Posted on 11/19/2005 8:11:54 AM PST by SwinneySwitch
El Cenizo City Council members anxiously await a grant that, if approved, could mean the construction of a 10-acre park with amenities ranging from baseball fields to a bird-watching area.
Mayor Raul Reyes said last week that the Texas Community Development Program will announce in January the five cities that will receive a park grant from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
In total, 25 cities have applied for the $500,000 grant, Reyes said, and only five will receive the funds.
"Our disadvantage is the other cities' experience," he said, adding that other cities competing for the grant include the likes of Houston and Fort Worth.
The El Cenizo Council had applied for this same grant in 2000, but they did not get it, Reyes said.
This time the council hired Grant Works, an Austin-based company, to write the grant application, he said.
Reyes said the company has already worked with El Cenizo in the past, and it has secured several grants for the community, including one for $749,000 and another for $789,000, both from TCDP.
The mayor said that those two grants were for the construction of a fire station that is still under way, the recent purchase of a used fire truck and for future purchases for the fire department, which include a newer-model fire truck.
After those expenses, the rest of the funds will be used for the park construction, Reyes said, but if they manage to secure the park grant, they will have much more money to work with for the project.
"If the grant is approved in January, we are going to be able to invest over a million dollars," he said. "It's going to be one of the best parks in Texas."
According to the park's blueprints, which were turned in to TCDP as part of the grant application, it would feature many amenities, some of which the state requires in order to disburse the funds.
The features the park will have if the grant is approved include murals, a bird-watching station and a walking trail with historic landmarks.
Also planned are two Little League baseball parks, a professional-sized soccer field, basketball and volleyball facilities, and a fishing ramp.
The mayor noted that even if the city does not get the grant, it is very important for the community to have a park.
Reyes explained that the El Cenizo children have to play on the streets or they have to go to Rancho Blanco to play, and this shows the community's great need for a park.
If the city does not receive the grant, the council will still use the remains of the other two grants to build a park, although it will not have all the amenities originally planned.
(Javier Barroso may be reached at 728-2580 or by e-mail at jbarroso@lmtonline.com.)
What happened to the riverfront park you banned the Minutemen from, mayor?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1443611/posts
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El Cenizo is booming on the border [Texas]09/06/05
EL CENIZO — On the north side of the Rio Grande and about 15 miles southeast of Laredo, what started in the early 1980s as a colonia, an unincorporated development with few municipal services, celebrated its 16th birthday as the city of El Cenizo last week.
El Cenizo grew without much notice until 1999, when its leaders declared that all City Commission meetings would officially be conducted in Spanish. At the same time, a "safe haven" ordinance was passed, stating that any city employee who turned in undocumented immigrants to authorities would be fired.
Some city leaders simply didn't know English, and the commission was trying to accommodate its population — almost all of them Mexican immigrants — but ended up placing the city in conflict with mainstream American opinion and U.S. law.
The backlash was swift, taking the form of abusive phone calls encouraged by national radio talk show hosts. Federal officials said it was illegal to stop anyone from helping U.S. immigration authorities.
But to this day, both ordinances remain on the books. Official documents such as contracts and meeting agendas are in English, but commission meetings are in Spanish. But no one gets penalized for lapsing into English, because border residents often use a bilingual mix in everyday talk.
The city has an annual budget of less than $350,000, and state and federal grants have been a driving force in El Cenizo's growth. (Exerpted)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1479512/posts
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