Friday, April 18, 2014

Project Behave~Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation Offers $750,000 Incentive to Attract New Psych Ward

BEDC Director Jason Hilts
Included in his report regarding "economic development, expansion and growth, BEDC Director Jason Hilts gave a rapidfire synopsis of projects "in the works."

Project Behave is the cutesy name given to an incentives program to lure a $11.5 to 13 million psychiatric hospital to Brownsville.  The project, if it comes to fruition, would bring 225 jobs to Brownsville paying $18-22 dollars per hour plus benefits.  Harlingen is our main competitor as McAllen/Edinburg already has such a facility.

Hilts explained that the Brownsville area currently has only 37 psych beds available, that 3 Brownsville Police Department employees are currently dedicated to transferring prisoners to and from facilities in Hidalgo County. 


The BEDC is recommending the GBIC approve Project Behave, giving the hospital $150,000 per year for 5 years, provided they stay at least 6 years.  A commitment of fewer than 6 years results in a pro-rated callback on the investment.  The total contract is for 10 years, approved Thursday evening by the GBIC.  The incentives are based on a 92 bed unit being built.  Should the firm opt for a 72 bed unit, the incentives drop to $135,000 per year for 5 years.

Hilts stated that the vacant Doctor's Hospital was mentioned as an option, but with no interest from the prospect.


U.S.S. Forrestal
All-Star Metals, a ship-breaking company located at the Port of Brownsville was given $400,000 to provide 400 jobs in salvaging the U.S.S. Forrestal. The jobs must be held for 10 years to earn the incentive, $100 per year for every job created.


9 comments:

  1. Three children who were headed to church were briefly abducted Thursday afternoon when their parents' car was stolen. The brothers — two 7-year-olds and a 1-year-old — were sitting in their parents' Nissan Altima at about 4:30 p.m. as their father locked the door to their home and their mother ran inside to retrieve a bottle, authorities said. That's when a man jumped in the vehicle and drove off from the Southeast Side home, located near Pecan Valley Drive and Colglazier Avenue, according to the San Benito Police Department. The unidentified man, described as in his 30s, stopped the vehicle a short time later and ordered the kids out — picking one of the 7-year-olds up himself and placing him outside the car, witnesses said. The children had been fighting the man as he drove, police Chief William McManus said. The man drove off again in the 2005 model Altima, described as brownish-grey. He remains at large. “I thank God the man wasn't mean,” Lucia Lozada told the News after she was reunited with her sons. “He had enough heart to let the kids off and not hurt them.”

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    1. Yea yea yea didn't this dude and the other one with the goat tee say at commish meetings that they had all these prospects. Blowing smoke again?us citizens will believe it when we see it ,we need results

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  2. That is good news for Bobby Wieghtman. He will have a home close by.

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  3. Police have few clues in the death of a man whose badly decomposed body was found in an abandoned house Thursday afternoon some 25 north of Harlingen. The discovery was made about 2:10 p.m. at the bottom of a ravine known well to vagrants, according to police reports. Police said the man's body, in an advanced state of decomposition, was found on a couch in the house. No utilities were connected to the home. Police said investigators are waiting autopsy results to determine how the man died. But, police added, it appears he died of natural causes.

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  4. This is fucking ridiculous. Why doesn't the city just hire the workers directly instead of going through an intermediary? That way everyone has a job and they don't have to do shit.

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  5. This expenditure is like another "Titan Tire" venture. How much of that money will go into the hands of the few doctors that control the medical profession in Brownsville and make a killing off of Medicaid and medicare patients. And, other than their budz, how can a hospital, isolated from other mental treatment facilities prosper. Like other medical issues, folks will go to McAllen where they have more confidence in getting a doctor, not a quack who is friends with local medical powers.

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    1. You would have to be crazy to allow yourself to be treated by a psychiatric hospital in Brownsville!

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  6. Brownsville Doctors Hospital, what a crock of shit! Has the mold problem been fixed? Fake PhD CEO, shady billing and cheapskates, never paid their bills, that's how they can afford to drive their fancy cars and live in million dollar houses. BDH IS a joke and everyone knows it.

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  7. So, looks like Harlingen got this one!

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