During the city council meeting last Tuesday, Mayor Richard Molina announced the “Hometown of Heroes Marathon” and signed two proclamations recognizing March 2021 as “National Nutrition Month” and “Colorectal Awareness Month”.
Mayor Molina opened the floor with a report mentioning Governor Abbott’s recent resignation from the nationwide mask mandate.
“The city is reviewing the governor’s most recent order and lifting certain COVID restrictions and awaiting further expected instructions from the state and county,” Mayor Molina said. The city will continue to follow state laws and update residents and businesses as the city waits for new details.
The city of Edinburgh launched Active Edinburgh in December 2020 and participated in the It’s Time Texas Community Challenge. Since then it has been in 3rd place in the national ranking.
“We look forward to continuing the year-round Edinburgh initiative as we expand our new state-of-the-art leisure facilities and parks while promoting community events focused on health and fitness,” said the Mayor.
Mayor Molina announced that Edinburgh would host the first Hometown of Heroes Marathon on March 14th. The personal half marathon offers participants a face mask, t-shirt, chip timing, and finisher medal for a $ 50 registration fee. As of Tuesday, over 200 people are registered for the event.
After mentioning the absence of Councilor Jeorge Salinas and Mayor ProTem Gilbert Enriquez, the Council continued the meeting. The agenda included resolutions, offers, inquiries about economic developments, deviations and public hearings.
While most of the items on the agenda were approved, two were not.
During the examination of the deviation request to the Unified Development Code for the Border Town Subdivision No. 3, an application was made to reject and submit the deviation. The 2-1 vote and lack of unanimity killed the point.
An application from Gustavo Montemayor of Neighborhood Conservation 7.1 (NC7.1) to the Urban Residential (UR) district was not accepted by the council and was tabled instead.
Joshua Montemayor, son of Montemayor, stood on the podium.
“I’m here to rearrange the two and a half lots,” said Joshua. “We are trying to place a few maisonettes there. Five years ago we did it on two vacant lots outside of Van Week, changed it to apartment buildings, and we were able to do it again a year and a half ago, and we hope to do the same this time. “
Councilor David White took the time to address the matter.
“We have staff who recommend rejection,” Councilor White said. “We can either disapprove of it or nothing else, we still need the four fifths.”
“Even if we all voted for it, it wouldn’t happen,” said Mayor Molina.
“We couldn’t change what our PNZ had already said. I would like to elaborate on it, I like what you are doing, but it would be a waste of time for everyone at this meeting, ”said Councilman White.
After the final item on the agenda was approved, City Manager Ron Garza declared the Hometown of Heroes marathon to talk about the event.
“The name Hometown of Heroes came from the fact that Edinburgh is rich in history with hometown heroes [and] Congress Prize Winner, ”said Garza. “We think of traditional heroes, but we also have many, many community heroes.”
The city will dedicate the 13-mile run to 13 local heroes, all nominated by the Council members, the 10K Advisory Board, the Department of Parks and Recreation, the Advisory Committee on Parks and Recs, and Edinburgh City officials.
The nominated winners are Dr. Marissa Gomez-Martinez, MD; Abel Garcia, nurse at DHR Health; Angelica Garcia, member of the Rosie the Riveter Brigade; Raul Gracia, Edinburgh City Police Chief; Dr. Ben Garza; the Justice of the Edinburgh City Court, Terry Palacios; former Hidalgo District Attorney-elect Ricardo Rodriguez; the late Omero Cano, former director of Austin Elementary; Cathrine Cavazos Caven by Hargill; Ramos C. “Mr. Baseball ”Cantu; Superintendent Jose Luis Salinas; and Edinburg Fire Chief Shawn Snyder.
Award winner names will be placed on markers for each of the 13 miles that award winner families can take home after the event.
Two health-related proclamations were noted and signed by Mayor Molina.
The first applied for March to be recognized as a “National Nutrition Month,” as directed by the Texas Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics in the Rio Grande Valley.
The annual campaign encourages the community to develop beneficial eating habits for physical activity. This year’s theme is “Personalize Your Plate”.
The second proclamation comes from the DHR Health Advanced Care Center to recognize March 2021 as Colon Cancer Awareness Month.
According to the proclamation, the national goal is that people aged 50 and over are regularly screened. Depending on the illness, however, younger people can also be affected. This is to provide information for the early detection and prevention of cancer. Mayor Molina declared March 5th to be “Dress in Blue Day” to raise awareness of colon cancer.
“I encourage everyone to dress in blue,” said Mayor Molina.
Mayor Molina adopted both proclamations.
The meeting was adjourned after the Edinburgh Police discussed the annual report on officer-initiated contact details and presented the report on the collection of delinquent taxes for the period October 2020 to December 2020.
