Category Archives: Featured

Building Boats One at a Time

Featured News Retail Comments

Cougar Marine at the helm of construction Bill Gagan started a fiberglass and composite fabrication company in a 600-square–foot shop in the Dallas area. Business boomed and his company became one of the largest fiberglass and composite fabrication companies in the world, operating out of a 115,000-square-foot building. Gagan holds several patents and copyrights and has fabricated high-speed racing boats, race car parts, components for Disney attractions, signs for franchise…

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A Pro Teaches Home Cooks

Featured Food & Entertainment News Professional Services Comments

McAllen Culinary Academy makes cooking comfortable Food excites Chef Marcel, and he shares that enthusiasm with cooks who turn to him to sharpen their skills in the kitchen. The McAllen Culinary Academy may sound like a school for cooks wanting to become professional chefs, but that’s not what inspires Marcel. “I’m not looking to teach professional cooks,” Marcel said. “I am more for people who want to better themselves for…

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‘Fab Lab’ Plants Seeds of Creativity

Education Featured News Comments
UTRGV students Vilma Flores and Alissa Flores with Dr. Emmett Tomai, UTRGV Computer Science Associate Professor, on Monday, July 17, 2017 at the UTRGV Fabrication Lab in the Visual Arts Building in Edinburg, Texas. (Photo by Paul Chouy, UTRGV)

Lab serves underprivileged areas Technology, science and art will come together in a learning laboratory setting to design new products. Two faculty members at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley are teaming up to create what will be known as a fabrication laboratory, or “fab lab.” Donna Sweigart, associate professor of art, and Dr. Emmett Tomai, associate professor of computer science, received an Internal Seed Research Program grant from…

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Brothers Credit SBA Programs with Growth

Business Advice Featured Government Comments

Federal programs and contracts pay off Brothers Samuel and Saul Maldonado founded SAM Engineering & Surveying Inc. in June 2008 with only three employees and yearly sales of $400,000. Today, the firm has grown to 55 employees with sales in excess of $4 million.  The brothers attribute part of their success with assistance provided by the U.S. Small Business Administration. Starting initially as an engineering and surveying firm, SAMES added…

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Sweet Business: A Natural Approach to Success 

Featured Food & Entertainment Retail Comments
Wicked Good owner Jonathan Hogan added on to his house to create storage space for his growing product line. (VBR)

Wicked Good keeps it fresh and local After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, Jonathan Hogan began applying for graduate programs and wondering how he would be able to pay for it. With time on his hands, he began experimenting with making marmalades, jellies and jams in the kitchen of his Mission home. At one point his father weighed in that the marmalade was so good he felt wicked eating it. Thus Hogan’s company Wicked Good was…

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Digital Beach Bums Promote the Island 

Featured Recreation & Tourism Comments
Jerry Wilson updates a Facebook page from his home office. (VBR)

Live web cams attract valuable audience A video of a large alligator cruising near the Laguna Madre shoreline on South Padre Island generated more than 70,000 online views in three days. That’s as good as gold for Jerry and Jackie Wilson, owners of South Padre Network, a digital business the Wilsons operate from their home. The Wilsons posted the alligator video, captured by their web cam at Sea Turtle Inc. on Facebook. The…

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The Enlightened Exterminator 

Featured Professional Services Comments
Jose Guerrero and Gabriel Martinez prepare to treat a house for termites. (VBR)

Safeguard Pest Control provides solutions When Juan Martinez returned to the Valley after serving in the Marine Corps, he found a job with a pest control company. He enjoyed the work, moved up the ladder and eventually managed the business. In 1991, he started his own company, Safeguard Pest Control, with his assets of a pickup truck, experience, a strong work ethic and a Pest Control Structural license from the Texas Department of Agriculture. Now the largest independent pest control company in the Valley, Safeguard is run by his sons, Frank and Gabriel. “I started working here the day he opened the business,”…

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From Warship to Scrap and Beyond

Featured Manufacturing/Industrial Comments

Old Ships Build the Future International Shipbreaking Ltd. CEO Chris Green moves among employees with ease, greeting them with waves, smiles and handshakes. Walking across the hangar deck of the aircraft carrier USS Independence, he stopped to talk with two workers. “How’s your boy doing?” he asked one man whose son had been experiencing health problems. “We have a group of really hard-working people around here,” Green said. “They are our greatest asset.” The USS Independence is the most…

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Big Rigs on the Long Roads 

Featured News Comments

There have been technological advances in so many areas around the world, from commercial to residential. One thing that hasn’t changed as dramatically is transportation. Fifty years ago, big rigs were pounding the roads, delivering produce from coast to coast and border to border. Today, those 18-wheelers are doing the same thing. The insides and the panel instruments have all been upgraded to include GPS and many other new functions,…

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Sprinkler Systems: Making It Rain 

Featured Comments
Alfonso Duarte has run his own sprinkler business – now called Duarte and Daughters – for 15 years. (VBR)

From October 2016 through March 2017 – just six months – the city of Seattle accumulated 44.67 inches of rain. Meanwhile, in Harlingen, Texas the annual average rainfall is just 27.5 inches. So it’s no wonder that when you do a search for companies that install and repair sprinkler systems, there are actually more in South Texas. “It’s a competitive business,” said Leticia Duarte, who is part-owner of Duarte and…

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