SOUTH PADRE ISLAND — What was supposed to be a fun afternoon of surfing with friends at Isla Blanca Park turned into tragedy.

Cameron County Lifeguards recovered a body in the water around 2:30 p.m. Thursday afternoon between lifeguard towers two and three.

The Cameron County Park Rangers reported four students from Texas A&M at College Station were surfing at the beach by the DJ Lerma Pavilion at 11:30 a.m.

An hour later, three of the students noticed that one of their friends was missing and proceeded to search for him.

The missing friend’s rented surfboard was found on the shoreline and they notified the Cameron County Beach Patrol Lifeguard on duty.

At that point, all agencies were notified and a search commenced.

Once found, the body was then transferred to the U.S. Coast Guard boat.

The body was identified as the missing surfer by one of his friends.

Justice of the Peace Bennie Ochoa pronounced the body deceased at the US Coast Guard Station.

Judge Ochoa ordered an autopsy to performed.

The case is open pending further investigation.

The name of the deceased has not yet been released.

Residents in Santa Rosa will have the chance to toss out lots of garbage during the city’s Trash-Off Day coming up on June 11.

The community wide event will be held from 8 a.m. to noon behind the old city hall.

Residents can get rid of furniture, old appliances without freon, tires and electronics. You will not be allowed to dispose of old paint, hazardous material, old batteries or oil.

Volunteers are also need to help trim trees, paint and clean up La Placita and the county park.

For more information call (956) 636-1113.

I’ve been intending to write a letter to you for some time to inform you of a group of lower Valley singers, who have given up their Sunday afternoons for many years to entertain the patients at Retama Manor.

Unfortunately, the news is not so good at this time.

Thieves broke into their van on May 5, taking their equipment totaling about $850.

Taken was a Fender Passport 300 valued at $600 and a case of microphone stands valued at $240. These singers bought the equipment to provide the shut ins with outstanding gospel songs and music.

The group was really upset, not just for themselves, but for the large turnout each Sunday to listen to them.

All of those attending are issued a songbook and they can request one of the songs.

They face a problem of having to replace the equipment in order to continue. It will be a big blow to the Retama residents if they can’t continue.

Harlan Woods Harlingen

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND — To attract young families to live on the Island, the City Council is creating more parks for children.

“We have a lot of young families that live on the Island with children and they have no place to go,” Mayor Berry Patel said. “Hopefully, this will also encourage young families to buy homes on the Island.”

The Island’s newest park — John L. Tompkins Park at 6100 Padre Blvd. — will be fitted with a walking lane, playscapes, basketball courts, soccer field and a skate park.

The park is now entering phase two of construction.

The South Padre Economic Development Corporation invested $100,000 to help build the park.

The total cost for the project is $703,433.

Funding assistance came from the state sales tax on sporting goods through the Local Park Grant program administered by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

The city will be applying for another grant of $500,000 to help pay to complete the park.

“The city had been talking about a new park for a very long time,” Patel said. “And the City Council and people are very excited to get this park done.”

The new park is named after John L. Tompkins, a patriarch of the Island who was a developer who had a vision in the 1950s and 60s to make the Island available for public use.

Back then, when Tompkins began planning the development of the Island, the only way to reach the beach was by boat.

In those days, the Island was called Padre Beach long before there was a causeway.

Tompkins died in 1969.

Patel said a committee is working to erect a statue of Tompkins in his honor to be placed at the park.

“Tompkins was somebody who wanted to grow the Island tourism industry and he worked very hard to do that and I’m glad we are now carrying on his dream of making the Island a vacation destination for Texans and beyond,” Patel said.

The city held the groundbreaking ceremony for the park in October 2015.

Patel said the next phase should be complete by the end of the year.

The city obtained grant funding from Texas Parks and Wildlife and allocated local funds to make the park a reality.

Patel said the park will be a great asset to the residents and families that visit South Padre Island.

“We need to build infrastructure and that means parks for kids,” Patel said. “I’m trying to encourage young families moving here and commuting to work in Brownsville, San Benito, Harlingen and McAllen.”

RAYMONDVILLE — Willacy County voters made a clean sweep out of office for incumbents in the Democratic Party runoff’s three contested races.

In the race for county’s top prosecutor’s badge Tuesday, Raymondville attorney Annette Hinojosa defeated two-term incumbent Bernard Ammerman.

After 28 years in local politics, County Commissioner Fred Serrato lost his Precinct 3 seat to Lyford Mayor Henry De La Paz.

And in the race for Precinct 2’s constable’s job, peace officer Jose Salazar won 258 votes to defeat longtime incumbent Hector Tijerina, who took 142 votes.

“They were all incumbents,” said Lefty Cavazos, chairman of the county’s Democratic Party. “That’s a good indication that change is on the horizon. Other politicians better start looking at that.”

For about 28 years, Serrato held the County Commission’s Precinct 3 seat, undefeated in his long political career.

But De La Paz won 137 votes to defeat Serrato, who fell short with 115 votes.

“It’s a great feeling,” said De La Paz, a loan company director who has served as Lyford’s mayor since 2009. “We worked an extremely, extremely smart campaign.”

“We did a lot of strategizing, a lot of social media and a lot of signage and a lot of walking the streets. You’re not there for 28 years without a big following,” De La Paz said of Serrato.

De La Paz said his campaign focused on building support in northwest Lyford’s Precinct 9, where Serrato won heavy support in the March primary election.

“We worked on trying to close the gap in that precinct, which worked,” he said. “Winning by 32 votes against an incumbent of 28 years is big.”

Serrato, a former deputy sheriff who was first elected to the commission in 1985, served through 2004, when he chose not to seek re-election. Then in 2008, he returned to office.

“It had to come some time,” Serrato said of his first defeat.

During his campaign, Serrato said he handed out about 2,000 flyers touting his long record.

But De La Paz worked harder on his campaign, Serrato said.

“He did a lot of politicking — I didn’t,” Serrato said.

But Serrato remains proud of his record.

“I’m satisfied with what I’ve done,” Serrato said. “I’ve been there a long time. I appreciate it. I thank the people. But that’s enough.”

Cavazos called the race for the district attorney’s job the “hottest” in the county.

Hinojosa, a longtime Raymondville attorney who has served as a public defender in state District court, pulled support from backers of longtime District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra to win 1,386 votes to Ammerman’s 1,327.

Ammerman, president of the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, said he ran on his record as a prosecutor who helped bring the county’s crime rate to a 10-year low, slashing violent crime by 43 percent.

But Hinojosa argued Ammerman became an over-zealous prosecutor who sought convictions over what she called “true justice.”

HARLINGEN — Jose and his younger brother Adrian burn up their free time writing legendary lyrics for their rock band called Punk-69.

And they are not lying.

The group has won back-to-back competitions at the battle of the bands hosted at the House of Blues in Houston.

This Saturday, they will be performing a free concert live at the Harlingen Elks Lodge from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. at 1426 S. Commerce Street.

“It was great performing at the battle of the bands in Houston,” said Jose Cisneros, guitar player for Punk-69.

Also in the Punk-69 band is drummer Ralph Lucio, 19.

Adrian Cisneros, 16, is the lead vocalist and bass player. Jose Cisneros, 21, plays guitar and sings backup vocals.

The three-man band took the stage at the House of Blues in Houston last Saturday to battle it out on the bandstand with artists from around the state.

“Before our set we watched all the bands and listened to what they had but it still didn’t interfere with our mentality,” Jose said. “The bands that played had some great music, they were good.”

This is not the first time Punk-69 has won the battle of the bands at the House of Blues.

Early this year the group won tickets to the Playboy mansion’s red carpet Grammy’s after-party in Los Angeles.

And this time their prize is to be produced by the professional alternative rock band, Blue October.

Jose said he and his fellow band members did not immediately know who Blue October was, but they are excited to work with the band.

Blue October is a Houston-based band that was discovered by Kid Rock’s manager. They have eight top-40 singles over their past seven studio albums.

Blue October is best known for their platinum singles “Hat Me” and “Into the Ocean” from their 2006 album titled Foiled.

Jose said his band was invited to perform as one of the contestants at the House of Blues the second time around.

Normally contestants must pay an entrance fee or sell tickets to enter after sending their tape to the producers to get a chance to play.

Jose said the band went through a four-song set playing all original music at the House of Blues last weekend.

They played their songs titled “Her,” “Stick with Me,” “Broken Girl” and “A Hurricane of Fairytales.”

“We already have no problems whenever we hit the stage because we’re confident our music is going to be good,” Jose said. “Our music pretty much gets people’s attention.”

HARLINGEN — The city’s new bond rating is better than the U.S. government’s.

Fitch Ratings has upgraded the city’s bond rating to AA+, with a “stable outlook,” Assistant City Manager Gabriel Gonzalez said yesterday.

“That means the city is stable and the outlook looks good and there are no worries on the debt we’re going to issue,” Gonzalez said.

Meanwhile, he said, the federal government’s bond rating stands at AA+, with a negative outlook.

A bond rating is like a credit score, Gonzalez said.

“This is fantastic news for the City of Harlingen,” Mayor Chris Boswell said in a statement. “It constitutes recognition from the bond rating agency of excellent fiscal management and responsibility by our city leaders over time. Our finance department and city manager deserve recognition for this accomplishment.”

Fitch, which rated the city at AA- last year, upgraded the city’s bond rating as officials here prepare to refinance $23.5 million in bonds at lower interest rates to save about $2.8 million.

Now, the upgraded bond rating will mean extra savings, Gonzalez said.

“Investors will see the AA+ and see it’s a good investment,” Gonzalez said. “The better the rating, the lower the interest rate. So it will save on interest.”

Fitch upgraded the city’s bond rating based on factors including the ratio of the city’s overall debt of $50.9 million compared with the city’s annual general fund revenue of $42.1 million.

Factors also included the city’s revenue growth outpacing the national economic expansion rate and the city’s tax rate of 58 cents per $100 valuation falling below the state average.

Fitch also considered the city’s cash reserve fund of $15.9 million, which makes up 35.6 percent of general fund expenditures.

The winner of the Rio Grande Valley Spelling Bee made it to the third round Wednesday of the Scripps National Bee.

Clarisse Tudon of Los Cuates Middle School in Los Fresnos was eliminated when she misspelled “ chrysolite ” at the competition in suburban Washington , D.C.

She told The Brownsville Herald that she spelled the word wrong, thinking it was “crystallite.”

A chrysolite is a yellowish-green gemstone. A crystallite is a speck of mineral at the beginning of crystallization.

Yet, the Valley spelling champion was not discouraged after the bell rang, eliminating her from the bee.

“I’m pretty happy with (the outcome). Even if I didn’t make the finals, I knew I was going to be OK with what the outcome was. I already made it this far. It’s already a big victory to make it to nationals,” Tudon said. “It was a lot of fun on stage. It was cool. I made a lot of friends here.”

According to the Associated Press, spellers only received the opening-round list about 50 days in advance, and 33 spellers were eliminated in the heated first round. Among the words that were misspelled: chanoyu, scarlatina, tilleul, preterition, quadrumanous and octateuch.

However, Tudon said the first round was not difficult.

“Some of the words were easy, but every once in a while there were some words that were five syllables,” Tudon said. “I think the words at the beginning were easy but got harder. They mixed it up — hard and easy words. It was basically at random.”

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HARLINGEN – Jamaris Nuñez gingerly tightened the scissors around a line of thread, pulling it carefully until the wound had closed.

“I would just like to help with people who are sick,” said Jamaris, 11, a member of the Future Medical Professionals Academy.

She and other Academy members were at the Harlingen School for Health Professions yesterday to demonstrate what they’ve learned the past few months. Mike Morath, Texas education commissioner, was in town for a visit.

One of his stops was HSHP where he met with Harlingen school board members. He toured the school’s Surgical Procedures room which is equipped with an artificial leg with small incisions.

The incisions simulate wounds where students practice suturing. Jamaris and her fellow fifth-graders from Treasure Hills Elementary were demonstrating their suturing skills. However, instead of suturing wounds in a simulated leg, they were stitching up a banana skin.

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HARLINGEN – “You guys think you could suture me together if something happened?”

“If you give us enough time,” said Jamaris Nuñez, 11, a member of the Future Health Professionals of America.

She was talking to Mike Morath, Texas commissioner of education. He was touring the Valley yesterday and had stopped at the School for Health Professions where Jamaris and her fellow club members were suturing bananas to demonstrate what they’d learned.

Morath was here to tour local schools and meet with the Tri-Agency Workforce Initiative. That initiative included Raymund Paredes, commissioner of higher education, and three representatives of the Texas Workforce Commission.

The three entities met to ensure local education is in line with the needs of the workforce.

Morath, who has been education commissioner for one year, stopped first at the South Texas Academy for Health Professions in Olmito before continuing to Harlingen.

One thing he noticed was how the community was involved with the local school districts.

“It’s great to see the partnerships between business and education and the community,” he said.

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