HUDSON ELEM.: THE CHANGE ORDER FINALLY COMES DUE

By Juan Montoya
In 1997, when the Brownsville Independent School Board was considering building a new school off FM 802, local developer William "Bill" Hudson generously donated two tracts of land next to the Havenwood development and smack in the middle of property where he was building his other housing subdivisions.
His aunt, Carolyn Firestone, agreed to give the school district $40,000 for technology in the school.

The school was built the next year at a cost of $5.1 million.

School board members at the time hailed Hudson as a philanthropist who should be emulated by other developers in the city and voted to name the school Hubert R. Hudson Elementary after Bill's father and grandfather.

Board members of the time, Margaret Cowan, Elia Cornejo Lopez, Joe L. Lopez, Joe Colunga, Carlos Gonzalez, Herman Otis Powers, and Mike Saldana, all praised Hudson as an asset to the city and as a man as great, if not greater, than his ancestors.
That was then.
Today, residents along Seville Blvd. leading to the school say the bottled up school at the dead end of a cul-de-sac presents daily headaches as they attempt to enter or leave their homes during the morning and afternoon rush hours.

"People are in a hurry to drop their kids off or pick them up and pretend they don't see us trying to get in or out of our street. They won't allow us to get into our homes," said an irate resident of Concordia Street. "A lot of them know they are blocking the streets and intersections but they just look straight ahead and do it anyway. Some are just downright rude."

It has got to the point where residents have called on Brownsville Police Department officers to
control traffic during peak hours. With parents picking up and dropping off their kids and the school buses lumbering into Seville Blvd. and onto FM 802, it's all they can do to keep traffic moving.

"It's annoying to us who live here," said a resident. "I hate to think what would happen if there was a medical emergency in one of these subdivisions along Seville or if a fire broke out in the school. Instead of an annoyance, we have a potential tragedy waiting to happen. Surely, something can be done between the school board and the city. "

Hudson's principal Loretta Dickinson, after meeting with parents and local residents at a principal's coffee, urged residents with children at the school than " in order to control the flow of the traffic and expidite the student dismissal procedure we ask for your assistance by not blocking streets and intersections."

Some residents say the way in which the school was built and approved by the former board virtually assured that the congestion and dangerous conditions that exist today would materialize.

"Since when do you approve a school with only one entrance and exit?" asked one. "Hudson's made his millions from his subdivisions and we're stuck with the hazardous conditions for the neighborhood and the students at the school."

BISD boards after the one that approved the school's construction apparently had already encountered and attempted to solve the problem.

One, who asked not to be named, said that the district had addressed the issue by buying a home at the rear of Hudson along Draper Drive leading to Coffeeport Road. That property at 115 Draper Drive was bought by the district, the former board member said. But when the board contacted Hudson and other residents to acquire the easement, negotiations broke down because the proposed thoroughfare would go through a small green space (Hudson's) and would increase the traffic in the neighborhood to the rear of the school.

"So now we allow a dangerous situation to continue because Hudson and some residents behind the school don't want to be bothered by the traffic," said the resident. "What if it was one of his relatives who needed an ambulance in an emergency or one of his kids caught in a fire? Would he still be against it?"

Children from Hudson already use the foot trail leading from behind the school to Coffeeport and the district has built an asphalt driveway for them to walk onto Draper Drive. However, the path is not wide enough for a vehicle, emergency or otherwise, to negotiate.

With the district strapped for cash in the current budget crisis, current school board members don't relish the thought of spending more money to build a street from Hudson onto Draper. But unless something is done, say the residents, the situation could turn deadly in case of an emergency.

"Was the design of this school made with the idea that sooner or later the school district would have to make some change orders that would increase the cost of the project and line someone's pockets like at Manzano and Keller off Alton Gloor?" asked one. "They had to buy two houses there and build driveways as well. Haven't we learned anything?"