Hidalgo County Public Meeting 1, January 11, 2011

The meeting was held for Hidalgo County at the McAllen Chamber of Commerce. 

Attendance:     

• Public / Public Officials - 19
• Media - 1 (Channel 48, Fox)
• Steering Committee Members - 1
• Technical Committee Members - 1

The meeting agenda: HidalgoCountyAgenda-Jan11-2011

Other Hand-outs:     Handout1-OverallProjSummary     Handout2-CommentForm

The meeting started with a public viewing of mapping exhibits at 5pm; the mapping exhibits included the following:  

                                                                Exhibit1-OverallProjectStudyAreaMap

                                                                Exhibit2-HidalgoCountyFloodplain Map

                                                                Exhibit3 -HidalgoCountyLandUseMap

                                                                Exhibit4-HidalgoCountyProjectsTo-Date

A formal presentation began approximately at 6pm; the presentation included: HidalgoCoPPT-Jan11-2011.

Several items, issues, and/or suggestions resulted from the meeting –

• Colonia advocates in attendance requested that written correspondence and forms, such as the Comment Form, be provided both in english and spanish.
• It was agreed that colonia residents should be included in a focus group so that their input could be used in the gathering data process.  They encouraged the engineering team to actually visit a few of the colonias to observe conditions and said they would help set up these tours.
• There was also discussion of the evaluation methodology and ranking system.  It was suggeswted that the evaluation criteria should include a criterion regarding public health, safety and quality of life.