Let’s Play Ball!
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Government in the tiny town of Splendora is a family affair, and now there are allegations that the family is taking out its vengeance on a woman trying to bring a multimillion dollar sports complex to town. LET’S PLAY BALL!!!!!
“This interview is over, thank you very much,” said city attorney Martinez Schneider.
Another government lawyer trying to stop us from questioning a small-town mayor.
“Ma’am, I told you the interview is over. Stop being a bully,” he added.
Who are the real bullies in Splendora, Texas… Let’s play ball.
Erika Martinez grew up in Montgomery County with a passion for softball.
“I have played it since I was four years old,” she declared.
After more than 4 years in the Air Force, she came back home to the sport she loves… This time as a coach.
“I love it. So, love everything about it. You teach kids a lot more than just softball. Discipline, work ethic. You get to watch them grow,” Erika explained.
Erika started a league called Texas Intensity Softball.
She built a softball field on her property. Where her teams now practice.
But her ultimate field of dreams is here on more than 16 acres in east Montgomery County, in the town of Splendora.
“What I’m trying to build out here is a first indoor facility, multi-sport facility. And then I’ll build ball fields after that. So multi-sports complex,” stated Erika.
“It is a dream. And it’s been a dream for a lot of years,” she added.
Her Intensity Grand Sportsplex will have an 84-thousand-square-foot building and will provide practice and game facilities for hundreds of teams and thousands of kids.
“Phase one’s the indoor facility. It’ll have ten batting cages, a large workout room, three basketball courts, indoor soccer, many indoor soccer fields, a flag football field, and a cheer section. And then some offices and a concession stand,” affirmed Erika.
“Phase two is going to be the outdoor fields. And we plan to have ten baseball slash softball turf, fully turf fields,” she continued.
In all… Erika wants to invest $13.5 million in Splendora… A town of 2,000 residents.
She plans on paying nearly $100 thousand to the city’s coffers through property and sales tax revenue.
Seems like a no-brainer… But there’s a problem. This game of softball has turned into a real hardball fight.
“I didn’t think this would happen. I absolutely didn’t,” expressed Erika.
Everyone knows one of the biggest challenges to coaches isn’t the kids… it’s the politics of the parents.
“Wanting their kids to play certain spots or bat certain line up.”
Erika says one of her players was only coming to half the practices.
“And then her mom and dad both started texting me questioning why she’s playing where she’s at, why she’s batting where she’s at,” Erika told us.
“She deserves more than riding the bench and being rotated,” reads the message sent by the mom.
“Do you expect us to hand her a spot and position?” Erika replied.
“That led to Evelyn, Evie, getting very mad, quitting the team. And ever since that moment, I have had a lot of issues trying to get a building permit from the city,” she explained.
Evelyn Myers… she’s a Splendora city councilwoman and Mayor Pro Tem.
“I have not thought or involved myself in anything to do with her building,” Myers claimed.
She denies trying to sabotage this field of dreams… But the family ties in this small town go deeper.
“Her grandmother is also the mayor,” revealed Erika.
“Three out of my out of the four grandparents for my husband have been mayor of the city. We’re just a family that commits ourselves to service to our community,” said Myers.
That’s great… Although I’m not a fan of family-run towns…
Because when the family gets mad, it’s hard to know if they are letting that personal feud get in the way of progress for Splendora.
Erika says she was also abruptly removed from being president of the Splendora Area Softball Association… Evie Myers is the treasurer.
“They just keep throwing up roadblocks.”
In April, mayor Dorothy Welch put in writing that the city saw no restrictions on the property Erika was looking to buy.
In September, city manager Danna Welter tells a city consultant about Erika’s project… “There are going to be a multitude of issues!”
But one of the things that happened in between those times was the falling out over softball.
Andrea Palacio: “The dealings with the city got very, very cold and not cooperative after there was a problem with Evelyn Myer’s daughter on one of Erika’s softball teams.”
Danna Welter: “That is completely false.”
“I do think there’s favoritism going on, depending on who you are,” Erika argued.
Erika points to a proposal in March recommended by the city engineer to have Splendora pitch in at least $50 thousand for a 6” water line for the former owner of the land.
“So, I asked for the same thing in return. Once I purchased it, they denied that.”
Danna Welter: “The city, the mayor, city council, ultimately make all the decisions.”
Erika says she’s tried to talk to the mayor directly and gotten nowhere.
But mayor Welch says she barely knew anything about a $13.5 million project in her town…
“I think that’s being handled by engineers, staff, and our city attorney and that’s basically all I know about it.”
Guess we are supposed to believe her granddaughter hasn’t mentioned all the drama.
“The last time we spoke [with Erika] was me asking for minutes for something she wanted done, and her getting upset and hanging up on me,” stated Myers.
Here’s what Splendora called a developer’s agreement with Misha Inc.
The city approved contributing $50,000 to a water line extension project.
Danna Welter: “A lot of circumstances to every situation and they’re all different. You can’t compare them.”
Andrea: “Is the circumstance with this situation that Erika had a falling out with Evelyn Myers?”
Danna Welter: “It has nothing to do with it. I don’t know anything about their personal relationship.”
And the city told Erika the road to her planned sports complex was too narrow for emergency vehicles.
“That I have to widen it to 20 feet and repave the whole thing, and run a 6-inch waterline all the way down it to my property,” she explained.
But the Fire Chief for the area said he saw no problem with the way it was now.
“We have not been notified nor involved in any planning on 12th street.”
“I have not seen that documentation,” claimed Danna Welter.
Well, you have now…
And the most recent issue is the city requiring Erika to plat her land… when the city has waived that cost before.
“Yeah, I would prefer to check with my attorney before I do an interview,” continued Welter.
All of this drama means Erika can’t get a building permit… She was told she’d be on the agenda at the December meeting, but she wasn’t.
And when we showed up the unelected city attorney tried to get in our way:
“Ma’am, I told you the interview is over. So stop being a bully.”
Granddaughter Evelyn Myers says she will recuse herself from the vote.
Erika complains the roadblocks by the city are getting expensive… And so are the delays.
She already has two large baseball and softball leagues… One from Atascocita and one from Conroe just waiting to move in.
“I’m getting to the point with my organization that the facilities I’m at now, I’m starting to outgrow. I’ve been in contact with her quite a bit,” declared Blake Kuritz.
“That’s the place that I’ll be bringing my team to that facility and, and stuff like that. So, you know, it’d be beneficial for the girls, especially, you know, just to have it enclosed and have it, you know, indoors,” assured Trae Collins.
“On this northeast side of Houston, there’s nothing like that,” emphasized Kuritz. “What she’s trying to do is to me something that people really haven’t seen.”
“I think any business, you know, is positive for East Montgomery County. You know, granted that they follow strand and city ordinances and the state ordinances,” affirmed Evelyn Myers.
“I’ve done a lot for the ballpark, a lot for the community. And that’s the word that comes to mind is just betrayed,” Erika confessed.
So, Erika is planning to dot the i’s and cross the t’s fighting the Splendora family ties.
“I’ll make it happen. I’m not going to give up. I’m not going to give up,” she concludes.
