Dear Friends,

I have recently returned from a somewhat productive trip to College Station. Many times after past visits, I have left there asking myself if we would ever see this Honey Bee Lab facility built. At our most recent meeting, I actually saw a detailed set of plans for the facility. Those plans are the fruits of many months of work between Dr. Pankiw and the engineers. Dr. Pankiw indicated that she is very pleased with what they have developed and is looking forward to seeing this facility built. It has been ten years since the TBA went to the legislature to ask for funding for her position and program at TAMU. I think it is about time she gets the facility we have been talking about. I was told that the plans would be released to potential contractors on or around February 1, 2009 for bids. The bidding process will last a minimum of four to six weeks. After this, it would take another four to six weeks to accept a bid and get contracts signed. So this should give us a potential ground breaking date sometime around the first of May. I was also pleased to hear that because of the recent down turn in lumber and metal prices that we should be able to complete the facility in one phase. Many of us have worried that construction costs were outpacing our fund raising efforts, but it appears our timing has worked out well. Do not hold your breath just yet, but I do believe we will actually see construction begin this year, with a possible completion of the facility in early 2010.

While I was in College Station, I also had a meeting with Dr. Dan Upchurch. He is the area director for the USDA Agriculture Research Service. Mark Brady, John Talbert, Dr. John Thomas and Dr. Frank Eischen accompanied me. We were updated on the possible move of the Weslaco Bee Lab to College Station. Dr. Upchurch said he would have a better understanding of what the USDA's position about the move is on April 1, 2009. We were able to share some of the industry’s concerns with him at this time. We told him we thought it was very important to fill the research leader position, as well as, the two open scientist positions. It was then that he informed us that they had (USDA) just filled one of the

scientist positions. Dr. Upchurch shared our concern about the open research leader position and thought that the potential move would be helpful in filling this position. After our meeting with Dr. Upchurch, the five of us were led on a very extensive tour of the ARS facility in College Station by Dr. Wayne Ivie, who is the director of the facility, and John Westbrook, who is a potential research leader for the Honey Bee Program. We were shown possible facilities that would be offered to the Honey Bee Lab scientists should the move occur. I was impressed by the facility and the openness of Dr. Ivie and Mr. Westbrook. I will stay on the top of these changes and try to keep you updated as they occur.

I hope your beekeeping operation is going well. We continue to be in a severe drought here in South Texas and the prospects for a brush honey crop do not appear to be very good. I hope you are experiencing better conditions than us. Good Luck!

Sincerely,

Todd Youngblood, TBA President