Rio Grande Herald (Rio Grande City, Tex.), Vol. 85, No. 28, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 9, 1998 Page: 1 of 6
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UTPA football program could 'touch down'
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Ford Salute to Education Scholarship
Mike Ramirez, dealer principal for Ramirez Ford Sales, Inc.; Jose Gonzalez; Lauro Tanguma III; and Dan
Ramirez, dealer principal tor Ramirez Ford Sales, attend the Ford Salute to Education Scholarship Announce-
ment Ceremony held at the University of Texas - Pan American. Jose and Lauro were two of 100 students who
received $1,000 Ford scholarships in the Valley area. The young men are both Roma High School graduates
and plan to attend Texas A&iM University in College Station. Ford Motor Company and area Ford and
Lincoln-Mercury dealers distributed a total of $100,000 in scholarships.
Comptroller Sharp: Texas border
deserves state, federal attention
Rio Grande Herald Staff
State Comptroller John Sharp
Tuesday released the results of his
comprehensive study of conditions
along the Texas-Mexico border
Tuesday afternoon at the University
of Texas-Pan American.
"The Rio Grande Valley is one of
the fastest growing regions of the
state in population, and this
workforce is crucial to economic-
success of the border region," Sharp
said Tuesday as he released his
study, at the University of Texas -
Pan American International Trade
and Technology Building, in Edin-
burg.
The comptroller's study defines
the border region as covering the 43
counties south of Interstate 10 and
west of Interstate ?7, includingCam-
eron, Hidalgo and Willacy counties.
"If Texas were divided into two
states, one formed by the border
counties and the other comprising
non-border counties, the border
would be the 16th largest in the
nation at 79,423 square miles,"
Sharp said. "And it would be the
24th largest in population, with 3.9
million residents, more than Okla-
homa or Colorado."
The Lower South Texas region
includes the 16 counties between
the Rio Grande Valley. Corpus
Christi and Laredo.
Events of the past few years, such
as NAFTA, concerted efforts to com-
bat illegal immigration and drug traf-
fic, and the Legislature's South
Texas Initiative to funnel more state
lIf Texas were divided
into two states, one
formed by the border
counties and the other
comprising non-border
counties, the border
would be the 16th
largest in the nation at
79,423 square miles.'
Comptroller John Sharp
aid to the region's higher education
institutions, have set in motion ma-
jor changes for the border
As a result, Sharp said, the time
is ripe to take stock of the region's
strengths and weaknesses and its
prospects for future improvement
The San Antonio Express-News
reported that Sharp will ask the Leg-
islature to initiate joint sessions with
the Mexican states of Coahuila,
Chihuahua, Tamaulipas and Nuevo
Leon to explore issues for both sides
of the border.
Sharp is also asking the federal
government to establish a sort of
"Border Regional Commission" for
the states bordering Mexico so there
would be a voice in Washington.
D C., for the area.
Sharp said his decision to pursue
the project grew, in part, from con-
versations with Sen. Eliot Shapleigh,
D-El Paso, about his beliefs that
Texas must invest in its border re-
gion.
It also dovetails with the efforts
of Sen. David Sibley, R-Waco, to
influence other lawmakers to sup-
port a sort of "Marshall Plan" to
save the border.
Sibley, who chairs the Senate
Economic Development Committee,
wants to craft a plan to reconstruct
the border's economy that he com-
pares to the approach used by U.S.
Secretary of State George Marshall
to help rebuild Europe after World
War II.
Some border experts and resi-
dents say they're wary of the
comptroller's effort, which looks a
lot like similar studies they've seen
in the past.
"I'm very cynical about studies
like this," said Antonio Zavaleta, a
border scholar and dean of the Col-
lege of Liberal Arts at the Univer-
sity of Texas-Brownsville.
"I haven't seen one of them make
a difference. Sure, we need some
attention on the border, but it's like,
'OK ... hello ... do something al-
ready."'
Zavaleta said the report is
"yesterday's news" and could, well
do more harm than good.
"The border is the favorite po-
litical whipping boy, and this may
not help at all." he said, adding that
negative news could affect the area's
bond market and ability to attract
good jobs.
La Casita man killed in
* rollover auto mishap
A 27-year-old La Casita man was
fatally injured in a one-car rollover
mishap just northeast of the city
limits of Rio Grande City in the
early morning hours of Saturday,
June 27.
Juan Alberto Lopez was
pronounced dead at 6:16 a.m. at
~ Starr County Memorial Hospital,
slightly less than 90 minutes after
the mishap. He was a passenger in
a 1997 red Pontiac Trans-Am four-
door vehicle driven by Baldomero
Gutierrez, 30, of Garciasville.
A DPS trooper indicated that
Lopez suffered massive head
injuries. Gutierrez sustained bumps
% and abrasions, and was treated and
released from Starr County
Memorial Hospital after a few
hours.
The trooper stated that Gutierrez
has been charged with intoxication
manslaughter in connection with
the mishap.
The mishap occurred at 4:50 a.m.
on Saturday, June 27 on FM 755
approximately 4.3 miles north of
^ U.S. 83. The Pontiac Trans-Am
driven by Gutierrez was traveling
southbound on FM 755.
The irooper declared that the
vehicle "was driving at an unsafe
speed and failed to negotiate a
curve. He (the driver) veered right
into the west side unimproved
shoulder. When he veered right, he
was in the northbound lane, on the
wrong side."
The trooper added, "He tried to
veer left to regain control, but
struck a barbed wire fence and a
mesquite tree with the right
passenger side of the vehicle. After
striking the tree, the car overturned
and landed on its rooftop."
Lopez was transported to Stan-
County Memorial Hospital, but
was pronounced dead at 6:16 a.m.,
less than 90 minutes after the
accidcnL
The trooper indicated that the
DPS has investigated three fatal
accidcnts wiLh five fatalities thus far
in 1998 in Starr County.
Appraisal Review Board to begin
hearing tax appraisal protests
Rio Grande Herald Staff
Property owners in the Starr
Count*' iircu will have an opportu-
nity to protest proposed appraisals
of their property for local taxes. The
district's appraisal review board
(ARB) will begin hearing taxpayers
protest on Thursday for Mineral,
Utility and Industrial hearings and
July 20th for Real and Personal Prop-
erty hearings.
After the ARB completes its hear-
ings and approves final property
appraisals, local governments will
use these appraisals to set 1998 tax
rates.
The ARB is a group of citizens
who live in the appraisal district and
are appointed by the district's board
of directors. Their responsibilities
are outfined in the Texas Property
Tax Code.
Current and former officers and
employees of the appraisal district
and are appointed by the district's
board of directors. Their responsi-
bilities are outlined in the Texas
Property Tax Code.
Current and former officers and
employees of the appraisal district
or of local taxing units can't serve
on the ARB. Current employess of
the State Comptroller's office also
may not serve.
Property owners may protest to
the ARB any of the following ap-
praisal office actions:
• the appraised or agricultural
value of the property;
• unequal appraisal of the
taxpayer's property compared to
other property in the district;
• inclusion of the property on the
appraisal records;
• denial of a partial exemption,
such as a homestead exemption;
• denial of agricultural-use, open-
space, or timber productivity ap-
praisal;
• determination that agricultural
or timber land has had a change of
use and is subject to a rollback tax;
• identification of the taxing unit
or units in which the property is
located;
• determiniation that the taxpayer
is the owner of the property; or
• any other action of the appraisal
office that adversly effects the prop-
erty owner.
Jose Jaime Trevino, chief ap-
praiser for the district, outlined the
steps a property owner must ake to
file a protest. First, the property
owner must file a written notice of
protest that shows why the owner is
protesting to the ARB. The taxpayer
must file this notice June I or within
30 days after the appraisal district
mails the taxpayer a notice of ap-
praisal value, whichever is later.
If a person leases property and.
by contract, must pay the owner's
property taxes, then the person leas-
ing may protest the property's value
to ARB, if the property owner
doesn't protest.
If the ARB sends a property
owner a notice of any other kind of
change in the appraisal records, or if
the chief appraiser issues a notice
for a property omitted in the prior
year, the property ow ner has 30 days
from the mailing date to file a pro-
test.
Official forms for a notice of pro-
test are available at the appraisal
district office.
"A letter from the taxpayer is
also acceptable," Chief appraiser
Trevino said, "as long as it identi-
fies the property owner and the prop-
erty protested and indicates dissat-
isfaction w ith some decision or ac-
tion of the appraisal office."
Each protesting property owner
may offer evidence or argument,
either in person or by filing an affi-
davit with the ARB. A property
owner may appoint another person
to present the protest by filing an
Appointment of Agent from with
the appraisal district Property own-
ers should know that the ARB has
no authority over tax rates or spend-
ing and will not hear protests on
these topics.
The ARB will schedule heatings
as property owners file protests and
will tell the the time, date, and place
of their individual hearings at least
15 days before the hearing date.
Property owners will also receive a
copy of the State Comptroller of
Public Account's pamphlet called
TEXAS PROPERTY TAXES
TAXPAYERS' RIGHTS. REM-
EDIES & RESPONSIBILITIES, a
See PROTKST, page 4
There is a 'Pied Beauty' in All of God's creation
Ah Chihuahua
"Glory be to God for dappled things—
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-molt s all in stipple upon trout that
a swim;
Fresh-firet oalchestnut-falls; finches' wings;
Landscape plotted and pierced—fold, fat-
low, and plough,
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim
All things, counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how
With swift, slow, sweet, sour; adazzle, dim,
Hefathc s-forth whose beauty is past change
Praise Him.
^ —Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)
By GILBERT TAGLE
One does not realize how much our
area of the world has grown and advanced,
until one leaves for a short visit and re-
turns home again. In all too many of us,
(here persists the misconception, lor what-
ever reason, that we live in a backward,
^ remote area of South Texas that is devoid
of civilization or progress.
On Father's Day weekend, my father, my
brother, my son and I journeyed to Pearsall.
Lytie and Somerset, Texas, all small cities
within 50 miles of the Alamo City (San
Antonio).
We were on a mission of sorts. The
journey was to help us put closure to the
loss of our mother in March. We went to the
area — w here she was born and reared — to
return a piece of her. But somehow, we
never expected '<•> bring a larger piece of
her back with us on our return home. We
took with us a large portion of mom's
clothes and other personal belongings that
were shared with her sister that survives
her and a sister-in-law (wife to her one
brother).
Long before mom passed on on March I
of this year, she had given my brother
instructions to share the many blessings
God had given her over the years. Morn was
the type of person who would give you
what she had. w ithout any hesitance, if she
perceived that you needed it more than her.
Consequently, she "shared" many of her
things over the years and if we showed any
inkling to fret over her generosity, she'd
quickly remind us that God gave it to us to
begin with. There was no arguing with her,
because she was her own woman and there
wasn't a selfish bone in her.
We drove up to Falfurrias and turned
west toward Hebbronville to catch Texas
16. We find it a more scenic drive to go this
route and for our purposes, a little more
direct. Besides, I personally love to see the
countryside scenery, that we more often
than not. see only in pictures.
1 love to drive through small county
tow lis and soak in the beauty of theircounty
courthouses. Falfurrias, Hebbronville,
Pearsall and Jourdanton have couthouses
that lend themselves to fulfilling this fan-
tasy of mine. It is always a mind-boggling
to drive through the small towns and won-
der what it would be like to live in them and
raise a family there.
When we go visit mom's immediate
I
family, we always stay at the one hotel in
Lytle. Mom's sister. Odie, lives there.
Mom's brother. Moises, lives in Somerset.
Lytle lies in BexarCounty. while Somerset
n Atascosa County. Like the towns in
Hidalgo County, you can scarcely tell w hen
you have left one town and entered an-
other.
On this particular trip, we found that
the new H-E-B Food Store in Lytle was
fully operational, and likeall H-E-B stores
I have ever seen, it was being fully used by
people of that area. The Lytle H-E-B serves
the people of Lytle, Somerset, Devine,
Moore, Natalia, Castroville, Pleasanton,
Poteet and probably others. The Lytle H
E-B gas station, on this particular week
end. had the cheapest priced regular un-
leaded gasoline in Texas — 89-cents per
gallon.
We arrived at the hotel to find a phone
message from our cousin that there was
plenty of food awaiting us at their house.
We had tried to reach them on my cellular
phone w hen we were w ithin a few miles ot
them, but for some reason we couldn't.
Although my aunt and uncle live no more
than two miles part, it is long distance for
them to call each other.
We checked into the hotel and made the
calls to our aunts to let them know we had
arrived. Aftet cleaning up a little, we drove
over to my Aunt Odie's (Odessa) house to
pick her up and head on out to our Uncle
Moy's (Moises) for a late supper Aunt
Odie lives less than five minutes away
from the hotel. Her house sits atop a hill
that looks down on a corn field
At this vantage point, she has a clear
view of anybody or anything that wants to
enter her property She has a high cyclone
fence around the property with a gate that
is padlocked We have our ow n key to the
padlock to let ourselves in
Odie and Henry (her late husband and
our uncle-in-law ) found that piece of laud
when Henry worked for the Bexar County
Sheriff's Department as a deputy sheriff.
The land site they bought was filled with
mesquite trees, shrubs, cactus, rocks and
rattlesnakes Odie and Henry
See AH CHIHUAHUA, page 4
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Roberts, Kenneth. Rio Grande Herald (Rio Grande City, Tex.), Vol. 85, No. 28, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 9, 1998, newspaper, July 9, 1998; Edinburg, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth195660/m1/1/?rotate=90: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rio Grande City Public Library.