Locals gathered for a public hearing Tuesday evening on electric transmission company AEP Texas’ proposal to rezone a residential property for a large new substation. The Big Bend Sentinel’s Mary Cantrell covered the hearing and joined Marfa Public Radio for a debrief.

AEP Texas, the power lines company serving Marfa, is asking city officials to rezone a residential property for industrial use in order to build a new electric substation. The proposal has prompted pushback from some locals.

The Big Bend Sentinel on Tuesday published an audio recording of a conversation in which three male Marfa City Council members suggested they wanted to hire a man for a city administrator position.

On Saturday, voters in the Big Bend and Permian Basin rejected funding proposals for education and water infrastructure and elected new local government officials. Voters in Ector County approved two emergency services districts that will bring fire and EMS operations to unincorporated parts of the county.