Reprint from the Progress Times - May 18, 2007
©Progress Times 2007 - All Rights Reserved

Mission Nursing Home Protests Bryan Expressway

Last week, over 50 residents and family members of Mission Nursing Home, located at 1013 S. Bryan Road, held a rally in protest of the proposed widening of Bryan Road to accommodate future traffic funneled into Mission by the Anzalduas Bridge.

Mission Nursing Home stands to lose 240 feet of its property bringing the road a mere 15 feet from one building in the facility.

Administrator Isabel Flores said the rally was to let people know what's going on.

"We are doing this to tell the community that this is disruptive. Around 170 people call this place home," said Flores. "Do they understand that this is affecting the elderly of this community and our business too?"

According to Flores, in two year's time truck traffic will be flying by the nursing home and their residents won't be able to enjoy the outdoors.

"I believe there are other options, I believe the route through Conway would be better," said Flores. "There are hardly any businesses affected there. I feel we are a victim."

The rally, held on Friday, May 11 came just three days after city officials signed a contract with a design and construction firm to build the U.S. portion of the bridge.

The bridge and corresponding construction has been hailed by Mission Mayor Norberto Salinas and other local economic leaders as a boon for the area.

Although TxDOT held a public hearing in January, to hear community concerns about the Bryan Rd. expansion, Flores says it was useless.

"When we had the public hearing they sent letters but the hearing wasn't to hear anything," said Flores. "It was just to tell us that this is the way it’s going to be. We weren't able to give feedback at the hearing so this is our feedback."

Mark Himmel, CEO of the company that runs Mission Nursing Home, says the entire thing is a bit of a "railroad job".

"I have a document that I brought to the public hearing in which the Mayor, Beto Salinas, adopted the plan known as Alternate Route B which would have sent the road up Conway," said Himmel. "We sort of got alarmed back in 2002 when all of this came up. The 2002 version that was going to come up Bryan was grander and included a lot of elevated roadway. Once we felt that the mayor had decided that the Conway route was the way to go we forgot about it. Then we got a notice there was a hearing and we were furious. The hearing was nothing more than a back-slapping session for TxDOT and the Mission Economic Development Corporation," said Himmel.