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Call 4 Action: Unpaved road keeps some Sullivan City kids from going to school

1,071 views · Published 9 February 2012 · 1:47 · Indexed 8 November 2026

Sticky mud coats Chayo street in Sullivan City.

It's a nuisance neighbors face every time it rains and a battle some are backing down from.

Esmerelda Islas said her daughter is one of several children on the street who do not go to school when the dirt road turns to muck.

She said the slippery mud often causes her daughter to fall.

It covers her daughter's clothes before she can even make it to the bus stop.

"She falls and she comes home and says 'I'm not going,"' said Islas.

The teen isn't the only neighbor to fall from the mess of mud.

Seventy-five-year-old Julia Phibert told Action 4 News she's slipped several times.

She said her daughters called Sullivan City several times asking to get the road paved.

It's a request gone unfulfilled in the 20 or so years Phibert said she's lived on the street.

In muddy shoes and pants, Action 4 News went to Sullivan City Hall.

There we found out the city may not have enough money.

"If the city would have the funds to go and pave streets on our own we would," said Sullivan City Manager Judy Davila.

Davila knows the problems the ooze poses.

"Citizens' vehicles getting stuck in the mud, children getting muddy as they're walking to school," said Davila.

That's why Davila said Sullivan City is requesting county money to bring black top where the brown gunk sits.

Neighbors are skeptical.

Action 4 asked Hidalgo County when a decision would be made on whether to fund the paving of Chayo Street.

The county said they should know in about a week.

Count on Action 4 News to keep you posted.

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