SOUTHEAST COUNTY RESIDENTS GET PARK UPGRADE

By Juan Montoya
It started as a vision for a multi-service and recreation center tor extreme southeast Cameron County residents started by the late Pete Benavides, commissioner for precinct 1. The year was 2011.

When Benavides passed away, his successor – and wife Sofia – got behind the project and urged for the issuance of $23.6 million in certificates of obligation for improvements to Browne Park. Using part of the issuance of CO  money, she has overseen the establishment of a service center and splash park for the residents of the area that with temperatures hovering at the triple-digit level could not have come at a better time. Some of that money is currently being used for road widening and improvements in precinct 1 as well as numerous projects countywide.
And, as uses for the money was being considered, Benavides and her staff hit upon the idea of providing a way for kids in the isolated neighborhoods to enjoy the hot summer, a splash park.
"The kids are out there enjoying it," said a resident from the Valle Escondido subdivision. "With the weather the way it's been, the place has been full every day."
The formal ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held Friday, Aug. 15, at the park. Not only will the splash park be inaugurated, but the Bob Clark Social Services Center will also be formally dedicated. Clark was the city chaplain for many years while Benavides was a city commissioner and they were friends. He sometimes performed those duties for county commissioners.
The Commissioners Court issued the $23.6 million in 2011 to improve the toll collection system for the international bridge system, expand the Veterans International Bridge at Los Tomates. They also announced that the money would pay for a number of other projects including the following:

• improvements at the Gateway International Bridge,
• studies for the planned Flor De Mayo Bridge,
• software for the judicial computer system,
• roof renovations at the Detention Center I and Detention Center II and other county buildings,
• terra cotta improvements at the historic courthouse known as the Dancy building,
• improvements to the judicial courthouse,
• air conditioning units or chiller system improvements at the Carrizales-Rucker Detention Center,
• replacing showers at the county jail,
• a chiller system at the Sheriff’s Department,
• improvements to the old county jail,
• renovation of the Lucio Clinic,
• land purchase and construction of a county annex building in Los Fresnos and a community center in Olmito,
• street light improvements,
• improvements at the Pedro “Pete” Benavides County Park and Browne Road Social Service Center,
• road improvements to Primer Road, San Jose Ranch Road, Old Alice Road, Vermillion Road,
• the U.S. Hwy 77 parallel corridor project, and
• purchase of the Pacheco Building, renovations to it and improvements to the Laiseca Store Building.

It didn't happen without a bit of skulldrudgery on the part of some commissioners, though. At the last moment, former county commissioner Ernie Hernandez tried to get at some of the $1.4 million allocated for improvements to the park to go toward an animal shelter in the Olmito or San Benito area. At one time he proposed to change the allocation of the some $1 his million from the $23.6 million, give up his $500,00 allocated for a Olmito Community Center and have Sofia Benavides give up the rest from her $1.4 million allocation for the Pete Benavides Park and Browne Road Social Center improvements.
That center – the cornerstone of years of service from the late commissioner and his widow Sofia to the Southmost community – has been an ongoing project pushed by the entire commissioners court.
On Aug. 15, all the planning and work will be presented to the residents and the taxpayers of Pct. 1 as the finished product.