In bloom

Our citrus trees are in bloom.

Downtown Conway at Dusk

Downhill

Empty Sidewalk

Barber Shop Bench

No Restaurant Customers

Wireless Nerd: Community / Municipal Networks and Classroom Exten...

Wireless Nerd: Community / Municipal Networks and Classroom Exten...: An article got published in our local paper with a few lines I was quoted on regarding citywide wireless access. " Misison to Set...

Oblate Park in Winter

Oblate Park in Mission, Texas

Black and white medium format photo taken on a Diana F+ photo. ISO 400 film.

City of Mission Municipal Wireless In the Works

Mayor Beto Salinas has announced in several instances, the creation of a Municipal Wireless project. Such a project would be a great initial benefit to the community as it would be a great service to citizens who do not have broadband at home. But, as is in most networks of this type, it would likely start off in the business corridor where people shop and eat.

Such a placement makes sense because as a community we want to attract and retain shoppers to our local businesses. Free Wi-Fi in our downtown area would be a great benefit to help boost our local economy. With increased revenues, the City could then slowly expand the project.

Why not start the community wireless in the neighborhoods?

I have experimented in creating community wireless through Mission Wi-Fi, which was an out of pocket project. The project included hotspots in both commercial and residential areas. The results of the experiments are very distinct.

In commercial areas, people connect  to the Wi-Fi for a few minutes here and there on their mobile devices. These included phones and tablets. On occasion, you would see a laptop; but, not too often.

In residential areas, the use of broadband is much more demanding. Once people are in their homes, they are pulling down movies and other high bandwidth services. It severely impacted my own personal quality of service.

Therefore, if the City is going to launch Internet service for the community, it has to start where it has a chance to grow and not be ground down to a crawl while taking its first steps.

Mission has four main business corridors, Conway Avenue, Griffin Parkway, Business 83, and Shary Road. Presumably, these would be the ideal places to light up with Wi-Fi as they offer the best access to broadband service to be injected into the network.

From these four corridors, the City of Mission could slowly expand service into the neighborhoods; but, they do not necessarily have to do it. Projects in Europe, such as Guifi.net and Freifunk.net show that citizens can build their own community networks to bridge the gaps in coverage. In addition, many of the participants in those community networks donate their own personal bandwidth to the community.

Ideally, the City of Mission would create a very local fiber optic network that goes around the city just as Chanute, Kansas has done. Their network serves the same purpose as our city roads, to transport data from point A to point B. The network connects their utilities, schools, and government offices. In addition, they act as a way to carry broadband to businesses by buying bandwidth wholesale and reselling it for a markup that pays for network maintenance. More importantly, Chanute was able to build the network much more affordably on their own than if they had paid service providers to do it for them.

But, all that is a long way off. Mayor Salinas has kicked off what could be the biggest change in our city's history in his last term. We can only hope that his successors can take his vision and run with it.

People Are Always Calling Me About the Mission Hike and Bike Trail

It's funny that I randomly get phone calls to ask about the Mission Hike and Bike Trail. This is fine, I don't mind answering questions. But, it is odd that this is the only thing about Mission that people call to ask about.

I finally asked one of the callers where they got my phone number to call. Apparently, there is some confusion that MissionTexas.net is a city website. Oh, well. In any case, the trails are a great asset to the community.

Mission Easter Egg Hunt

The +Mission Speer Memorial Library will host an Easter Egg Hunt on April 17 at 6 pm. Children in the community up to 5th grade are invited to attend this event. The event is Free to all attendees.

You can request more information by visiting their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/SpeerMemorialLibrary, or calling 580-8750.

Speer Memorial Library Board Meeting Apr 16

The Speer Memorial Library Board of Directors will have their meeting on April 16 at 5 pm in the Speer Memorial Board Room.

We are attempting to get a copy of the agenda, which would be posted here.

One Foggy Morning in Mission, Texas

Business 83 near City Hall

Sometimes, the morning of a hot day, we'll have fog roll into town.

Ribbon Cutting for Style Hub

+The Greater Mission Chamber of Commerce had a ribbon cutting ceremony for a new member, Style Hub, located at 2704 E Griffin Parkway. The event was Friday, July 5, at 5:30 pm.

More photos of the event available on our G+ event post at https://plus.google.com/events/c6gduten6cdd6rqdjortd6tetj0 .

Veterans Memorial HS Students Top in State Math/Science

Veterans Memorial High School students returned from the recent state Texas Math and Science Coaches Association (TMSCA) meet with plenty of awards, including some state champions. The team placed second in the 4A division.

The Calculator Applications team members placed first at this state competition.  The Number Sense team placed second. The Math team placed third. While the Science team placed seventh.

Top placing VMHS 12^th grade students in the Calculator Applications competition include: Juan Moreno, second place; Lisa Lozano, third place; Aaron Tijerina, fourth place; Adrian Perez, ninth place; Gabriel Siegel, tenth place; Kivani Sanchez, fourteenth place.

Top placing 12^th grade students in the Number Sense competition were: Gabriel Siegel, seventh place; Michelle Guajardo, eighth place; Gavin De Leon, fourteenth place.

Top placing 12 graders in the Math competition were: Adrian Perez, seventh place; Lisa Lozano, ninth place; Gabriel Siegel, fifteenth place.

Michelle Guajardo placed seventh in the 12^th grade Science competition.

Matthew Sparks placed first in the 11^th grade Calculator Applications competition and fourteenth in the Math competition.

In the 10^th grade competitions, Darius Davis placed first in Number Sense, third in Math, ninth in Science, and tenth in Calculator Applications. Henry Davis III placed second in Calculator Applications. Noel Barsenas placed eleventh in Science. Juan Ibarra placed twelfth in Calculator Applications.

Top place finishers among the freshmen were: Hector Iglesias, fifth place, Math; Rene Olivarez, ninth place, Science; Feliciano Escobedo, fourteenth place, Number Sense.

Almost half of the students listed for Top Gun honors include: Lisa Lozano, eighth; Michelle Guajardo, ninth; Gabriel Siegel, tenth; Adrian Perez, eleventh; Juan Moreno, twelfth; Aaron Tijerina, fifteenth. The Top Gun honors ranks competitors against the others in their grade level in all four events.

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Contact: Craig Verley, Director of Public Relations and Marketing 
Office: 956-323-5530 • Fax: 956-323-8103 • cverley@mcisd.org

Upper Valley Art League Ribbon Cutting

The Upper Valley Art League is celebrating the opening of their new building, called the Art Link. +The Greater Mission Chamber of Commerce will lead the ribbon cutting on Friday, March 29 at 6 pm. The community is invited to attend.

The Upper Valley Art League is located next to the library. The address is 921 E 12th St in Mission.

Facebook - Event
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Flores Dental Care Ribbon Cutting

The Flores Dental Care office by Dr. Sylvia Flores held a ribbon cutting on March 27 with +The Greater Mission Chamber of Commerce and other community leaders in attendance.

The clinic is located at 1506 E Griffin Pkwy, Suite D.

Photos

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Google

Mission Chamber of Commerce: After Hours Mixer

+The Greater Mission Chamber of Commerce is hosting their monthly After Hours Mixer tonight at 5:30 at Sharyland Wine & Spirits. The mixer is a an opportunity for both Chamber members and non-members to meet and network.

Why would you attend something like this? Typically, it is difficult to find a business owner or decision maker for a business. You have to deal with a gatekeeper who will "pass on" your pitch to the boss. At the mixers, the boss is there. You have an opportunity to meet the very people you work so hard to meet.

You can find more details about the event on Facebook.

Mission Historical Museum Improvements Groundbreaking

There was a groundbreaking for the Mission Historical Museum this morning at 10 am. The groundbreaking was for improvements to beautify the area around the museum and make it a center of community interest.

Pictures from Mission's Annual Winter Fiesta 2013

The Mission community hosts an annual Winter Fiesta to thank Winter Texans for spending their winters in our community. The Fiesta is a collaboration of the City of Mission and the +The Greater Mission Chamber of Commerce, supported by local sponsors.

The event provides a free lunch, entertainment, and a chance to meet local vendors.

Mission City Leaders Recognize City Manager Julio Cerda

Yesterday evening, leaders of the Mission, Texas community gathered at the Norberto Salinas Conference Center, located in the Greater Mission Chamber of Commerce, to honor City Manager, Julio Cerda. The crowded event was to thank Mr. Cerda for his eight years of service to the City of Mission.

Mr. Cerda will be leaving the employ of the City of Mission to return to his career as an Engineer. He first began working for the city after meeting Mayor Salinas at an event at a time when the city was having engineering problems. Mayor Salinas hired Mr. Cerda as City Engineer, where he distinguished himself with the ability to get to the grain of a problem and resolve it.

Circumstances eventually led to Mayor Salinas asking Mr. Cerda to fill in as interim City Manager. He has had that post since then.

This was Julio Cerda's last week as City Manager before going into private practice. The city council has chosen Police Chief Martin Garza to assume the City Manager post. Both men are good friends; therefore a smooth transition is expected.

Video Slideshow of the 2013 Texas Citrus Fiesta Parade of Oranges

Trying out Youtube's photo slideshow creator with images from the Texas Citrus Fiesta Parade of Oranges.

Photo Slideshow of Mission Day in Austin

Leaders from the Mission, Texas community headed to Austin very early on Tuesday morning to participate in Mission Day in Austin, which occurs every two years when the Texas Legislature is in session.

The day began with having resolutions passed in the House of Representatives and the Senate recognizing the day as Mission Day at the capitol. The delegation also met with Governor Rick Perry and Lt. Governor David Dewhurst. After a quick lunch, the group set out to meet with key legislators to discuss the legislative agenda for our city. The evening ended with a reception to give officials, staffers, and the delegation more time to discuss issues.

The Agenda

The three major issues of note in this legislative session are infrastructure, elections, and the UTPA/UTB merger.

The delegation saught support for improving and modernizing our road infrastructure to better enable our community to deal with increased trade and population growth. The Anzalduas International Bridge currently only allows passenger traffic; however, if truck traffic is opened up, our roads need to be able to deal with the heavy loads and find a way to move that traffic efficiently.

Addressing an election quirk that requires home rule cities to hold full-blown elections for City Council when a seat is left vacant. The City of Mission would prefer to leave the position vacant or have the ability to appoint somebody to that place, thus saving tax payers the cost of running a full election.

The University of Texas - Pan American and University of Texas - Brownsville merger is a topic of much discussion locally and at the Capitol. Governor Perry's State of the State speech at the inauguration (see +Office of the Governor of Texas) brought the issue to the forefront. Merging the two universities would make the new entity eligible to receive money from the Permanent University Fund, which makes expansion of the new entity much easier. Of particular interest is the possibility of attaching a medical school to the new UT school. 

There was no consensus among members as to whether a medical school would happen this legislative session. Creating a new University is almost certain; however, anything beyond that may consist of laying groundwork for the medical school without creating it outright. The delegation would prefer that if a medical school is added to the new University, that it should be based out of Hidalgo County. 

A Successful Effort

One particular success of this Mission Day in Austin was the draw of several elected officials and their staff to the reception. Given the variety of concurrent events, late committee hearings, and a host of other scheduling challenges, it is rare to have as much as a handful of Representatives and Senators attending. This year, the function was attended by Mission's own State Representative Sergio Muñoz, Jr and State Senator Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa. The event was also honored to have State Senator Eddie Lucio and State Representatives Rene Oliveira, Eddie Lucio, III, Terry Canales, Bobby Guerra, and Oscar Longoria. This is in addition to our Mayor Norberto Salinas and City Council members Ruben Plata and Armando O'Caña.

Overall, the Mission delegation had excellent access to the people who will make the decisions that affect our community. 

Below is a slideshow of Mission Day in Austin.

Mission Day in Austin - 83rd Legislative Session

Leaders from the Mission, Texas community have formed a delegation to go to the Texas Capitol to advocate for our community on Tuesday, February 19, 2013. The delegation expects a full day of work this Tuesday.

There will be some ceremonial activities, such as having a Mission Day Proclamation in the Texas House of Representatives, and group photos with key state leaders.

The most important component of Mission Day will consist of visits to more than 50 offices of state representatives to advocate for issues that affect our city and region.

A successful visit will result in the Texas House of Representatives passing legislation that is beneficial to local businesses and government so that we can continue to prosper. Or, alternatively, would help our community avoid legislation that would hurt our community.

The Mission Day in Austin Legislative Outreach Delegation will spend a full day advocating for our community on Tuesday and getting some rest before coming home the next morning.