Leandro Pedraza of VTX1 took the concept of paying it forward and then made it count in Raymondville. Pedraza, an accounting manager with VTX1, heard the Family Crisis Center in Raymondville had suffered a devastating burglary. The result was the theft of all of the facility’s computers along with other damages. Pedraza wanted to see what could be done to help and asked his supervisors for permission to proceed. At…
Rebeca Castillo is building from the ground up in giving San Benito its first viable economic development corporation. The San Benito Economic Development Corporation is in its third month of being a standalone entity from city government. The EDC is in its own building on Bowie Street. It is adjacent to the Heavin Memorial Park which wraps around the city’s main resaca. Furniture and refurbishment of a facility that was…
The City of Mission is celebrating its entrepreneurs in the food industry with its first-ever Foodpreneur Fest on Oct. 24. It plans to use the event as a fundraiser for the city’s food pantry. The city is partnering with the Mission Economic Development Council and the Greater Mission Chamber of Commerce in hosting the event on Oct. 24 at 6 p.m. at the Mission Events Center. Attendees at the event…
Rolling by the Kapal Cabinet House, a director with the Weslaco Economic Development Corporation makes an observation of what economic vitality means to a city. “Everyone enjoys seeing life back in the building,” said Steve Valdez as he moderates the Weslaco EDC’s 2019 bus tour. The tour is an annual event that brings together community and business leaders to view Weslaco’s economic gains. They also witness how the EDC’s efforts…
Sam Olivarez marks off the decades in his 100-year-old building by tapping lines on the concrete floor. “Here’s where the building originally ended,” he said, stepping on a line where Barrera’s Supply Co. started in the hardware and auto parts business. That line marks the first 50 or so years of Barrera’s on north Conway Avenue in the heart of Mission. It was the starting era which began in 1918…
An aviation services manager recently gave Celia Galindo a call a few days after she had cooked meals for customers waiting to go through customs on their way to points south from Brownsville South Padre Island Airport. “Do you know who you served the other day?” the manager asked. No, she replied, saying she often does not know the identity of affluent customers she serves waiting to go through the…
Robert Sanders rolls open the huge doors of a World War II-era hanger. He walks onto a floor of Learjets and other turbo prop business and civilian jets. It’s TIA Aeronautics at the Valley International Airport in Harlingen. Sanders, the business owner, and Orlando Cano, the company’s general manager, begin to point out the various state of repairs on the planes. Sanders was born in Germany as the son of…
The bays of a brand new 82,500-square-foot warehouse swing open. Truck trailers stand ready to receive freshly packaged 500-pound bales of Rio Grande Valley cotton. “The gins are working 24/7, so we have to be ready,” said Laura Salazar, the general manager of Commodities Integrated Logistics. Salazar walks through the warehouse in Weslaco. Forklift operators are busy transporting packages of cotton to and from the trailers. It’s the cotton season…
Surveyor maps laid down the first legal representations in Hidalgo County in the late 1930s. L. David Flores, the deputy city manager of Mission, said these basic maps were used as the legal representations for the county and its cities up until the early 1990s. Computer aided designs were already creating early versions of the first digital representations of the old maps. City governments began making use of these digital…
Rebecca Marie De Leon was an aspiring student and high school athlete at Mission Veterans Memorial High School when she enrolled in a dual enrollment program in the early 2000s. The future collegiate golfer was pressed for time in balancing academics and athletics. Dual enrollment, which blends college and high school courses, then grounded her in the need for effective time management. “It set the foundation for me,” said De…