Former Mission mayor inducted in Hall of Fame

SAN BENITO – The late Arnaldo Ramirez, mayor of Mission from 1973-1981, will be one of this year’s inductees into the Conjunto Music Hall of Fame.

The Texas Conjunto Music Hall of Fame and Museum announced that Ramirez will be inducted at an induction ceremony and dance on Saturday, Aug. 22 at the Knights of Columbus Hall in San Benito, located at 826 E.Stenger. The event will run from 7 p.m. until midnight. Also to be inducted are Henry Zimmerle, Oscar Hernandez, Eva Ybarra and Eloy Bernal.

Tickets are $10 pre-sale and $12 at the door and are available at the Knights of Columbus Hall in San Benito, the San Benito Chamber of Commerce, and the Harlingen Area Chamber of Commerce and Hispanic Chamber. For more information, contact Rey Avila at 245-1666 or 399-0923.

“Every year we honor and pay tribute to all these conjunto music pioneers,” said Rey Avila, president and co-founder of the organization. “These inductees represent musicians from San Antonio, Corpus Christi and the Valley.”

Each year, four musicians and one non-musician are chosen from a list of 150 musicians or performers to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. The Texas Conjunto Hall of Fame has inducted a total of 38 musicians or pioneers of the music in the last eight years.

The late Arnaldo Ramirez, known as “Mr. Falcon” created “Fanfarria Falcon” in 1964. The Spanish language musical variety TV show aired for 20 years and gave Tejano artists unprecedented exposure. He served as mayor in his hometown of Mission from 1973-1981 and was best known as a charismatic producer, an international ambassador of music, and a man of action.

Henry Zimmerle Jr. followed in the footsteps of his musically talented San Antonio family and had his first hit, “El Senor de los Milagros” at the age of 15. He performed with Flaco Jimenez as “Los Caminantes” until their solo careers led them in different directions. He continues to pack dance hall venues with the traditional sounds of Conjunto San Antonio, and is a regular at Lerma’s dance hall when not on tour.

Eva Ybarra, the second woman to be inducted into the Texas Conjunto Music Hall of Fame, is a self-taught accordionist who is recognized as “La Reina del Acordeon” for her accordion technique that pushes the boundaries of traditional conjunto music. She is a worldwide entertainer whose music has been reviewed in Rolling Stone Magazine, Latin Beat and The Village Voice.

Known by some critics as “the best conjunto in the world,” the late Eloy Bernal created Conjunto Bernal with his brother Paulino. As more members were added to the group, it became known for its sophisticated accordion arrangements accompanied by velvet vocal harmonies like those of the trios in Mexico.

Oscar Hernandez introduced the chromatic accordion to the Conjunto Bernal in 1965, which produced a sophisticated, intricate sound. A native of Pharr, Hernandez formed his own conjunto, Los Alegres del Valle, and recorded two LPs for Falcon Records. He offers a diverse selection of heritage rhythms like polka, ranchera, schottische, and mazurka with fusions of rock and 1940s swing.

The Texas Conjunto Hall of Fame and Museum documents, archives and permanently displays the history of conjunto regional music.

La Joya Judge inducted

EDINBURG – La Joya Municipal Court Judge Joe Henry Alaniz Garza has been indicted on allegations that he abused his power.

According to media reports, the judge faces a nine-count indictment alleging that he wrongly held people in contempt of court and ordered an officer to arrest them.

Hidalgo County District Attorney Rene Guerra told the McAllen Monitor that Garza was charged with three counts of abuse of official capacity and six counts of official oppression.

A district court judge gave him a $13,500 personal recognizance bond.

In an interview with the Progress Times, La Joya Mayor Billy Leo said the charges against the town’s judge were serious, and the first of their kind there.

“This is the most controversial charge,” Leo said. “He violated the ethics of the position itself.”

Leo said he was aware the State Commission for Judicial Conduct in Austin had been conducting their own investigation into Garza. The judge also informed city leaders when the commission sent Garza a letter asking him to respond to a number of questions.

“He later met with myself and the city manager and told us he had been indicted,” Leo said. “I didn’t know it was that serious. The judge seemed pretty confident he hadn’t broken the law.”

Garza’s attorney Richard Alamia was out of town early Thursday and could not be reached for comment at press time.

Leo said Garza gave his explanation of the charges to city officials, leaving Leo to believe the issue would work itself out.

“It’s a learning experience,” he said.

La Joya, who had Garza as a full-time judge for about three years, now has to find a full-time judge to fill Garza’s spot. The city does have a part-time judge who has worked there for about 15 years.

Guerra could not be reached for comment at press time.

Longer School Days

Mission Consolidated Independent School District’s two high schools and some junior highs will be a little different, school officials announced this week. The instructional days and class periods will now be longer than before.

“The principals at our secondary schools have been indicating a need to increase the instructional time they have with their students,” said MCISD Superintendent Oscar Rodriguez. “The changes to the bell schedules are an attempt to maximize teaching time while not making the school day much longer than it already was.”

MCISD’s first day of school is Aug. 24.

The school days for high school students will increase by about 15 minutes. Each instructional period will increase from 45 minutes to 50 minutes. The “first bell” will be at 7:55 a.m. with the first period officially beginning at 8 a.m. The last period of the day will end at 4:15 p.m. Teachers and students will have a 50-minute lunch period. Breakfast will be during the first period.

Announcements will be done during second period. Channel One broadcasts will be viewed in the cafeterias during the breakfast and lunch periods.

For students at Mission Junior High School and R. Cantu Junior High School, the new bell schedule will look familiar, the district stated in a news release. It is the same schedule used during the 2008-2009 school year.

For students at the district’s two other junior high schools, the schedule will be different than years past. The first bell will be at 7:45 a.m. Breakfast will be from 7:50 a.m.-8:05 a.m. The first period will begin at 8:05 a.m. The school day will end at 4 p.m. Lunch periods will be 42 minutes long. Tutorial periods will also be built into the school day schedule.

City Council candidates ready for election day

By Edwina P. Garza

MISSION – As early voting continues through Aug. 18, Mission City Council candidates Keren Gomez-Guilds and Maria Elena Ramirez said they were meeting with voters to introduce themselves as the missing piece to the city’s government.

The two candidates are campaigning to fill the vacant seat following the death of Councilmember Celestino Ramirez, Maria Elena Ramirez’ husband.

Gomez-Guilds said she’s been campaigning as a transparent candidate that refuses to push the “yes button” without good reasoning behind her decisions.

“Everyone wants an easy way out; it’s not easy, but we need to work hard,” she said.

Since she announced her candidacy, Gomez-Guilds said she’s visited with different civic organizations to introduce herself, and has even created a Web site, www.kereninfo.com to attract voters.

Gomez-Guilds said her main campaign push is for the continued focus on revitalizing the downtown area and maintaining homegrown businesses within the city.

“We’re focusing too much along the highway, in the Sharyland area,” she said. “We need not forget about the downtown area, there’s a lot of history there.”

Her campaign, she said, has been a grassroots effort, and while she anticipates a low voter turnout, she expects the vote to be close.

“I really want an open door policy,” she said, adding that she’s hosting an ice cream social in front of Westfield Furniture on Aug. 21. “A lot of politics are done behind closed doors. In my running, I’m deciding to break the standard of closed door agreements.”

Since early voting started, Ramirez has spent her day campaigning outside of City Hall along with meeting with voters during door-to-door campaigning.

“A lot of them know me because of my husband,” Ramirez said. “All I want to do is finish his term. I don’t want to think about May.”

Ramirez said campaigning her goals to the community is nothing new to her. Holding signs and talking with voters is something she’d done for years for her husband.

“It’s never easy, but people are real friendly,” Ramirez said.

If elected, Ramirez said she’d like to concentrate on developing the downtown area, as well.

“We have this new bridge coming, and I’d like to get that traffic downtown instead of McAllen,” she said. “The community needs to bring traffic to Conway (Avenue).”

Other issues important to both Ramirez and her late husband are cleaning up streets, paving alleys and providing lighting downtown.

“He wanted it to be lit,” she said of her husband. “People are always telling me we need more light.”

Ramirez said she also wants to help the city provide increased police and fire protection.

“I just want to continue being a vote for (the community),” Ramirez said. “I hope I can be the kind of person (my husband) was.”

Early voting, which can be done at City Hall, 1201 E. 8th St., ends at 7 p.m. on Aug. 18. The special election will be held on Aug. 22.

La Joya starts construction on ninth middle school

By Edwina P. Garza

PALMVIEW – With their slogan “The beginning of a new era,” La Joya Independent School District has begun construction of its ninth middle school on the border of the district, making it one of the furthest campus from the district’s headquarters.

School officials last week broke ground for the district’s ninth middle school campus along Inspiration and Mile 5 roads. The positioning of the school along Inspiration Road is unique in that the eastside of the street is part of the Mission Consolidated Independent School District and the westside of the road is LJISD territory, said Superintendent Dr. Alda Benavides.

Board Member Jose A. “Fito” Salinas said the project is part of the board’s commitment to the community to provide learning environments to ensure all students can succeed.

The facility, being constructed by ERO Architects, will be approximately 130,000 square feet and should be completed by August 2010, said Daniel Garza, the district’s director of construction projects.

The school, which will be named later in the construction process, will cost the district $14 million. The building will have 59 classrooms, a band hall, a dance hall, gym, cafeteria and athletics area, among other amenities, officials said.

In the meantime, district officials will be working toward the transition of students that will attend the ninth middle school, Benavides said.

Some of the students will come from Memorial Middle School, she said. By December, the district will announce which students will attend school here.

Along with working to determine which students from the district would attend the new school, Benavides said school officials would also have to work toward enticing parents on the idea of a new school.

“We’ll have a smooth transition,” she said at the groundbreaking ceremony. “They will be receiving a quality education no matter which school they go to.”

Over the past couple years, the growing district has opened a number of new schools because of its increasing student population. For 2009-2010, district officials anticipate seeing a student growth of 750. This summer, school officials informed the board of trustees there may be a need for a fourth high school in the near future.

“Without the support of the community, this wouldn’t have happened,” Benavides said of new school constructions.

Along with their groundbreaking ceremony, LJISD officials toured the Transportation Substation off of Highway 107 and Western Road in Palmview, which will open by the time the school year starts, officials said. The complex is expected to save time and transportation costs by enabling a fleet of buses to be stationed in the northeastern area of LJISD.

The substation will also house a LJISD Police Substation. In a news release, Chief of Police Raul Gonzalez said having a station located near the new schools would allow officers to respond quicker.

Stretched budget results in new life for old buses

MISSION – A tight budget situation at Mission Consolidated Independent School District has forced the district to halt the practice of purchasing five school buses a year to replace older school buses.

Combined with the opening of two new schools and the creation of more bus routes this past school year and the district’s transportation department was pushed to its limits.

Transportation department administrators have been busy trying to find ways to streamline their operations and become more efficient in an effort to save money, according to a press release from the school district. During this process, they found a way to increase the district’s bus fleet by four buses this year, without purchasing any new buses. In fact, the district will be able to do this for about the cost of only one brand new bus.

“We have been trying to figure out a way to get more use out of a number of buses that would normally be retired,” said Carlos Lerma, Mission CISD transportation director. “We discovered that we had several buses that were good candidates for refurbishing. This would enable us to get several more good years of service out of the buses for a fraction of the cost of purchasing new buses. Then, as we looked into the process, we realized we have the expertise to do the refurbishing ourselves and save even more money.”

Lerma said it costs the district about $87,000 to purchase a new bus. The nearest refurbishing company in Texas would charge about $35,000, plus there would be the expense of getting the bus to and from the company. Depending upon the exact needs of a bus, the district transportation department can refurbish a bus for about $25,000.

Lerma said the refurbishing process would address all aspects of the bus and its systems in order to make sure they remain as safe as they were when they were new. The refurbished buses will actually be more comfortable for students because air conditioning will be added. Most of the district’s older buses do not currently have air conditioning.

“Being able to reclaim these four buses this year will make a huge difference for us,” Lerma said. “It will mean we won’t need to have as many of our buses making multiple runs to service a school. Often times, this results in buses running late for the junior high and high school students. Since the refurbishment will include overhauling engines and transmissions, it will also mean fewer headaches when we have to conduct preventive maintenance or repairs to our buses.”

The district currently has a bus fleet of 71 buses. Eight of them are currently on the replacement list due to their age and condition. Officials plan to reclaim four of the buses this summer through the in-house refurbishing at a total cost of about $100,000. This would be at least $40,000 cheaper than using an outside firm for the work and at least $248,000 cheaper than purchasing four new buses. Lerma expects to be able to get at least another five years of use out of the refurbished buses, some of which have more than 20 years of service on them already.

Officials are hoping to reclaim an additional four buses during the 2009-2010 school year through the refurbishing process.

Archives | Privacy Policy | About Us | Contact Us | Advertise