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PUMPING IRON Four Lady Hawks take powerlifting medals
MARCH 28,2009
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High bid gets contract 2 get medals By TARYN WHITE THE ZAPATA TIMES
Beating out lowest bidder, Coastal Resources, Zapata County Commissioners Court voted Friday to hire Hoover Construction to expand the county landfill on U.S. 83, two miles south of San Ygnacio. “Based on our history with Coastal Resources we decided to go with Hoover instead,” said Pct. 3 Commissioner Joseph Rathmell. Coastal Resources offered to expand the landfill for $499,237 where as Hoover’s bid was $536,082.
The county will pay for the expansion with allocated funds from the fund balance. Currently contracted by the county, Coastal Resources was hired last year to repave a number of streets in precinct 3 and precinct 4. According to Mike Mendez, owner of Coastal Resources, a variety of small problems arose that have prevented finishing the project on time. Originally scheduled to be complete in August 2008, the project still hasn’t been finished. Mendez specifically cited a water main, which had to be moved. “I have been involved in the steps of con-
struction and there have been some little problems,” Rathmell said. “But the project should have been done by now.” During a special called meeting on Friday, Mendez attempted to reassure the commissioners that if hired, Coastal Construction will get the job done. “Yes, we do have some fault, but not all,” Mendez said about Coastal’s delay in finishing the road paving project. “We have dozers and scrapers ready to get on the (landfill expansion) project and finish it on time.” But, unconvinced, the court unanimously
See COUNTY | PAGE 12A
SAVING A PIECE OF HISTORY
at state meet SPECIAL TO THE TIMES
Two members of Zapata High School’s UIL Cross-Examination Debate team reached the Octofinals at the 2009 3A State C-X Debate Meet meet in Austin on March 16-17. Ediel Bernal and Alexandra Harsacky were the octofinalists. The state meet in Austin is the largest debate meet in the nation. At Austin, the 56 teams from 3A each debated four rounds on Monday, March 16. From those rounds, the top 16 teams (based on win-loss record and individual speaker points) advanced to compete the next day in the Octofinal Round, the first of four elimination rounds held that day. Bernal and Harsacky were included in those 16 teams that “broke” to the second day of competition. Zapata High restarted its debate team three years ago. Team members watched the quarterfinal and final rounds, and
See DEBATE | PAGE 12A
Courtesy photo
Ediel Bernal and Alexandra Harsacky are shown after receiving their medals at the 3A State C-X Debate Meet in Austin earlier this month.
Gun smuggling draws 4 years By JUAN A. LOZANO ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo by Cuate Santos | The Zapata Times
Frank Briscoe, who has worked on several restoration projects, stands near a door inside the Treviño Fort in San Ygnacio, his latest project.
Grant helps Fort Treviño with facelift By ERIKA LAMBRETON THE ZAPATA TIMES
ne of the most historic structures in San Ygnacio, Fort Treviño, once on the verge of complete disarray, is now being preserved. The Texas Historic Commission awarded a special grant to the River Pierce Foundation. The foundation reached out to stonemason Brian Ash and architectural conservator Frank Briscoe, to name a few, to revive a fort that once represented the thriving ranch culture in South Texas. “We are stabilizing the structure,” Briscoe said, adding the earliest building in San Ygnacio was a wonderful complex that stretched about half a city block. The complex is comprised of several structures that were added to the original fortified domicile. “Some of these buildings were in a dangerous conditions,” Briscoe said. The overall goal of the project is to rehabilitate and restore the building without diminishing its authenticity and character through insensitive repair. Briscoe said the structure is very important to San Ygnacio. “It is so original, authentic … and not too many interventions (have been done in the past), so our work was to stabilize the building without affecting the authenticity of the building,” he
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Masons have worked on the exterior walls of the historic Fort Treviño in San Ygnacio.
Ferank Briscoe works on the entrance to Fort Treviño in San Ygnacio on Thursday afternoon.
See FORT | PAGE 12A
HOUSTON — A Houston man who says he fears for his family’s safety after working for an organization that bought militarystyle firearms that ended up with drug traffickers in Mexico was sentenced to nearly four years in prison on Friday. Prosecutors say Juan Pablo Gutierrez was one of 23 people who purchased 339 weapons in a 15-month period. At least 40 of these weapons have been recovered in Mexico and three have been found in Guatemala, according to court documents. “He was arming an infantry squad,” prosecutor Mark White told U.S. District Judge Gray Miller. “He wasn’t just arming local street thugs. This defendant was doing something a lot more serious.”
The 24-year-old pleaded guilty in January to eight counts of making false statements to a federal firearms licensee, claiming he was buying the weapons for himself. White said Gutierrez refused to identify his customers. But prosecutors suspect Gutierrez was purchasing the guns for a cousin, and White said Gutierrez has a cousin whose father-in-law is Osiel CardenasGuillen. The drug kingpin was extradited in 2007 from Mexico to Texas and is set to be tried in Houston in September. After the court hearing, White declined to say if he knew whether the guns were purchased for Cardenas-Guillen’s son-in-law. “He’s scared of the people that got him into this. That’s why he
See GUNS | PAGE 12A
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL RECOGNITION
Photo by Marlen Guerra | Special to the Times
Arturo L. Benavides Elementary School in San Ygnacio recently honored its Teacher of the Year and Instructional Assistant of the Year. Standing left to right, back row, are teachers Ana Ruiz,Anna Gutierrez and Marlen Guerra; Principal Gerardo D. Montes and teachers Guadalupe Hughes,Lety Muñoz,Irasema Gutierrez,Yolanda Solis and Rebecca Gonzalez. Sitting, left to right, are Sergio Perez, the ALBES Teacher of the Year; and Margarita Villarreal, the ALBES Instructional Assistant of the Year. Perez,who lives in Laredo and commutes to Zapata every day,is a first-year teacher at ALBES.He’s the school’s coach and also co-teaches second, third, fourth and fifth grades.Villarral is the firstgrade instructional assistant. She’s from San Ygnacio.