LA FERIA — The city’s long association with citrus was all it took to give Unger Park its look and theme.

The city of La Feria will host the official grand opening of the orange-themed park on Wednesday, March 22, at 10 a.m.

“It’s a celebration of reviving a park in an old neighborhood,” City Manager Sunny Philip said.

The event is open to the public.

Unger Park is located at the intersection of 330 S. West Street and Central Street behind the Dunlap Memorial Library.

The park is nestled on a 1.1-acre island on a city street.

Neighborhood residents and visitors soon will be able to enjoy all the park has to offer.

The park has recently been fitted with a beach volleyball court, shuffleboard, horseshoe pits, a half-court basketball area, a small soccer field, swings, a playscape and exercise station.

Visitors who wish to cook out can enjoy a good time with family and friends over a grilled meal for a picnic.

Unger Park also will celebrate the contributions of the longtime city secretary and city administrator, Tony Unger.

Unger served as an administrative official more than 50 years ago.

Philip said the park planning was a collaborative effort of the community.

The city held public hearings and took the input of citizens to narrow down the concept of the park.

Philip said the park redevelopment is for the new generation and old to enjoy.

Everything about the park is orange to celebrate the local agriculture industry.

The park’s orange theme stems from the Valley’s rich history of citrus farming and agriculture business.

The city of La Feria public recreation site development project was funded with the assistance of the Land and Water Conservation Fund of the U.S. Department of Interior National Park Service, administered by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

Land and Water Conservation funded $100,000 and the city of La Feria matched $100,000 to pay for the project.

“Our city is always on the lookout to revitalize and re-energize neighborhoods for kids to play,” Philip said.

Former presidents of Mexico Calderon and Fox have said Donald Trump is like Hitler and that Mexico would never pay for building a “f ing” wall along the US-Mexico border. Of course not. The flow of illegals and illegal drugs into the US is worth 10s of billions of dollars to Mexico.

These two men were in power for a combined 12 years, what did they do for the people of Mexico?

Donald Trump and his supporters have been condemned and called every ugly name there is to be called by the left wing media, the mainstream media, liberals, Democrats, as well as many “Republicans in name only,” RINOs.

Why?

“They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with them. They’re bringing drugs. They’ve bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” Donald Trump, 6-16-2015.

Where exactly is there a part of Mr. Trump’s speech that isn’t true? As soon as any person crosses the US border illegally they have broken a US federal law, that’s a crime.

Where do the vast majority of illegal drugs coming into the US come from and for the most part, who brings them across the border? There are people dying in the US every day from heroin and cocaine overdoses. Google “US heroin epidemic.”

As I’ve stated before, the convicted killers of Houston police officers Rodney Johnson, Henry Canales, Gary Gryder and Kevin Will are all illegals. The two men accused of killing Border Patrol agent Javier Vega are also illegals.

On 3-9-2016 an illegal, Pablo Antonio Serrano-Victorino was arrested in Montgomery County Missouri for the murders of four men in Kansas City, Kansas, and a 49-year-old man near Florence, Missouri.

The list of murders committed in the US by illegals can go on and on. The mainstream media chooses to ignore most of these violent acts.

As for rapists, I’d rather not look at the list of illegals either accused or convicted of raping young boys, young girls, and women all across the country.

Seems to me there are a lot of people that need to open their eyes so they can see the truth instead of calling anyone who supports the enforcement of all immigration laws a racist, a bigot, a xenophobe, etc.

N. Rodriguez Harlingen

It’s not even May and I already know the answer for the “Baxter” building.

It will be infested with rats. The two-legged kind and the four-legged kind.

There will be drugs for everybody. The prescription kind and the nonprescription kind. There don’t be one cockroach. There will be one million.

There will be folk art. There will be wall art by the little folks.

The experiment of low income has been done before. There are two examples. One is near an H.E.B. and the other next to the airport.

But back then they were built away from the center of town. That was the intention. Keep the poor away from the center of town. Back then those two projects were on the outskirt of the city.

If it’s going to be built will be determined by whose are profiting from it. A lot of profits will be under the table.

Unless they have a special plan to change the poor human beings from the norm of their habits it is a done deal.

Santiago Perez San Benito

HARLINGEN — Like many downtown merchants, Mia Garza is worried about the future of the Baxter Building.

She is concerned the proposed $4.5 million renovation of Harlingen’s tallest building would bring crime and more parking problems to the Jackson Street area.

Merchants like Garza are now opposing a developer’s plan to turn the Baxter Building into a 24-unit apartment development that would include 19 low-income units.

Developers MRE Capital plan to offer apartments to residents with incomes as low as $15,720 for families of four, according to an application for federal tax credits filed with the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs.

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“It’s not going to attract the right people,” said Garza, whose family owns Jackson Street Antiques. “It’s a terrible idea. We’ve made much progress in the last couple of years. We’ve been trying to give it a facelift. But bringing housing in is taking the opposite direction that Harlingen’s going.”

Garza said low-income residents could bring crime to the rows of businesses along the Jackson Street district.

“We’ve already been broken into,” Garza said.

She’s not the only one with concerns.

Carlos Betancourt said the business district is not the place for an apartment development.

“To put a low-income project across the street, it’s a slap in the face,” said Betancourt, owner of Carlito’s Wine House.

“I don’t have anything against low-income but it’s got its place. This is a bar. Now we’re going to have children running along the street. This is not a residential area. This is commercial.”

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A worldwide glut of natural gas means it’s a lousy time to be trying to export the stuff, though proposals for liquefied natural gas exports from the Port of Brownsville are focused on the future, not the present.

Still, for exporters the short term looks bleak. AltaGas Ltd., a Canadian company, dropped plans late last month to ship liquefied natural gas from the north coast of British Columbia because it couldn’t find enough Asian buyers willing to sign long-term “off-take” contracts, according to The Globe and Mail, Canada’s national newspaper.

The media outlet also reported that the future of 19 other British Columbian export projects is in doubt due to the weak market.

Closer to home, Cheniere Energy Inc. exported a load of LNG to Brazil from its new Sabine Pass, Louisiana, terminal on Feb. 24. It was the first-ever LNG export from the lower 48 states, though the shipment took place against a backdrop of what the U.S. Energy Information Administration, in a report released March 4, termed “uncertainty in global LNG demand.”

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A young Harlingen girl was killed overnight when she lost control of the pickup she was driving and landed in a drainage canal.

The Texas Department of Public Safety says Michelle Ashley Hernandez, 18, was east of Rio Hondo driving northbound on FM 2925, a mile north of FM 106 when she swerved to avoid an oncoming vehicle that veered into her lane.

Troopers say Hernandez over corrected the 2015 Lincoln pickup and rolled into the canal.

Hernandez died at the scene. Her passenger, a 38-year-old San Benito woman was transported to Valley Baptist Medical Center with minor injuries.

The accident happened just before 11 p.m.

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With the help of a walker, 83-year-old former priest John Feit entered the courtroom Monday morning to face an Hidalgo County judge for the first time in connection with the 1960 rape and murder of Irene Garza.

After nearly 56 years of being suspected in 25-year-old Garza’s death, John Feit pleaded not guilty to murder before 92nd State District Court Judge Luis Singleterry who set his bond at $1 million.

Feit is accused in the April 1960 death of Garza, a schoolteacher and beauty queen who was last seen going to confession at McAllen’s Sacred Heart Church. Her body was found five days later after being dumped in a canal.

During the initial investigation officers linked Feit to Garza’s death after finding evidence and placing him at the church the night she disappeared. Feit was never charged in this case and was moved out of state by the church, documents show.

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Feit was living in Arizona when he was arrested in February in connection to Garza’s death after a grand jury in Hidalgo County found there was enough evidence to prosecute him.

He arrived last week after being extradited from Maricopa County and flown back to The Rio Grande Valley. If convicted of first degree murder Feit could face up to 99 years in prison.

Check back for more details.

OLMITO — “Sir. Sir. Can you hear me? Can you talk?”

No response. A student at the South Texas Academy for Medical Professions checks the mannequin’s pulse on the wrist and neck.

Nothing. Then a long beep and the heart monitor flat-lines.

“Defibrillator,” someone shouts. The simulation mannequin shows all the signs of cardiac arrest or any other scenario teachers want to create to give students real world experience.

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