bryan during your tenure as mayor? 02:03: RS: Well I think mine was excellent. I had uh some good people on, on, on Bryan on, on Jay Don Warren uh, Watson was one of the. What we did, what I did I, I just I’ll just go ahead and throw this one out. I was, I was over at the high school watching the kids getting ready for they were, they were doing their cheering thing and all of that. And I come back home and I says, “There’s got to be something that we can do.” And I thought about it, I called Jay Don, I said, “Jay Don” \[laugh\] “what if we have a cross town bet between you and I.” I says if and, and, and that, that was during the week and that was the weekend was going to be the game. And I says, “Would you want to participate in a bet on, on your team?” And he said, “Yeah, well that sounds pretty good.” \[laughs\] Well next thing we had is a, a trophy and those trophy would go back and forth and it’d have a plaque for each uh winning football field. And uh we kind of pulled ahead of Bryan and I was rather, quite proud of that. \[laughs\] We won the first one and, and but I was, what I had, what was happening though, and the coaches, well at least the one here in College Station, he says, “You know you’re, you’re putting the pressure on me.” \[laughs\] I: And I think we’ve had that trophy now the last few years. 03:37: RS: Yes we have. Yes. I: Well it’s a, it, it’s a, it’s a friendly wager. 03:42: RS: Absolutely. I: And how about the relationship with Brazos County? 03:48: RS: Now the, the relation, the relationship I had with Brazos County was excellent too. And uh we would do this, and it starts right there at the county, the, the, the night out that we, and then I’d jump in with the, with, with sign the proclamations and then that evening I would jump in to, with the, normally the, the chief would take my place. We had everyone in the police department going in, to these parties and so forth. And we really enjoyed it. I: National night out. It’s a good, good program. 04:26: RS: Yup. Hmm-hmm. Absolutely. I: When you ran for office were there specific goals that you wanted to achieve? 04:36: RS: Well yes, there was one that I can think of right offhand. When I became mayor I wanted to get this all done, right here. And have every meeting instead, you know, a-a- anyone, any citizen who was concerned.