Fellow readers,
Like I’ve mentioned in the past, I am interning with the City of Plainview in the Community Development Department where I am currently updating the city zoning map. (Refer back to my other blogs for a recap of what I do.) I have had a lot of successes, challenges, and believe it or not, failures as well.
The project I had was updating the city zoning map. I had some success with it. There are so many cases on zoning and rezoning certain lots in the city, but I am proud to say I have gotten 215 cases out of 852 cases. Some of y’all might think, “That’s not a lot of work done!” What y’all don’t know is how much research and time that goes into each and every little case. I’m surprised I even passed 100 cases. There were some challenges that I faced during the process. The older cases were very difficult because of how little information city hall has on them. Like most occupations, you are not likely to succeed at every project and the failures I’ve had were a major disaster. As I was working, my supervisor did a check up on how things were going. As he checked, he found that I did some cases incorrect. I thought, “Okay big deal, I can go back and fix it.” Not knowing that if those cases were published and final, it would have an impact on the certain area’s or lot’s property value. Major or small I still wouldn’t want that to happen because of me so I had to be very careful.
Working with my supervisor and his department has been like working with family. They are everyday people who are funny, crazy, argumentative, but still manage somehow to get things done when they need to. You have Robert and Judy that fight like brother and sister but still manage to come to an agreement at the end, or they just shut-up which is fine with me. Also, you have Jesse and Nick who are like the main brothers. Finally, Cris, my supervisor, is like the dad who keeps everybody in-control and makes sure everything is still in tack.
I think it’s so cool how my community members recognize me at both occupations. “Hey you work at the city?!” or “Hey you were the one that was passing out samples yesterday at Amigos?!” I thought I was making an impact on my community, but in the end they’re making an impact on me.
I am so glad Ogallala Commons chose this internship for me. I love the business field and a lot of information I learned here was great. The amount of flexibility for my schedule from them was priceless. Being able to juggle two jobs was hard but I did it. I definitely will be missing all of Roberts “beautiful” singing and his quotes: “Jo Daddy, Jo Mama, Jo, Jo,” and “Really.” I hope my supervisor is here next year so I can do this internship again.
Really enjoyed it y’all. Thanks for having me!
Peace out y’all,
Tony Lee Hernandez
Ogallala Commons Intern 2016
