NEW PCT. 1 COUNTY WAREHOUSE TO BE DEDICATED FRIDAY

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Anyone who worked for Cameron County or for Precinct One from the late 1960s to as late as 2006, had to have met the late Anastacio Gaitan Guillen.

Guillen, who came from the old Road and Bridge school of county road crew experience, died in 2008. On Friday, Pct. 1 commissioner Sofia Benavides will host a ribbon cutting for the dedication of a new warehouse named in Guillen's honor

In those 40-odd year of working for he county, he established a tradition of hard work, political savvy and a knowledge of the county road system unequaled in Cameron County.

With his trademark baseball cap and stubborn hard-work demeanor, he schooled several generations of county employees under his care.

Now, following the 2001 unanimous dedication by the Cameron County Commissioners’ Court of a resolution naming the new Precinct 1 Public Works Brownsville Warehouse in his honor, a ceremony to do so will be held 10 a.m. Friday (January 25) at the site of the new structure.

The new building is located at 2050 S. Browne Ave., across from the Pedro "Pete" Benavides County Park. Estimated cost of the state-of-the-art structure was approved at $1.357 million.

In his 40-plus years of service to county residents, Guillen served under the following Pct. 1 Commissioners: Tony Tamayo, Johnny Cavazos, Ted Hunt, D.J. Lerma, Lucino Rosenbaum, Pete Benavides and Sofia Benavides.

After retiring, he owned and operated 20 acres of farmland some of which he later developed into Guillen Cemetery on Boca Chica Road just past Browne Road.

He was also a longtime parishioner of Christ the King Catholic Church where he was involved with Valley Interfaith. His name will be affixed to the new building in honor and recognition of his long time service to the residents of Cameron County.

Guillen was born in McNeil, Texas on April 27, 1923. As a young boy his family moved to Valle Hermoso, Tamps., Mexico where he met and married his wife, Angela Chavira, from Olivia, Texas. He and his wife moved to Brownsville more than 50 years ago where they raised their family of 11 children. Many are teachers and professionals of which he would proudly talk about if given a chance.

The new Anastacio Guillen Precinct 1 Public Works Building will be built on a 21-acre tract of land located at the intersection of California and Browne Road.

The building is 9,000 square feet and will house the Precinct #1 Public Works staff. It’s divided into two major functions: an Administrative Area consisting of an entry waiting lobby for visitors, staff offices, a meeting conference room/lounge, and building-mechanical spaces.

The second area is the crew vehicle storage bays which utilize some enclosed storage to protect large equipment, along with a wash bay for these vehicles.

This site also includes a parking area for visitors and employees. It also has a large lay-down area for public works stock materials with plenty of room for expansion.

The building utilizes a steel structure with metal studs and concrete masonry unit
(CMU) walls clad with grey and blue horizontal and vertical metal panels. The exposed steel columns and beams at the crew vehicle bays will be galvanized and have metal panel soffits to finish off the underside of the metal roof structure.

Guillen and the Pct. 1 road crews labored out of the existing Pct.1-Pct. 2 warehouses on 14th Street. But time has taken its toll on the building and the commissioners court passed a bond issue to construct new warehouses for all four precincts. The Pct. 2 warehouse was opened in late 2018 and the dedication was hosted by the former commissioner Alex Dominguez before he took office as the new Texas District 37 State Representative.