Brownsville
&
Ft. Brown, Texas

This covers Brownsville (and pretty much the rest of the Valley).
"General location of the station and description of the territory it" covers
Brownsville's on the extreme southern tip of Texas.

What town: Brownsville
State: TX
Station: Ft. Brown
Population: 100,000
Telephone Co. Name: Southwestern Bell

Electric Co. Name: Public Utilities Board (P.U.B.) - $50.00 Deposit & $25.00 Connection Fee
(Must show rental agreement)

Gas Co Name: n/a

Cable Co. Name: Time Warner

City Trash Name: n/a

City Water Name: P.U.B. - $25.00 Deposit (Must show rental agreement)
Telephone: 956-983-6100

Hospital Name: Brownsville Medical Center, Valley Regional Medical

Parks and Rec. n/a

Newspaper Name:
The Brownsville Herald
ValleyStar


Chamber of Commerce: Brownsville Chamber of Commerce
956-542-4341
Welcome Packets are $10.00

Convention & Visitors Bureau: Brownsville Convention Center

HELPFUL WEBSITES

Local Union's Web site:
Local Union's Forum:

EXTRA HELP -
Sector

Here are some emails of people who are glad to give you a helping hand.
Please only use first names!

Name:

Station type of work - The station doesn't cover a whole lot of territory, due to our "X's", which I prefer to think of as compressed AOR's (Areas Of Responsibility). I can't remember exactly how much river we have, but it's about 20 miles or so. We also cover half the town proper (including downtown), and Ft. Brown covers the rest.
We're pretty much a straight line watch station, with some bus check thrown in for good measure.
We have horses, bike, and boat-patrol but that's about it. We get detailed out of sector, but not as much as other stations.
Of course, there are special ops you can get into (SRT/Bortac/Borstar), but those are sector assets.

Shopping -

Eateries -

Cellular Telephone -

Local Internet Providers -

Other Services -

University of Texas Brownsville/Pan Am is right downtown

Any other information that you would like to add:

Outdoor activities (fishing, hunting, hiking, etc.)
Plenty of fishing in the Gulf. Very little freshwater, and anything I pulled out of the rivers and resacas down here, I'd have to nuke and detoxify before I ate. No hiking or camping (unless you crash on the beach). Hunting's pretty good, but can be expensive. If you're a bird hunter, in particular, you'd like it down here. Not much else in the way of outdoor stuff. We've got the ocean, and that's about it.

Entertainment
Very little right now. There're a few dance clubs and a few bars, but that covers it. A new restaurant opening is a VERY big deal down here. It's a little bizarre. Mc Allen is right down the road, though, and that has more options than Brownsville does. Of course, there's always Matamoros. You tend to get recognized down there, though.

Availability of housing, with general conditions and costs
There's not a whole lot of houses in our price range (most new builds are in the 40-75k range), but more and more subdivisions are going up, with some really, really nice ones being planned. Land is fairly inexpensive to buy as well.

Summary of cost-of-living
This is the cheapest place to live that I've ever been. The median wage down here is in the neighborhood of 20k or so (can't remember exactly, but it's close), so your dollar goes a long way. You'd be making three times that in short order, so you live pretty comfortably.