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With over 20 years of experience offering locksmith services, Genesis Barreto said her husband, Diveni Barreto, started his career as a licensed locksmith in Venezuela.

Years later, after moving to the U.S. in 2015, the couple took the courses necessary to become certified locksmiths and opened their own locksmith business, Vemex Locksmith, in 2020.

What they offer: Beyond residential locksmith services, Vemex Locksmith also offers commercial and automotive locksmith services, as well as key fob replacements. The company is based in Porter but offers services across the northeast Greater Houston area, including areas of Harris, Montgomery and Liberty counties.

What's special about it? As a certified locksmith company, Genesis Barreto emphasized the importance of ensuring that locksmith companies used by the community are certified to offer such services. 

Quote of note: “We see [our customers] as family,” Genesis Barreto said. “I'd rather have a long-time customer than a one-time customer.”

• 25025 FM 1314, Porter 
• Service area includes Cleveland, Conroe, Huffman, Humble, Kingwood, New Caney, Porter and Splendora

Ray Hernandez, Partnership Lake Houston president and CEO, is transitioning out of his role with the organization by mid-July, officials announced in a June 2 news release.

Some context: Hernandez was named president and CEO of PLH in July 2024. The chamber of commerce and economic development firm for the Humble, Kingwood and Atascocita area was initially established in April 1923.

Quote of note: “We are sincerely grateful for Ray’s leadership, service and contributions to the Partnership and the Lake Houston business community, and we wish him continued success in his next chapter,” PLH board Chair Gregg Mielke said in a statement.

What’s next: Mielke noted the Partnership is in the process of finding Hernandez’s replacement.

“The Partnership Lake Houston board of directors will begin the search for a new chief executive officer and is committed to ensuring a smooth transition,” Mielke said in a statement. “We will continue to keep our members, partners and stakeholders informed as the process moves forward.”

Houston officials preliminarily voted to reassess how the open space ordinance funds and distributes park improvements across the city.

What happened: On June 2, the city’s Budget and Fiscal Affairs committee voted to advance proposed changes to the city’s open space ordinance. The open space ordinance provides parks, recreational amenities and open space for residential areas. It uses fees collected from developers to dedicate and maintain the parks.

The changes include making multifamily developments fee-only, instead of allowing a dedication of land or a fee-in-lieu. The current ordinance allows developers to create park space on their property, instead of paying a fee to the city for the fund. The proposed change is to comply with state law. The fee is $700 per unit, council member Sallie Alcorn said. However, council is also looking to increase that fee this summer.

Another detail: Officials also approved using 30% of the fees that are collected from developers to be used in different park sectors, instead of only in the sector from which it was collected directly.

Texans are on track to use more electricity this summer than ever before, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas announced during a board meeting this week.

The details: ERCOT, which operates the power grid for the majority of Texas, is forecasting high temperatures and moderate rainfall this summer. Coupled with the proliferation of data centers and other large projects, demand on the grid could surpass 92 gigawatts, officials estimated June 2.

This would break ERCOT’s current demand record of 85.5 gigawatts, which was set during an August 2023 heat wave.

What it means: However, ERCOT officials said a grid emergency or blackout is unlikely this summer. State officials have said this is due to:

• The addition of nearly 11 gigawatts of power capacity to the grid in the last few months
• The agency's ability to require large facilities to reduce their energy use in tight times