Area News

Rural families to gain better access to healthcare, education Hidalgo County and Precinct 3 broke ground Tuesday morning for a community complex to provide rural residents with district resources. Across the El Paraiso Colonia in Alton, the center will have a health clinic and a resource center. It will tend to over 16,000 households who…

With significant difficulty, McAllen ISD trustees approved Monday a calendar that will move the district’s start date up by about a week next year and spread out teacher planning days more evenly throughout the school year. The board only very narrowly managed to approve a calendar; it spent most of the discussion bickering over holidays.…

Big things are sprouting at Veterans Memorial High School, with the FARMERS’ program winter harvest bringing a 2-foot-wide broccoli plant. Aaron Villareal, a senior, explained the process of growing the giant vegetable and the program’s impact. Villareal isn’t sure about the cause of the plant’s large scale. “It might’ve been the nutrients we added. Maybe…

The Alton Police Department will be helping municipalities across the Rio Grande Valley to combat gang criminal activity. On Tuesday, the City Commission agreed to a memorandum of understanding between local agencies of services part of the Texas Anti-Gang program. According to Texas.gov, the Texas Anti-Gang program consists of local government police units preventing organized…

Correspondence and documents obtained through open records requests shows that liquidity issues in 2023 rippled further through the city of Mission’s operations than last summer’s deferral of economic development corporation payments. Signs of cash flow issues popped up on at least one occasion before and after when the city says those funds were deferred. According…

For the third year in a row, McAllen ISD leadership is staring down the barrel of a difficult budget process for the 2024-2025 school year. The district is facing an unaddressed $6.2 million budget deficit for the 2023-2024 fiscal year. To compound that issue, McAllen ISD projects a budget deficit of $13.8 million for the…

The cities of McAllen and Edinburg are developing the second-largest trail route in Texas with their latest trail connector project. Last Friday’s groundbreaking ceremony fortified the Jackson Hike and Bike Phase 2 sidewalk expansion. McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos said ‘the spirit of cooperation and working together’ is crucial when working with neighboring municipalities and entities.…

Sullivan City’s city council named Aliza Salinas city secretary Monday. Salinas, 23, is an in-house hire. She started working at city hall as an assistant in October. Prior to joining the city, Salinas worked at La Joya ISD for about a year, a month of that time as a special education assistant. Before that she…