Friendly Energy Exploration (fka FEGR)

[TPX]

GOOD FOR FEGR! >>> 2015 should be good to Corpus Christi

CORPUS CHRISTI - Get ready for 2015. The chances are that the coming year will be a very good one for Corpus Christi. With the calendar ready to turn in a few hours, the city shows every sign of heading for one of its most progressive eras in its history.

Whether it's the long-awaited new Harbor Bridge on the cusp of becoming a reality, the capture of a new water supply source, the opening of production of major new manufacturing facilities, the opening of the first new high school in decades in the city's biggest school district, the full blossoming of a new kind of university program, the city will experience one of its best years ever.

The ground for all this progress has already been laid in the now-concluding 2014 and in the immediately preceding years. But 2015 will be when much of the payoff will come.

Take the Harbor Bridge. The proposed bridge in 2015 will be on the path to navigating its last bureaucratic hurdle, the final public comment period. The bridge, which could be an investment of as much as $1 billion, could get a final decision sometime in 2015.

The bridge is more than just a structure. With the removal of the present iconic bridge and, more than likely a new route, the new bridge will remake the city's skyline, change the traffic pattern into the downtown area and in the areas immediately west of the city core. The new structure would be a safer, better and, one hopes, an aesthetically pleasing connection to the booming north shore of Corpus Christi Bay.

The new extension of the Mary Rhodes Pipeline won't be part of the city's skyline. In fact, it won't be visible at all locally; the key feature will be its intake feeding off the Colorado River. But the Colorado River extension will further cement the city's water future for decades. The pipeline is expected to be completed in summer 2015.

The pipeline won't erase the city's water concerns. A city that lives on the edge of a region once called the Wild Horse Desert can't ever rest easy in its search for water. Or that now has its reservoirs only a third full. But the pipeline, the brain child of the late mayor for which it is named, continues the city's forward planning and thinking on water.

The city will need that kind of forward lean as its prepares for a resurgence of local manufacturing. The Voestalpine iron processing plant has already broken ground and the production in the Austrian-owned $740 million facility is expected to begin late next year. One thousand jobs are expected to be created just in its construction. It will create 150 permanent jobs.

That major investment, along with the Chinese-owned TPCO steel mill ($1.3 billion in investment), the Italian-owned M&G plastic processing plant ($1 billion), OxyChem's ethylene plant ($1.4 billion), and Cheniere's condensate facility ($500 million) -- all of which are planned to go on line between 2015 and 2017 — would transform the Corpus Christi Bay area.

Would plans go awry because of falling oil prices? Perhaps, but these facilities have been drawn to the area because of the Eagle Ford shale region's abundant natural gas reserves. These plants, and the associated activities that come with them, promise to bring more than a thousand jobs, well-paying jobs, jobs on which families can plan a future.

Then there is the new Veterans Memorial High School that is set to open in the fall, the new Coast Guard facility at Corpus Christi International Airport set to open in the spring, the continuing expansion of the Momentum Campus at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, the $50 million expansion of the Texas State Aquarium whose construction will be under full sail this coming year.

In past years these last developments would be headliners. They are still significant, but next to, say, the blooming of the new drone program at A&M-Corpus Christi, a program which could have a $260 million economic impact over the next 10 years, they will be pressed to compete.

All this is inevitably bringing growth, a development which in some circles is still viewed with suspicion. What can growth do? It can raise our median household income, which at $47,481 is still far below the nation and even the rest of Texas. It can provide the wealth to educate our youngsters and provide the opportunity for a college degree to families where no one has ever gone to college. More education means more income, first of all, but it also means a better quality of life. It means that blue-collar families can see their sons and daughters enter professional careers, careers that can further grow our city.

It can mean a better city where the arts flourish, where fewer people sleep in the streets, where fewer people hunger, where children sleep safe from crime and where education is paramount.

If 2015 can usher in such an era, then that would really be something to celebrate.

Nick Jimenez has worked as a reporter, city editor and editorial page editor for more than 40 years in Corpus Christi. He is currently the editorial page editor emeritus for the Caller-Times. His column appears on Wednesdays and Sundays.

http://www.caller.com/news/columnists/nick-jimenez/jimenez-2015-should-be-good-to-corpus-christi_85662972