Martin Hagne, executive director of Valley Nature Center, persuaded commissioners Monday that Willacy County needs to join the organization at a cost of $4,500 per year.

In return VNC will provide guided tours of the salt lakes west of Raymondville, near Lasara. VNC will provide vans and binoculars on the free tours from 8am until noon four times a year. Guides will explain how the lakes were formed and their history.

Ancient indian tribes treked to the lakes to gather salt an important commodity for trade and for curing meat. Later, during the civil war confederate soldiers visited El Sal del Rey (Salt of the King) and La Sal Vieja for the same purpose.

VNC will also take 30 local school students to the lake ten times a year to teach them bout endangered species of fish and wildlife, such as turtles and snakes. The kids between third and sixth grades will be transported by school bus, Hagne said and that will be the only expense to the school district.

Acting county judge Aurelio "Keeter" Guerra made the motion to join the organization and the dues will be paid with funds from the hotel/motel tax.

Following Hagne's remarks Brian Winton of the United States Service Fish & Wildlife told commissioners about the "Ocelot Festival" this weekend at Marine Military Academy in Harlingen. Ocelots ranged from Mexico to Louisiana and Arkansas at one time but due to fatalities caused by automobiles there remain about 50 in the United States.

In the Rio Grande Valley their habitat is Laguna Atascosa Wildlife Refuge, he said.

Also in northern Mexico and on the King Ranch ocelots may be found. A caged ocelot will be on display at the festival this weekend, he said. The native cat is an endangered species.

When Willacy County used grant funds to build the auto complex on 5.3 acres for Rodriguez Ford at Spur 56 and Exp. 77 the agreement was for the dealer to pay $2,000 per month for 20 years with no interest. In return the dealer agreed to provide jobs to local residents. The county guaranteed repayment of ORCA grant funds used to build the facility if Rodriguez Ford was unable to repay them. Now, the company owes a balance of $201,059.95 which they intend to refinance, allowing county to disengage from the project and to have no further liability.

Judge Guerra told commissioners that Rodriguez has provided the jobs they agreed to provide and they have been involved in the community. “It is unfortunate that our whole country and even the world went into financial crisis,” he said

“They want to pay off this debt and relieve the county of its obligations,” Guerra said, in making his motion to "authorize Rodriguez Ford to do whatever they need to do".

His motion passed unanimously.

Raul Flores, the county engineer, reported that the Port Mansfield "Fred Stone" fishing pier will be completely repaired in two weeks, except for the picnic shelters.

"We still need to finish the hand rails on the pier and connect the lights. Somebody stole the copper wire we were using by cutting it in several places. They used a pickup to haul 300 lbs. of wire which was recovered."

In other business:

County clerk Teresa "Terry" Flores got permission to accept debit and credit cards in her office for payments from customers. Commissioners also okayed her plans to put all deed maps on cd's which can be sold to customers. Total cost of the project is $1,600.

Final payment for firecalls was made to the Lasara VFD in a check for $315. The motion was made by Pct. 1 Commissioner Eliberto "Beto" Guerra.

In order to keep accurate track of time worked by county employees, treasurer Ruben Cavazos was authorized to buy 20 time clocks at a cost of $7,400 for the various offices.

Pct. 2 Commissioner Erasmo "Eddie" Chapa will buy a Ford- F150 four door pickup from Ed Payne motors for $21,750. His old truck has almost 200,000 miles on it and is 11 years old, he said.

Blanket liability insurance for the district attorney's office to cover himself, his assistants, investigators and everyone who works in the office, at a cost of about $3,000 annually is needed, according to Bernard Ammerman.

The insurance is necessary because of a recent trend of defendants filing lawsuits alleging errors and omissions. Ammerman said that he can pay for the first year but he wants this to be a line item expense in the future. He said the state usually has immunity but in civil rights cases immunity does not apply.

"I don't want to work a second job to pay my legal expenses," the D.A. quipped.

On a motion by Commissioner Chapa he was given approval to price the requested

Willacy County Extension Agent Lucas Garcia has resigned effective on Feb. 3. A letter from Garcia was read to commissioners Monday. His resignation was accepted on a motion from Commissioner Chapa. Naismith Engineering was recommended by a committee to administer $512,000 in Hurricane Dolly housing rehabilitation funds on a motion by Judge Guerra.

Commissioners agreed to pay $1,187 in travel expenses to grantsperson Sally Velasquez as a partial payment of her expenses for the past year, on a motion by Commissioner Chapa.

Naismith Engineering was also given the contract to provide professional services for the 2008- 2008 Coastal Impact Assistance Program.PeterRavella t h e county's consultant on the CIAP reported the county's share of grant funds for 2007 was $488,561 and the same amount for 2008.

The money comes from a tax on oil and gas company leases in the Gulf of Mexico and can only be used for environmental issues. Ravella said that the 2007 funds were supposed to be used to dredge the channel that cuts through South Padre Island. However, that project has already been completed and a task force will recommend alternative programs.

Ravella suggests a Master Plan for the county to provide parks where needed, to spend $100,000 to improve Laguna Point at Port Mansfield and the balance to promote "Eco-tourism in the county." The initial step was to file the grant application.

"The important thing is to make the deadline and we can decide what to do with the funding later," said Ravela.

On Judge Guerra's wish list is a park for Lasara and Ravella said the Master Plan can be used to leverage additional funding from the Texas Parks & Wildlife Agency which has $1.5 million for parks in its budget this year.

Judge Guerra said the county cannot afford "to pass up this outside money coming in.” Only 17 or 18 Texas counties, those whose borders touch the Gulf of Mexico are eligible to receive the funding from the CIAP program.

His motion to apply for the grant passed unanimously.