Freddy Espinoza who won a city council seat by one vote in 2016 and then stepped down weeks later decided to return to public service as a Farmersville planning commissioner
FARMERSVILLE – The man who squeaked out one of the narrowest city council victories in the recent past, is now one of Farmersville’s newest planning commissioners.
Farmersville native Freddy Espinoza unseated city council incumbent Leonel Benavidez by a single vote in November 2016, just to step down months later. Espinoza said he was taking a new job with California Truss Company designing walls. When he took on the new position, he wasn’t able to dedicate the time needed to be on the city council. And he regretted it.
“I felt like I was letting the community down. Because they were the ones who put me there. And I know they had a lot of faith in me to make changes,” Espinoza said.
Before he decided to run for council he was getting increasingly more active in the community. Espinoza said he began the Farmersville farmers’ market and the Farmersville Memorial Parade Committee plus Kiwanis.
“That’s kind of what got everybody to notice me and kind of being like, ‘Okay, this young guy, he’s doing something different for the town. So let’s give them a chance to put them on the seat,’” Espinoza said.
A year after leaving the council to work for California Truss Company, he started his own business called Freestyle Living. Most of his company deals with videography, photography, graphic design and screen printing. His clients include Kaweah Delta Medical Center and the Caesar Chavez Foundation just to name a couple.
Since he owns his business and it’s based in Farmersville, Espinoza decided this was his opportunity to make good on his promise to serve the public.
“I feel like it’s kind of more of my niche. Yeah, because I like to plan and set up more events and kind of just the beautification of Farmersville,” Espinoza said.
After signing his planning commission application in March, Espinoza decided to lobby for an investment in the city’s parks. He said he would like to see a basketball court and walking area added at Roy’s Park. He said he also wanted to relocate the jungle gym. Fortunately, at a recent city council meeting, he realized most of that was already in the works.
What Farmersville doesn’t have—and what Espinoza would like to build—is a local skate park. He said it might go a long way toward gathering people’s attention and convincing people who have left town to come back. As of late they are still working on the design phase of what a skate park may look like, but then would come the cost.
“Then we can then head to the community and being like, ‘Okay, this is what we got. This is what we’re going to build. Would you guys like to move forward with this,’” Espinoza said.
If they eventually move forward with a skate park the proposed site would be the city’s new sports park.
