Deputy Secretary Saul Ramirez addressed over 140 conferees at the Ninth Annual Urban County Conference on May 22, 1999 in South Padre Island. The conference was sponsored by the Hidalgo County - Urban County Program.

In his address, Mr. Ramirez stressed the importance of spreading the message of the Community Development Block Grant. Mr. Ramirez's visit to South Texas highlighted the 25^th Anniversary celebration of the Community Development Block Grant Program.

Mr. Ramirez also presented various participating consortium cities with performance awards, in particular, the Quick Draw Award to the city that has the best expenditure rate, the "You Got It" Award was presented to the CDBG practitioner who provided leadership in CDBG projects. CDBG Week and Fair Housing Month Awards were also presented to cities that carried out activities demonstrating the importance of CDBG and Fair Housing.

Anthony Covacevich, Urban County Program Director, was pleased with the attendance of the Deputy Secretary, commenting that "this visit by such a high HUD official emphasizes the importance HUD places on the CDBG Program."