Resurgent growth in economy

PAGE 6D
Sunday, October 10, 1999
Laredo Morning Times
Local News
School Lunch Menu
Monday
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, w/cheese, breakfast pattie and toast.
Lunch: Burrito w/cheese sauce, chili n’ beans,
corn on the cob, and pudding.
Tuesday
Breakfast: Fruit juice, pancakes w/syrup.
Lunch: Breaded steak fingers, hot roll,
fluffy mashed potatoes, rice krispy treat,
creamy
country
gravy,
BBQ
sauce/ketchup.
Wednesday
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, hash brown and
toast.
Lunch: Chicken parmesan, warm Italian bread,
lettuce, tomato and pickle salad, bag of chips,
sugar cookie, mustard/mayonnaise.
Thursday
Breakfast: Fruit juice, biscuit w/jelly.
Lunch: Chicken enchiladas, Spanish rice, pinto
beans, and chilled fruit.
Friday
Breakfast: Breakfast bar w/toast and jelly.
Lunch: Pizza Hut Pepperoni Pizza, lettuce and
tomato salad, seasoned corn, chocolate chip
cookie, creamy ranch dressing.
LISD BREAKFAST AND LUNCH MENU
OCT. 11 – Oct. 15
Monday
Holiday
Tuesday
Breakfast: Cereal, pancake/sausage/syrup,
and juice variety.
Lunch: Salisbury steak, dinner roll, mashed
potato, green peas, sliced peaches, and gravy.
Wednesday
Breakfast: Cereal, sausage roll, and fruit cocktail.
Lunch: Beef Tacos, lettuce, tomato, mix vegetables, pineapple tidbits, shredded cheese, and
taco sauce.
Thursday
Breakfast: Cereal, sausage link/ flour tortilla,
and fresh banana.
Lunch: Hamburger, lettuce, tomato, French
fries, fresh apple, catsup, and mustard.
Friday
Breakfast: Cereal, biscuit/sausage patty, and
slice pear.
Lunch: Ham and cheese sandwich, lettuce,
tomato, potato rounds, mix fruit, mayonnaise, and
catsup.
1/2 pt. whole or low fat milk will be served with
all breakfasts and lunches. Chocolate milk
offered when available. Subject to change
without notice.
Half pint whole or low fat milk will be served
with all breakfasts and lunches. Chocolate
milk offered when available. Subject to
change without notice.
Mi Laredo youths attend council
Rebecca A. Buckley and
Andrea M. Peña of Laredo participated in the 1999 Texas Youth
Action Council held in Galveston
this summer.
The Texas Commission of
Volunteerism and community
Service chose 24 young people
from across the state to form the
Texas Youth Action Council, or
TexYAC. The TexYAC dedicates
itself demonstrating the benefits
of community service while developing leadership, awareness and
new opportunities for youth.
The students are selected on
their ability to be community leaders. Buckley and Peña were
nominated by the Mi Laredo
Leadership (MLYL) program
which develops leadership and
citizenship skills in youth, so they
may enhance the quality of their
own lives through service to others.
Both girls attended the Mi
Laredo Youth Leadership program during the 1999 school year
and helped to create two different
community service projects.
Buckley is a senior in United
South High School. She is a part
of the first class of students that
attend the MLYL program. As a
community service project, the
first MLYL class addressed was
the lack of safe places for children to play. The class decided to
renovate the Los Dos Laredos
City Park.
Buckley is a member of the Ann
ANDREA M. PEÑA
Richards Chapter of the National
Honor Society at her school, and
has
competed
in
UIL
Extemporaneous Speaking. She
placed third in district and was
able to go to UIL Regionals. She
also helps with the WEAME
Physics Olympics and SAT workshops.
“I encourage everyone to participate in some type of volunteerism because the reward is
priceless,” Buckley said. “The
smile on someone’s face is so
touching and heartfelt that I hope
everyone can experience this
feeling at some point in his or her
life.”
Peña is also a senior at United
High School. She is part of the
second group of students that
participated in the MLYL pro-
REBECCA A. BUCKLEY
gram. The second MLYL class
felt that children lacked positive
role models and needed caring
mentors to spend time with them.
The class decided to mentor the
children of the Sacred Heart
Children’s Home.
Peña is also involved in the
National Honor Society, Student
Council, and the Interact Club.
She is part of the WBCA Princess
Pocahontas Council, where she
is the chair for the volunteer projects for the court of 2000.
“I challenge other young people
to give back to our community
through service. There are so
many organizations that our in
need of volunteers, anybody and
everybody can get involved,” she
said.
Legal & Civic Affairs
Resurgent growth in economy
BY FERNANDO D.
GUTIERREZ, JR.
Although
there
are
52
“maquiladora”
manufacturing
plants situated in the Nuevo
Laredo area, John A. Adams Jr.,
local banker and president of the
Laredo
Manufacturer‘s
Association, said that such number, by itself, was misleading in
understanding the impact of trade
on the economy of Laredo/Nuevo
Laredo.
For example, other border
Mexican cities have a much large
r
“maquiladora”
presence,
e.g. the most
notable being,
T i j u a n a
(approximately
600
“maquilas,”
mostly in the
electronics
and
textile
areas) and
Fernando D.
J u a r e z
Gutierrez Jr.
(approximately
350
“maquilas,” mostly in the electronics area). However, Adams stated
that Laredo/Nuevo Laredo actually serves as the transportation
focus of a much larger “funnel” of
Mexican cities, including Mexico
City, Monterrey, Saltillo, Torreon,
Ciudad Victoria, and other cities
in the center of Mexico.
Most of these Mexican cities
and the manufacturing plants and
“maquilas” situated in such cities
use Laredo as their trucking and
railway line, “port of entry” into the
United States. This trade and
transportation activity, especially
after the implementation of
NAFTA has been an important
reason why Laredo is currently
booming as a transportation and
distribution hub.
Laredo is the leading port of
entry in merchandise trade with
Mexico, with over 32% of the
trade between Mexico – USA in
1998. In 1998, Laredo handled
approximately twice the value in
merchandise trade (roughly $56
billion dollars) than its nearest
competitor, El Paso (with only $28
billion dollars Import-Export values).
Logically, this immense trade
and transportation activity has
spawned economic growth in
several areas of the Laredo economy, especially in the trucking,
freight forwarding and warehousing industries, which in turn,
affects other areas of the local
economy.
There are increased signs that
the settling in of larger corporations into the Laredo area has
allowed for a more diversified
workforce. While the retail business in Laredo made up 37 percent of the total local workforce in
1987, that number has declined
to 29 percent in 1997, reflecting
an increase in other types of
employment,
beside
retail.
International trade, transportation, and natural gas exploration
have all helped diversify the workforce. Additionally, Laredo is feeling the influence of TAMIU, the
federal government, the city‘s
campus improvement projects,
and the hospitals, which have all
brought employees.
The U.S. Census Bureau, using
on 1990 Census figures, found
Laredo to be the second fastest
growing city in the country.
However, this has fallen somewhat and 1999 estimates from
the U.S. Census Bureau show
Laredo to be the second fastest
growing city in Texas and the
eighth fastest growing city in the
country.
Laredo is also currently the
eighth largest air-cargo handler of
South American goods. Laredo‘s
population has grown from
147,000 in 1992 to 186,000 in
1997. Such number is excepted
to exceed 200,000 by the year
2000. This population expansion
has placed great pressure on
existing infrastructure triggering a
local construction boom to meet
the anticipated future housing,
educational and medical needs of
Laredoans.
However, although our city,
county, and state leaders have
made significant headway in
diversifying the Laredo economy,
the truism that the Laredo economy is still quite dependent on
trade with Mexico, and consequently on the Mexican economy,
must
still
be
reiterated.
Nonetheless, on the positive side,
currently the Mexican economy is
in a state of stable growth, having
rebounded after the 1994 peso
devaluation which occurred at the
time Mexican President Carlos
Salinas de Gortari was replaced
by President Ernesto Zedillo for
the next six years. Adams
believes that the next presidential
election in Mexico in the year
2000 will not have the same
destabilizing effects as in previous presidential elections.
Evidence of the significant trade
influence on the Laredo economy
is quantified lucidly by “economic
activity indicators,” for the past six
to 10 years that have been provided to this writer by the Laredo
Development Foundation, the
Center for the Study of Western
Hemispheric Trade at Texas A&M
International University, and the
City Manager‘s Office of the City
of Laredo, among others.
Such “economic indicators”
describe the painful saga of the
local economy after the 1994
peso devaluation and its recent
resurgence. Clearly all the indicators reveal a robust economy in
the year 1993 and even 1994,
with a radical drop and slowdown
in economic activity commencing
in 1994, for some indicators, and
in 1995, for most others.
Finally for most of the economic
activity indicators that this writer
reviewed, in the years 1998 and
1999, there is a resurgence of a
growth economy, with most economic indicators finally reaching,
or even surpassing, the economic indicators of 1993 and 1994.
Data collected
by local
environmentalists
United South High School
Environmental Club, sponsored
by Belinda Lozano, and James
Earhart’s biology class from
Laredo Community College collected data at Boca Chica, at
the mouth of the Rio Grande,
and resacaca areas for water
quality analysis on Oct. 1–3.
Plant species, waterfowl, macinvertebates/vertebrates, and
beach ecology were also analyzed.
James McCarny, professor of
mathematics at L.C.C. and Tom
Miller, director of the Lamar
Bruni Vergara Environmental
Science Center, aided the students.
The data collected from both
Times courtesy photo
ENVIRONMENTALISTS: Students from United South High School
Environmental Club, sponsored by Belinda Lozano, and James Earhart’s
biology class from Laredo Community College collected data at Boca
Chica, at the mouth of the Rio Grande.
United South and L.C.C. will be
displayed at the L.C.C. library
Oct. 10-16; and at the “Dia Del
Rio” event also on Oct. 16.
Students were able to compare testing sites in Laredo with
the mouth of Rio Grande and
Resacaca areas.
One high school student said
of the trip, “we were surprised to
find how different actions such
as agriculture, industries, illegal
dumping, and tourism can affect
our Rio Grande.”