El Paso Times from El Paso, Texas • 11

West Side Westsiders hear about plans for bike lanes. Coming Wednesday Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2008 fjfcTimes Neighborhoods, city desk, 546-6352, neighborselpasotimes.com www.elpasotimes.com 3B i ii i m-a -1 i i EL PASO -The Star on the Franklin Mountains may be lighted in honor of an El Pasoan or an El Paso business. Tonight, the star is lighted: In recognition of Western Refining Co. The Greater Chamber and the El Paso community thank you for sponsoring the revi-talization efforts in keeping our Star shining brightly each night.

The cost to light the star is $50 a night. To light the star, call the Greater El Paso Chamber of Commerce, 534-0500, one week in advance. Today's school menus in the area school districts and the David Carrasco Job Corps Center. All meals include milk: Anthony elementary Breakfast cinnamon-raisin bagel, cream cheese, applesauce. Lunch: chicken and veggies, que-sadilla, ref tied beans, fruit.

Anthony middle, high Breakfast: cinnamon roll, orange. Lunch: hot dog or hamburger on bun, Tater Tots, ranch-style beans, fruit Canutillo Breakfast: fruit, cereal, fruit muffin. Lunch: steak fingers, ketchup, baked potato wedges, cornmeal buns, fruit. Cathedral Breakfast choice. Lunch: com dog, mustard, seasoned com, pasta salad, fruit Clint Breakfast: choices, cof-feecake.

Lunch: roast turkey, chefs salad or grilled-cheese sandwich, mashed potatoes gravy, wheat roll, fruit or cranberry mold. El Paso Breakfast: homemade pancakes, turkey sausage. Lunch: cheeseburger or hamburger with fixings, chefs salad, turkey-ham sandwich on wheat or peanut and jelly sandwich and string cheese, baked rench fries, rainbow applesauce. Fabens Breakfast scrambled eggs, toast, chile sauce, fruit or juice. Lunch: chefs salad, crackers, fruit cup.

Gadsden Fall break. San Elizario Breakfast: breakfast burrito, juice or fruit. Lunch: lasagna, salad, roll, fruited gelatin. Socorro Breakfast peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Lunch: red cheese enchiladas, lettuce and tomato salad, pears, cake.

Tornillo Breakfast breakfast burrito, cereal, wheat toast, yogurt, juice. Lunch: chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, fruit cocktail. Ysleta Breakfast cheese omelet Lunch: pizza wedges, -salad, apricot halves. Job Corps Breakfast juice, Cream of Wheat, scrambled eggs with chorizo, Tater Tots, flour tortilla, fruit Lunch: soup, sausage on bun, lemon-baked fish, rice pi-laf com, salad bar, apple crisp. a Photo courtesy of Ysleta Independent School District GECU Chief Executive Harriet May, third from right, stood last week with Del Valle students who will save and work at the new credit union branch at the school.

From left to right are Paola Ostos, Viridiana Sodina, Sandy Favela, May, Meghan Shaughnessy and Arturo Garciduenas. i Of Del Valle High School 1 Credit union branch teaches students about finance, service By' Darren Merltz El Paso Times ing at GECU, described the credit union branch at GECU as no different than any credit union branch. Though the branch is only open to faculty, staff and students and not the general public, the function of the branch remains the same and customers can receive most any bank PASO Students at Del Valle High School are gaining practical expe A 1 mile Detail rience with banking and finances now that the Government Employees Credit Union has opened a student-run bank branch at the high school. El Paso Times! ii GECU earlier this fall opened a bank branch that allows students, teachers and staff at the school to handle many of their banking needs at the school cam-1 pus in a program that officials believe will provide young people with lessons in financial literacy. "It's been wonderful.

I've actually learned better people skills, how to man age problems, and you learn how to deal with that," said Rosa Terrazas, a senior at Del Valle and one of four students working part time at the on campus credit union branch. "It's really helped me. It's actually built my skills in working with computers and people." service. Key to the branch operation is training students at a young age how to handle their personal finances well. If students in high school can learn to put away a small portion of their earnings periodically and forget about it, their finances will prosper for years to come, Bracher said.

"Basically, it's a GECU branch that is run by students of Del Valle High School who are also employees of GECU," she said. "GECU is very committed to providing financial education opportunities. This is just one way we can reach young adults." The Del Valle High School GECU branch is the second high school credit union branch in the El Paso area. Canutillo High School opened a similar branch about a year ago. Darren Meritz may be reached at dmeritzelpasotiimes.com; 546-6127.

The GECU on-campus branch, which works i hand in hand with the high school's magnet Animal Services: 842-1000. Code Enforcement: (trash, cars): 774-4500. Development Services Code Enforcement office (housing structure violations): 541-4800. The fire marshal's office if a home may pose a fire hazard: 771-1090. Environmental hazards: city's Environmental Services Department: 621-6700.

Graffiti Hotline: 621-6789. Police non-emergency: 832-4400. Police (to file a report): 832-4436. Solid Waste Services: 621-6700. Street lights that are out: 543-5970; 877-3400 (after hours).

Unsecured, vacant homes: city's Building Permits and Inspections Division at nance, especially the best ways to save, how to manage their investments and what times might be right to borrow. "What they're experiencing is they're learning how to manage a GECU credit union," Brooks said. "To me, we're doing something that is headed in the right direction. We're teaching kids to save some and to spend some." Musette Bracher, vice president of market school, the Multi-national Business Academy, also provides students with very practical experience working in business settings and understanding what might be expected of them as they enter the job market, said Irma Brooks, director of the magnet school. At the same time, students campus-wide are encouraged to learn more about personal fi- Housing agency gets grant to accommodate disabled What it i ft.

Keep El Paso Beautiful has push brooms, shovels, gloves, trash bags and other tools that can be borrowed free with a valid identification at the following Lower Valley El Paso fire station addresses: 6300 Delta. 7901 San Jose. 9418 North Loop. For more information, call Keep El Paso Beautiful at 546-6742. The nonprofit Lower Valley Housing Corp.

has helped low-' income families build more than 360 new homes since 1990 in El Paso County through a program called "mutual self-help construction." The agency forms groups of 8-12 fami- I lies and teaches them how to build at least 65 of their homes. The balance of the work is done by professional a Carolina skate park is closed for repairs, art By Darren Meritz El Paso Times EL PASO Renovations and a new mural project at Carolina Skate Park will force the popular site for skaters to close until late October, officials said. The skate park, the largest in the city, was to have closed Monday, and will remain so until Oct. 27. The city plans to repair concrete cracks in the park's "Big Bowl" section a dug out, concrete structure built for skating.

City officials also have commissioned artists through the El Paso Skate Association to paint a mural inside the Big Bowl in a project designed to dress up the park and to discourage vandals from tagging in By Darren Meritz El Paso Times EL PASO -Bank of the West donated $15,000 to the Lower Valley Housing Corporation in an effort to revise and expand existing home plans, bringing the total number of home layouts to 11. Nancy Hanson, executive director of the Lower Valley Housing said the donation will enable low income homeowners to live in a greater variety of housing layouts, which now will better accommodate people with disabilities. Hanson said the organization didn't have the money to create more house plans, so Bank of the West, a longtime partner, chose to contribute. "Words simply do not express our gratitude," Hanson said. "Retrofitting an existing home to accommodate a wheelchair is just not an option for our homeowners." Bank of the West has fi- VaneuM Montltviit El Paso Times Riley Rodriguez pulled off an indie grab in April at the Carolina Skate Park.

The skate park will be closed until late October so the city can repair cracks in the concrete of the "Big Bowl." During repairs, a mural will be painted inside the bowl by local artists to discourage tagging. Want to change something about your neighborhood? Or maybe you would like to celebrate something about It instead. Talk to us; we want to hear from you. E-mail us at neighbors elpasotimes.com or call 546-6352 dpasotimes.com it's not just a piece of gray concrete in the ground." The Carolina Skate Park, 563 N. Carolina in the Lower Valley, was built in 2001 at a cost of $750,000 and has been a popular venue for skating events.

The park attracts hundreds of area skateboarders per week, officials said. the area, said Joel Mcknight, assistant director of Parks and Recreation for the city of El Paso. "When you start to do things like a mural and things like that, people start treating it with a little more respect," McKnight said. "It's just the fact that it adds a personal touch and nanced about 64 percent of the housing units built by the Lower Valley Housing Corp. The housing corporation assists families earning less than 50 percent of the area median income develop a mortgage plan that is Visit elpasotlmes.com neighborhoods WW ft -WtWJ-.