The Mercedes Enterprise (Mercedes, Tex.), Vol. 85, No. 29, Ed. 1 Wednesday, July 16, 1997 Page: 4 of 20
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ages from the Past
The Merce
Enterprise
VOLUME XLVII — NO. 32
Mercedes, Texas. Thursday, August 9. 1962
WELCOME HOME, MEMB
-‘, --===- ■ . .
0
SCHOOL STAFF
A tax rate increase
of
(See SCHOOL TAX, Page 4)
i provision has been made for
' Th i:
mps
year
lagan:
SALUTE
loc
all.
to :
or bent one hour’s
P rest-
.4.
Builder Plans 181-Unit Housing
Development In North Part Of City
Name
Address
City, State, Zip
T15.000, Under
n*posed by. M
64 funds are s
75
TA
98 .
97
98
98
96 .
98
98
H
Chamber Dropped, Police Fund
: Cut In Mayor's Proposed Budget
Some Tax Hike
Is Predicted
For Schools
CHAMBE
e regular
3
4
5
6
Mercedes Pool Approved By AAU;
First Exhibition Meet Set Sunday
SINGLE COPY
PRICE
104
Place
H
T
T
SINGLE COPY
PRICE
104
I This reproduction of a page from an Enterprise file issue
|reflects news and lifestyles from Mercedes’ rich past.
- TRAINING AT FORT POLK, LA., Sgt. Adan B. Martinez from Mercedes, Texas leads
his Fire Team in mountain climbing. Others behind are SP4 E-4 R. Johnson from
Hearne, Texas, PFC E-3 Jorge Rodriguez from Weslaco, Texas, and SP4 E-4 J.
Gracia and PFC E-3 Mike Castillo from Mercedes.
We hope you enjoy this Enterprise feature, as well as the rest of your
hometown paper. If you would like to subscribe or send a gift subscription,
fill out the form below and return it to The Enterprise, P.O. Box 657,78570.
Oct. 19 PSJA(C)
Oct. 26 Falfurrias(C)
Nov. 2 Raymondville(C)
Nov. 9 San Benit(C)
Nov. 16 R.G. City(C)
Nov. 23 Mission(C)
H
T
H
mute j . --Enterprise Staff Photo.
THIS FLEET OF TRUCKS rolled into Mercedes about noon Tuesday after the trip from
Fort Polk.- 4P 4-om
olorado adjage d;
' of F. M. Rea. -
__________________________________________________33.00 Per Year In Valley
COMPANY‘D’
were running heavy because
„ • in recent sewercontracts, no
Tigers' Fall
Schedule Has
Big Changes
Mercedes will meet some
new teams from farther up-
state in official conference
football games this fall be-
cause of redistricting.
With elimination of 15 AA,
Port Lavaca was moved into
the Houston area district and
Robstown to the Valley dis-
trict.
The football season will
get underway later this year
with the first game Sept. 21
here with Brownsville. First
district game will be with
Robstown there Sept. 29.
Mercedes will have eight
conference games this year
and only two non-conference
games.
In the redistricting, it was
considered a courtesy to
draw for location for the first
year with new members.
Therefore, this may mean
that Mercedes may go back
to play some opponents on
their fields when the Tigers
were there also last year,
it was pointed out. How-
ever, the reverse will be
followed next year with the
opponents automatically
coming here.
The official Tigersche-
dule:
expeilse falls ; give
time
RENEWAL
NEW
SUBCRIPTION
Check or Money Order enclosed for:
IN THE VALLEY --
OUT OF THE VALLEY -
Plans for a 181-unit pri-
vate housing development in
newly-annexed territory just
north of Mercedes on Base-
line Road were announced
this week by Ralph F. Clark
of Donna.
A builder and developer in
Ohio for many years, Mr.
Clark bought property here
in 1957 and moved to the
Valley earlier this year.
He has submitted plans
to the Mercedes City Plan-
ning Commission and to the
Zoning Board and both have
approved and recommended
approval by the City Com-
mission. Since the project
appears to conform to all
code requirements and with
both advisory groups already
passing the application, the
city commission is expected
to give its stamp of approval
next Monday.
Mr. Clark told the Enter-
prise the lots are located on
both sides of Baseline. The
eastern tract adjoins Ross
Gin Co. on the South. The
land on the West has Mile
8'as a boundary.
He said provisions are be-
ing made for certain areas
to contain multi-family units
with others being for single
families. All will be built to
FHA standards or better, he
said. All lots will be at least
60 x 120 feet, and all ser-
vice roads will be off-street.
No driveways will enter di-
, rectly onto Baseline. There
will be two park areas and a
. small shopping center. He
FINAL PLANS for the big welcome and barbecue for Co. 0 National LaraHtnite Pbet
made Tuesday in the armory office as members returned to Mercedes from Fort Polk.
Win the Plans are 1st. iSgt. Agripin Valderaz, 2nd. Lt. Juan Mata, Oscar Torrez
Chief Claud to castanedaand Jaycees), City Commissioner Claudio Hinojosa and Police
A. J. Wilson who resigned
and by not replacing the
secretary - dispatcher who
has been transferred to the
general city office to fill a
vacancy there.
In the public service ex-
penses, Mayor Hagan pro-
posed to leave the $2,400
allocation for the Mercedes
Public Library.
The $1.80 tax rate would
produce $174,451 revenue,
he said. Including fines and
other income, the city’s to-
tal revenue for the year is
estimated at $176,930. Which
is exactly the amount of pro-
posed expenditures, there-
fore balancing the budget,
Mayor Hagan said.
The fire department bud-
get is up slightly, he said.
Debt service (bonds) would
account for $91,250 and $23,
336 to apply on a current
short-term debt. That would
leave $59,000 for the general
fund.
‘If we didn’t have to pay
some $20,000 this year to-
ward a $40 to $50,000 de-
ficit carried overfrom prior
administrations, we could
have cut the tax rate an-
other 20 cents,” Mayor Ha-
gan said.
He said street repairs
a net tax saving during the
wear of $1.50 (One dollar
Feyuary 15.
. tast-moving
te movement
: taken the
icomparable
said he was prepared to sell
a turnkey job, providing both
lot and plans and building for
the buyer, or would sell just
the lot and let the buyer se-
lect his own plans and con-
tractor. Time payments will
be provided for the lots for
those who wish to buy land
only at first.
Plans for the project are
being drawn by Architect
Gene P. Hobart.
If present plans are ex-
ecuted, this will be the lar-
gest new housing develop-
ment in the history of Mer-
cedes.
about 20 cents per hundred
has been indicated for pa-
trons of the Mercedes In-
dependent School District in
the tentative budget sub-
mitted last Thursday night.
Although the total propos-
ed expenditures are exactly
the same as for the current
budget, $1,037,550, Supt.
S. F. Cernosek said about
11 cents would be required
to service bonds sold for the
current building program
and the balance would be
needed to make up a deficit
from the current year.
Tax Collector George
Carnes said collections were
only 86 per cent this year
whereas they were 99 per
cent last year. This leaves
the system short and funds
may have to be borrowed
kun the city.
TATE TO BUILD
BOAT RAMPS
f*he im:
N chamber, ■
The. police department:
would take the next biggest!
c from a reported $37.1
170. spent in 1960 down + I
the Club. Admission will be
25 cents for children 12 and
under and 50 cents for
others.
Tidelands Chain
Planning Station
For Mercedes
Negotiations are underway
for the purchase of a corn-
er plot at. Washington and
Hwy. 83 by Tidelands Oil
Co., The Enterprise learned
this week.
The land is that formerly
owned by Atteberry’s and
which has been used as a
trailer park. It is across
the street south from the
Border Patrol Station.
If the deal goes through,
it is understood that Tide-
lands plans to build a new
service station, with con-
struction scheduled to start
within the near future.
Tidelands is a Corpus
Christi- ased chain with 13
stations there and 11 in the
Valley. ,*
WEATHER REPORT
Mercedes and Weslaco
were all set to turn out to-
day (Thursday) for a big
welcome to Co. D. of the
National Guard which has
returned from active duty
at Fort Polk, La.
The two towns are coop-
erating and will sponsor a
big barbecue for the unit at
the new Mercedes Civic Cen-
ter Thursday evening. After
the barbecue, the men and
their wives will be guests
of the Civic Center for
swimming.
About 100 men have re-
turned, 70 from Mercedes
and 30 from Weslaco.
Festivities will get un-
der way, at 4 p.m. with a
motorcade down Texas Av-
enue in Weslaco involving
guard units, city officials
and others. 1
At 4:30, they are due to
1 arrive in Mercedes, go down
. Missouri to Sixth, then to
i proceed north on Texas to
■ Hwy. 83. Then the group,
will turn east to the new
j civic center where the unit
I will have final muster at
5 p.m. There, the high school
band will play, the welcome
speeches will be made by the
mayors of both cities. The
public is.Invited to the mus-
ter ceremony, the last as-
sembly of the men before
discharge from active duty.
After the public ceremony,
the guard members will re-
main to be guests for the bar-
becue.
The town has turned out
already almost en mass to
welcome the men. Virtually
every storewindow has wel-
come banners, and many de-
livery trucks have such signs
along their sides.
First footballs garde is on
| I tiday, sopr. 21, here, the
Tigers meeting the Browns-
ville Eagles.
School will begin at 8:03
in. and be dismissed at
i 3: .op/in. .
he . tun prise and more
g tirms aadigdividuai
lute and, : come bes
Welcome Home, Guardsmen
•EDITORIAL
With some 66,000 Army and Air National Guardsmen
coming off active duty in the weeks ahead, it is appropriate
that we now take stock of the truly remarkable job that these
citizen-soldiers have accomplished since their callup last October
for the Berlin crisis.
Perhaps the most significant accomplishment of the callup
was voiced by Sen. Henry M. Jackson of Washington when he
said: “This is the first time that a President has been able to
use the military power presented by our reserve program to
achieve a foreign policy objective.”
What this means is that for the first time in our history,
our reserve forces were at a high enough level of readiness to
represent an immediate show of force when they were called
to active duty.
No amount of publicity over the so-called “gripes” during
the early stages of the mobilization can overshadow this fact
The highlight of the Air Guard mobilization was the
greatest overseas deployment of jet fighters in our history.
Within one month of their recall last October 1, combat-ready
pilots of the Air Guard flew more than 200 jets from their
home communities to bases in Europe and immediately began
operations
This was an unprecedented accomplishment and certainly
establishes the Air Guard' claini of being a “ready now”
organization.
In the Amoy mat Gaidtwe combat divisions—the
Bed infantry ,"unsih and the . th Armored of Texas—
re dis- teeaty : . . tared completely comba -ready
GUARD SPEAKER
Mercedes Kiwanians
Thursday noon will hear Lt.
Juan Mata describe activ-
ities of the National Guard
while on active duty at Fort
Polk. He has just returned
to Mercedes.
Registration
Schedule Set
The following schedule for
Mercedes High School Stu-
dents to pick up their sch-
edules and complete re-
gistration for the coming
school year was announced
Wednesday by Principal
N. K. Fitzgerald:
Thursday - August 23-
Seniors - 8:00 to 12:00noon.
Juniors - 1:00 p.m. to
5:00 p.m.
Friday - August 24 -So-
phomores - 8 :00 a.m. to
12 noon. Freshmen - 1:00
p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
New students planning to
attend Mercedes High School
for the first time should re-
port for registration at the
same time as their class is
scheduled above.
All students must have
proper health records on file
indicating the date of the
last smallpox vaccination,
'date of polio shots and
diphtheria shots.
Students are reminded
also that the following fees
should be paid at the time
of registration: Typing,
$2.25 .per course: Drivers
Education, $6 per course and
Mechanical Drawing $2.50
per semester. In addition all
students are required to
make a lock deposit of 50P.
First day of school will be
Aug. 31. Buses will run at the
usual time in the morning
returning about noon. High
school students will receive
instructions, assignments
s the contractor to repair I Travis Biementary School. |
damage done when the I After the Rea rd reviewed his :
•.streets are cair to lay newapplicant n they decided to ;
j will Rungidur
j specini mocuing 5
FOR NEW TERM
BIG QUESTION
There are several $64
questions for Mercedes
school patrons.
First and foremost is
whether Supt. S. F. Cernosek
will be here when school
opens for the first full day
Sept. 4.
Second is who will be a
principal at Travis Elemen-
tary School, at West Ele-
mentary and at the Junior
High.
These matters all came up
last Thursday night either
during the public meeting of
the board or later at a meet-
ing from which the public
and the press were barred.
The secret session was
asked by Dr. Lawrence Cox
when Supt. Cernosek was
recommending employment
of a list of teachers. Last
on the list was the name of
Elmo Low, former Weslaco
High principal, to be princi-
pal at Travis, Dr. Cox said
he was ready to act on the
teachers, but wanted "to kick
the principal applicant
around” more and called
for the close meeting which
followed.
During the Executive Ses-
sion of the Board of Trustees
Supt. Cernosek presented the
application of Elmo L ew for
the position of Principal of
55) The denim twill j 2358, ■
apulic amestimad 5.2/860Cnilano
the current year. The save : jacks 5.:
ing"' would *: accomplished j 88 crdssi. ■
by not replacing PolicemanMercunas,
: and fifty cents) for the av
K rage small. homeowne
- whose assessed valuation i
:4 000, for a business. :,
- example, or for alargehom
- valued at $10,000. the ass
neal saviny would be 55 4
ox h 550,00 business 1
| savine) would ’ he. SHE, i
Cuts in the police depart-
ment and in the public ser-
, vice department including no
allocation for the Mercedes
Chamber of Commerce are
proposed in the new budget
by Maver A. J. Hagan.
The cuts will result in a
> cent decrease in the tax
mate from $1.85 to $1,80
per hundred valuation, he
said.
This was revealed Tues-
day in a brief meeting of
the city commission when
a public hearing on the pro-
posed budget was set for
9 a.m. Aug. 23.
Only a single copy of the
proposed budget is available
- for inspection and it is on
: file with City Secretary Vir-
' ginia Eaton.
: The city tax rate has been
- cut each year for the past
. three years. In 1959, it was
: raised from $1.60 to $2,00
j with a major part of that
f earmarked for $15,000 for
- the Chamber of Commerce
: ard $2,400 for the Mercedes
- Public Library.
In 1960 the rate was cut
- to $1,95 in 1961 it was cut
lack to 51.85.
if the proposed 50 cut
3 goes through, it would mean
Date Opponent
Sept. 21 Brownsville
Sept. 29 Robstown(C)
Oct. 5 Edinburg
Oct, 12 Weslaco(C)
HELP! HELP!
WOMEN
WANTED
Help! Help!
Women wanted for anhour
of fun and relaxation at the
Mercedes Municipal Pool.
The special hour is from
9:30 to 10:30 a.m. week days.
A Red Cross instructor is
present. There -is still time
to attend and it will be con-
tinued as long as their is
sufficient interest. Mana-
ger Bill Savarino said.
Other special programs
include a Senior Red Cross
Life Saving course to start
Thursday night from 6:30
to 9:30 p.m. weekdays. Also
a beginners swimming class
will be held at 8, 9, 10,
11, 12 and 1 o’clock daily
starting Thursday with Miss
Maureen McBride, formerly
of the University of Texas
and nowa Red Cross in-
structor, in charge.
Mr. Savarino said 13 sea-
son passes already have been
sold and three individual
passes. The pool took in
from July 28 to Aug. 4 $593.
21 and $227.75 was received
during the first two weeks for
Civic Center Auditorium
rental. Youngsters arecom- 1
ing from Edinburg, Pharr
and : Donna to attend swim- -
ming classes here. The Wes-
| laco public recreation pro- |
j gram will-use the Mercedes |
| poci exclusive ish next sum- ;
1m.she said:
chvious hardsh pap they were a/viou: . eetlneowithgne igh
of whipping their units .... hapongil
And finally, this mobilization should be > peso to us :.
that the only way to prevent a war is to let the enemy kun
we are prepared to fight one if necessary.
Hiring Ard on
this-matter ad litin
for study, vir. I
eru, Coffer and dong
vurkserved,
from the nominal-
nmittee will reheard.
I ur: Poge 5 for this special
which slew includes photographs of
in Company D - taken at Bt POU
ring their active duty. ,
and follow a short shedule
to familiarize themselves
with classes.
The first full day of school
will be Tuesday, Sept. 4.
Mercedes High School will
operate on a 7 period day
in 1962-1963 school term.
Four periods will be held
in the morning and three
in the afternoon. Most stu-
dents will be scheduled for
6 of the 7 periods, either
1-6 periods of 2-7 periods,
I the purpose of the 7 period
i day is to allow more flex-
ibility in scheduling indivi-.
j dual students, to eliminate
j conflict in schedules and
os make better use of the
classrooms, avattahle,
. Choir wil/be scheduled
: within ’he-curriculum this
The Mercedes Municipal
Pool has been approved as
a member of the South Tex-
as Association of the Am-
ateur Athletic Union, and
the first AAU - approved
swimming exhibition will be
held Sunday night, accord-
ing to Civic Center Manager
Bill Savarino.
The exhibition will begin
at 8 p.m. The pool will be
closed to the public at 7
to prepare for the show.
Teams from Corpus Christi,
Harlingen, Matamoros and
Reynosa will compete with a
diving exhibition and aclo n
act.
Championship swimmers
and divers will appear in the
exhibition under direction of
Don Peterson of Harlingen.
Mr. Savarino now is in the
process of organizing the
Mercedes Aquatic Club
which will be sanctioned by
the AAU. Mercedes has the
only pool in South Texas
except Laredo for big time
diving and swimming com-
petition both at the ■ same
location.
He said purpose of the club
will be to encourage all
youngsters in the water
sports. Anyone interested
may get more details by con-
tacting Mr. Savarino.
The Sunday night exhibi
tion is heing sponsored by I
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The Mercedes Enterprise (Mercedes, Tex.), Vol. 85, No. 29, Ed. 1 Wednesday, July 16, 1997, newspaper, July 16, 1997; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1618606/m1/4/?q=california+crossing: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Dr. Hector P. Garcia Memorial Library.