Multiple Contracts Awarded at La Feria City Commission Meeting

City Moves Ahead with Unger Park Project, Fire Department Expansion and  Substation Project, Affordable Housing and a Proposed Craft Training Center

The La Feria City Commission held its regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday, June 9th, at 6:30 p.m. On the agenda for the meeting were several project bids to be awarded including the Unger Park project that had been tabled at the last meeting on May 26th.

At the outset of the meeting, City Manager Sunny K. Philip and city staff conducted a short workshop intended to demystify procurement laws and procedures for bidding out and accepting bids as well as the legal requirements for awarding contracts. City staff provided the commission with several materials for them to review, including the Procurement Manual provided by the State Comptroller’s office (found at http://comptroller.texas.gov/procurement/pub/manual/). Mr. Philip gave the commission a brief overview of the process with help from Megamorphosis, Inc. Vice President John Pearcy who provided the commission with details of the vetting process. The workshop was conducted at the behest of the newer commissioners who had expressed their desire to better understand the process.

After the workshop, the Commssion once again reviewed the bid tabulations for the Unger Park project which was subsequently unanimously awarded to Northridge Designs, LLC of Harlingen, TX. Next, the contract for the Fire Department Expansion and Substation project was awarded to Jcon Construction LLC of Mission, TX.

The Commission then reviewed the bid tabulation to approve the award of a contract to the lowest most qualified and responsible bidder for the construction of four homes as part of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development HOME project. The HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) provides formula grants to states and localities that communities use – often in partnership with local nonprofit groups – to fund a wide range of activities including building, buying, and/or rehabilitating affordable housing for rent or homeownership or providing direct rental assistance to low-income people. It is the largest Federal block grant to state and local governments designed exclusively to create affordable housing for low-income households. The commission unanimously awarded the contract to JW Turner Construction, a Houston, TX company with offices all over the state, including one in La Feria.

The La Feria City Commission proceeded to hold a workshop, lead by Mr. Philip, to review details of a proposed Craft Training Center to be built in La Feria. The proposed Craft Training Center would closely follow the model of the Craft Training Center of the Coastal Bend located in Corpus Christi, Texas. Students enrolled in the Craft Training Center would learn industrial skills geared especially for employment in the refining, oil and gas, and commercial construction industries. Courses taught would include: welding, pipefitting, instrumentation, scaffold building, mobile crane operations, industrial painting and pipeline construction.

All programs provided by the Craft Training Center of the Coastal Bend in Corpus Christi are fully accredited through the National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER) certifications required by most area, state and national employers and the proposed Center to be built in La Feria would do the same. The proposed Center would provide educational opportunity for the area’s youth as well as adult training programs and night classes.

Ms. Petra Reyna of the Reyna Network, an area non-proft that assists communities by establishing sustainable programs that stimulate economies and create jobs, was also on hand to provide more information on the function and potential of a Craft Training Center in La Feria. The Reyna Network would serve as a partner in the development of the proposed center.

Following the workshop the commission reviewed and unanimously approved two separate contracts with the Reyna Network to prepare and submit Rural Economic Development Loan & Grant Program (REDLG) Applications, one to Magic Valley Electric Coop and the other to VTX Coop, to seek funding in support of the proposed Craft Center Training Facility. The Rural Economic Development Loan (REDL) and Grant (REDG) programs provide funding to rural projects through local utility organizations. Under the REDLoan program, USDA provides zero interest loans to local utilities which they, in turn, pass through to local businesses (ultimate recipients) for projects that will create and retain employment in rural areas. The ultimate recipients repay the lending utility directly. The utility is responsible for repayment to the Agency. Under the REDGrant program, the USDA provides grant funds to local utility organizations which use the funding to establish revolving loan funds (RLF). Loans are made from the revolving loan funds to projects that will create or retain rural jobs. When the revolving loan fund is terminated, the grant is repaid to the Agency.

The next meeting of the La Feria City Commission will be Tuesday, June 23rd, at 6:30 p.m. in the City Commission Meeting Room at 115 E. Commerical Avenue in La Feria.