HARLINGEN — Harlingen Area Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors Juan and Connie Salas were inducted into the 2016 RGV Walk of Fame for their contributions to the Harlingen community.

The event took place Thursday evening at the State Farm Arena in Hidalgo.

Juan Salas Connie Salas are husband and wife. They graduated in 1956, were married in 1957 and left Harlingen to reside in Chicago for 43 years. They returned to Harlingen after their retirement in 1999 and since then, they have served their community by helping various civic organizations, especially Harlingen Proud where they work closely to beautify and clean many areas in the city.

The Harlingen Area Chamber of Commerce nominated Juan and Connie Salas for the Walk of Fame earlier this year. “Because a community is only as strong as the people who support and stand by their city, congratulations Juan and Connie Salas for your continued support of the city of Harlingen,” said Vanessa Camacho, vice president of the Harlingen Area Chamber of Commerce.

They have been recognized by the Harlingen Chamber and were awarded the Heritage Award during the annual awards banquet in November 2015. Juan and Connie Salas are members of the Harlingen Rotary Club and were recognized in the 2015 Rotary Club Walk of Fame Induction. They volunteer many hours into community events and projects, specifically the 16 de Septiembre and Cinco de Mayo events for the city of Harlingen.

Salas’ message to their community — “We are truly blessed. We ask that we work and respect each other, giving your best by making a difference for future generations, our hometown, our Harlingen. Together we can make a difference.”

HARLINGEN — The Rio South Texas Economic Council continues its search for a new chief executive after two candidates recently rejected job offers.

The position of executive director has been vacant since Alma Puente Colleli resigned last fall.

“For separate and distinct reasons, they decided not to take the jobs,” said Raudel Garza, manager and chief executive officer of the Harlingen Economic Development Corp. Garza, who held the top executive job that’s now open prior to moving to the Harlingen EDC, is a member on the organization’s partnership list.

The council, better known by its acronym RSTEC, is a public-private association based in Edinburgh that operates as a 501 (c)(6) non-profit to promote regional economic development.

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McALLEN — While BorderFest could not wrestle its way out of Hidalgo, the Border Texan of the Year award reception did.

The event has run concurrently with BorderFest since 1989 and has been held in Hidalgo since its inception, but this year organizers felt it was time to move it to McAllen, board co-chairman Glen Roney said.

“The big majority of our financial support has come from the McAllen area and not from Hidalgo, and the contention was that we ought to think about having it in McAllen as opposed to Hidalgo,” Roney explained.

The board, which consists of five co-chairmen and about 25 other members, selected the McAllen Convention Center as its new home. Friday’s reception included a dinner to honor this year’s recipients, Janet and Robert Vackar.

The Vackars own the Bert Ogden Auto Group and employ nearly 1,000 people throughout their 22 dealerships in four cities. Organizers didn’t have a hard time selecting them as worthy recipients, Roney said.

“We looked and talked about several different people and considered things that they had to be involved with, including economic development, charitable contributions and things that we were aware of, and of course the Vackars stood out because of their recent contribution to the new college here,” he said.

The Vackars donated $2 million to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in January — the largest donation to the institution since it was created. They now join other Border Texan honorees, such as Gov. George W. Bush, U.S. Rep. Kika De La Garza and H-E-B owner Charles C. Butt.

Organizers sold about 80 tables at $1,250 each. With eight people at every table, there were more than 500 people in attendance Friday evening.

“After all expenses are paid, the remainder (of the money) is available to be contributed to a local charity,” Roney said. “The recipient of the honor, in this case the Vackars, they decide who they think should get the funds.”

Roney did not know which worthy cause the couple would choose, but other recipients have donated to charities like the Vannie E. Cook Cancer Center and the Boys and Girls Club of America.

Roney disavowed a connection to BorderFest and said he did not want to be caught in the middle of the legal battles between the city of Hidalgo and the BorderFest Association.

“We’ve run this as a separate event. I, as a matter of fact, never had anything to do directly with BorderFest, but have been involved with the Border Texan since the first recipient back in 1989,” the event organizer said. “I’ve not been part of that battle, and I don’t want to be.”

As the standout frontrunners for the Republican Cameron County Sheriff’s race in last Tuesday’s primary election, Victor Cortez and former Indian Lake police chief John Chambers are headed for the runoff election in May.

Cortez and Chambers were the top two candidates out of four, which included Robert Rodriguez and Michael Watkins.

Final election numbers detailed Chambers lead over Cortez with 3,395 votes to 2,662, respectively. Because neither candidate managed to get 50 percent plus one vote, they are forced into a runoff.

Chambers said he was excited about his edge over Cortez.

“I’m very excited about it,” Chambers said. “It shows that the people will decide who will be the next sheriff and not the compadre system.”

Cortez was thankful to remain in the race but was dismayed to have been bested by Chambers.

“It is a sad state of affairs when uninformed voters vote for a convicted felon,” Cortez said.

In January, Chambers was sentenced to five years probation after a jury found him guilty on 14 counts of tampering with government records. Chambers said he is currently appealing the guilty verdict and said he believes his commitment to the race despite his legal battles attracts voters.

“I believe this will affect my campaign in the positive sense because it shows I will standup against corruption and won’t back down when people make false allegations or use their position to try to take out their opponent,” Chambers said.

“It’s all in appeals, I’m not on probation, I haven’t been convicted until the appellate process is over. Hopefully, the court will look at the facts and see the truth,” Chambers said.

Cortez said he hopes voters will consider his record when heading to the polls in May.

“It’s not a good image for Cameron County . If we want to get rid of corruption in Cameron County , we need to look at people with impeccable records. We had four candidates running and three had very good records,” Cortez said.

The winner of May’s runoff race will face incumbent Sheriff Omar Lucio, the Democratic candidate. Lucio first held the office for one term in 1997 and was elected back into office in November 2004. He has held the office ever since.

BROWNSVILLE — Eight hundred runners ran through Gladys Porter Zoo yesterday morning dressed in wildcat costumes and workout gear to complete the Ocelot 5K/1 Mile Run and help conservation efforts for the endangered feline.

Acting as a kickoff to Ocelot Conservation Day, the Ocelot Run hosted by 2 Run Crew allowed participants to race through the zoo’s grounds and view the tigers and bears on the way to the finish line.

Those participating in the race would obtain a race bib, granting them free entry into the zoo. With that, they could spend the rest of the day viewing the animals and attend the Ocelot Conservation Festival thrown by Gladys Porter Zoo, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Friends of Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge.

Javier Vazquez and Sheralee Six, 2 Run Crew LLC partners, said the Ocelot Run had a great turnout. Vazquez said that 300 people participated in the 1-mile race with 500 people participating in the 5K run.

Tickets for the run sold out in a matter of 15 hours after being made available online. Vasquez said that the ocelot run is the run organizers’ fastest-selling run event.

As a race management company, 2 Run Crew specializes in holding races with a focus on partnering with community health initiatives and conservation efforts. Vazquez said that running is generally used for exercise purposes but can be used for other great purposes, such as raising awareness.

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“Una Buena Vida,” a Spanish language film shot in the Rio Grande Valley, will be part of a special double-feature opening of “CinEstrelar” from Harlingen’s El Valle Films to bring Spanish language movies back into theatres. The double-feature will begin at

7 p.m. tonight at Mission Border Theater.

“There’s a real lack of Spanish films in theatres here in the Valley,” said Max Rojas of El Valle Film Productions. “Most people who have lived here their whole lives — for example, like my abuela — they don’t like non-Spanish speaking films, so we are trying to bring them back into theatres.”

According to Rojas, Mission Border Theatre agreed to having Spanish speaking films shown regularly on Fridays in hopes to cater more to the Spanish-speaking community.

“We made a deal with Border Theatre, so we’ll start showing Spanish speaking films to kind of restart this era,” the 38-year-old Brownsville native said. “We’re kind of taking it back to a time when Spanish speaking films were shown all the time.”

Aside from “Una Buena Vida,” the special double-feature includes the film “Dos Caras De La Ley.”

“We’re only doing a double-feature this time around for the opening, otherwise, it will be just one film shown at two different times,” said Rojas. “Everyone likes to go to the movies, so it’s kind of nice for predominately Spanish-speaking residents to go out to a movie Friday night, too.”

Admission for the double-feature is $10 tonight. For $20, attendees will be able to meet special guest actor Guillermo Quintanilla (“Quien Es Quien?,” “El Señor De los Cielos,” “Saving Private Perez”)after the film, otherwise, entrance to the movie is $6 per person each Friday.

“Right now, these movies will only be shown on Fridays, but maybe we could do it more often depending on the turnouts,” Rojas said. “There’s a lot of room to grow with this locally. I want the Rio Grande Valley to be a place where Spanish-speaking producers and actors would want to produce and premier these films in so their fans could see them first-hand.”

For more information or to pre-order tickets, call Christina R. Garza at (956) 572-6780.

BY Jennifer L. Berghom and Vicky Brito

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley welcomed students and their families to its Brownsville and Edinburg campuses Saturday to make sure their college application experience was a super one.

UTRGV joined RGV Focus and other Valley institutions of higher education to host Super Saturday, an event dedicated to assisting families in applying for financial aid to pay for college.

About 1,000 current and prospective students and their families visited the Main Building at The Tower in Brownsville and the Student Services Building in Edinburg, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., to get one-on-one help filling out college applications, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), the Texas Application for State Financial Aid (TASFA), and other forms needed for the college application process.

“Super Saturday helps us promote to our community, including current UTRGV students and future students who are about to graduate from high school. It’s an opportunity to apply for financial aid before the priority deadline of March 15,” said Daniel Yarritu, UTRGV’s associate director of Financial Aid Operations and Community Liaison based at the Brownsville Campus.

SERVING THE COMMUNITY

Because many current and future UTRGV students are first-generation college attendees, the university wants to ensure that they and their families get as much help as they need to make the college-going process as smooth as possible, said Jael Garcia, UTRGV’s associate director of Financial Aid Operations and Community Liaison based at the Edinburg Campus.

“We know that in our area, for a lot of our students and their families, financial aid plays a very important role in them being able to attend college,” Garcia said. “We have this Super Saturday event to be able to provide that help. They don’t have to do it alone. They can come and we will help them.”

At the Edinburg Campus, VITA offered free tax preparation services for families and applicants. Child care and activities for children were also offered at the Edinburg event. Both locations offered campus tours.

Esther Rodriguez, project manager for RGV Focus, said 86 percent of K-12 students in the Valley come from economically disadvantaged households, so the costs of attending college can serve as a barrier to higher education.

Through Super Saturday, families not only receive support in applying for financial aid, they also have an opportunity to see what college is like, she said.

“It’s a good introduction of what higher ed is,” Rodriguez said. “We find that, for many parents, this will be the first time they set foot on a college campus. We’re trying to change that. We’re trying to get them to understand what the college experience entails and how they can support their students.”

A QUICK PROCESS

Families who took advantage of the financial aid help marveled at how quick the process was and how friendly and patient the staff was.

Donna resident Irene Cazares and her son, Joshua, a senior at The Science Academy of South Texas (SciTech) in Mercedes, said they thought the process would be much longer.

“I thought it was actually fast, easy and very friendly,” said Irene Cazares, who attended UT Pan American. “It’s not as long as it used to be.”

Joshua Cazares said he is considering UTRGV, as well as schools in the San Antonio and Houston areas, but he is leaning toward attending UTRGV.

“A lot of my friends are also coming to UTRGV, so it’s going to be pretty fun,” he said.

McAllen residents Manny and Daniela Bazaldua also remarked on how simple the process was. The couple moved back to the Valley from the Houston area recently for work and to continue their education. Manny is seeking a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, and Daniela is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in theater design.

“It was really simple,” Daniela Bazaldua said. “When I had to do it the first time, it was really a hassle because I didn’t know what to do. But here, everybody just helped me out. If I had any questions, everything was answered when I asked.”

Her husband said he appreciated the staff’s patience.

“They walked through everything with me,” he said. “It was really great, since I’ve never done anything like this before.”

STILL TIME TO APPLY

Those who cannot make the March 15 priority deadline can still apply for financial aid, organizers said. At UTRGV, current and prospective students can access the computer lab at its U Central locations on the Brownsville and Edinburg campuses during the week.

Yarritu said the UTRGV code used for the FAFSA is 003599, which is still listed as UT Pan American, but the US Department of Education is working on getting it updated to list the code under UTRGV.

“In addition, we also want to remind students that the UTB code 030646 is still active on the FAFSA, but those wanting to attend UTRGV Brownsville must use 003599, and this could be confusing for our students. So, through this event, we wanted to answer any questions they may have,” Yarritu said.

This is the third year the university has opened its doors to the community for Super Saturday. UTRGV’s legacy institutions UT Pan American and UT Brownsville participated in the previous two events.

Before that, the universities offered a similar financial aid and college application drive: College Goal Sunday, a nonprofit program that provides free support and information to families applying for financial assistance to pay for higher education.

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND — Next time you look up in the sky at the beach it might not be a seagull that’s flying by.

Police have added two drones to the public safety department to help monitor the beach from the sky.

With the onslaught of spring breakers onto the Island throughout March, the department decided to incorporate new technology to keep an eye out on areas not normally reached easily.

More than 25,000 college students are expected to visit the Island during Spring Break.

The two drones that will watch are equipped with high-optical lenses with the ability to capture a clear view of the Island from above.

“It’s going to give us a bird’s eye view when we need it,” said Gary Ainsworth, the city of South Padre Island’s public information officer. “It’s a 4K camera, so it’s crystal clear.”

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HARLINGEN — One of Texas’ most powerful office holders will be in town next week for lunch and anyone on the list can eat with him.

It’s not Gov. Greg Abbott, the state’s most visible and vocal official. It’s his second-in-command, Lieutenant Gov. Dan Patrick.

“We invite everybody to come and hear what he has to say and have a chance to meet with him,” said Febe Zepeda, events manager for the Harlingen Area Chamber of Commerce.

Patrick will be the keynote speaker for the Chamber of Commerce’s public affairs luncheon on Wednesday from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The luncheon will take place at Casa de Amistad in Harlingen.

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RAYMONDVILLE —The city’s water plant is pumping out safe drinking water.

And city officials want to make that clear to residents.

“Our water is as good as any water,” City Manager Eleazar Garcia said yesterday. “And the numbers prove it is.”

This week, the city sent residents a notice stating the plant’s water had exceeded the maximum contaminate level for trihalomethanes, or TTHM.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality requires water suppliers to send such notices when TTHM levels rise above the federal standard level of 0.080.

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