What will 2009 bring?

Local leaders hope to increase recycling rates, install street lights in colonias and promote awareness of the arts in the Rio Grande Valley.

Those goals — among many others — are at the top of the local leaders' priority lists for 2009.

The Monitor asked experts in government, education, the arts and other fields what their organizations achieved in 2008 and what they hope to accomplish in 2009. (Click here to view themonitor.com's most-viewed stories of 2008)

Their responses indicated an awareness of the difficult financial times the county and region face — but also optimism
for 2009.

Shan Rankin
Museum of South Texas History director

"I guess our biggest accomplishment was to complete the construction projects we've had ongoing at the museum non-stop for 10 years. In September 2008, we opened the park. Then came the centennial — the community had a week-long celebration. In the course of six weeks we had five major events.

For 2009 ... we're getting back to the meat of what goes on inside the institution: providing the best service and experience to the community and the visitors to our area. In today's economic climate, we want to make sure that we're doing everything to make the community feel we're an investment worth making."

Ouina Rutledge
Renewable resources manager, City of McAllen

"We organized and put on the first Green Living Festival, along with the Chamber of Commerce. We're taking vegetative waste from grocery stores and composting that. And we've increased our recycling rate to 16 percent.

Our goal for 2009 is to increase our recycling rate to hopefully 20 percent, with the inclusion of glass recycling — both residential and commercial collection. In an economic downturn, it pays to recycle. We're looking for ways to hold down costs so the city doesn't have to raise taxes or garbage rates. The more people who recycle correctly, the longer we can hold rates down."

Richard Cortez
McAllen mayor

"One of the goals is always to generate sufficient revenues to cover our operating expenses and our debt. We were able to give increases to our employees and continue our infrastructure improvements to better our drainage and traffic. The big one to me was the accomplishment of our business plan. The efforts of the business plan tell us at the end of the day, what we want to do is attract human capital to McAllen.

Going forward, we as a community have to be very careful. We've always been fiscally responsible. Now, more than in the past, we're heading into areas we haven't been in before. I'm very pleased where McAllen is positioned to deal with this slowing economy. I'm proud we'll be able to (use) the slowdown in the economy to grow and expand McAllen because I think we're doing things to make McAllen more attractive and desirable."

Juanita Valdez
Executive director, LUPE (La Union del Pueblo Entero)

"There were so many different events we held to bring to light the fact that immigrants are here to work and contribute to this country. That's one thing LUPE will always be known for.

Throughout the year we've been meeting with County Judge J.D. Salinas and the planning department. Very soon we're going to have street lights in colonias. This is going to be from El Paso to Brownsville. There was one bill in 2005 and another in 2007 that gave authority to the counties to be in charge of the installation.

We'll continue to work with the new administration on immigration reform. We need to put an end to the raids."

Dr. Shirley Reed
South Texas College president

"Our biggest accomplishment was receiving the MetLife Foundation award. For us, that is quite an achievement to be nationally recognized as really one of the best community colleges in the country — there are almost 1,200 community colleges.

For 2009, we're very focused on a new campus development master plan for the year 2020. We hope to have it pretty much wrapped up by the summer of 2009. All our research is indicating STC could be as large as 40,000 students by 2020. As students change dramatically... were going to have to find very different ways of responding to the needs of students."

Mayra Brown
Art House gallery owner and McAllen Art Walk organizer

"The arts in McAllen are on their way. (Art Walk) started with six venues and 400 people. Now it's 26 venues and 4,000 people in five years. 2008 was a great year — we've had more venues than ever.

In the works for 2009 is the opening of the Art Village, Alonzo Cantu's project. We're looking ... for the city to install permanent lights. We're hoping to see more businesses open with success. It's a tough business in tough times. We're giving to the community, so we're hoping the community gives back to us. Without the venues, the artists and the art, we wouldn't have Art Walk."

Bill Summers
Rio Grande Valley Partnership president and CEO

"We hope that one of the things that happens in 2009 is that we get a car manufacturer in the Valley. That will lead to other things. It's a win for the whole Valley — not just one area of the Valley.

One thing we're going to work on is in January bringing state legislators to the Valley. We're going to push for a medical school in the Rio Grande Valley. We need some funds for a desalinization plant. We're pushing for the veterans' hospital. We are going to show them the wall and tell them our side of the story."

Daniel King
Pharr-San Juan-Alamo school district superintendent

"Overall, I'm pleased that 2008 was a year of solid academic progress for PSJA. We increased the number of recognized and exemplary campuses (17 and 5, respectively). We had student achievement gains in all subject areas. One of the biggest things is we cut the dropout rate in half. And we increased the number of graduates by 37 percent.

In 2009, we want to mostly continue on the same track. Hopefully we'll cut the dropout rates significantly again. We need to focus on the performance of Limited English Proficiency students for (accountability) purposes. We hope to continue to increase our graduation rate. It's good to have the expectations up there."

Becky Guerra
Patio on Guerra owner and Heart of the City treasurer

"I'm excited with what's happening on 17th Street. I think you're going to see it become a true Sixth Street like in Austin. The community embraces the nostalgia of coming back downtown.

I think (in 2009) you'll see more development by the city, and more beautification downtown. I think you'll see coordination with shutting some areas of some streets down and maybe implementing a trolley or shuttle system from the parking garage to areas of interest. I'm very pleased with the venues that have opened. I think in 2008, so much was done ... I think all of that has been a great indicator of what's in store."

Lupe Treviño
Hidalgo County sheriff

"We finally got approval for architectural plans for our two substations. They're free standing, fully functional sheriff's offices in the east and west. It puts us right in the middle of things. We already have financing. We're hoping to break ground in the near future.

I also want to create a violent crime impact unit. Homicides were up tremendously this year. Kidnappings are also going to be up. This is one of the problems with policing strategies. Once we solve the problem, we pull out. We'll be developing intelligence on the violent criminals that frequent these areas. It's been proven the same small number of people is responsible for a large number of crimes. The bottom line is we need to put more boots on the ground and we need to keep them there. We can saturate an area and keep them there after a long period of time, identify the bad guys and stay on them. It's going to have a tremendous impact on our crime rate."

Terri Drefke
Rio Grande Valley Food Bank executive director

"Certainly, it was a challenge trying to have enough food and work enough hours to reach all the needs out there (after Hurricane Dolly). We're grateful our building wasn't damaged. We distributed a million pounds of food in two weeks, which is double the normal amount. My guys in the warehouse worked a lot of hours without complaining."

The food bank is preparing to move into a new building in Pharr next year.

"At this point, I'd venture to guess it's fall 2009. We have a staff of 40. That will be a major undertaking moving them in. We have a hunger study kicking off in February. We're interviewing actual clients to get a better look at who is hungry and who our clients are. It gives us a snapshot of hunger in the Rio Grande Valley."

Virginia Townsend
OWLS watchdog group spokeswoman

"The county has never had this much money before. What we want to do is keep an eye on that taxpayer money. I want them to be careful with this money more than usual.

Everybody thinks we have power. We don't have power. We have tenacity. We're there every week asking questions."

J.D. Salinas
Hidalgo County Judge

"For 2008, our biggest accomplishment was we had the second balanced budget ever in the county. We were happy we had a $26 million fund balance — the rainy day fund. We're proud of our fiscal shape. We're glad we helped build 26 miles of the levies. The prescription discount card was a highlight of 2008.

For 2009 we want to expand on the health front. We want to see if the eight county clinics can be used for primary care so we can avoid emergency rooms being filled with primary care issues. There's no law that says we can do this. We need a legislative fix to make it clear.

We want to do our performance review, where we look at the county in the mirror and see where we can tighten our belts. Even though we haven't been hit hard by the economy, we need to prepare now and look at where we can save money."

Peter Dabrowski
Valley Symphony Orchestra Music Director and Conductor

"On Dec. 9, we had the biggest concert ever in our history at the new convention center. We played to a sold-out house, to a tune of 2,600 people. That has never happened before in our history. I hope they felt they were at the most cosmopolitan, most cultural event there is.

I think my biggest goal is to make everybody realize that in times of crisis... when a lot of things are devaluating, when nobody knows what's happening, the most important thing for society is the arts and especially music. We are not about banks and houses. We are people because of the arts. Everything is devaluating, but Beethoven doesn't. It's been around for almost 200 years and it's still kicking."

Aaron Peña
State representative, District 40

"The best legislative accomplishment I can point to that's had a personal impact on me is the creation of the drug treatment center. It's the reason I ran for office. (Peña's 16-year-old son died May 18, 2001, of a drug overdose). I made a commitment to try to bring meaning to an ugly chapter of my life. When we were able to accomplish that, it had great personal meaning to me. Even though it was only $3 million — and other accomplishments were hundreds of millions of dollars — it had a special place in my heart as far as satisfying this promise I made.

In general the goal is to continue the success we had from the last session, to keep the Valley growing and finally get our share of government resources. We really hit a grand slam last session. I'd like to continue that success. Specifically, I filed the bill to create a medical school. We need to continue being at the head of the game."

Serena Rosenkrantz
International Museum of Art & Science executive director

"I think our greatest accomplishment is our accreditation with the American Association of Museums about two weeks ago. It's something the museum undergoes every 10 years toward ensuring we're practicing the highest ethics and standards in the industry. There was also the acquisition of Science on a Sphere, the first science exhibit we've been able to purchase in more than eight years.

We're continuing to offer dynamic children's program. One program we're pleased to announce ... is an exhibit called Grossology — how many germs are in a sneeze and things like that. It's what the kids love. That will be coming in late January for three months.
We're also continuing to expand our partnerships with Mexico. That will give opportunities for artists to have shows in Mexico. It helps provide exposure and a sense of place for those folks.

Brenda Nettles Riojas
Diocese of Brownsville director of diocesan relations

"What sticks out is all the work Catholic Charities did to assist more than 120,000 hurricane victims after Hurricane Dolly hit the Valley. They opened up five sites. They were able to coordinate with other relief agencies to provide assistance and are continuing to help people reconstruct their homes — especially those who don't have insurance.

One of our top goals in 2009 is to expand our evangelization efforts by increasing our channels of communication. This includes the launching of 24-hour Catholic television and radio stations and publishing a monthly newspaper, as well as utilizing the Internet for proclaiming the Gospel."

Ryan Holeywell covers McAllen, PSJA, the Mid-Valley and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4446.