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A.D. Ibarra
-Eagle Pass
When one sees road construction or in this case, the closing of El Indio Highway, you may think to yourself, 'What an inconvenience' before taking the customary detour.
What you may not know is that projects such as this begin as a gleam in the eye of a TxDoT Director or the futuristic vision of an engineer or architect.
The designs which are visible at the new overpasses on the outer loop, the eagles and Texas Star designs came to fruition at meetings back in the 1990's under Mayor Raul Treviño's administration when present TxDoT Eagle Pass Maintenance Supervisor Celestino Hernandez was Planning Director for the city.
"The aesthetics of projects such as these are usually ironed out in meetings and organizational planning sessions between city officials and TxDoT at times many years before the projects are carried out," stated Hernandez who informed The News Gram of all the exciting plans for the new overpass, "The aesthetics of this new project will have very impressive 3-dimensional designs which depict the history of Eagle Pass in the cattle trade in the 1800's and early 1900's."
Hernandez let us in on the design which will be embossed and de bossed images of wagons, horses and cattle on the cattle drives which Eagle Pass cattlemen and cowboys would undertake many years ago, an interesting conceptual design which highlights our history while touching the future with civil engineering, asphalt, concrete and rebar.
The new super-structure will begin to form and be visible to the public within the next thirty days as crews are in the process of drilling 40-60 foot holes in the ground to anchor the massive pillars which will hold up the new overpass.
"The closure of the highway is mostly for public safety purposes, but thanks to the garrison St. overpass and the advent of the Cardona Unit on El Indio, this closure will not impact the fire department," added Hernandez.
Hernandez along with Antonio Perea, P.E., Area Engineer for the Texas Department of Transportation have been on top of the progress of the new super-structure while still maintaining our existing highways and byways as it is their job to insure the upkeep of these as well as looking to the future as much as they possibly can.
“The project is well underway and within 30 days you will actually start seeing the above ground construction”, commented Perea.
"As of the beginning of the month, the project was about 15% complete. Currently the contractor is installing the remaining storm sewer items like pipes and inlets. Also, the contractor has started the overpass work by constructing the drill shaft foundations."
As with any TxDOT project the public is encouraged to drive with caution in any construction zone, obey all warnings, and to be safe.
So next time you drive by the construction, rest assured that it'll be very soon that we will all be enjoying the newly designed overpass and reaping the benefits of a lot of work and logistics which needed to be in place in order to see a project of this magnitude come to fruition.
A.D. Ibarra
-Eagle Pass
County Commissioner Daniela Aleman made significant strides to insure that the second cell which needs to be completed at the Maverick County Solid Waste Authority to come yet closer to fruition as she and Maverick County Judge David Saucedo, and Landfill Board Chairman Rolando Jasso had a quality meeting on Friday at the judge's chambers.
In an effort to avoid any type of closure of the landfill should cell 2 not be in place by June, the estimated date of capacity for cell 1, then the city and the county would find themselves in dire straits without an option for trash pickup.
The project which at the onset was estimated to be at $3.3 million has now been determined to only cost $2.2 million with the aid of the landfill budget and its machinery and manpower.
Flores acted as the mediator for the financial aspect of the gathering and they three were in a teleconference with financial advisor Robert Rodriguez who has found an as of yet unnamed group willing to take the burden of the second cell project.
According to Flores, finding someone to help the county financially was not difficult as due to the payments which have been forwarded consistently for the landfill have been on time which has put the county in good financial standing.
"We want to make sure that it stays open because it generates much needed revenue for the county," stated Aleman.
The money that is generated by the landfill goes primarily for debt reduction for the county which still finds itself in need of working its way out of a multi-million dollar deficit.
"The proposal is in the negotiation phase, but everyone's on the same page and it's looking very positive," Aleman concluded.
A.D. Ibarra
-Eagle Pass
A juvenile who had only recently arrived to the new Border Hope Juvenile Residential Center at the Radar Base made an attempt to escape using a metal bar to get past the officer in charge of supervising the boys who are housed there.
According to Bruce Ballou, Director of Probation for the Tri-County area, the youth who is not from Eagle Pass used the metal object to attack the officer, striking him at least three times, twice to the top of the head and once to the side of his head, causing significant injury, however the officer still tried to subdue the individual and the two struggled for a while, but the youth was able to escape into the cold Saturday night as the incident occurred at approximately 9:30 P.M.
The youth was on the run all night, but was apprehended on Highway 277 the next morning with the aid of US Border Patrol and Texas Department of Public Safety officers.
The unidentified youth has been charged with Aggravated Assault on a Correctional Officer and taken to a more traditional detention center where he awaits his date before the district judge.
Ballou added that he has already spoken with District Judge Cynthia Muñiz and County Judge Saucedo in regards to the incident. What is next is a report to District Judge Abascal and one to the Juvenile Board which is standard procedure in an incident of this nature.
When asked which precautions had been taken in retrospect of this highly volatile situation, Ballou mentioned the fact that the entire facility has been cleared of any objects which can be used as a weapon and strict guidelines as to how the youths move around the facility have also been implemented.
What may come of this is that two officers may have to be stationed at the facility as opposed to the one officer to eight residents ratio which by law is the official ratio which was adhered to in this instance.
The Border Hope facility is not a jail, it is a facility which is the last alternative before these youths are actually sent to a juvenile detention center, and/or prison for violation of probation guidelines set forth by their P.O.'s and District Court.
In this setting, the youths are guided by licensed substance abuse counselors and YSO's (Youth Supervision Officers) who are there to help rehabilitate these wayward youths, giving the hope for their futures away from the perils of organized crime and the drug trade.