BROWNSVILLE, Texas - Cameron County held its State of the County Luncheon in Harlingen last month and Precinct 2 Commissioner Joey Lopez spoke about La Esperanza Community Park’s all-inclusive renovations.

The park reopened in July 2025, with the addition of an inclusive splash pad for children. According to Lopez, the park has been utilized by several children and families that are wheelchair-bound.

“The area is well shaded,” Lopez said. “The renovations that have happened within this past year (are worth) about $2.3 million. We added a huge splash pad that was put in, we updated the walking trail and we have a butterfly garden there.”

The funding for the project was paid through the American Rescue Plan Act. Lopez said the support from the city’s park’s department helped get the park acknowledged by the state level.

“If you haven’t had a chance to come on by and take a look at it, please come on by,” Lopez said. “You’d be very impressed.”

Noble Texas Builders won an Eagle Award at the ABC South Texas 2025 Excellence in Construction Awards for the design and construction of La Esperanza Park. Rene Capistran, president of Noble, said the park has been reimagined with accessibility at its core.

“Working alongside the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the transformation of this beloved community space includes major upgrades that make it more inclusive and welcoming for all visitors. From ADA-compliant renovations in the Community and Technology Buildings to fully accessible outdoor features, every detail was designed with comfort, safety, and usability in mind,” he said.

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MISSION, Texas - AltaCair Foundation’s top event of 2025 was its Accelerator Conference. This was the third year in a row AltaCair has held an Accelerator Conference. It was billed as the largest health summit in South Texas. During the conference, the group’s president, Dr. Rashmi Chandran, gave a series of interviews. Here is one of them.

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MCALLEN, Texas - RioPlex plans to hold meetings every month across the region to explain to communities what the group is doing to bring in more investment and better paying jobs.

Mario Reyna, RioPlex’s executive director, spoke about the group’s vision, mission statement, core values, and strategic direction at a leadership gathering, held recently at McAllen Country Club.

“We're going to have engagements every month throughout the region to tell people what it is that we're trying to do,” Reyna said. “People have to understand, the community has to understand, what it is that we're trying to do, how we're going to do things that are going to make them better.”

RioPlex is looking to bring longterm prosperity to the region, Reyna explained. The region consists of the Rio Grande Valley and northern Tamaulipas.

“We have to remember why we're doing it. We're doing this because we want to lower the poverty rate in our region, and the only way we know how to do this is by bringing better jobs, bringing more investment. That is going to create better paying jobs.”

Regional unity is key, Reyna explained.

“We want to bring everybody together, private, public, nonprofit, everybody. Everybody that has anything to do with bringing more investment to our community. That's our mission,” Reyna said.

“We cannot move forward if we're not united, and we are going to do everything we can to make sure people understand what it is that we're trying to do. We want to bring more industrial development to this area. So, we're going to be investor-focused. That's what we're trying to do, bring additional investment to the area. We want to promote the region, not internally, but externally.”

Reyna continued: “We want to work with everybody, everybody, including the economic development corporations and the Foreign Trade Zone.”

Foreign Trade Zone No. 12’s president and CEO, Mark E. Garcia, was in the audience. His group has just joined RioPlex.

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