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College Station, Texas —
Four students from Eagle Pass High School were among twenty-three high school students who participated in the Texas A&M University Camp ARCH. The Youth Adventure Program (YAP) ran camps intended to bring awareness to in demand careers. Brandon Navarro, Ricardo Fernandez, Imanol Garcia were part of the Construction Management Camp program, while Elsa Paulina “Pau” Ruiz was part of the Architecture program. These students are part of Texas A&M International University’s GEAR UP IV cohort and were among those
selected to participate in week long courses designed to encourage career exploration in fields of interest to gifted and talented students.
The four participants from Eagle Pass High School were highly motivated to learn, think, solve problems, and have a strong interest in attending Texas A&M University. The students worked closely with Dr. Edelmiro Escamilla, Assistant Instructional Professor in the Department of Construction Science. At the conclusion of the camp each of the four participants were awarded a $1000 scholarship to attend Texas A&M University and major in Construction Science or Architecture.
The screening of the documentary 'Western' which featured former Eagle Pass Mayor Chad Foster, former Piedras Negras Mayor Jose Maldonado Maldonado, Martín Wall and his daughter Brylyn along with many other Eagle Passans and neighbors from our sister city of Piedras Negras through some of the most trying times in our collective history including the tragic death of Mayor Maldonado during the flash floods which took place in 2012.
The question and answer segment after the premier evoked an array of well-wishes and compliments as well as a suggestion by one member of the audience to have a similar screening in Piedras Negras. Pictured here are the Ross Brothers, Turner and Bill, the directors of the film, along with Producer Michael Gottwald. On the far right are two of the featured stars of the film Martín and Brylyn Wall.
A.D. Ibarra
-Eagle Pass
Michael Rawat, a Physics and Math major at Jewell College in Missouri, is joining efforts with the Border Hope Foundation to make a difference in the lives of an underprivileged family here in our community by building them a home with a unique and creative machine he has built through a grant from his school which makes bricks out of earth, water and mortar.
Rawat and Bruce Ballou of Mission Border Hope demonstrated the entire brick-making process to us on a cool Friday morning in Las Hacienditas behind a Lutheran Church on Eidson Road.
"We have a compressed block machine which we have constructed through a grant from William Jewell College in Missouri through their general grant program and what it does is it compresses earth with a little water and a bit of mortar into a block which is cheap and is used in third world countries as an alternative way to build houses."
"Yeah, a good example of Arg-É-Bam a city in Iran which was completely built with adobe which is slightly different to compressed earth, a more mud-like structure. Compressed earth blocks are more uniformed, they're actual blocks that you can build upon. Adobe is more fluid, more smooth."
A.D. Ibarra
-Maverick County
Big news in Maverick County on Friday evening. Maverick County Commissioner's Court effectively washed its hands of the Maverick County Detention Center citing irreparable negotiations with bond holders and the trustees of the facility.
When the meeting began at 5:25 PM, Maverick County Judge David Saucedo asked legal counsel Robert Wilson if he had anything to say with respect to the issues at hand who said he would rather address this in executive session which they immediately retired to.
Maverick County Sheriff Tom Schmerber was called into the office at 6:35 and when they returned at exactly 7:00 PM, they did so to unanimously reject the offer made by the bond holders followed by a motion made to advise the Sheriff to cease operations at the Maverick County Detention Center and to give the PFC, the US Marshals Office and the bond holders a thirty day notice of said action.
Commissioner's Court made reference to their not agreeing with the bond holders on their proposal and cited that the Maverick County Sheriff's Office and their staff kept the operation afloat for 18 months despite low numbers also saying that they effectively have nothing in place to continue.
The commissioners continued that the bond holders had an arrogant point of view in their negotiations and that their new financial advisor Raul Villaseñor was in favor of taking this action.
They said that they were trying to negotiate with the bond holders in order to save this project and that it hurts, but that a decision had to be made seeing that Maverick County has financial difficulties and that the tax payers of Maverick County have no reason to have to pay for this project.
After this, the court who was short two commissioners, Jose Luis Rosales and Gerardo Morales, who may have made a difference in the ultimate decision whether in closed session or in open session were not present. When the vote was taken, the vote was unanimous to effectively do away with 140 jobs and from 380-400 prisoners housed at the facility who will be gladly taken at other similar facilities across the state of Texas.
A.D. Ibarra
-Acapulco, Guerrero
An Eagle Passan and University of Texas graduate Marcelo Flores, who on vacation with his family in Acapulco was found unresponsive after an apparent accident there on Wednesday.
Flores had been reported missing since 1:00 PM on Tuesday when the horrifying discovery was made Wednesday morning.
According to a report in The Daily Texan, the search for Flores topped the Austin and Mexico subreddits on the community posting site Reddit.
The graduate of Eagle Pass High School and the UT School of Radio, Television and Film, had everything going for him and was a very charismatic, likable and outgoing individual who was a member of organizations such as Texas 4000, who each year make a 70 day, 4,687 mile bike trek from the Texas campus in Austin to Anchorage, Alaska in a fund-raising effort to help fight cancer, as well as the Texas Blazers, an elite group of students who are chosen from the UT Student Body for their leadership, commitment to service, and academic achievements.
Friends, teachers and acquaintances of Marcelo's have nothing but positive things to say about him as he was very popular amongst his peers.
His and his brother Alex's coach, Juan Gonzalez of the EP High Cross Country program had the following to say about this young man, "He was a great kid, a beautiful individual from the inside out. When he walked into a room he would bring a very contagious positive vibe. A sharp kid, good role model. I'm hoping my sons will be like him."
"He was a young leader and people loved him," said brother Paco, "He lived life to the fullest, he was the life of the party and will continue to be in my heart."
His brother Francisco was in Acapulco on Thursday to accompany his brother back home to his family who are absolutely crushed by the news of his passing, however, authorities and an autopsy have confirmed his death as an accident after a fall ended his young life.
Our condolences go out to the Flores family in this very difficult time. Funeral arrangements or services for the young man were not known at press time.
A.D. Ibarra
-EPISD Fine Arts Center
We caught up with Turner Ross, the director of 'Western' an award-winning documentary which they filmed in Piedras Negras.
The Ross Brothers and Executive Producer Michael Gottwald will be in town to unveil their creation with the assistance of the Arts Council of Eagle Pass, IBC Bank and the Maverick County Junior Livestock Show Association tonight at 7:30 at the EPISD Fine Arts Complex. The movie will be premiered and admission is free.
"We're thrilled to finally have the opportunity to finally bring the film to Eagle Pass. We make films for a living and have an extensive body of work, but we had a very profound experience of what the reality is of the modern frontier," said Turner Ross, who along with brother Bill, directed the documentary, "The first person we met was Chad who welcomed us and asked what we needed, and with a firm handshake, he began to introduce us to people. Everyone seemed to know him and know him well and we just followed hand shake after hand shake until we got a slice of life on the border."
Ross said he was not here to make an exposé which disarmed him saying that his demeanor and his love for this community enabled them to get an introduction into what life was like in Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras back then.
"There are some very human moments," added Ross, "Which allowed us to really see what life was like at that time and place. We want the film to provide hope as well as a feeling of what was going on in the community at the time. "
A.D. Ibarra
-Maverick County
At Monday's Commissioner's Court meeting, all five Justices of the Peace were front and center making their presentations to the court and JP Dora Madera in particular was commended for her traffic in terms of citations issued which report to her office.
When you take into consideration the fact that the Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino is in her precinct, you can understand why this is so, however, some of the other justices have brought it to our attention that some of the byways that run in and around the area are technically not in Precinct 2 which when asked about this, Sheriff Tom Schmerber stated that he would advise Chief Deputy Rick Fuentes to look into the matter and advise all officers to be very careful as to what precinct they are in when issuing citations.
"It is very technical as different parts of Loop 480, for example cross over precinct boundary lines and yes, there are many citations given on FM 1021 (El Indio Highway) due to the heavy traffic coming from and going to the casino, so that is understandable," added the sheriff.
Another matter of interest mentioned by Sheriff Schmerber is that of residents parking in and around the Seco Road area in Seco Mines. The sheriff says that the curbs have been painted in and around an ambulance service there, warnings have been issued, however, deputies have been advised to begin giving citations for parking in this area.
"Signs have been posted as well and it is very dangerous for motorists coming out to 277, so if you're parking here, you will be cited."
JP Madera said that her office received 300 citations in the month of June, a figure which County Commissioner Robert Ruiz mentioned also informed Commissioner's Court that the Fourth of July weekend was extremely busy and many more citations were issued than in the month of June.
Lieutenant Orlando Escareño informed The News Gram of the fact that the department has hired nine new officers. These officers have been hired to replace nine others who have either retired or moved on to governmental jobs, but more are needed.
Escareño said that the nine officers most recently hired have been on the job, but they are short three more who will not be hired until civil service kicks in in October.
"The process is that the prospective officer needs to apply, then he or she needs to pass an entrance exam, a physical needs to be passed as well. If they pass the physical, then we give them an oral interview," said Escareño, "Then a background check, a psychological evaluation is done followed by a drug screening.
"Everything is on hold because we are all learning the details of civil service which begins in October."
The last graduation for potential officers from the academy took place in June and another will take place in November.
A.D. Ibarra
-Elm Creek
Concerned Citizen Lourdes Valadez eloquently addressed Commissioner's Court on Monday saying that she and her neighbors would like for the county to help them with the problem of flooding in the Elm Creek area during heavy rains.
"You all have helped us a lot already by cleaning the canal that runs behind our homes on Dulce Street, but we feel that the dam is what is causing the water to back up," said Valadez, "The residents of Elm Creek have been recurrent flood victims, and these floods have recently caused us to suffer damage to our property and homes. We have a good faith belief that the flooding episodes are exacerbated by the dam at Elm Creek."
The County Commissioner of Precinct 3, Jose Luis Rosales has allocated $25,000.00 to the cleaning of Elm Creek on the west side of the creek where heavy machinery was incorporated into getting this done.
"We spend sleepless nights and nerve-wrecking days monitoring the rise of flooding in Elm Creek every time we experience heavy rains."
A.D. Ibarra
-College Station, Tx
Six Eagle Pass Fire Fighters will be traveling to College Station, Texas on the campus of Texas A&M University to train on different aspects of fire fighting according to Fire Chief Sonny Mello.
"In the next few weeks, we will be sending six of our fire fighters to differentiating levels of training in advanced officer development, advanced fire fighting courses and even a pump operating course which is very important for our staff to have," stated Chief Mello.
The pump operating course will basically inform our staff how the pumps work and the most basic aspects of pump operation including troubleshooting and maintenance.
"It is very important that our fire fighters are trained on maintaining the pumps on our trucks," added Chief Mello, "If you don't monitor the pressure, you can actually kill a person due to the intense pressure that the water is producing within the hose."
He said that fire fighters train by learning how to secure what is termed a 'runaway hose', a hose that has gone out of control and by doing so, fire fighters have to literally crawl along the hose in order to pull it in without getting hit by the extremely deadly iron nozzle at the end of the hose.
"There are 300-400 pounds per square inch going through those hoses which amounts to about 125 gallons per minute which you can imagine is a lot of water."
Mello concluded by saying that they have a lot of new employees, therefore, they need to receive the proper training. While this year they will be receiving the pump operations training, next year they will get training in pump maintenance in order to be able to fix any problems they may have with this in the future.
