Friday's Internet Edition, July 04, 2008.
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- The Van Horn Economic Development Corporation (VHEDC) will host a special event on July 7, 2007, to showcase the ideas, concepts and dreams of Project 7, VHEDC’s Economic Development Initiative developed and currently being implemented to carry out the economic, tourism and community development concepts defined by the community just over two years ago.
Jeff McCoy, Director of the VHEDC, reported that the VHEDC is excited to have this opportunity to show some of the pictures, drawings and plans that have been developed and stated that the front-most room of the Clark Hotel Museum will be dedicated to this display for the next several years. “We’ve leased that space in order to have a very centrally located space to provide the public with an opportunity to see, in a literal way, the ideas that have been developed and will guide our project for the next several years. As the program advances, these concepts will be translated into completed projects. The Project 7 Room,” McCoy said, “will give us all a way to see the plans, comment on them, track their completion, and then compare our original dreams to what actually develops. These are all very important to community-based programs that rely on a tremendous amount of community input, support and volunteer work to be successful.”
The primary objects for display will be a grouping of panels that were developed through a partnership project with Texas Engineering Extension, an agency of the state at Texas A&M. On those panels, are numerous design concepts currently being used to define the objectives of highway, landscaping and street improvement portions of the initiative. McCoy said that the EDC is very interested in hearing some feedback from the community on these design concepts in order to more narrowly define the project for actual implementation. “We see an opportunity coming real soon to move on some of these design concepts and would appreciate the community’s feedback on the ideas that have been presented to us by TEEX.”
That, according to McCoy, is one of the main reasons it was decided to put the Project 7 Room next to the museum. “That little building used to be a café. In the front wall is a wooden box that had doors to both the outside and the inside of the building. The only thing we can figure out is that this box was used by the milkman to leave the milk for the café in the wee hours of the morning. Now, we want our community members to leave us notes, comments, photos and mementos that we can use to effectively guide the program and to tell the Van Horn story.”
On July 6th, Main Street Van Horn will host a movie on the wall. Previews to the movie will be videos and photos being produced to communicate some of these ideas to the public. On 7-7-7, VHEDC board members, staff and representatives of the EDC’s program development partner, AdventGX, will be on hand at the Project 7 Room to show the pictures, answer questions, and receive comments from the community. VHEDC Board President Larry Simpson added that the EDC has been a leader in Van Horn’s development concepts for several years and is now anxious to see these plans transition from paper to reality. “We are really looking forward to having the Project 7 Room to help the community and our visitors see the many great things that are being carried out to take Van Horn into the future and bring a lot of great things to our community.”
Tire Amnesty collects over 1,000 old tires
The joint County and City Tire Amnesty Event held last Friday and Saturday has resulted in the removal of over one thousand old tires from Van Horn, so far, and will likely push a total of 2500 tires, or more, before the end of this week.
John Jones, the county’s coordinator for the event and a county commissioner, reported that the company that collects the tires has already taken one full trailer load of tires and will be returning this week to accept the balance of the tires that are left. “We expect that before the event if fully completed, we will have eliminated over 2500 tires from Van Horn. This is very significant progress for community cleanup, but it is, more importantly, a great step toward eliminating the risk of West Nile Virus that is proven to be connected with mosquitoes. Tires are a perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes, and we’re glad to be getting rid of these tires.”
Jones went on to express his appreciation of the Rio Grande Council of Governments grant program that has facilitated this collection event. “And we also want to thank the Chihuahuan Desert Resource Conservation District for their contribution to the event. It marks a milestone in the cooperation of city and county government to accomplish a common objective.”
Jones continued by saying that this will not be the end of the program. “The city and the county are both gearing up to adopt measures to ensure that we don’t ever stockpile tires like that again. Through a carefully defined program, we are going to require that all tire dealers document their tire sales and disposals and, as it’s planned now, we are going to provide a very affordable and convenient way for those dealers to dispose of those tires.” Jones added that once the logistics of the program are taken care of, it will be very easy for the tire dealers to dispose of the old tires. “We know that it’s not a matter of money because these guys are all collecting a disposal fee. So if we take care of establishing a system for them to use that simplifies the process, we expect that they will cooperate and we won’t be seeing these tires stacking up again. In truth, we can’t let it happen simply because of the threat for West Nile Virus that results.”
Congressman Ciro Rodriguez to be here Sunday
The Van Horn Advocate has been informed that 23rd District Congressman Ciro D. Rodriguez will be in town this Sunday, July 1st, to meet with local constituents.
The congressman is on the July 4th break from Washington and is traveling portions of his West Texas district to bring folks up to date on what is happening in Washington and to receive input from citizens that he can take back to Washington.
Congressman Rodriguez will be here in Van Horn from 11:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. at the Pueblo Market.
He has asked local citizens to come on out and give him the opportunity to visit with them.
Trustees focus on leadership at San Antonio conference
Joe Morales, Lupe Alvarado, Omar Ortega, Lisa Cottrell, Andrea Ramirez and Angie Gonzalez, trustees for Culberson County Allamore Independent School District, joined trustees from across the state at the Texas Association of School Boards’ (TASB) Summer Leadership Insitute June 14-16 in San Antonio. More than 2,500 new and veteran school leaders received in-depth training on every facet of effective board governance, heard keynote addresses from renowned education experts, and picked up valuable ideas form district showcases of programs that work and numerous networking opportunities.
Hot topics explored during the two-and-a-half-day institute included emergency management, student safety on the Internet, K-16 partnerships, school health initiatives, statistical integrity, prekindergarten programs, and clear communication on testing and accountability results. Breakout sessions focused on such topics as environmental and facility-related regulations, employer-sponsored child care, bond proceeds management, public engagement through district planning, superintendent/CEO searches, successful after-school programs, improved mathematics and reading achievement, construction budgets, gang violence, and education technology trends.
TASB is a nonprofit association established in 1949 to serve local public school districts. Texas school board members are the largest group of publicly elected officials in the state. The districts they represent serve more than 4.5 million students.