Along Alta Loma Street near where Boca Chica Boulevard bends into Old Military Highway, a group of Texas Southmost College students is helping rescue an 86-year-old man’s home.
Carlos Rodriguez, a friend of a friend of the homeowner, Roberto Amaya, has been working on the project alongside the students and their building trades instructors Daniel Zuniga and Jorge Garcia since finding out about the situation.
More than a week ago, Rodriguez took some pictures of the home and got the ball rolling with Zuniga.
“So I reached out to the program, Mr. Zuniga. Nobody’s living here. No power,” Rodriguez said Thursday morning in the backyard at 115 Alta Loma, where Amaya and his daughter were living until a few weeks ago when a storm knocked down a tree branch, causing it to fall on the breaker box and knock out the power.
“A friend of mine put them up in his house. The gentleman here, he’s an 86-year old man, had a bad stroke. The ramp in the front the Fire Department built it for him. We need to get him back in here. He’s staying in a condo. It took them almost 30 minutes to get him up to the second floor where he’s staying,” Rodriguez said.
“We just want to get this fixed, get the power back on. This is just a patchwork that we’re doing right now so that we can get the power back on,” he said.
The students include Samantha Delgado, who’s already gotten an associate’s degree in general studies, is working on a certificate in construction technology and plans to get an associate’s degree in construction management.
“We pretty much used our tools, scarp wood, anything we could get our hands on,” she said, showing where she and the other students had repaired the corner of the house where the power box used to sit. Part of the fascia, sophet and drip strip below the roof had been replaced.
Delgado said she is also a vocational teacher with the Southwest Key program for immigrant children.
“So teaching the kids how to use the router machine, the Skill saws, this is like another plus for me. Using my outside skills and doing it outside with my whole group of people,” she said.
Other students on the job included Mario Mejia, Edgardo Martinez, Lucio Garcia, Alexa Velazquez and Raul De Anda Jr. Like Delgado, all said they were working on certificates in construction technology, associate degrees in construction management and work in the construction industry.
By 8 a.m. they had finished the carpentry part of the job at the Amaya residence.
Rodriguez said the next step was getting the required electrical permits from the city and bringing out electrical students to get the power back on.
“I came here Sunday, and I took some pictures. I got the phone numbers told them the situation. Now we’re waiting on the city so we can get the permits. Now we’re going to get the electrical students out here, which I also have my electrical certification,” he said
Rodriguez said he would have been able to do the repairs himself were it not for the back surgery he is waiting on. His eventual goal is to do volunteer work connecting homeowners with the resources to get projects done like the wheelchair ramp in the front.
“It’s a man and his daughter; she’s taking care of him. My friend told me about this. They’ve known each other since they were little kids. … So I felt bad because that’s what I went to school for. I could have fixed it myself, but I can’t. I’m pending back surgery, so I reached out to the program, and they’re the greatest. They’ve always got my back. I’m working on my fifth certificate.”
Rodriguez, a veteran, said he worked in construction long enough to know the ropes.
“That’s my goal, to volunteer my time. So this is part of what I wanted to do, but I can’t. But once I get my surgery that’s what I’m going to do, stuff like this,” he said.
