Imagine, you are in the ring with four other contenders. All good people fighting fiercely to serve the residents of McAllen. It was a good electoral race. However, Villalobos gets to lead the city and make it better.
Just like former mayor Jim Darling, Villalobos has been interviewed by national broadcasters putting the name of McAllen on the world’s stage.
When he won the mayoral election, he was interviewed by Varney & Co. of FOX Business. Varney said, “Now I have with me, Javier Villalobos, who just became the first Republican elected mayor of McAllen, Texas. And he joins me now.”
Villalobos responded by saying, “Hispanics generally are very conservative, for generations or historically, they have been voting Democrat. However, this was a non-partisan election. We had support from Republicans, Democrats, independents, libertarians, and we set forth a conservative agenda about taxation, and being pro-business, and always, always trying to make sure about spending. That’s something we kept on repeating.” In this issue, get to know more about McAllen’s new mayor.
Great celebration. The Edinburg Chamber of Commerce announced in early June 2021 the Museum of South Texas History as its June Member of the Month. The chamber celebrated this achievement and the museum’s 50th Anniversary during a mixer on June 16.
Do you still remember the freeze? Governor Greg Abbott signed Senate Bills 2 and 3 into law to reform the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and weatherize and improve the reliability of the state’s power grid. Governor Abbott made ERCOT reform and weatherization of the power system emergency items this past session. The Governor was joined for the bill signing by Representative Chris Paddie and Senators Kelly Hancock and Charles Schwertner. I hope we never again lose power like we did during the freeze.
South Texas College is doing great things. Following a decision by the South Texas College Board of Trustees on Tuesday, the 3,488 students with unpaid balances from recent semesters will now have their debt burden to the college eliminated, paid on their behalf through the use of pandemic relief funds.
Trustees approved the discharge of student debt incurred during the Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 terms.
At their regular meeting on June 22, the STC Board approved utilizing the college’s portion of institutional funding from the U.S. Department of Education’s Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) to discharge over $1.9 million in outstanding student balances. Big applause!
According to Ruben Sanchez, owner of Colair, COVID-19 affected all HVAC manufacturers in one way or another. Some manufacturers were hit earlier than others due to outbreaks in their facilities, forcing them to abide by CDC regulations and shut down for two weeks at a time.
All of this slowed down production to a near halt. Learn more in this issue.
Enjoy!
