This month, Democrat and Chronicle reporters and editors arespending time in the fourthlocation forourmobile newsroom initiative, in the David F. Gantt Recreation Center. The project is taking our reporting team into communitiesin the north-east and north-west of the city. The new commitmentis intended to help ensure the news and information from the Democrat and Chroniclemore closely meetsthe needs of under served communitiesand to open up ways to reach new readers.

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Theconversations have led to range of new stories including a guide to delicious affordable eats in the northeast, a celebration of the life and the ministry of Rev. Norma Ortiz and,an in-depth look at the long-awaited La Marketa development on North Clinton;set against a backdrop of urgent community action to address dangerous activity driven by the opioid crisis.

More: News you can use: D&C news staff will be all ears at mobile newsrooms across the community

Now we're building on that communityengagement and getting ready to launch another service for readers, by creating conversations with readers through atextmessaging systemcalled Groundsource.

Groundsource is new way to deliver text based news to underserved communities(Photo: Matthew Leonard)

In much of Rochester, internet access remains elusive for many lower-income households and the affordability of unlimited talk and text mobile plans mean they're an important tool for many families.This accessibletechnology can be seenin markets across the country delivering readers information ontopics like affordable housing, employment andeducation. In Detroit, for example, one outlet calledOutlier Mediastarted outletting people know if their rental home is at risk of being sold to recover back taxes owed by their landlord. In Oakland CA, a Spanish-language news service El Tmpano began to foster more civic engagement among Latino immigrants there through a listening tour to better understand the needs of community.

In the spirit of news your can really use, one of the first services for readers who opt into theDemocrat and Chronicle's text delivery systemwill be a job newsletter containing employmenttips and opportunities.

We're also looking for community input on what informationpeople could most use.

Democrat and Chronicle(Photo: Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

Read or Share this story: https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2020/02/05/text-messaging-news-service-launching-meet-needs-underserved-rochester-communities/4333734002/

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Get job tips and opportunities, other news you can use with our text-based information system - Democrat & Chronicle

Editors note: This story originally appeared in the current edition of the Roaring Fork Weekly Journal, an Aspen Daily News sister publication.

Brightly colored and teeming with life, the residences of the Roaring Fork Mobile Home Park sit atop prime real estate, just across the Roaring Fork River from downtown Basalt. Seen by everyone who walks across the bridge by 7-11 or drives into town through the roundabout, theyre about as integral a part of Basalt as youll find.

Except that theyre not. If you look at a map showing the towns oddly shaped boundaries, youll see that theres an island of unincorporated land lying in Pitkin and Eagle counties right near the middle of the largest of the three barely connected blobs that make up Basalt. Thats the RFMHP. It means that the parks residents, though they literally live within Basalt, arent Basalt voters and cant serve on town council or some committees, such as Planning and Zoning.

Look more closely at the map and youll see that the middle blobs western border also makes a conspicuous detour around another mobile home community called Homestead Park. Clearly a part of Basalts desirable Old Town neighborhood, its residents nevertheless live in Eagle County, as do the residents of the Aspen Basalt Mobile Home Park, which sits in an island in the westernmost Basalt blob, adjacent to Willits.

Thats how a town wherein roughly 50 percent of the students in the public schools are Latino can have an official demographic makeup of 86 percent white and just 16 percent Latino, and it gets to the heart of a longstanding issue in town: Though there is a sizable Latino population in the area, there are very few Latinos in leadership positions helping to ensure that all perspectives and communities are given a voice in local doings.

Given the strange contouring of Basalts town limits, it might seem like one step in alleviating the problem might be to talk to the owners of the mobile home parks where the residents are largely Latino about annexation into the town, but that could mean bad news, according to Basalt Mayor Jacque Whitsitt.

If you want those people to be protected and have a roof over their heads leave them alone, she said. What do you think happens when a trailer park is annexed? For an annexation to happen the landowner has to voluntarily ask for it. The reason a property owner with a trailer park asks to be annexed is because they want to kick all those people out and put a ton of development there. Thats, Im gonna say, 99.9 percent of the time.

As if to prove Whitsitts point, just downriver from the RFMHP sits the still-unfinished Pan & Fork parcel, where longtime mobile home park residents were uprooted to make way for a river park and considerable commercial and residential development. Though the circumstances are slightly different, the RFMHP, like the erstwhile Pan & Fork park, sits in a flood plain and would seem a prime candidate for redevelopment for safety and economic reasons.

Fortunately, said Whitsitt, thats less likely to happen if the mobile home parks continue to not be a part of town.

Those people are protected, she said. Nothing will happen to them. They will remain safe for as long as they are in the county. And I guarantee you, if somebody wants to buy that park and wants to come into the town and annex, they will all be gone, and there will be a development there.

Its a credible concern, but with developments like the large Tree Farm project in El Jebel already going on in unincorporated Eagle County, its fair to question what kind of security the parks really have, whatever their official address, and whether they really would be doomed if they were annexed.

Located at the western side of Basalts Old Town neighborhood, Homestead Park is nevertheless part of unincorporated Eagle County and not included in the Town of Basalt.

The parcels of land that are being developed that have not been annexed, that remain in unincorporated Eagle, are being developed, and that has happened rather quickly, said Basalt Town Council member and current mayoral candidate Bill Infante. Annexation is not equivalent to development. Annexation means democratic enfranchisement.

Said former town manager Bill Kane, also a candidate for mayor: I have to believe there might be some scenario where there would be some mixture of replacement housing built on the site. I would doubt that any one of the three property owners would do it (annexation) out of the motivation to kick people out. I cant imagine thats the case.

Infante favored providing residents of the mobile home parks with all the information they need outlining the pros and cons of being part of Basalt and then letting them guide the decision of whether to be annexed or not. He and Kane also thought it would be helpful if the people in the parks could somehow buy the land under the trailers, which would make annexation more attractive.

That would be a solution, said Kane.

Regardless of whether the parks ever come under the umbrella of the Town of Basalt, there are still opportunities for Latinos to get involved in town government, and all three mayoral candidates the third being former town councilman Robert Leavitt felt the town should be doing more to encourage that sort of involvement.

Securing more diverse representation on town council is one of the goals in our strategic framework. We want more diversity on council, said Infante. This is about socioeconomic exclusion. These are low-income people. We need to include them because theyre part of our community, and part of that inclusion means getting them the vote.

Infante favored aggressively soliciting better Latino representation, but at the same time, as Leavitt noted, its a two-way street. The town needs to reach out to the community, but the community needs to reach out to the town as well. You dont need to be a voting citizen of Basalt to come talk at a town council meeting. You cant force people to be involved. Weve tried through the years with limited success.

For Leavitt, whose wife is a mentor in the pre-collegiate program, fostering Latino leadership starts with getting young people, such as the ones whove expressed an interest in helping with his mayoral campaign, excited about public engagement.

If were getting young people involved in the community, theres a good chance theyre going to be involved in the community as they grow up, he said.

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Basalt still grappling with lack of Latino representation - Aspen Daily News

In two very different settings on either end of the urban core are new multifamily developments that both stand in the place of former blight and decay along rapidly growing parts of the San Antonio River.

The Mission Escondida Luxury Apartments (MELA), at 1515 Mission Rd., are only a few minutes drive from the center city and sit along a quiet section of the Mission Reach of the river. Southline, at 226 Newell Ave., extends the footprint of the bustling Pearl campus closer to the Museum Reach and a busy highway.

Though both boast a similar list of amenities and floor plans intended to attract young professionals, they share another common trait: MELA is situated on land once occupied by a decaying trailer park while Southline replaced old buildings and a storage yard belonging to Texas Towing.

Both developments also began leasing in October and new residents are settling in 15 at MELA last Saturday alone, and Southline is already 31 percent leased. Both are managed by Embrey Partners.

The Rivard Report recently toured each site to get an inside look at how the highly anticipated residential communities have taken shape.

The word escondida means hidden in Spanish, and when White-Conlee Development partnerScott Weems first stood on a footbridge and saw the land across Mission Road from the Riverside Golf Course, he thought it was a peaceful and beautiful setting. But people didnt know it was here, he said.

Soon, they did, as controversy embroiled the project. The land was occupied by residents of the Mission Trails mobile home park. Though neglected and decrepit by most accounts, with living conditions so deplorable the residents sued the owners, the trailer park community became a symbol of the toll of neighborhood gentrification.

In 2014, White-Conlee acquired the land for $4 million, and spent another $1 million relocating the residents to other trailer parks on the South Side, then demolished the abandoned and burned-out trailers, and prepped the site for construction.

After a long and contentious process to rezone the area and gain conceptual design approval, construction on MELA began in summer 2017. Its been a challenging development, but its also been very rewarding, Weems said.

The first of five buildings was completed in December. Weems said the final structure in the complex is expected to be finished in May, bringing online a total of 360 studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom apartments. So far, MELA is 9 percent pre-leased and 2 percent occupied.

The units range from $999 to almost $2,000 for the base monthly rent, priced according to the location within the complex and views of downtown from the windows and balconies. There are no subsidized or low-income units.

The median gross rent in San Antonio, which includes rent and utilities, is $958, according to census data. The listing service RentCafe reports the average rent for an apartment in San Antonio, which has increased 2 percent since 2018, is $1,039. But the majority of apartment rentals are priced between $701 and $1,000.

The MELA clubroom a space with soaring ceilings, modern furnishings, a business center, and fitness center is open and ready for resident use. Upstairs, a demonstration kitchen provides space for events and meetings, and patios equipped with widescreen TVs overlook a 500,000-gallon pool that is situated at the heart of the complex.

Other amenities include an onsite dog daycare operated by Pawderosa Ranch, bike storage and free bike rental, a game room, and access to the trails of the Mission Reach. White-Conlee donated acreage to the San Antonio River Authority for a linear park near the development that provides public access to the river.

MELA is being marketed to downtown workers, service members based at JBSA Lackland and Fort Sam Houston, and to those drawn to the Mission Reach trails. Weems, an avid cyclist who is renting a two-bedroom unit for that reason, also thinks Escondida will also appeal to those who have roots on the South Side.

While the typical goal of this multifamily developer is to sell the property to an investor within a year or two, Weems said White-Conlee will keep MELA in its portfolio for longer than that. With another six-acre plot of land adjacent to the apartments yet to be developed, the group may move on to that yet-to-be-determined project next.

Southline is the newest multifamily residential development at the Pearl, and much about the four-story community, from the repurposed storage tanks to the library barn door, came from the historic brewery.

The whole idea of the property is to look like an old mercantile building turned multifamily living, so a wealth of original pieces [from the brewery] were used to create that feeling, said Katie Ellis, Southline community manager.

Adjacent the Museum Reach of the River Walk on the southern end of the Pearl, Southline is situated on a strip of land once occupied by Texas Towing and near the site of the seedy former Fox Motel. Construction began in 2016.

Most of the 223 units at Southline are one-bedroom apartments and 30 percent are two-bedroom floor plans, all with 10-foot ceilings, designer kitchens, and custom built-ins. Many of the balconies overlook the River Walk and the fiberglass F.I.S.H. installation beneath a highway bridge.

The rent varies according to unit size, the interior finishes, and location within the development, and range between $1,480 and $2,800 a month.

At Pearl, were very pleased to have Southline because it fills a niche between the Can Plant on one end and the more exclusive and expansive Cellars at the other end of the spectrum, said Lewis Westerman, senior director of real estate at Silver Ventures, the group behind the Pearl. Embrey Partners also manages the Can Plant and Cellars.

Community amenities at Southline include a pool with private cabanas, library, a culinary caf and lounge, fitness center and a fitness lawn, dog park, private River Walk access, and bike storage. Parking is provided in the basement level.

Preleasing and move-ins began in October, and the development is currently 17 percent occupied.

See original here:
New Apartment Developments Open on Mission Road and at the Pearl - Rivard Report

Looking around at our young, still developing suburbs, I see wide, wild fields being dug up for the foundations of new, large single-family homes with sloping driveways, expansive roofs and well-lit, grand entrances. Or large, multi-story luxury senior apartments and condominiums with beautiful walkways and underground parking. Or lovely, new, smaller one-story homes for those ready to downsize.

What I dont see is investment in housing for those who have more modest income or additional housing for those who need rental assistance or, least of all, housing for those in danger of homelessness.

Choosing where to live and with whom has been a point of pride in our democracy. For generations, immigrants to this country would live where others who spoke their native language and shared their customs settled. That is why our state has so many families who share German, Swedish, Norwegian, Somali and Hmong heritage. We have lived where our people live.

But as our young country has moved through waves of new immigrant settlement, national expansion to the Pacific coast, the ruinous Civil War and shifts in our basic economy from agriculture to industry to technology, the social supports of living among familiar people has mostly collapsed. We are now a mobile society, focused less on the importance of social welfare and support for everyone, black or white, young or old, that smaller, established communities afforded to most everyone.

American emphasis on personal independence, competition and effort have eroded our social safety nets of community and necessary cooperation, values that for generations saw the establishment of hospitals, universities, nursing homes, public transportation and housing projects that addressed our common needs together.

Most of us think that people get the housing they deserve and live where they do because of their individual effort or lack of it. Its a simplistic and incomplete view of a basic human right.

This past November, the entire editorial team of this newspaper devoted time and energy to a series of stories helping readers come closer to the human cost of homelessness in Scott County.

Nearly every week, one or more stories in this paper mention the struggle of teachers working with homeless students, law enforcement encountering people without adequate or stable shelter, churches confronted daily with requests for cash, shelter or food assistance, and our various county social services struggling to keep up with the multiple causes of homelessness: low basic wages, skyrocketing rents, family crises, drug abuse and addiction, medical debt, chronic severe mental health and joblessness.

Our country depends on all our willingness, financially and socially, to address this serious housing crisis together. The greatest problem that advocates for low-cost and transitional housing face in America is the social resistance local homeowners have to placing these alternative housing buildings in their own neighborhoods.

Those who resist these lifesaving efforts believe that their own economic security is at stake, either by lowering the value of their own property or threatening what they believe is the safety of their chosen neighborhoods.

Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative, a coalition of 100 congregations in the metro area, is dedicated to growing solutions to our chronic homelessness problem by advocating for public projects and managing housing for people in transition. One such project is in development in Shakopee called Prairie Pointe. Using money from personal donations, private funding and county dollars, this proposed 50-unit permanent housing project would not only provide housing but also child care, career and food supportive resources necessary to help people move toward self-sufficiency.

Housing for all is no threat to our own economic status. People living out of their cars in rural parking lots, children moving between area shelters trying to get through third grade or others recently released from county jails with no job or housing are the real threats to our suburban quality of life.

The solutions are available to us, but we must all be willing to create affordable housing near our own homes and neighborhoods. Its incumbent upon us to challenge our unspoken assumptions about people in poverty, about what we consider basic human needs and how we meet them, and upon what we really base our personal and financial security.

I hope you will join me in being open to learning more about the causes of American homelessnes and how we can continue to work to address this in our suburban communities. Every one of us needs and deserves a home.

Rev. Lynne Silva-Breen, M.Div., M.A., LMFT, served for over 20 years as a Lutheran parish pastor. Shes currently a family therapist/pastoral counselor and can be contacted at inspiringchange.us. She is one of several area pastors who write for Spiritual Reflections, a weekly column appearing in this newspaper.

Read more:
Spiritual Reflections: We must welcome affordable housing around community - SW News Media

For the past eight years, Theresa Mannuzza has lived in her mobile home in Calverton.

Im on a fixed income and I bought it outright, says Mannuzza, 72, a retired factory worker.

She has loved living in the Lakewood Park development for everything it offers, she says the neighbors, the comfort, the convenience and the affordability.

Now she plans to sell and move to the Mastic area to live with family. But her home has served her well.

Mobile homes actually manufactured homes secured to the ground account for about 1% of all homes in Suffolk County and 6.6% of all homes nationwide, and are a way of life for thousands of people on limited incomes.

Many are buying these units either as affordable housing, or as second homes, says Tracy Cronin, a real estate agent for Gold Coast Homes & Estates, who has sold a number of units at the Suffolk Pines mobile home development in Westhampton.

Theres such a need for either low-maintenance second home locations, such as a mobile home or affordable housing, which, depending on the location, on the East End, a lot of these serve as both, says Cronin. They absolutely love the fact that garbage is taken care of, snow removal is taken care of, grounds are kept.

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Mobile homes are becoming very popular as vacation homes, too, says Cronin. There are mobile home units leasing in Montauk for $350,000, he says, which is at the high end of the mobile home market.

Originally an oceanfront campsite, Montauk Shores offers both home ownership and leasing options, with prices ranging from the $300,000s for leases to over $1 million for ownership. The development has two pools and a clubhouse and attracts well-known business owners, many of whom are second-home owners, and even second Montauk homeowners for those seeking an oceanfront residence.

Instead of spending $900,000 or $800,000 for a house and having maintenance, theyre paying less than half and theyve got no maintenance, other than inside the unit, explains Cronin of the leased units.

Mobile home owners have their own private space, says Anne Stipes, resident manager of Lakewood Park.

You still have a bit of a yard around you, Stipes says. And a lot of the parks have different amenities for the residents. I think you have a nice sense of community.

In Lakewood, which has a clubhouse, picnic/barbecue area and a pond, Stipes says, they hold Thanksgiving dinners and holiday breakfasts, among other group celebrations and activities. We try to do different things like that to get people in the community together, Stipes says.

Add to that a sense of security. Denice Sidorowicz, whos lived in mobile home in Bohemia for the past 20 years, says, Its very convenient for me, because I come and go. Im living on my own.

A part-time food demonstrator, Sidorowicz, 72, says she was going through a divorce when she bought her home. The price was right, she says.

Now shes selling because she wants to live with family in Tennessee.

She has loved living in the mobile park, she says. I have neighbors and we all get along, she says. I just get in my car and go, not worrying about my place because I know my neighbors will take care of it.

Each unit is on a 50-by-100-foot lot, Sidorowicz says, adding, Theyre not all stacked up on top of each other. Its a really nice community. Everybody has their own private stuff.

Her development, Bunker Hill/Valley Forge, plans to add a community room this year, she says. Its just nice. People can walk around without worrying about anything.

Mobile homes, however, come with other costs. There are monthly land lease fees that are paid to the mobile home park management, ranging from $100 to $1,400. They typically include property taxes, water and sewer usage, garbage and snow removal, and access to any community amenities, such as a park or community center.

The homes are insured by the development, but residents can take out insurance policies for the contents of their homes, which are considerably cheaper than insurance coverage for non-mobile homes, Cronin says.

Many communities, however, oppose mobile home parks. In Nassau County, there are none after the Syosset Trailer Park closed in 2016. The countys minimum lot size zoning restrictions prohibit building a mobile home community, says Sean Sallie, Deputy Commissioner of Planning for the countys Department of Public Works.

Things are different in Suffolk. Many mobile home parks have been grandfathered in. Others are accepted.

The Montauk Shores Trailer Park, for instance, is a welcome part of the communitys surfer culture, Cronin says. Its sort of a cool retro style summer community, says Cronin. They are well accepted by the community and considered a cool asset to have by the owners.

In Southampton Town, there are several mobile home parks that fulfill a need for affordable living options, Supervisor Jay Schneiderman notes.

We have some excellent mobile home parks. Some of them offer a lot of amenities, says Schneiderman, adding that some parks offer exclusive home ownership while others also have rental options.

Theyre often in locations that are pretty accessible, in terms of not being far from bus stops and shopping, he says, adding, Theres a sense of community in these developments.

The mobile home communities in Southampton township exist today because they were grandfathered in through earlier zoning regulations, Schneiderman says.

All of our zoning codes, even the multifamily codes, dont allow density at that level, so all of the mobile home facilities that exist in the town today wouldnt be allowed if they were proposing a new facility.

Zoning for groundwater protection in the town is at least one acre per dwelling and mobile home developments often have about 20 units per acre, Schneiderman says.

However, mobile homes could be the future, he believes.

Noting a movement toward owning smaller homes, particularly among the young, and as televisions and appliances become more compact, Schneiderman says its expensive to maintain a large home, and that mobile homes may be a more sustainable way to live, particularly if we can hook them up to sewage treatment.

That, he says, is the biggest issue: How do you manage the sanitary flow from a facility like that?

With an eye toward the future, Schneiderman is looking to come up with some models on how to live more affordably in his town.

It may be these smaller units, whether theyre tiny homes, mobile homes, small cottages where people share one swimming pool for a whole community, one lawn and playground.

Smaller communal homes might provide a solution to both the issue of affordability and environmental protection, Schneiderman says.

Even though its something from our past, it may be a clue to how we can live in the future, he says of mobile homes.

The cost of housing has gotten so far beyond local wages. And, I think you can do it in a way that is more environmentally friendly, too, where you use solar panels and sewage treatment, and have less of an environmental impact than one large home, Schniederman says.

Here are a few mobile homes currently on the market:

Asking price: $49,400

Community: Riverhaven Mobile Park in Riverhead

Schools: Riverhead Central School District

Monthly fee: $756.72

Features: A 720-square-foot, two-bedroom, one-bath home on a 40-by-70-foot lot in a 55-and-over community, with built-ins, large side yard and deck and two parking spaces.

Listing agents: Edward Kurosz and Susan Ribeiro, Douglas Elliman Real Estate

Asking price: $65,000

Community: Gildersleeve Park in Amityville

Schools: Amityville Union Free School District

Monthly fee: $950

Features: A two-bedroom, one-bath home with central air conditioning, new burner and a no-maintenance Rainbow roof.

Listing agents: Kerry Liles and Leonardo Toribio, Exit Home Key Realty

Asking price: $39,900

Community: Lakewood Park in Calverton

Schools: Riverhead Central School District

Monthly fee: $724,

Features: Two-bedroom, one-bath home with washer/dryer, two wall AC units, shed and new refrigerator in 55 And over community, which includes a clubhouse and park with a picnic area.

Listing agents: David Lisy and Gloria Radosta, Century 21 Cor-Ace Realty

Asking price: $75,000

Community: Bunker Hill/Valley Forge in Bohemia

Schools: Connetquot Central School District

Monthly fee: $927

Features: A two-bedroom, one bath with eat-in kitchen and pantry, updated bath, private yard and shed.

Listing agents: Carine Powers and Natia Chikvadze, Century 21 Bays Edge Realty

Asking Price: $79,900

Community: Bunker Hill/Valley Forge in Bohemia

Schools: Connetquot Central School District

Monthly fee: $1,013

Features: A two bedroom, one bath home with eat-in-kitchen, washer/dryer, central air, propane gas heat and cooking.

Listing agent: Deborah DAmore, Unique Home Sales of Long Island

Heres a sampling of some of the mobile home parks scattered around the island, all of which are in Suffolk County. Syosset Mobile Home Park, the last mobile home community in Nassau, closed in 2016.

Gildersleeve Park, Amityville 157 homes

Bunker Hill/Valley Forge, Bohemia - 400 homes

Bay Shore Mobile Park, Bay Shore -- 171 homes

Riverhaven, Riverhead -- 103 homes

Lakewood, Calverton -- 108 homes

Riverwoods, Riverhead 376 homes

East Hampton Village 193 homes

In Suffolk County, mobile homes are regulated by individual townships. Nassau County has no mobile homes: Zoning restrictions in towns and villages throughout the county prohibit building any mobile home developments, notes Sean Sallie, deputy commissioner of planning for Nassau Countys Department of Public Works. Syosset Mobile Home Park, the last mobile home park in Nassau, closed in 2016.

If you were to consider a mobile home a single-family home, zoning regulations for single family homes in Nassau have a minimum lot requirement ranging from 4,000 square feet to several acres, says Sallie.

Typically, its about 6,000 square feet to 8,000 square feet, he says. You would need all that land to put just one mobile home, so its really not feasible.

If the municipality considered mobile homes multiple family, which could be zoned 20 units per acre, then there would be the issue of placing 20 mobile home units on one acre, because you cant go vertical.

So thats sort of the conundrum, explains Sallie. Its because the codes sort of prohibit [them], not expressly, but implicitly.

Mobile homeowners dont get individual tax bills, notes Sallie.

As in the case of condominiums, the landowner is taxed for the total development and then apportions part of the bill to each individual mobile homeowner.

Each mobile home is leasing the property, so they all pay the landowner and the landowner pays the bill to the municipality, Sallie says.

By Arlene Gross Special to Newsday

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Going mobile: Owning and living in a trailer on LI - Newsday

The United States is at the forefront of an economic and technological revolution driven by 5G (fifth-generation) cellular technology, which is poised to have a profound effect on health care, agriculture, education and American businesses of all sizes transforming American life as we know it

While the future has enormous potential, many states like Texas have a digital divide, and rural communities suffer most. According to the Federal Communications Commission, in 2018 only 69 percent of rural Americans had access to both 4G Long Term Evolution, or LTE, mobile services and broadband-speed service, compared with about 98 percent of urban Americans. With access to high-speed internet connectivity ubiquitous in urban areas, its imperative we increase it in rural ones.

When the 2018 merger between Sprint and T-Mobile was announced and touted Americas first nationwide 5G network, I had serious concerns about what this would mean for Texans. This is why I initially joined state attorneys general from 13 other states and the District of Columbia to challenge the merger. While I had zero doubt about the potential for 5G to change American life for the better, I was deeply concerned that working Texans, especially in rural communities, would be left behind as Americans in urban centers took a massive leap forward.

Like many states across the country, Texas has real unmet needs, and 5G represents our best shot at addressing them. That is why I engaged with T-Mobile and obtained results that satisfied my concerns about the merger. My office fought for and secured a number of important commitments from T-Mobile ensuring all Texans will have the opportunity to benefit from 5G technology, including affordable, high-quality wireless communications services and new innovations that will have the power to transform our growing economy.

The commitments we fought for position Texas at the center of the 5G revolution by requiring T-Mobile to build out a high-quality 5G network throughout Texas, including in rural communities, over the next six years. It also prevents the newly combined company from increasing prices for wireless services on Texans for five years after the merger is complete. Im also pleased that the agreement ensures that Texans currently employed by Sprint and T-Mobile will have substantially similar employment with the combined company.

The 3 million Texans living in rural areas face challenges every day their fellow Texans in urban areas could not imagine, including a lack of access to in-person health care and educational resources like the internet, as well as significant limitations on agriculture and business. These challenges are not unique to Texas, and they affect the 46 million Americans living in rural areas.

How can 5G help? Lets start with health care. Rural areas in Texas are especially underserved even compared with other rural areas across the country. According to the State Office of Rural Health, 64 Texas counties lack a hospital and 25 dont have a single primary care physician. Now, 5G will make telemedicine the use of online disease-management services, electronic health records, home monitoring and other services a real possibility, bringing health care to Texans who cant easily access a hospital or other facility.

A 2019 U.S. Department of Agriculture report on farm technology found a quarter of Texas nearly 247,000 farms have no internet. USDA estimated that adequate broadband infrastructure and other digital technologies in agriculture could add from $47 billion to $65 billion annually to the U.S. economy. High-quality 5G infrastructure will allow Texas farms to take advantage of technology to make farming more efficient, producing higher yields and higher profits.

Also, 5G has the potential to transform education in our state, bringing new tools into classrooms and leveling the playing field for students in rural areas. Texas has more schools in rural areas than any other state, and 5G infrastructure will give rural students access to the same learning resources as their urban counterparts. It will also allow for more connectivity and technology in our classrooms, making the vision of the school of the future a reality today.

As home to the second-largest economy in the United States, it is imperative we take the necessary steps to ensure Texas businesses of all sizes have access to the resources and technology to keep the Lone Star State competitive here in the United States and around the world. The commitments Texas obtained from T-Mobile will ensure all Texans from Amarillo to Brownsville, El Paso to Longview and everywhere in between have access to Americas first nationwide 5G network, and we will cement Texas position as a leading economic force at the forefront of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

I am more convinced than ever the merger will support 5G deployment across America, and I urge my state counterparts to consider what this means for their rural communities. It will deliver critical benefits. Our future will be better with it.

Ken Paxton is the attorney general of Texas.

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Paxton: Sprint-T-Mobile merger will benefit all of Texas - San Antonio Express-News

Annetta Coffman has watched neighbor after neighbor get cancer. Five years ago, her son, Dalton Kincaid (left), was diagnosed, too.

Matt Eich

IN A NARROW SHADOW of land between two steep mountainsides in West Virginia, residents of a town called Minden are dying. Not in that existential were all dying a little bit every day way, but in the blotchy-lesions-and-tumor-riddled-organs-that-eventually-stop-working way.

The 250 residents are all thats left of a community that peaked at about 1,200 in 1970, and they think they know whats picking them off one by one, in a relentless, whos-next roulette. They cant avoid it in their homes. Or in their backyards. Or on the grounds of the abandoned factory where kids ride their dirt bikes. Locals have taken to calling Mindens main road Death Valley Drive.

Annetta Coffman has lived on this land for all of her 44 years. But in 2018 alone, 15 of her neighbors, people from age 12 to almost 90, died of cancer. Thats a full 6 percent of the towns current population. That year was a nightmare, she says, her voice more tired than sad a year after the fact.

Coffman lost her mother to breast, cervical, and uterine cancer in 2007. About five years ago, doctors discovered a tumor on the pituitary gland of her son, Dalton Kincaid. Hed stopped growing at four-foot-eleven and couldnt keep on weight, even if he ate 5,000 calories a day. His doctor told him he had to quit basketball, the sport he lived for, because he couldnt afford to burn extra calories. My doctor said he didnt even want me to play basketball with my friends, Kincaid says. No pickup ball, no messing around on the court on weekends.

Coffman recounts what theyve been through matter-of-factly, but her voice trembles with anxiety. Treatments shrank Kincaids tumors, yet despite a diet of 3,000 to 4,000 calories per day, even now, at age 20, hes still extremely lean. High energy and fast talking, he explains that he holds down a job at Walmart while going to school full-time at West Virginia University Tech. But recently hes been hit by blinding light sensitivity, and lately his eyes have been inflamed, like hes having an allergy attack, his mom chimes in.

Matt Eich

Coffman works two jobs in town, one at a chiropractors office and the other waiting tables at a restaurant. Minden is home, but she and the other remaining residents are desperate to move. Because theyre sure theyll die sooner if they stay. Ayne Amjad, M.D., an internist who lives 24 miles away and has become an advocate for the people of Minden, says her research estimates the cancer rate to be about 80 percent for those whove spent the majority of their lives in this valley.

Minden is a verdant place where Arbuckle Creek, the stream that carved the valley to begin with, runs between and behind its homes. The trouble is that when it rains, the water has nowhere to go but up. The creek bucks its banks maybe four, five, or six times a year, says Coffman. And when it floods, Kincaid adds, it runs for days. When the waters recede, theres sediment. In the riverbed and on the roads. In yards, in basements, in homes. Residents think that sediment, which is contaminated with leftover industrial chemicals, is what is making people sick. Its what they believe has poisoned threegoing on fourgenerations. For more than 30 years, the people of Minden have begged for help: from the state, from the feds, from anyone who will listen.

In 2017, due to their pressure, or just the way the cards flipped, the Environmental Protection Agency came to collect soil and sediment samples to determine whether Minden should be put on the National Priorities List, a government punch list of 1,335 places that have been evaluated and deemed hazardous and that require cleanup. In 2019, the townspeople felt theyd finally found an escape route when Minden was added to that list. They hoped to get moved, thinking relocation would offer a new start, as it has with other toxic sites.

Relocation was our goal, says Dr. Amjad. Brandon Richardson, a member of the Minden Community Action Team, says the news had people talking about the logistics of relocation, like whether theyd move as a group or take individual buyouts and each go their own way. But an October 2019 meeting with the EPA put residents back to where theyve been for 30 years: waiting. The EPA wouldnt even discuss relocation, Coffman says. Now Minden is in limbo, the townsfolk hoping to live long enough so that when the government finally acts, some people will be left to benefit.

Its a tough time to be a resident of a toxic community. From Minden to the Navajo Nationplaces large and small, coastal and notAmerica is dealing with the health fallout of industrial pollution. Since 2016, the federal government has proposed rollbacks on 85 environmental regulations. A number of these have gone into effect, and one in particular makes it easier for coal companies to pollute nearby streams. In addition, the governments 2018 budget slashed funding for remediation at Superfund sitesthe term for locations deemed so toxic they merit federal dollarsby 30 percent. From Love Canal (one of Americas first Superfund sites) to the Gulf of Mexico (site of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill) to Cancer Alley in Louisiana, theres a long history of industry burying toxic waste in American backyards and of residents having to raise hell to get it cleaned up. For Coffman, the sadness inside her at some point shifted to rage. Shes been holding on to that anger ever since, and joining forces with other people in and around town to try to do something about their plight.

WHEN THE NOW-DEFUNCT Shaffer Equipment Company started refurbishing electrical equipment for mining companies in the 1970s and 80s, Coffman was just a child. In much of West Virginia, coal keeps the lights on, and mining-adjacent businesses, like Shaffer, were welcomed in rural communities.

But at Shaffer headquarters, bosses were making decisions with far-reaching consequences: Something had to be done with the used transformers and oil. The company reportedly tasked employees with dumping the oil, which they did at several sites around town, including an old mine. Used oil was also repurposed by the company and local residents as heating fuel, and it was even sprayed on dirt roads to keep the dust down.

Matt Eich

Later it was discovered that the oil was contaminated with PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), heat- and pressure-resistant chemicals primarily used as insulating fluid. But those chemicals are also connected to birth defects, stillbirths, and cancer. Based on that and on the fact that PCBs can take a very long time to degrade in the environment, in 1979 the EPA ruled them a toxic substance and banned their manufacture. By then, however, the waste was all over Minden, and it was continuing to spreadin the soil, in the water, and everywhere the water went every time the creek overflowed.

Minden is so small that it doesnt have its own doctor. But in the early 80s, in nearby Oak Hill, oncologist Hassan Amjad, M.D. (Aynes father), began noticing that a disproportionate number of his cancer patients were from Minden. He raised an alarm first with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and then at the federal EPA. Soon federal employees in hazmat suits were tromping through Minden, testing various places around town, including the site of the Shaffer Equipment Company. The EPA discovered that one sample, from 4,000 cubic yards of oil-soaked soil, was contaminated with PCBswhich can leach into groundwater or be inhaled. The level in the sample was 260,000 parts per million. The EPAs acceptable limit for those chemicals in soil is one part per million.

Minden residents asked the EPA to conduct a community health study, but the agency investigators response was that studies of similarly exposed populations in the U.S. had not resulted in elevated PCB blood levels.

Matt Eich

So the elder Dr. Amjad started collecting as much data as he could on his own. The problem with chemical-related cancers, especially those associated with PCBs, is that causation can be tough to prove definitively. (The kinds of cancers that PCBs seem to be linked to are the most common forms in the general population, such as lung, colon, and breast.) This makes it easy for public-health officials to say, Look at the towns smoking rates. Look at the residents diets. Look anywhere but at the chemicals. In fact, when West Virginia state senator Stephen Baldwin recently asked a state official about health in Minden, they said that if there are public-health problems here, its because of peoples poor choices, he says.

But even without a health study, the town had the EPAs ear for a minute in 1984. That December, agency workers arrived touting a new technology that would help break down the PCBs. It didnt work. The chemicals remained. So the EPA moved to plan B. It would truck out tainted soil and build a berm along Arbuckle Creek to prevent the migration of any remaining PCBs at the Shaffer site.

Percy Eddie Fruit, 65, a longtime resident whose home is within sight of one of the EPA cleanup locations, remembers watching trucks roll through town. At first, residentsincluding Fruit and Coffmanthought the EPA had done its job. So did the EPA. In December 1988, an agency team inspected the completed work and declared that the restored site area remained in excellent condition and that no threat to public health or the environment existed. Not quite.

THE PEOPLE OF MINDEN were supposed to move on with their lives. And they did. Coffman had a family. Fruit worked as a pipe fitter installing sprinkler systems. He took care of his two daughters and spent his weekends and his spare cash fixing up the home he grew up in.

But as the years passed, the residents kept seeing signs that maybe the job hadnt been finished. A cache of barrels lingered on the old Shaffer Equipment Company site. And they werent empty.

Yet all the while, people let their kids ride their bikes there, thinking it was safe, because the area hadnt been properly fenced off. Both residents and the EPA would later discover that the constructed berm isnt effective if its being eroded by the constant flooding that happens every time the skies open up.

The town organized and sent letters to the EPA and to state and local representatives, and the agency came back to Minden in 1991 and 92. Things were looking up even more in 1993, when the EPA tried to hold Shaffer accountable by suing the company to recoup the costs of cleaning up the town.

Matt Eich

But more dirt was uncovered: The suit was thrown out of trial court because the man the EPA had put in charge of the cleanup turned out to have lied to his employer. He didnt have the college degree or the masters degree in organic chemistry hed claimed. The EPA appealed and the parties ultimately settled, with Shaffer paying $600,000 to partially offset the agencys costs, now well into the millions. Minden isnt suing Shaffer, since theres no money to be had. (Shaffer has since filed for bankruptcy.)

And the town cant sue the EPA at this point. Suits typically cant be brought to challenge an EPA remedy at a Superfund site until that remedy has been finalized. Once the EPA has selected a remedy, then anyone who has standing could challenge the remedy and say its not good enough, says Kenneth Kilbert, an environmental-litigation expert at the University of Toledo College of Law. In Mindens case, the EPA is still determining what the final remedy will be. And thats not as simple as it sounds. The agency works on reducing risk to an acceptable level, not eliminating it, Kilbert says. From a risk perspective, that makes sense. But not if youre the person living next to it.

Fruit and his neighbors would agree with that. Even after additional cleanup in the early 90s, some of the residents still felt as though something wasnt right. Fruit noticed that people around him kept getting sick. I had a bunch of neighbors pass away from cancer, he says. His gut told him that the danger had not passed. Soil samples tested in 2017 showed he was correct. The toxins are still there. And the residents are, too.

IT'S STARTING TO LOOK like no one is going to save Minden except the people who live there. The residents are trying to draw a direct line between whats happening to their health and what happened to their town. For more than 30 years, the elder Dr. Amjad pushed to gather as much data as possible showing the effects of PCBs on Minden residents.

Proving causation between a chemical and a type of cancer can take years and many more dollars than Minden has. But Dr. Amjad thought he was close to discovering a new type of lymphoma linked to PCBs when he died suddenly of a heart attack in 2017, says his daughter, Ayne. She has her own medical practice, and although her father had always jokingly told Mindens residents that shed someday take over his advocacy work, she wasnt expecting to step in so soon.

But in the weeks after he died, while she was still processing her grief, everyone started calling, she says. They didnt know what to do and thought everything he did would be lost. When she had the strength to go into his office, she began sorting through decades of paperwork.

She hasnt been able to prove the lymphoma connection yet, but she has added two other strategies to the towns fight.

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The first is an effort to get the state to help collect more accurate cancer data. The second is a plan to look beyond the EPA for a solution.

Despite the fact that Minden is on the National Priorities List, the states Department of Health & Human Resources, which oversees the West Virginia Cancer Registry, says that its current data does not support the existence of a cancer cluster in the town. Thats largely due to how the data is gathered. If you live in Minden your whole life but move and are diagnosed with the disease while living elsewhere, you will no longer show up as a cancer case related to Minden.

The younger Dr. Amjad worked with Senator Baldwin to introduce legislation to change that, but the Health Department pushed back, saying it would be too complicated to sort the data any other way but by where people lived at the time of diagnosis. The necessary information cant just be pulled from basic medical records. To collate the data by where residents lived most of their lives would require in-person interviews, which the cancer registry doesnt have the manpower to conduct.

This means that a lot of cancer cases arent counted. Fruits mother, who cleaned the Shaffer Equipment Company offices, died of cancer in 1992. She counts toward Mindens total. But his three brothers, all of whom have had bouts of cancer that they have so far survived, dont, because they moved away.

Fruit doesnt really like talking about cancer, because its been too much of a presence among the people around him. Whenever the phone rings, he gets a pang of worry about what kind of news hell be getting. Rather than talk about cancer (If I speak, its going to happen, he says), he prays. And then he gets busy. You have to put your faith into action.

ON A HOT JUNE morning last year, Fruit got out of bed early and headed to Mindens small community center. Im always in pain, he says with a dark chuckle, referring to his hip, which is badly in need of a total replacement. He knew the uphill, mile-plus hike out of the valley that Minden sits in would cause misery tomorrow. But that was tomorrows problem.

Thirty years ago, on an equally muggy June weekend, Lucian Randall, a local activist, led a march out of Minden to protest the valleys pollution with PCBs. Randall pushed an oil drumlike the ones full of PCB-contaminated oil that were dumped all over this townup one of Mindens hills.

Fruit was a young man then, off serving in the Army, but his mother kept him informed about the fight back home. He never thought that three decades later, as a 65-year-old man, hed be leading a march up the same hill protesting the same thing. But here he was, bad hip and all.

The march was supposed to draw attention to Mindens ongoing plightand nod to the pilgrimage its residents hope to someday take, marching up and out of their toxic town, when they get the funds to relocate.

In one response from the EPA, last November, the agency stated that at this time, the environmental data/risk does not show that relocation is an appropriate response action. Dr. Amjad is helping the town look elsewhere for a solution. Shes investigating whether the consistent flooding in Minden at least qualifies residents for some level of disaster relief from FEMA.

CHRIS DORST | Charleston Gazette

But for now, theyre still trapped. Living on waste has made their homes worthless. Fruit says hes put $60,000 into his home over the years. Its value today is just $38,000. Coffman owes $20,000 on her double-wide mobile home, which is too damaged from flooding to move. So Im either going to leave it and be in debt, or just stay until its paid off. That would be in another ten yearswhich is ten more years of chemical exposure.

Even if the elusive relocation happens, that still wouldnt be the end of it. The residents would have to decide if they want to move together as a community, with neighbors staying neighbors in a brand-new development built just for them, or if everyone would rather take a cash buyout for their home and start over wherever they wish.

Coffman prefers the latter. Were going to get cancer, she says. Shes spent the past 30 years raising money for people who cant afford funerals; shes been going to memorials, making casseroles for friends, planning candlelight vigils, and watching people she loves die. If all her neighbors relocated together, it would be more of the same. Weve been exposed to it for too long. People are still going to be dying. And I dont want to see that.

Kincaid doesnt want to leave. But after he graduates from collegewhere hes studying criminal justice, hoping to go to law schoolhell be moving on. If I have kids one day, I dont want them to grow up here, he says. The only way hell find himself back in Minden is if, by the time hes passed the bar, things still havent changed. By that time, though, hell be armed with a law degree.

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The West Virginia Town Where Everyone's Dying and the Land Is Toxic - Men's Health

Ever since the news of Major League Baseballs plan to overhaul the minor leagues emerged in October, major league and minor league officials have carried out a public relations battle, volleying statements and letters back and forth amid contentious negotiations.

On Wednesday, M.L.B. issued a pointed and heated letter in response to a minor league message that cast doubt over whether the two sides could ever reach an agreement on the future of their relationship.

Dan Halem, the deputy commissioner and lead negotiator for M.L.B., wrote that the minor leagues, known as MiLB, and its president, Pat OConner, were doing significant damage to your relationship with the 30 clubs by attacking M.L.B. publicly and in the political realm.

Halem added that M.L.B. teams were united in our negotiating position and misinformation tactics you have employed have only made the 30 clubs more resolute.

The sharp missive came as the two sides were negotiating over an M.L.B. proposal that would, among other changes, cut off major league ties for as many as 42 minor league affiliates and replace them with independent teams in what it would call a Dream League which would not include any players under contract with major league teams.

Minor League Baseball has vehemently objected to the proposal, and the two sides have held several negotiation sessions to reach a new agreement. The current Professional Baseball Agreement, which governs the relationship between the majors and minors, expires in September.

But with another bargaining session scheduled for Feb. 20, each side is accusing the other of spreading falsehoods and misinformation, as the tenor of the discourse becomes increasingly acrimonious.

On Jan. 23, MiLB sent an unsigned letter to M.L.B. Commissioner Rob Manfred, which was published by NBC Sports on Wednesday, outlining its opposition to contracting and reorganizing the 120-team minor-league system.

Halems response on behalf of M.L.B. struck an exasperated tone: Although we have fully explained our views on all issues both formally and informally to members of your negotiating committee, there continues to be a disconnect between MiLBs public messaging, government messaging and written communications on the one hand, and the views expressed by MiLB at the negotiating table on the other.

M.L.B. insists the restructuring can be done in a way that still preserves some form of minor league baseball in those communities. It also asserted that MiLB was hypocritical because of how frequently its owners moved teams around on their own.

Minor league owners routinely leave communities because the team is not economically viable, or the owner receives a better offer elsewhere, Halem wrote. And when they do leave, neither MiLB nor the owner, typically offers anything as a replacement to the community, such as the case in Pawtucket (2020), New Orleans (2019), Mobile (2019) and Helena (2018) in the last two years alone.

Representatives of minor league baseball did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and a spokesman for M.L.B. said Halems letter spoke for itself.

M.L.B. has drawn widespread criticism for its proposal, including from federal lawmakers. Four members of the House of Representatives introduced a bipartisan resolution on Tuesday asking M.L.B. to abandon its restructuring proposal.

Minor League Baseball teams have had a major impact on small communities, Representative David McKinley, Republican of West Virginia, said in a statement. These teams provide an enormous cultural and economic benefit to the communities they call home. Doing away with 42 teams is not a reasonable solution.

Wednesdays letter underscored M.L.B. officials belief that MiLB, instead of negotiating in good faith, had instead sought to build outside pressure to prevent any changes to the existing agreement. If a new deal is not reached by September, M.L.B. could choose to continue operating under the current P.B.A., or it could leave it to individual M.L.B. teams to act as they see fit. In that case, several major league clubs could cut their affiliations with their minor league teams on their own.

Major league teams generally pay for the minor league teams players and coaching staffs, and the farm teams cover everything else, including travel and equipment.

In its letter last week, MiLB accused M.L.B. of false statements and outlined alternatives to M.L.B.s proposals. Instead of eliminating teams that play in substandard facilities, it proposed that the owners of those identified teams should be given time to upgrade their stadiums. If they failed to do so, then MiLB would find other ownership groups or could even move the clubs.

It also dismissed M.L.B.s description of the support it provided minor league teams: It is simply not true that M.L.B. heavily subsidizes MiLB, the letter said.

Halem, whose eight-page letter attempted to refute the MiLB letter point by point, asserted that the players were the subsidy: M.L.B. clubs pay the players and assign them to the teams. He said the players were the most valuable commodity, in an entertainment sense, to the minor league teams.

M.L.B. has all but abandoned the Dream League concept, according to a person with knowledge of the negotiations who requested anonymity to discuss private talks. It is instead floating a different league to be played in the cities of contracted teams consisting of players preparing for the M.L.B. draft, which is likely to be cut from 40 rounds to 20.

In the conclusion of his letter, Halem issued something of a plea to his minor league counterparts: I personally do not believe that exchanging of letters of this type is productive or increases the likelihood that the parties will reach a mutually acceptable agreement.

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M.L.B.s War of Words With the Minors Hits a Boiling Point - The New York Times

Hannah Grover, Farmington Daily Times Published 6:00 a.m. MT Jan. 20, 2020

Bloomfield City Councilor Ken Hare, right, discusses the city's recent economic development efforts, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2020, during the Northwest Regional Economic Outlook Forum at San Juan College in Farmington.(Photo: Hannah Grover/The Daily Times)

FARMINGTON The City of Bloomfield really grew as a boom town in the 1950s and that meant a lot of single-wide trailers, according to City Councilor Ken Hare, who works as a real estate developer.

Over time, these trailers have deteriorated, but Hare said Bloomfield still needs options for affordable housing.

As he participated in discussions about economic development, Hare decided to try an experiment. He would, as a real estate developer, invest in building a house using shipping containers. He already had the land and he joined the Intermodal Steel Building Association, a group focused on shipping container homes and businesses.

More: Two Farmington men arrested for DWI, one accused of his 10th drunk driving offense

I do think its a viable way to create affordable housing in Bloomfield, Hare said.

He said the economic development discussions in the city have included aesthetics. The lack of affordable housing and the deteriorating condition of some of the mobile homes can make it hard to attract new businesses, Hare said. He hopes these shipping container homes can provide an affordable housing option that will not deteriorate like the single-wide trailers have over the years.

Some communities in the United States have had luck with shipping container buildings, but Hare said it is still a new concept for San Juan County. This could present some challenges and he hopes his efforts will identify those challenges. One of the challenges he anticipates is financing. When he completes the home, he plans on selling it. Hare said it may be hard for buyers to find a lender willing to finance a shipping container house. He also anticipates there will be challenges in the permitting process.

Las Cruces-based Enchanted Sun Realty's building was created using shipping containers and serves as a showcase for Underbox Containers, a company providing containers for building homes or offices.(Photo: Josh Bachman/Sun-News)

If he can prove that shipping containers are a viable option for housing, Hare said there are other applications that could also benefit the city. He said the shipping containers could be used for senior citizen housing in small, pocketbook communities. He explained these would be multiple houses for independent living located on shared land and the residents would help take care of each other.

And, Hare said, commercial buildings can also be built using shipping containers.

Hare is looking at getting a shipping container that has been used once before to transport goods, but people can also choose shipping containers that have had multiple trips.

The soon-to-be home of Enchanted Sun Realty, and a showcase for Underbox Containers, a company building homes and commercial spaces from steel shipping containers.(Photo: Josh Bachman/Sun-News)

He said the house will need to look attractive and the shipping container house couldbe covered with traditional siding.

Hare hopes to complete the project this year and is doing it with his own money. He said no city funds will be spent on the project.

Hannah Grover covers government for The Daily Times. She can be reached at 505-564-4652 or via email at hgrover@daily-times.com.

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Could shipping containers be the answer to a lack of affordable housing in Bloomfield? - Farmington Daily Times

Good afternoon, Buenas tardes!

Welcome to the 2020 City of Pharr State of the City Address!

First and foremost, thank you to Godfor another blessed year.Many thanks to my beautiful and devoted wife, Cristina, our son Joseph, for being my rock and source of strength, and for so graciously allowing me to share my life in public service to our community. Thank you also to our extended network of family and friends for your constant support.

To my colleagues on the Pharr City Commission and our city employees. Thank you for your support. Without you, none of the great things we are doing in Pharr would be possible.

Gracias, Valente, for leaving the bright lights of Hollywood to return to your South Texas home community and to our great city of Pharr where its really happening!

What a year it has been!

As I look across this room, each of you is here today because you have made such an impact, either directly or indirectly, on the success and prosperity that our great City of Pharr enjoys.

It is because of you that we are here today. You took the time from your busy schedule a break away from your daily lives in your respective industries to spend time with us today and listen to what makesPharr truly a remarkable place to be. You are the educators, business professionals, community partners, mothers, fathers, students, members of the religious community, industry representatives, and more, that have a vested interest in seeing our great city thrive.

So, thank you for being here and for your continued support of the great City of Pharr.

I am humbled to stand before you today, as Mayor of my hometown leading the city that raised me into rapid and incredible growth, prosperity, and opportunity for our Pharr citizens.

I have been entrusted by you to make a difference in the lives of our residents, families and our children, who are the future.

Five years after first taking office, we are here to celebrate our 4th annual State of the City!

And let me tell you no need to adjust your vision Pharr is a perfect 20/20 and this year we will have several milestones to celebrate, and we have much in store for 2020.

Ladies and gentlemen, citizens of Pharr, business leaders, and community partners, on behalf of the Pharr City Commission and as your Mayor, I am proud to report that the state of the City of Pharr is the best its ever been, and its only getting better!

I want to start with our economy because as we all know, our economy will shape the future of the city as it is an indicator of our prosperity and growth.

This year, for the first time in Pharrs history, I am excited to announce that our sales tax figures indicate that Pharr surpassed more than $1 billion dollarsin sales!

This profound number represents an approximate $140.6 Million increase in total sales in the City of Pharr from the previous fiscal year.

Pharr continues to expand our tax base by recruiting, attracting, and retaining businesses and companies to invest in Pharr.

It makes us proud to know that we are significantly contributing to the success of our region, our state, and our nation so to our governor, our federal, state, and local leaders on behalf of the city of Pharr and its residents.youre welcome!

We thank our business community partnerships, at the local, state, national and international levels, for continuing to expand opportunities in the various retail, food, entertainment, and other industries, that allow our Pharr residents and those from the surrounding communities to shop, eat, and stay in Pharr.

Our economy would not be nearly as robust if we didnt have an educated and skilled workforce this is key, for not just us but for the state and the country.

This past year, we welcomed many new businesses in Pharr, such as Carmax, which provided new, high-paying jobs, with a starting average salary of nearly $50,000.As part of our educational partnership commitment, we have a program where high school students in Pharr experience first-hand sales practices, body shop work, and mechanics through internships and practical education opportunities.

And, we are excited to announce that we are bringing manufacturing jobs to Pharr!

The City of Pharr and the Pharr Economic Development Corporation are proud to announce that a global manufacturing company that has been operating in South Texas for more than 20 years will be relocating their operations to the City of Pharr.

The company, Bissell, will be using the facility to support its manufacturing, remanufacturing, and replacement parts operations.

With a total investment in Pharr of $14.5 million dollars, the Bissell manufacturing facility will create jobs in advanced manufacturing.

We continue to move Pharr forward and again, its only getting better!

Our workforce is strengthened by our relationships and one of our strongest is the U.S.-Mexico-Canada partnership.

With the new U. S.- Mexico-Canada Agreement, USMCA, we are certain to reap the benefits of this trade deal which continues making our Pharr International port of entry one of the busiest land ports of entry in the state and nation.

In 2015, we devised a strategic bridge plan with our city commission, bridge board, and bridge employees and in Pharr, we dont just strategize, we execute, and we bring about real, tangible results!

Our Pharr bridge recently celebrated its 25th anniversary this year, a notable milestone indeed, and we are delighted to announce that the Pharr International Bridge now ranks as the third-largest border crossing in Texas!

In 2019, trade in Pharr exceeded $35 billion, growing six percent in imports and five percent in exports.

We have grown by over $1 billion dollars in trade every yearthat is astonishing growth that has no end in sight.

We continue to be the preferred and #1 border crossing for produce, crossing almost 70 percent of the nations produce.

Our city leaders recognize the importance of our bridge and have made it a priority to invest in port infrastructure improvements to keep up with the demand for services and to expedite trade.

This year, because of strong partnerships and collaboration with Texas Department of Transportation, General Services Administration, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Border Patrol, we will be investing $35 Million in major construction, infrastructure, and technology improvements projects that will help to accommodate current and future growth, expedite the flow of trade, and reduce border wait times.

Another major project we are working on at the bridge is through the first-of-its-kind collaborative partnership with our esteemed University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, the U. S. Customs and Border Protection, and the Texas International Produce Association (TIPA) for a regional agriculture laboratory and training center.

We are truly blessed.

I would be remiss if I didnt stress the importance of education in our formula for success.

Education, not just for our children, but for our entire community is vital.

My administration has always been a big believer that we reward and promote those individuals doing better for themselves.

I have always been an advocate for innovative programs that stand out from traditional methods because in Pharr we are different, we think outside the box, we dont see a problem but rather a solution that has yet to be thought of.

We have in the audience our Partner RGV College who graduated its first cohort of nurses right here in Pharr.

We also have representation from Region One who reported from the TEA that our region out-performed the entire state of Texas.

Together with parent ambassadors, we are working on educating our community on the importance of the census, this is hard work but you know what? we are no stranger to being told that it cant be done we do it anyway.

Education is key to being counted and we are very aware of the importance of OUR role in making sure it happens.

Another proud educational endeavor is with the PSJA school district

We are on the verge of opening the highly anticipated and much needed PSJA-City of Pharr Ag campus .. located on city property for the benefit of our students.

We continue to cultivate a positive learning environment for all Pharr residents and are particularly committed to providing opportunities for higher education right here in Pharr.

This past year, we broke ground on the PSJA-UTRGV-City of Pharr Natatorium, which will serve as an anchor for health and wellness facilities.

Pharrs commitment to higher educational opportunities for our Pharr residents remains one of our highest priorities, and its only getting better!

In order to move forward we need infrastructure. Transportation is a key element for the city to be able to deliver goods and services.

As you all are aware, major moves of historic significance were made in the past year that will dramatically and forever change the landscape of the Rio Grande Valley.

With the merging of the three regional MPOs, the Rio Grande Valley can now tap into billions of dollars of state and federal transportation funding to improve and expand roads and transportation infrastructure that we could never before access a staggering $2.2 billion dollars, and we will be fighting for more!

It was an honor to be elected by the entireCameron and Hidalgo County delegation to serve as the inaugural chair of the new RGV MPO.

This wouldnt have been possible without the support and vision of Cameron and Hidalgo County trailblazers; Mayors Trey Mendez, Jim Darling, Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez, and County Commissioner Eddie Cantu.

I can assure you that both Pharr and the entire Rio Grande Valley will now definitely have a seat at the table when it comes to transportation planning and funding.

We have numerous projects in the works that will improve our roads and transportation and infrastructure in Pharr.

The city continues to invest millions in city road repaving and reconstruction projects more than 18 million in city funds have been invested throughout our citywide repaving projects, through street light improvements and median installations to improve transportation and safety in our city.

An additional $44.7 million more in MPO funding has been allocated to projects in Pharr and there is much more on the horizon.

One of our highest priorities has been the expansion of the Pharr Interchange, which for years has been inadequate.

We will all soon enjoy a new interchange and rest assured, it willaccommodate future growth.

In recent years, we have experienced unprecedented rain and flooding impacting our residents, amounting to millions of dollars in damages to homes, businesses, and properties.

Pharr residents were not alone, we experienced this together and the city answered the call.

It was clear to us that our citys drainage infrastructure and water supply capacity are in critical need of improvements.

As city leaders, we are committed to making these investments now to take care of our current needs and prepare for our future.

As you all are aware, we recently passed a countywide, multi-million dollar drainage bond.We have partnered with the Hidalgo County Drainage District to build and expand this infrastructure.

To achieve this, I reached out to our very own Precinct 2 Commissioner, Eddie Cantu.Commissioner Cantu and I stood side by side to promote County drainage project because we knew it was needed and the right thing to do for our community.

So I want to thank Commissioner Cantu and I also want to thank your staff for their steadfast approach and commitment to help the residents of the city of Pharr.

Our $40 Million drainage plan will increase drainage capacity to accommodate a 500-year flood.

Our plan is to save lives, homes, and our properties once and for all.We will no longer accept this type of devastation. My administration will fix it now.

How?With great partners.

We have the greatest minds working together not only to achieve our drainage and infrastructure goals but to also provide an educational, real-life experience with our PSJA Southwest Early College High School Architecture students.

They are working with our city engineers, engineering consultants and are providing input, research, and ideas to address these issues with innovative solutions.

We are upgrading the citys aging water service delivery system, to meet our current demand for safe, sanitary water, while at the same time, accommodating for future growth and development.

We are also partnering with students from Thomas Jefferson T-Stem Early College High School on a project for a new raw water reservoir, and with students from PSJA North on the North-Central Wastewater Interceptor project.

Not only are we engaging these young minds with civic responsibility, but we are also providing opportunities for them to actively participate in creative solutions for real issues that need addressing.

We are proud to partner with PSJA ISD on these critical infrastructure projects, and Id like to ask them to please stand and be recognized.

Speaking of partnerships, Pharr continues to strengthen and nurture its relationships on a wide range of issues.

Among those, Pharr leads the efforts to plan and prepare for a successful 2020 Census.

It is imperative that everyone gets counted.

The population count held every ten years is what the federal government uses to allocate resources, representation, and funds.

We cannot stress how important this years census will be for all of us, and here in Pharr, we are taking the necessary steps to educate and inform our residents to be counted in the 2020 Census.

We have once again led the nation in creating a first of its kind the Pharr Parent Ambassador Program with our local school districts. This program engages parents to educate and promote the importance of being counted in the 2020 census.

At this time Id like to ask all parent ambassadors to stand and be recognized. Lets give them a round of applause.

Under our administration, we have sought to identify ways to ensure our government services are functioning efficiently to better serve our citizens.

As part of our efforts to maximize productivity, we had all department heads go through UTRGVs Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center Lean Six Sigma training and certification program.

The training was provided by TMAC, who statedthat Pharr is the first government entity that it has trained through this program, which is typically utilized by companies in the manufacturing industry.

Here in Pharr, we welcome leaders who are poised to help move Pharr forward.

This past year, we welcomed a new generation of leadership We joined forces with Texas Workforce Commission to further create opportunities and support employees that want to advance their education and training, that is representative of our values, culture, and goals, but also one that celebrates equity, diversity, dedication, and growth this led to the promotion of Anali Alanis and Hilda Pedraza the first female Assistant City Managers in the history of Pharr.

Congratulations, and keep up the great work ladies!

Complementing this change in leadership is the modernization of our first floor designed to be a state-of-the-art facility, to meet the needs of our citizens with efficiency and comfort.

This new, modern, open-floor concept will include offices and conference rooms with glass windows, as a true representation of the transparency we all deserve from our government.

Finally, last year, we launched Pharrs newest way to have citizens connect with their local government at the tip of their fingers.

Pharrs new 311 app is an interactive mobile application that allows citizens to easily access critical information from the City of Pharr, including news, calendar of events, online payments, and more.

One exciting feature of the app is the capability to have Pharr citizens be able to report issues of concern.

We are improving access to government services for our Pharr residents and families, and will continue improving the quality of life for all.

Ladies and Gentlemen, theres no doubt that there is power in numbers.

It is because of you, because of us, and because of the great leadership and partnerships that Pharrs future is bright, and will only get better!

At this time, as is our tradition that began at our inaugural State of the City address in 2017, we would like to present the Polo Palacios Award, awarded annually to an individual who carries the torch of service and pride for our Pharr community.

Read more:
Hernandez: State of the City of Pharr is the best it's ever been - Rio Grande Guardian