ANNEXATION OF THE LITTLE TOWNS AROUND EDINBURG IS INEVITABLE
THE FOLLOWING IS A CLIPPING FROM THE MONITOR REGARDING THE FIRES IN NORTH EDINBURG:
Who's Footing the Bill for Recent Wildfires?
Reported by Ryan Wolf
Fuel for the body. Fuel for the trucks. Both man and machine are running on empty after nearly two and a half days of non-stop firefighting in north Hidalgo County.
But with containment at 85 percent the question now remains: Who's footing the bill?
"I wouldn't even be able to put a number on how much this is going to cost us... but it is going to be a sizeable amount," said Hidalgo County's Emergency Management Coordinator Tony Peña.
As many as 500 people have helped to battle the enormous wild fire on the local, state and federal levels.
Peña says everything must be documented from agencies involved, manpower hours, gas, cost of repairs, food-you name it.
The information is crucial Peña says for any kind of state or federal reimbursement.
"We'll base it on everyone's involvement," he said. "There's formulas involved, mathematical formulas and FEMA and the Governor's office help us work all that out."
Hidalgo County has already been declared a disaster area.
About 26,000 acres have burned, four homes destroyed and about 40 head of cattle lost.
Peña says the county is eligible to receive a Fire Management Assistant Grant (FMAG) through the state from FEMA.
"We are looking at getting up to 75 percent reimbursement on some assets used," he said.
It's partial repayment for efforts to combat wildfires threatening to become major disasters.
And with no lives lost so far, the county appears to have won.
Texas State Plan:
Again, Hidalgo County stands to recoup about 75 percent from the federal government.
Governor Rick Perry says it falls short with some 216 counties in the state suffering 1 million total acres of wildfire damage.
He's urging the government to pay 100 percent.
ANNEXATION IS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME AND SINGLE MEMBER DISTRICTS SHOULD BE IMPLEMENTED SOON. WHO ELSE BETTER TO REPRESENT THE NORTH AREA THAN SOMEONE FROM THAT AREA. THIS ISSUE WILL KEEP COMING UP THROUGHOUT OUR CITY'S FUTURE.
Who's Footing the Bill for Recent Wildfires?
Reported by Ryan Wolf
Fuel for the body. Fuel for the trucks. Both man and machine are running on empty after nearly two and a half days of non-stop firefighting in north Hidalgo County.
But with containment at 85 percent the question now remains: Who's footing the bill?
"I wouldn't even be able to put a number on how much this is going to cost us... but it is going to be a sizeable amount," said Hidalgo County's Emergency Management Coordinator Tony Peña.
As many as 500 people have helped to battle the enormous wild fire on the local, state and federal levels.
Peña says everything must be documented from agencies involved, manpower hours, gas, cost of repairs, food-you name it.
The information is crucial Peña says for any kind of state or federal reimbursement.
"We'll base it on everyone's involvement," he said. "There's formulas involved, mathematical formulas and FEMA and the Governor's office help us work all that out."
Hidalgo County has already been declared a disaster area.
About 26,000 acres have burned, four homes destroyed and about 40 head of cattle lost.
Peña says the county is eligible to receive a Fire Management Assistant Grant (FMAG) through the state from FEMA.
"We are looking at getting up to 75 percent reimbursement on some assets used," he said.
It's partial repayment for efforts to combat wildfires threatening to become major disasters.
And with no lives lost so far, the county appears to have won.
Texas State Plan:
Again, Hidalgo County stands to recoup about 75 percent from the federal government.
Governor Rick Perry says it falls short with some 216 counties in the state suffering 1 million total acres of wildfire damage.
He's urging the government to pay 100 percent.
ANNEXATION IS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME AND SINGLE MEMBER DISTRICTS SHOULD BE IMPLEMENTED SOON. WHO ELSE BETTER TO REPRESENT THE NORTH AREA THAN SOMEONE FROM THAT AREA. THIS ISSUE WILL KEEP COMING UP THROUGHOUT OUR CITY'S FUTURE.