LA FERIA — Voters in this city going to the polls in May won’t have many options to pick from.

The city commission has approved the election for three positions. All the candidates were running unopposed for mayor and commissioner for seats two and three.

The upcoming ballot will have the names of the three candidates, but voters will not be able to vote for them as the commission approved the election of Olga Maldonado for mayor, city commissioners Victor Gonzalez and Eric Hoff on Tuesday.

Mayor-elect Olga Maldonado will take over as mayor in May after the official canvassing of the votes takes place following the May 7 election.

Maldonado had stepped down from her city commission seat three to run for mayor in the upcoming city election.

Maldonado drew no candidates to rival her bid for mayor.

Mayor Victor Gonzalez, the incumbent, decided not to seek re-election.

At the regular meeting in February the commission voted to have a special election to fill the unexpired one-year term Maldonado left vacant.

Gonzalez became the only candidate to file for candidacy to finish Maldonado’s unexpired term.

Gonzalez will take the oath of city commissioner place three after the official canvassing of the election.

City Manager Sunny Philip announced to the commission filing time to announce candidacy for place three had passed.

Long-time city politician John Hernandez did not seek re-election for seat two.

Political newcomer and local business owner Eric Hoff was the only candidate who filed for Hernandez’s seat.

There will be one contested race. Political newcomers Jesse Zuniga and Don Lee are the two candidates running for city commissioner one in the May 7 election.

Incumbent John Bentancourt did not file to seek re-election.

HARLINGEN — Volunteer La Feria fireman Reynaldo Lopez was driving his family home from the hospital, being a good dad.

Then he decided to be a hero.

Lopez, 27, had his wife in the car. She had just undergone surgery, and their son was asleep in the back seat.

As he was heading north toward the Arroyo Colorado bridge on Ed Carey Drive and 25th Street, he noticed a small Volkswagen Beetle slowing down.

It was approaching the bridge when Lopez saw the driver with her head down. That’s when the car hit the side of the bridge.

“It wasn’t a hard impact,” Lopez said. “The car was going slow and I was able to park my car in front of it.”

The accident happened two weeks ago on March 10, in the afternoon.

Lopez said he pulled his car in front of the Volkswagen and another car stopped behind it to stop traffic.

Lopez said he opened the door, put the car in park, turned it off, and asked if the driver was OK.

Lopez recently was recognized at the La Feria city meeting for his heroic effort to go above and beyond the call of duty.

The driver of the Beetle was La Feria resident, Morgan Hoff, 17, who was also coming from a doctor’s appointment.

“I’m very grateful that’s for sure,” Hoff said. “It could have been a lot worse.”

Hoff said she was on her way to leave the doctor’s excuse at her job when her vision began to blur.

She said all she could remember was the man who had saved her was wearing a superhero T-shirt.

“It was pretty scary the next thing I remember was I was being pulled out of the car,” Hoff said.

RIO GRANDE CITY — The bodies of two Rio Grande City CISD employees were found inside a bedroom — bound at the hands — each with a gunshot wound to the head.

Oneida Alanis Balderas Garza, 44, and Lourdes M. Luna, 33, were found inside a residence in the 200 block of Ebony Court at about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday shot execution-style, but as of late Wednesday evening Starr County Sheriff’s officials would not confirm their identities.

After news broke around the small community, officials with the school district prematurely released the names of the employees on the official district website with a page expressing condolences to the women’s families. A school board budget online lists Garza as a compliance officer and Luna as an accountant at the school district.

Wednesday, a sheriff’s office patrol SUV blocked the entrance into the quiet neighborhood as Rangers worked to gather evidence in the gruesome shooting.

Maj. Carlos Delgado, of the sheriff’s office, said the double-homicide investigation was turned over to Rangers with the Texas Department of Public Safety but did not explain why.

DPS spokesman Sgt. Juan Hernandez, confirmed Rangers were leading the investigation into the deaths of the two women, but referred all calls to Starr County District Attorney Omar Escobar.

Escobar said he made the decision to use Rangers on the case because they had access to more resources and have expertise in capital murder cases.

But a source familiar with the case said the investigation was turned over to DPS because of a close familial relationship between one of the victims and an employee within the sheriff’s office.

The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he did not have permission to release details on the case, said Luna’s husband is an investigator with the sheriff’s office.

An address listed to Luna in the 2000 block of Palm Circle matches the address listed for investigator Osdy G. Luna, 35, an investigator with the sheriff’s office.

Escobar and Delgado both told The Monitor they could neither confirm nor deny the relationship between Lourdes Luna and any employee within the sheriff’s office.

The district attorney said they had not named any suspects in the case but names of possible suspects had been discussed.

In January, an investigation was launched by the Starr County Attorney’s office after cash went missing from the sheriff’s office.

The money, more than $6,000 in cash, was reported missing sometime in mid-September, at which point sheriff’s officials asked for assistance from the Texas Department of Public Safety but were turned down and told to handle the matter internally, according to a spokesman with the sheriff’s office.

Employees with the sheriff’s office were interviewed by investigators from the Starr County District Attorney’s Office but no one has been charged and the investigation is ongoing.

During an impromptu news conference, RGC CISD School Board President Daniel Garcia expressed sadness on behalf of the board.

“These two individuals were truly public servants. They went out of their way to serve our district, our students, our faculty, and they will be greatly missed,” he said.

Garcia said Rio Grande City High School was placed on lockdown earlier that day for a few hours but assured it was just a precautionary measure as the school is located less than a mile from the crime scene.

Out of respect to the two women, the school board postponed Wednesday’s meeting and moved a track meet to Mission.

“We’re going through a sad situation, a time of mourning,” he said. “We feel that it’s more important to be with our families.”

Garcia said the business office was making arrangements to continue its day to day operations, but the loss was nonetheless difficult for colleagues of the victims.

“Everybody’s in shock; everybody’s heartbroken,” he said. “They were more than just employees, they were our friends.”

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SAN BENITO — The Cameron County District Attorney’s office confirmed this morning that former San Benito Economic Development Corporation Director Salomon Torres is currently under investigation.

This information comes on the heels of Torres being let go from his position last week. Neither Assistant City Manager Art Rodriguez or City Manager Manuel de la Rosa would comment on Torres dismissal citing it as a “personnel matter.”

The DA’s office would not comment on the investigation as it is still ongoing.

However, they did say they helped with the initial investigation and that it is now in the hands of the San Benito Police Department.

“Right now we really can’t discuss anything since this is still ongoing,” said San Benito Police Chief Michael Galvan. “We did ask the district attorney’s office some questions and they offered their assistance.”

The DA’s office noted it is a joint effort between them and the San Benito Police Department.

Torres was named the head of the EDC in October 2012 at a salary of $65,000. He was picked out of a list of 16 applicants. He had served as the EDC director from 2001 to 2002 and then served nine years as a congressional aide before returning to San Benito.

He made an unsuccessful run for Congress in May 2012.

Torres, a 1983 graduate of La Feria High School, earned a marketing degree from St. Edward’s University in 1987 before graduating from Columbia Law School in 1993.

PRIMERA — Like many travelers on Stuart Place Road, City Administrator Javier Mendez has been driving over and around the bumps and holes for the last 10 years.

Finally that soon may be over.

The city’s street improvement project to smooth Stuart Place road is under way and will be ongoing for the next 120 days.

Starting this upcoming Monday Stuart Place Road from Wilson Road heading north to FM 107 will be closed from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“The contactor has asked to close the road because of safety concerns,” Mendez said. “We don’t want anyone to get hurt.”

City officials are asking residents to be patient during the repaving project.

“Along with the improvements, we want citizens to be aware that there are going to be some inconveniences, Mendez said. “The road is going to be closed, but not to the citizens who live in that area.”

The project officially started a couple of weeks ago.

“We have bumps in the road and we’re going to put in a five inch base and it should be a smoother ride,” Mendez said. “We’re going all the way from Wilson Road to just a little bit past city hall.”

Mendez said the city has been planning this project over the past few years. And over the years there was no funding for the project available from grants or the state.

The city plans for the road to be smooth for the next 10 years.

Certain areas along the road buckled and made the road crack and bumpy.

Mendez said the project to repave the road is estimated at $650,000. It is being completed by R&R Paving from San Benito.

Mendez said money for the street improvement came from the general fund and left over bond monies from the improvement of Primera Road.

“This project will enhance the city of Primera and the growth of the industrial park,” Mendez said. “The new road will make the land more attractive to new businesses.”

RAYMONDVILLE — For some local businesses, Walmart’s closing has sales booming.

And at City Hall, officials are counting on these local businesses to help offset sales tax revenue losses stemming from the retail giant’s closing.

For Raymondville’s dollar stores, business has doubled since Walmart closed its doors Jan. 29.

“It’s been good for us here,” Jaime Hernandez, manager at Family Dollar, said yesterday. “Sales have at least doubled. There has been a big increase.”

Now, the store is building up its inventory to keep up with demand, Hernandez said.

Hernandez said Walmart’s closing led residents to shop around.

Many residents turned to dollar stores like Family Dollar and Dollar General to buy items like household products they used to find at Walmart.

“People started scouting to see what’s in town that last week that Walmart was open,” Hernandez said. “When Walmart closed, we got hit hard.”

At Alamo Lumber, sales are up about 50 percent, salesman Chevy Gutierrez said.

“We really appreciate what Walmart did,” Gutierrez said with a chuckle.

Gutierrez said the store used to see about 250 customers walk through its doors every day.

But since Walmart closed, as many as 400 customers a day are shopping there, Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez said customers are buying hardware, tools, paint, lighting and electrical supplies.

“It’s everything,” he said.

The local business boon will help offset Walmart’s sales tax revenue losses in the city whose annual sales tax collection grew to $1.4 million.

“The sales tax loss with Walmart hopefully will be made up by other stores in our city,” City Manager Eleazar Garcia said.

Residents are still spending their tax dollars in town, said Catalina Ozuna, executive director of the Raymondville Economic Development Corporation.

“I don’t see people leaving and buying somewhere else,” Ozuna said. “They’re still buying here. We have other stores here that carry the items Walmart carried.”

On Jan. 29, Walmart closed the city’s Supercenter, laying off 149 employees.

Along with Raymondville’s store, Walmart closed 268 of its least profitable stores in the United States and Latin America, including a Brownsville store on Padre Island Highway.

News of the Raymondville store’s closing came 10 months after the Willacy County Correctional Center shut down, laying off 400 employees.

The prison’s closure plunged Willacy County into a financial crisis, slashing a third of the county’s $8.1 million general fund budget. As county commissioners tried to offset a monthly $220,000 shortfall, budget cuts eliminated about 25 jobs, forcing 16 layoffs.

In Raymondville, the 3,000-bed prison’s closure cut the city’s water sales by about $600,000.

Now, officials are waiting for the state Comptroller’s Office to release the city’s February sales tax collection next month.

HARLINGEN – Space has never been so close.

The inaugural Rio Grande Valley Space Summit is bringing the galaxy home for 225 Harlingen High School and Harlingen South students and a matching number of Texas State Technical College students.

All 450 of them are studying in STEM fields – science, technology, engineering and math.

The April 1 event is a first for the Valley, and is intended to not just inform, but to inspire a new generation of engineers and scientists to prepare for careers in the Valley’s fast-growing commercial spaceflight industry.

The first RGV Space Summit is being sponsored by Harlingen Aerotropolis, Harlingen Economic Development Corp., Harlingen CISD, TSTC, First Community Bank, the Port of Harlingen, Gigabit Communications and the Harlingen Manufacturers Association.

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Cameron County Sheriff Omar Lucio said a body found Wednesday near a Matamoros beach could be that of missing spring breaker Justin Kirby Walker.

The body was discovered around 3 p.m. at the Costa Azul beach in Matamoros , which is a popular swimming area across the Rio Grande from Boca Chica Beach outside Brownsville.

Lucio said the clothing on the body matched the description of what Walker was last seen wearing. Walker was last seen wearing a black hat with the word “Primitive” on it, a navy blue and black tribal shirt from Zumiez, dark or khaki-colored shorts and Nike Janoski shoes.

“It (The body) appears to be wearing the same clothing the guy had when he disappeared,” the sheriff said. “There’s a high possibility that it is him.”

According to authorities, the body had been in the water for about three to four days. Walker was last seen Saturday.

Lucio said authorities are working with the Mexican Consulate and Mexican authorities to get fingerprints from the body to make a positive identification. If a positive identification is made, the sheriff said he will work with Mexican authorities to get the body transferred back to the United States .

Although authorities believe the cause of death is a drowning, an autopsy will most likely be ordered to rule out foul play.

“At this point there is no indication of that,” Lucio said.

Walker , 18, of Kendall , Texas, was last seen Saturday leaving the Ultimate Music Fest at the Schlitterbahn Beach Waterpark on South Padre Island . Authorities have been searching for him since Sunday.

In addition to local and federal agencies, authorities said, volunteers have begun to aid in the search for the missing teenager. Authorities said a handful of volunteers combed the area near Schlitterbahn on Tuesday afternoon.

Search crews from the Cameron County Sheriff’s Department actively searched for Walker on Tuesday along the water.

Cameron County Sheriff Omar Lucio said a body found near a Matamoros beach could be that of missing Spring Breaker Justin Kirby Walker.

The body was discovered around 3 p.m. today. Lucio said the clothes on the body matched the description of what Walker was last seen wearing.

According to authorities, it appears the body had been in the water for about three to four days. Lucio said authorities are working with the Mexican Consulate and Mexican authorities to get fingerprints from the body to make a positive identification.

Walker, 18, of Kendall, Texas was last seen on Saturday leaving the Ultimate Music Fest at the Schlitterbahn Beach Waterpark. Authorities have been searching for him ever since.

Mike Dailey, when you dropped those very old articles on my doorstep, I wish you had knocked. I would have gladly and proudly explained our TNR program to you.

First: Trap, Neutered, Return is nothing new. Alley Cat Allies has been successfully promoting the program for over 20 years. While the National Audubon Society and Alley Cat Allies may have had disagreements in the past, very few of them remain unresolved. However our concern is on a local level.

The Humane Society of Harlingen has a very successful Trap, Neuter, Return or Relocate program.

When a person comes into the shelter to tell us they have a problem with stray cats, we get signed permission to trap on their property.

Once a cat is trapped, we test it for FIV, Feline Leukemia, and Heart Worms. All positive cats are put to sleep. All negative cats are vaccinated, spayed or neutered and ear tipped to identify them as fixed cats. The cats are micro-chipped to that area in case they are trapped again.

Only a reasonable number of cats are returned to the area where they were trapped at.

My trapper, William Van Coppenolle, and I have spent countless hours trapping cats in the middle of the night. A few months ago in a three block radius on South G and F Streets we trapped over 70 cats.

Because we cannot return 70 cats back to that area, most of them were relocated to one of our very successful barn programs.

I agree with you that ideally all owned cats should be kept indoors; owned being the operative word.

The cats we are trapping are unowned cats, breeding at will. Since Memorial Day last year we have trapped over 350 cats in Harlingen alone. In addition, we have trapped 95 cats in Port Mansfield and 68 cats in Raymondville. There is a national formula that says one cat plus one cat equals 420,000 cats over time.

Let’s put this on the lowest level possible and say that each cat trapped only had one litter of four before being trapped. Exponentially that still equals thousands and thousands of cats that will not be born. I share your concern of the deaths of birds and bats from feral cats. However building collisions also cause a large number of bird deaths. It is estimated that wind turbines now kill over 573,000 birds a year. As more and more wind turbines are built, they will have an increasing impact on bird deaths.

Feral cats are not the biggest threat to bird life anymore.

I am not the CEO of the Humane Society of Harlingen; I am the Board President. As you stated, this is an unpaid position; however my reward comes from the results we are obtaining.

One of my most rewarding programs is educating the public on the need for spay and neuter. Remember, I met you when I found your dog Paco who was not neutered and running at large.

I spent five years trying to get you to neuter him. Unfortunately Paco died, however I was so proud of you when you had Paco 2 neutered. I am also very proud to say that over the last four years are shelters’ intake is down by 3,000 animals.

Pat Turman-White President, Humane Society of Harlingen