Much of Texas was deluged in the month of May by pounding, relentless rains â up to 20 inches, in some locales â causing dangerous, rushing flooding that has washed away cars, and even some trains. And itâs not just central Texas thatâs been affected. Much of the eastern half of the state, along with parts of southern Oklahoma and southwestern Louisiana, were under flash-flood warnings and watches.
Fast forward to the month of August, weâve received over 11 inches of rain in some areas, adding to the already historic amounts of rain received this year.
The Yantis family has been involved with the Alamo Bowl since the first game in 1993. The bowl started as literally the least ranked bowl in college football, but has grown over the years to be arguably the seventh best bowl in college football. It now features premier teams from the Big 12 Conference and Pac 12 Conference. Schools such as Texas A&M, the University of Texas, Texas Tech, Baylor, TCU, University of Oregon, University of Michigan, Ohio State and many other prominent programs.
John Yantis served on the Board of Directors for many years and was the Chairman of the 2007 game which featured his alma mater Texas A&M against Penn State. The year that John was Chairman he helped recruit Valero to take over as the title sponsor. The 2007 game also still stands as the record attendance for a football game at the Alamo Dome with 65,380 fans.
Mike Yantis, Jr. joined the Alamo Bowl board in 2010 and served on the Team Selection Committee and as the Chair of the Philanthropic Committee. While Chair of the Philanthropic Committee, the bowl contributed an extra $500,000 in scholarships over a two year period compared to past yearâs budget. Mike Jr was named the Chair of the 2015 Alamo Bowl which featured an epic triple overtime game in which TCU overcame a 31 point halftime deficit to defeat Oregon. ESPN has called the game one of the greatest comebacks in the history of college football. While Mike was Chair the bowl also extended a long term partnership with ESPN and bid on a College Football National Championship Game.
Previous Chairs include Bill Greehey, Ernesto Ancira, Pat Frost, and Gene Dawson
The Lookout Groupâs Esperanza located in Boerne, Texas.
Video taken on May 28, 2015.
Site work and Utilities Construction by Yantis Company.
Stephanie Guzman- San Antonio Business Journal
Esperanza â the latest large-scale, master-planned community coming to a northern San Antonio suburb â seems aptly named.
Translated as âhope,â business, government and economic development leaders in Boerne are hoping for different things from it.
Bill Hinckley, president of The Lookout Group, the developer of Esperanza, is hoping his companyâs considerable investment and risk will pay off the way his even larger master-planned community north of Austin has.
At 1,240 acres, Esperanza is set to bring 2,480 homes to Boerne. It would be the largest such development in Kendall County, according to Hinckley. Esperanza was approved by Boerne in 2007, but it stalled due to the recession. Houston-based The Lookout Group picked up the project in 2013 and received final approval from the city in May of last year.
Dan Rogers, president and CEO of the Kendall County Economic Development Corp., meanwhile, is hopeful that this master-planned community will help Boerne create a more self-sufficient economy and attract startups and medical-related industries such as health care and medical device manufacturing.
Yet growth presents a number of challenges for cities, from water supply and transportation issues to how a school district grows without the upfront funding that new students bring. Thereâs also existential questions that arise, such as how to keep a small townâs identity intact.
Master-planned communities can offer advantages to small towns like Boerne, though, when compared to subdivisions that can fail to address the needs of a growing community because individual subidivisions often donât plan for their cumulative impact, Rogers said.
Esperanza, for example, will bring two new schools, city-owned parks, $2.3 million toward road improvements and the transfer of significant water rights to Boerne â as well as space allocated for commercial and retail development. And to ease residentsâ anxieties, Hinckley made a point to incorporate Boerneâs existing look and feel into Esperanza.
Despite the benefits of a master-planned community, Hinckley also noted that there are few of what he considers âtrue master-planned communitiesâ in Kendall County â he said Esperanza will be the first in Boerne â because theyâre costly to build.
âMaster plans are extremely front loaded with multimillion-dollar costs before the first home is built. It takes patient money,â Hinckley said. âThis approach is not for the faint at heart.â
Fostering economic independence
Some bedroom communities are growing so much, they are essentially building their second bedroom. Others are steering toward a different path, one of economic viability with industry of its own.
Boerne is just one of the towns in the San Antonio area pondering its direction. Much like cities up the I-35 corridor, Kendall County is now considering what it wants to become, as land inventory dwindles around Loop 1604 and development marches further north up I-10.
The Kendall County EDC was created in response to this development in 2006 after key community leaders saw the 2000 boom and wanted to better manage growth.
Rogersâ office is in Boerne, where he studies Kendall Countyâs demographics. There are several key statistics he noted that make Kendall County and Boerne economically viable.
The countyâs average age continues to decrease as young families move to Kendall County because of its school districts, in contrast to most Hill Country towns that see an increase in retirees. And those living in Kendall County are educated. Almost 40 percent of adults in Kendall County hold bachelorâs degrees, the fifth-highest percentage in the state, according to research by Indiana University. All those factors bode well for businesses and the potential for Esperanza to foster economic independence rather than increasing bedroom community status.
Currently, of the countyâs 18,000-person workforce, 58 percent leave the county and head south toward San Antonio for employment. If Boerne could keep just some of those workers in town, it would mean more dollars spent at home, more business taxes for the city and county, and less pressure on highways and roads.
Boerneâs population sits at about 12,400 people. Though Esperanza is the largest development in terms of homes proposed for Boerne, it isnât the only one. Another four subdivisions are also in early development phases. Regional experts predict that by the time all these projects are built out, Boerne will add another 5,000 homes and 12,000 residents.
âWhen you put it all together, thereâs a whole other Boerne in state of development right now,â said Jeff Thompson, Boerneâs deputy city manager and director of economic development.
Faring better in a tough economy
Hinckley wasted no time in getting Esperanza going. Yantis Co., a San Antonio-based land developer, has already cleared parts of the property to make way for rudimentary dirt roads, utility lines, and sewer and water pipes.
What will rise out of the thicket will eventually include a fire station, a 23-acre city park, a recreation center, 35 acres of commercial property, 340 acres of open space and a 15-mile hiking trail.
Master-planned communities usually fare better than the typical subdivision, Hinckley said, even in tough economic times. Consider his even larger development, the 5,000-acre master-planned community called Crystal Falls in Leander, a town just north of Austin. That development has consistently topped the nationâs 50 best-selling communities list.
While master-planned communities are abundant in states such as California and Florida, as well as some Texas cities including Houston and Dallas, their profile is just rising in San Antonio, Hinckley said.
Rogers is OK with master-planned communities coming into Kendall County, because master-planned communities such as Esperanza provide a mechanism to get ahead of problems.
âSome people say âIf you donât build it, they wonât come,’â Rogers said. âWell they are coming, and somebody is going to come to your town, too.â
Last week, Yantis Company hosted a barbecue for over 200 employees at our shop location. Our own Reb Hamiliton, prepared his famous brisket and sausage for everyone who attended. Thank you, Reb!
Yantis Company held the barbecue to show our appreciation to all of our employees and the excellent work they do on a day to day basis. This year is turning out to be great year for the company and we wouldnât be able to do it without our dedicated team.
The Valero Alamo Bowl announced its officers who will oversee this yearâs Valero Alamo Bowl and its Community Festival of Events. Lynette Padalecki succeeds Pat Frost as chairman of the Valero Alamo Bowlâs Board of Directors.
A board member since 2008, Padalecki is Group Vice President, Corporate Financial Planning for HEB Grocery Company. She is a Certified Public Accountant and since joining HEB in 1994, has served in several leadership positions providing strategic financial support across the company. She is also a newly appointed board member for the Brighton Center and former United Way Chair for HEB.
âLynette has been an active Board member and an invaluable resource for the bowl in many ways, ranging from finance to philanthropyâ, said Derrick Fox, President/CEO of the Valero Alamo Bowl. âHer passion for our community, scholarships and college football, coupled with her leadership skills will make her a tremendous Chairman.â
The other officers for 2014 include:
Mike Yantis, Jr., President, Yantis Company as Chair-Elect;
Derrick Fox, CEO of the Valero Alamo Bowl, President;
Mike Chapman, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Security Service Federal Credit Union, Treasurer
The Valero Alamo Bowl also announced the following additions to their Board of Directors: Steve Arnold, Area President of Wells Fargo Bank; Daniel Ortiz, Attorney, Brown & Ortiz, P.C.; Randy C. Smith, President of Weston Urban;
Charlie Strickland, Vice President Corporate Finance of Holt; Greg Tunnel, Vice President of KB Homes and Jason T. Wallace, Chief Strategy Officer, Partner of Contingent Macro Advisors, LLP.
The game date for the 2014 Valero Alamo Bowl will be announced by the end of April. Persons interested in game tickets can go to www.alamobowl.com to join the bowlâs priority ticket list now to be eligible for this yearâs presale.
About The Bowl
The Valero Alamo Bowl is an annual post-season collegiate game played in the 65,000 seat Alamodome in San Antonio. The game is annually broadcast on ESPN and features teams from the Big 12 and Pac-12 conferences.
From 2014-2019, there are six bowls that will host the conference champions, at-large teams and semi-finals games as part of the new College Football Playoff. The Valero Alamo Bowl is now the #1 bowl outside of that structure and will feature the top available teams from the Big 12 and Pac-12 conferences.
Last year a standing room only crowd of 65,918 attended the 2013 Valero Alamo Bowl to watch Oregonâs win over Texas marking the gameâs second highest attendance of all-time, third sellout in a row and the sixth capacity crowd in the last eight years.
Over 7.5 million viewers watched the 2013 game making it ESPNâs 8th most-watched non-BCS bowl game of all-time. The Valero Alamo Bowl has now produced seven of the Top 20 Most-Watched Non-BCS Bowl Games in ESPN history
Mike Yantis, Matthew Yantis, and Mike Yantis Jr. announced a completed buyout of Yantis Company giving them 100 percent ownership of the family held company. With the completion of the transaction, on November 12, 2012, the company has announced several management changes naming Mike Yantis as Chairman; Mike Yantis, Jr. as Chief Executive Officer; Matthew Yantis as President; and Paul Basaldua as Vice President of Operations. Arnold Briones, Steve Deering and Paul Sparks remain in their respective positions as Executive Vice President, Vice President of Estimating, and Chief Financial Officer.
âWe are very proud and excited to expand our investment and commitment to the employees and clients of Yantis Company through the completion of this transaction,â the family said. âWe have always, and will always continue to feel that we have the best team in civil construction in the San Antonio area. We look forward to providing the same level of service that our firm has been giving since John Yantis founded the firm almost 50 years ago.â
Sanford Nowlin Reporter- San Antonio Business Journal
Houstonâs Platinum Energy Solutions Inc. will hire up to 200 people at a new South Side facility that will service clients extracting oil and gas in the Eagle Ford Shale.
Platinum has leased 50 acres at Braunig Industrial Park and is building new facilities there, including a plant to process sand for the hydraulic fracturing process used to extract oil in shale formations, according to company securities filings and economic development officials.
âFrom our conversations with the company, they expect to create 200 jobs with an average salary of $60,000,â says Mario Hernandez, CEO of the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation. âTheyâll provide a variety of services to companies working in the shale. Itâs certainly not a one-dimensional operation.â
The project joins a growing number of developments in South Bexar County by companies working in the Eagle Ford, one of the nationâs most-active petroleum plays.
Oilfield-services giant Halliburton Co. is building a 1,500-employee complex nearby, and a similar Baker Hughes Inc. facility will employ 500.
Although the EDF and other economic development groups met with Platinum during its site-selection process, none extended tax breaks or financial incentives to lure the company.
âIt is our understanding that (Platinum) is using this facility to support logistics related to hydraulic fracturing,â says Lisa Lewis, spokeswoman for CPS Energy, which owns the acreage, located at Interstate 37, south of Loop 410. âThat includes administrative functions, support lab/storage and maintenance facilities on the site.â
Officials with Platinum â which in February postponed a $126,000 million-to-$154,000 million initial public offering â didnât return phone inquiries about the project.
Its broker, Terry Warth of CBRE Group, referred all questions back to the company.
Platinum provides hydraulic fracturing services, pressure pumping and sand to companies working the Eagle Ford and other shale plays.
Drillers pump sand into wells during the fracturing process to keep fissures propped open so oil and gas can flow up from the ground.
The company holds a contract with Petrohawk Energy Corp., one of the shaleâs biggest acreage holders, according to its securities filings.
The Petrohawk deal, combined with a separate pact with Encana Corp. in Utah, is expected to generate average monthly revenues for Platinum of $23 million, the filing also states.
Build-out
Platinum, formed in fall 2010, reported a $23.7 million net loss on revenues of $9.9 million for the nine months ended, Sept. 30, 2011, according to the most recent financial data included it its filings.
Platinum also reports that it is developing a âfacility near San Antonioâ to process and deliver frac sand to its shale customers. The company has leased up to 461 railcars for transporting raw material from an independent mining supplier, and it is negotiating use of a nearby rail line.
The San Antonio facility will include a high-capacity dryer and covered storage, according to SEC documents. The plant is expected to be operational this spring.
âBecause we will not be dependent on third-party suppliers for dry sand or transportation systems, we believe that this will enable us to deliver (supplies) and equipment quickly to our fracturing jobs on short notice,â the company states. âWe expect to be able to process the raw wet sand at lower cost than we would typically pay for dry frac sand from outside suppliers allowing us to capture additional margins.â
San Antonio construction firm Yantis Co. is among the contractors building a sand plant, an administrative building and a railyard for Platinum at the site, President Mike Yantis confirmed. Officials with the projectâs general contractor, Florida-based DL Porter Constructors Inc., were unavailable at press time.
Yantis says his firm is conducting $3 million in work on the site. However, he declined to place a dollar amount on the overall project.
The development is scheduled for completion in October, although a portion of the facility will be ready sooner.
âWeâre pushing,â Yantis says. âThey wanted us done with the first phase in the next two to three months.â
Relocating and expanding oilfield-services companies created 2,650 San Antonio-area jobs last year, the EDFâs Hernandez says. That accounts for more than half the jobs his organization worked to attract.
Currently, the EDF is in talks with at least four additional shale-related prospects, each of which is expected to employ 50 to 100 people, Hernandez adds.
âThe next phase for us is attracting the second-tier suppliers,â he says. âThe investments will be smaller than Halliburton and Baker Hughes, but theyâre still bringing good jobs to San Antonio.â
Rain on Thursday halted the excavation of an East Side landfill where officials have been searching this week for evidence in the disappearance of an Arizona infant. âThe excavation has been suspended for the day because of the inclement weather,â said San Antonio Police Department spokeswoman Sandy Gutierrez. âBut we hope to resume Friday.â Police Chief William McManus said at a news conference Tuesday that the landfill was targeted because itâs tied to a trash bin at a hotel on San Pedro Avenue where Elizabeth Johnson, 23, claimed to have suffocated Gabriel Johnson, placed him in a diaper bag and disposed of his body.
Police continue to investigate a separate missing person case on the 9-month-old because Johnson also claimed she gave him to a couple in a San Antonio park.
Private companies have donated more than $100,000 worth of personnel, equipment and services for the excavation, which began at the Tessman Road Landfill Tuesday. It will take several more days to remove a total of 1.8 million cubic feet of debris that officials have estimated sits atop a layer where police believe the babyâs remains or evidence could be.
The particular section of the landfill has been cordoned off since Dec. 27, the day Johnson allegedly sent a text message to Gabrielâs father, Logan McQueary, saying she killed the boy.
Vicky Waddy, a spokeswoman for Zachry Construction Corp., said her companyâs work has also temporarily halted at the site, but five employees have been operating an excavator and three dump trucks in the dig since Tuesday.
She estimated the cost of the employeesâ work, which includes loading dump trucks with debris and unloading the dump trucks at another section of the landfill, is $30,000. But that amount could change if rain continues to fall, complicating the operation.
âThe problem isnât just the rain coming down, but whether thereâs a stable foundation for our excavator,â she said.
A spokesman for Yantis Co. said a crew is on standby to help police in the second phase of the landfill operation, which includes sifting through debris for evidence. That process, which costs an estimated $30,000, will begin once the landfill site has been excavated to 45 feet, police said.
Yantis employees will then use equipment, including two excavators, to move the debris to a nearby secure site, which police have declined to disclose, to allow for the arduous process of searching through the trash. Police will use search teams and cadaver dogs, McManus said.
âRight now, weâre waiting for the Zachry crews to finish their part,â said Yantis spokesman Paul Basaldua. âWe hope to start sometime next week, pending weather. If it continues to rain, itâs harder to sift through that material because it becomes more compacted and claylike.â
Meanwhile, Johnson, who was arrested in Florida, remains jailed in Arizona on charges of kidnapping, custodial interference and child abuse.
Donations in search for baby
A number of private companies are donating personnel, equipment and services in the landfill excavation and search for missing baby Gabriel Johnson, ensuring taxpayer dollars are not required to cover costs that are estimated to be well above $100,000.
Zachry Construction Corp.
Yantis Co.
M&M Contracting
Holt Construction
United Site Services
Home Depot
H-E-B
Bexar County Junior Livestock
Martinez Social Club
That progress hasnât provided relief yet to residents of Ventura Heights subdivision in East Bexar County, where deep, treacherous potholes refilled with rainfall Wednesday. But as a temporary fix, a developer with no current stake in the subdivision offered to patch some of its worst potholes in the next week.
In a letter to the county, Yantis Co. President Michael Yantis Jr. said that although it wasnât the cause of the road problems, âI feel like we can be part of a temporary solution that will allow the Ventura Heights residents full use of their streets.â Accepting the offer, County Engineer Renee Green responded: âWe understand that this is not a permanent fix and will continue to work with the homeowners to develop a permanent solution to their street problems.â In the meantime, the county, which disavows responsibility for maintaining the substandard roads, is extracting agreements from the developers it can locate. When they canât be found, the county is withholding driveway permits and holding up plats, but isnât authorized to do repairs, officials said.
Ventura Heightsâ road woes sparked the countywide survey that was outlined at Commissionerâs Court on Tuesday. Residents of the neighborhood, in an unincorporated area near Converse, implored officials â again â to remedy their plight.
Officials offered several long-term options. One plan would have the budget-strapped county assume responsibility for Ventura Heightsâ roads, making all taxpayers responsible for maintenance. In other scenarios, a special district could be formed where a road maintenance tax would be imposed for 30 years; or residents could be required to pay a share of the upkeep.
In May, the county estimated it would cost $1.3 million to bring Ventura Heightsâ streets into compliance at a cost of $7,731.84 for each of the 170 homes.
Green told commissioners that 121 subdivisions in unincorporated areas, whose streets and drains have been out of warranty for two or more years, have been examined in recent months. Sixteen of them have completed needed repairs and 52 promised to make fixes by early October, she said.
The 121 subdivisions had 37 developers, seven of which couldnât be located, Green said. The missing seven are responsible for 20 subdivisions, including Ventura Heights.
No plans of action to remedy road problems have been submitted by 33 of the subdivisions whose developers were located. However, about half have such plans in the works.
âIâm encouraged by the response weâve received from the builders and we will continue to diligently work to bring all of Bexar Countyâs residential roads into compliance,â Green said.
Commissioner Tommy Adkisson, whose Precinct 4 includes Ventura Heights, said the county, by law, has been constrained in its response.
âWe were advised by the district attorneyâs office that if you go in there and fix it, thatâs a de facto adoption of the subdivision,â Adkisson said.
John Yantis served on the Board of Directors for many years and was the Chairman of the 2007 game which featured his alma mater Texas A&M against Penn State. The year that John was Chairman he helped recruit Valero to take over as the title sponsor. The 2007 game also still stands as the record attendance for a football game at the Alamo Dome with 65,380 fans.