Santa Rosa community center nearly complete [Valley Morning Star, Harlingen, Texas]

Dec. 23--SANTA ROSA -- A new community building to house three programs is nearly finished on Highway 107 near Santa Rosa High School.

The programs that will use the new facility at 102 N. Main St. are:

H The Women, Infants and Children program, run by the county's Department of Health and Human Services,

H An employment and training program run by Workforce Solutions Cameron,

H A self-education/general equivalency diploma training program run by the Cameron-Willacy County Community Action Program, or CAP.

Cameron County Planning Director Frank Bejarano said the county secured a $1.5 million grant through the U.S. Department of Commerce/Economic Development Administration to build the center.

The idea for the center was originally conceived by former Precinct 4 County Commissioner Edna Tamayo, Bejarano said.

"Edna Tamayo was involved in this project in the beginning," Bejarano said. "She had a lot of contact with EDA (Economic Development Administration), the funding agency. They also worked closely was Judge (Carlos) Cascos' office to secure the funding. But, basically it's the EDA's initiative. They wanted to do something in Santa Rosa."

"We applied for the grant," Bejarano said of the county. "It will be approximately 6,000 square feet. The county will own the facility and we will take care of the insurance. Everything is paid for except maintenance and operation. That's going to be a recurring cost that will have to be picked up by the county or the service providers," Bejarano said.

The building is nearly finished now, he said.

"We project that it will be completed in January. Even though construction is ahead of schedule, we anticipate it will be open in February," Bejarano said.

A plaque on the building will name commissioners serving now and those who began the project, Cascos, the county judge, said.

"We approved the plaque today," Cascos said Wednesday.

"We kind of trimmed down a big list of names," he said. "I came up with the idea of adding at the top, 'Cameron County taxpayers' because that's who's paying for a big chunk of this. Also the commissioners' court (names)."

Tamayo will receive credit for the project, Cascos said.

"I asked to add the former commissioners, Edna Tamayo and John Wood, because they were the ones that were in office when this building really broke ground," the judge said.

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