A.D. Ibarra

-Eagle Pass

Alan Rodriguez, Community Engagement Coordinator for Molina Health Systems, a Long Beach, CA company who reaches out to low-income families needing health care, informed The News Gram of the initiative his company is taking to educate our youth of the dangers and perils of diabetes and ways they can prevent the acquisition of the disease in later life.

Rosemary Santos was busy making her presentation when mascot Dr. Cleo got the attention of all children present.

Santos was attempting to instruct the children on how the body converts food into glucose, the main source for energy in the human body as well as the dangers of having an overabundance of glucose in your system.

Diabetes of course is the #1 killer of Hispanic Americans and Latinos all over the world.

A.D. Ibarra

-Eagle Pass

     In an exclusive interview, EPPD Police Chief Sam Granato informed The News Gram of the initiatives the police force will be implementing in their efforts to complete their new and improved policy manual, approach crime in Eagle Pass in a more proactive role and even allow for more citizen interaction in order for the community to know what the job of a patrol officer entails.

     "We're presently continuing with a lot of work Chief Mills had done to improve the department such as the new Policy and Procedures Manual which requires a lot of review to see if it fits for Eagle Pass," stated the new man in charge of the Eagle Pass Police Department, "We are also looking into some programs which will reach out to the community."

     Another new facet of the police work the department is implementing is the Sergeant's Daily Activity report to the chief and the city manager in order for administration to be aware of all of the incidents handled by their police force.

     The chief is even considering what he termed a citizen's academy for members of the community to actually be trained to ride along with patrol officers on duty, a novel initiative which will allow citizens first hand experience on what the job of an officer is on a daily basis.

     A major concern for the new chief is the inadequacy of the present facilities as he feels the facility is outdated and in need of serious addressing from the holding cells which he does not feel are fit for use.  The department will be addressing this issue by moving to a new facility at the former National Guard Armory soon.

     When asked what his perspective was in terms of the challenges we face in a border city as opposed to what he saw in Corpus Christi, Kingsville and Yakima, Washington where he is coming to us from after serving as police chief there, he said that the drug problem is prevalent and what he and his officers will be dealing with will be community drug dealers who he feels are a large part of the drug problem in any community.

     "We have multiple agencies addressing the drug trade on the large scale, but what they don't see is the dealing in our neighborhoods," added Granato, "If they feel it's too small to deal with, we're going to do it because it affects the quality of life in the community, and we intend to address it."

   All in all, Chief Granato was confident in his laying out his plans for continuing to improve the EPPD and his initiative to allow more interaction between the community and his police force will no doubt prove to be an impact on the way they do their job and how the public percieves police work.

Barrientos discusses latest happenings in city;

Police Chief position may be filled in three months

A.D. Ibarra

-Eagle Pass

City Manager Gloria Barrientos, in our first interview since being officially named to her new position where she informed The News Gram of the fact that they are in the first stage of the budget process as we speak, is having to deal with the hiring of a new police chief among working to repair damages caused by the June 15th flood.

"I was actually scheduled to attend the TCMA (Texas City Manager Association) Conference in San Marcos when we first heard of the heavy rains which had fallen in our area, and of course that week we were dealing with the disaster and I could not attend," stated Barrientos, "What I have learned when attending previous conferences with Mr. Valenzuela, is that we have a code of ethics to abide by and our main priority is the organization and not self-preservation or protecting our job.  Our main concern is service to the community and we're told to stay away from politics as well."

Right now, she said, the city finds itself in phase one of budget preparation for the next 2013-2014 fiscal year and she has met with all her directors who have made their individual requests for next year.

The second phase will entail a detailed report from the Department of Finance who will provide her with revenue projections for this particular time frame which she will look at and compare to the requests made by the directors.

"We have to have a proposed balanced budget," stated the city manager, "You can't spend more than what comes in, revenues and expenditures have to be equal."

Phase three will be addressing debt service and whether the city will need to borrow money or not borrow, whatever the case may be.  This is the first opportunity city administrators will have to look at the tax rate which is the third highest of all four major taxing entities in our community in comparison with the EPISD, Maverick County and the MCHD.

Barrientos also informed The Gram that they are hoping to begin the process of hiring the official new police chief which n her estimation will take approximately three months due to advertising for the position for 4-6 weeks, reviewing all applications, form a committee, scheduling of interviews, sometimes a secondary interview is required before making an offer to the finalist and running the appropriate background check.  The entire process should take approximately three months.