State of the City — Week of 01/24/2023

Jessica Mclaren, Assistant News Editor

The city of Cibolo, which resides just outside the northeast border of San Antonio, will be getting its first H-E-B grocery store this week. The 110,000- square-foot store will include H-E-B Curbside, home delivery and a drive-thru pharmacy. This location will also include the new H-E-B Brand store, which features H-E-B merchandise such as stickers, coffee mugs and clothing. The Cibolo store, located at 850 FM 1103, will open its doors to customers at 6 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 25.

Harlandale Independent School District (HISD), which services schools in the southside of San Antonio, is considering changing its attendance policies to require just four days of school each week. According to an interview with HISD spokesperson Mariana Veraza, the proposal was initiated in an effort to retain and recruit educators. The current proposition is to require that students attend school Tuesday through Friday for an extra 20 minutes to account for the lost instructional day. Schools in the district would also start a week early, on Aug. 8, and end a week later, on June 6. If passed, the new policy will go into effect for the 2023-2024 school year, making HISD the first school district in Bexar County to enact a four-day school week.

In November, Walgreens and CVS pharmacies announced they would provide five billion dollars in settlements to local governments affected by the opioid crisis. Attorney General Ken Paxton shared that $276 million of the settlement with CVS had been allocated for Texas, including both Bexar County and San Antonio, respectively. This month, $2.2 million of the settlement money was received by the county and was used to purchase 2,000 doses — 20 months worth — of Narcan for Bexar County deputies. According to Sheriff Javier Salazar, 51 deputies saved lives last year by using the nasal spray to reverse an overdose. Bexar County has allocated more than $33.6 million towards opioid-related programs such as crisis intervention and housing programs. If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, you can call the SAMHSA National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) for a referral to a treatment or a support center. 

Last week, a building materials store in Leicester, England, ranked the Alamodome as the ninth ugliest building in the United States, just after the Thompson Center in Chicago, Il. The study, which analyzed design-related tweets about various ‘ugly’ buildings around the world, labeled the J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington D.C. as the ugliest building in the U.S. and the Scottish Parliament Building in Edinburgh, Scotland as the ugliest in the world.

The Dollar Tree, located off of Culebra and Zarzamora, has reportedly installed noise machines to deter solicitors from hanging around outside of the store after hours. According to a manager, the machine was added for safety reasons, as the staff consists of mostly women. After the San Antonio Police Department (SAPD) received a noise complaint regarding the high-pitched ring, a district manager told them that the sound is within city ordinances and thus the machine is legal. SAPD informed the person who placed the complaint that this may be an issue for the city council.