HIDALGO COUNTY – Hidalgo County Health and Human Services recently began a push to make sure residents are vaccinated for the flu. According to Eddie Olivarez, Hidalgo County Health and Human Services Chief Administrator, Hidalgo County flu numbers are similar to what they were in January last year.

Read more: Flu vaccines encouraged by County Health Department

MISSION – Kops for Kids is now accepting new toys that will be donated to needy families just before Christmas. Collection boxes are now located at many area Winter Texan parks and schools.

Read more: Kops for Kids accepting toys

Volunteers help serve a hot turkey dinner to colonia residents at the Buckner Community Transformation Center. Buckner served meals to area families and gave them a meal to take home.PEÑITAS—Children and parents stood on a makeshift stage here, Saturday evening, and expressed what they were most thankful for at a festival held at the Buckner Community Transformation Center. Attendees enjoyed a hot turkey dinner with hundreds of their neighbors and friends.

Read more: Buckner provides Thanksgiving dinner for local colonias

MISSION—Long-awaited parks improvements at Bannworth Park on Shary Road and CWV Park on South Mayberry, are nearing completion, according to Mission City Manager Julio Cerda. The projects include a new indoor swimming pool and a separate gymnasium building at Bannworth Park. The Mayberry Pool at CWV Park has undergone extensive refurbishing and a new gymnasium has been added next door. The gyms will serve as satellite locations for the Mission Boys & Girls Club.

Read more: Bannworth and CWV Parks see long awaited completion in December

MISSION—The Mission School Board last week approved a restructuring plan for the Kenneth White Junior High campus. The action was taken in response to federal No Child Left Behind Act mandates to make improvements at the campus, which has failed to meet AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) test score requirements for four consecutive years.

Read more: K. White Jr. High may restructure to meet federal mandates

MISSION—The Mission Food Pantry has found a new home at 1400 E. Kika De La Garza loop, occupying the old Texas Citrus Fiesta building. The pantry supports feeding families in Mission and neighboring cities, not only during the holidays but year round.

Assistant Manager Joe Garcia explained this is his 11th year working with the Mission Food Pantry, along with his wife, Manager Nadine Garcia. The pantry is an organization that helps citizens who have suffered through house fires, lost their homes, or are directed to their facility through community referrals.

Read more: Mission Food Pantry moves to new location

“I have lived on Lucky J. Street for 26 years and have not needed any services provided by the city. The county takes care of us and we do not need to pay taxes for the city of Mission to get services we do not need.” Those words, which drew a round of applause from many seated in the audience, were from Jesse Sanchez who spoke in opposition of the planned annexation of land north of Mile 3 Road on Moorefield Road in the Monday, Nov. 13, meeting of the Mission City Council.

Read more: Residents protest Mission annexation

Arnoldo Ochoa listens as Isaac Sulemana talks on the phone with Team Excellence’s campaign secretary about discrepancies at a polling location. Team Excellence candidates did not receive enough votes to take the seats on the La Joya Independent School Board. Progress Times photo by Carina A. BrunsonIt was a somber evening at Team Excellence’s campaign headquarters in La Joya Tuesday as the election results for La Joya Independent School District school board started coming in. Both Arnolodo Ochoa and Isaac Sulemana were quite surprised at the outcome.

“We were confident,” said Sulemana.

Both candidates believe there were too many issues at some polling locations and refused to surrender too quickly. Calls were coming in to them saying numbers were not adding up.

Read more: Team Liberty sweeps all five La Joya school board seats