COUNTY NEWS Council Discusses Economic Development with New
Director
By Darwin Robinson
The Floydada City Council met Tuesday, September
18, and following a closed session discussion, the council
unanimously voted in favor of purchasing Block 50, Original Town,
(the old gin property), located north of City Hall for $9,000.
Councilmember Sheldon Sue made the motion and Councilmember Jon
Nielson seconded it.
City Manager Gary Brown told the council at last
month's August meeting that the property would be very beneficial to
the city's maintenance department for storage and for the parking of
their vehicles inside the large buildings located on the
property.
Monte Williams, President of the Floydada Economic
Development Corporation, introduced to the council the newly employed
Executive Director of FEDC Dora Ross.
Williams said, concerning the hiring of Ross,
"(Ross) is a person who I think will bring a lot of skills to this
job. This job takes a creative person to be able to sort through the
maze of all the different problems we have and find alternatives. I
think we have found that person, Dora Ross."
Ross told the council, "I have a couple of little
projects going right now. One of them is an incentive package, so
when we do actively recruit businesses to come to our area, we will
be able to offer something, whether it may be a tax abatement, actual
cash, or locating the land.
"Another project is community networking. I am
very committed to this half a million dollar grant. We did get turned
down, but we will reapply for this grant because we were just barely
under the turn down (mark)," Ross said.
"This project will expand our wireless internet
throughout our county. This will be a joint effort between Floydada
and Lockney. It will give us high speed internet and a web page where
anyone in the community can go and find out what is going on in the
county, such as, a city council meeting or the county commissioners'
court.
"This will let us know what is going on at each
individual school, what is going on in Lockney or Floydada, or at the
Massie Activity Center, or at the Unity Center, and even church
activities can be put on this web page," Ross added.
Ross continued, "It will establish a computer lab
that will be open to the public certain hours.
Ross concluded, "There is another project called
"Beautification" sponsored by the Chamber (of Commerce). We are just
getting started on this. We have talked to TxDot about doing the
three medians on the highways out of town to Plainview, Ralls, and
Matador."
During the questions and answers following,
Nielson stated, "We need to take care of our own. It seems like in
the last few months we have had more businesses going out. That
concerns me. I don't know if you have ever discussed that or not, and
I can understand being out looking for (other)
businesses."
Ross responded, "One of the first things I think
we would like to work on is planning to take care of our own, if that
is the way you want to put it, and try to teach our businesses to be
better marketers."
Williams added, "One thing I would like to add is
that in economical development, if we offer assistance to retail
businesses, we may not generate that much from that. What we need to
concentrate on businesses that will generate jobs. Dora is working on
a dairy incentive package.
"We have met with a father and a son from the El
Paso area that are looking to move into this area to start a dairy.
They need approximately 640 to 1000 acres of land. Certainly we can
get that much land out of crop production, but a dairy that size will
employ 20 to 30 people," Williams said.
Williams continued, "From that, we start building
back our population base, while our retail base will improve with our
population base. We don't have enough jobs. I think many of the
industries that we are going after will have entrepreneurs in their
businesses to build up jobs.
"There are some direct grants that state, if you
will make improvements to your business, then we will give you this
grant. In talking to those people, they could not own their property
as long as they were getting subsidies. So I think we want to avoid
direct subsidies, but I do think we want to build our base largely
through manufacturers, industrial, and Ag businesses, more than just
a service retail.
"Also, we need to increase tourism with our museum
and the Coronado dig site. They say people who do heritage tourism
are an educated group that plan to attend your events through the web
sites." Williams concluded.
Abel Cortinas, the new Executive Director of the
Floydada Housing Authority, gave a report to the council.
Cortinas said, "One of our accounts is the Duncan
Apartments by the school. There are 18 units and 6 buildings. Right
now we are in the process of taking ownership from Floydada Economic
Development Corporation. Hopefully the remodeling will began around
February or March, 2002. It will cost about $300,000 and will take 8
to 10 months.
"Another account is Public Housing. We have 6
different sites around town and 58 units. Right now we have two and
three bedroom apartments available and accessible for the
handicapped.
"Another one is Section 8, which the government
allows us to have 140 vouchers. If you have an house and you want to
put it into HUD, and if it passes all the specifications, then HUD
pays half the rent and person renting pays the other half. This is
all based on the person's income," Cortinas continued.
"The next account is the Farm Labor camp. We have
13 buildings with 6 rooms in each. Right now we have 5 of the
buildings that are occupied, or about 25 to 30 rooms. Out of the 78
rooms, 45 need to be re-gutted and redone. Any remodeling is at least
two to three years down the road before they will even start,"
Cortinas said.
Schacht asked, "Would it be possible to put a
fence all the way around it (the camp) and close the whole camp, or
do you have to leave it open?"
Cortinas replied, "One section of fence is knocked
down and I don't know how badly it is damaged. Everything else is
enclosed."
Cortinas said, "In 1998 the camp was fully
occupied. In 1999, it was less than one-half occupied. In 2000, it
was less, and in 2001 a few come and go, and they stay from three to
five weeks for the pumpkin harvest. Our upkeep is better now, but it
does take 2 to 5 days to clean up and rent it again. But we are
operating in the red at the Farm Labor camp."
Nielson responded, "I took pictures of the labor
camp today. I am not happy at the way it looked. There were windows
broken, fences down, trash everywhere, and roofs that needed repairs.
How can those people live in this? And how can they wait five years
to fix this place up? What will it look like in five
years?
"I will admit and give you credit that the Labor
Camp looked better today than I have ever seen it, but we have a long
way to go. My question is, why spend five million dollars, or a
million, or 100 dollars out there, put it somewhere in the rest of
these," Nielson concluded.
Cortinas concluded, "I don't have an answer for
you. The U.S.D.A. is over the Labor Camp and the Duncan Apartments,
while HUD is over the others."
In another matter, Councilmember Bettye King made
the motion to reappoint the following citizens to continue serving on
the different boards of the City of Floydada, with two citizens being
newly appointed.
Those reappointed to two year terms were: Airport
Board - Chairman Bill Harbin, Mark Lee, and newly appointed Kendis
Julian; Planning and Zoning Commission - Glenda Wilson, Kyle Smith,
and Mike Muniz; Floyd County Central Appraisal District - Sam Green;
Housing Authority of Floydada - President Jimmy Cervantes and
Langston Williams; and Floydada Economic Development Board - Hulon
Carthel, Laura Farris, Shirley Jackson, and newly appointed Adolfo
Garcia.
Without voting on the matter, the councilmembers
were in agreement in their discussion not to respond to a request by
Dale Goen to bulldoze and tear down a house located at 614 W.
Kentucky.
Councilmember Ruben Barrientoz made a motion to
accept the $265 bid by Cruz H. Zavala, 311 W. Ross, to buy from the
City Lot 9, Block 58, Original Town. It was seconded by Councilmember
Clar Schacht. The motion passed 4 to 2. Those voting in favor of the
motion were Barrientoz, Sue, Schacht, and Cornelius. Those against it
were King and Nielson.
The council unanimously passed a motion made by
Barrientoz to participate in the state's newly passed bill affecting
those local and state members of the Texas Municipal Retirement
System (TMRS) giving all employees full vesting after five years of
service starting January, 2002. The motion was seconded by Nielson.
This new five year vesting provision will make
City or State employees, participating in the TMRS, eligible to
retire with TMRS benefits at the age of 60 after five years of
service.
Photos Tell Story of Travels
By Darwin Robinson
Dr. Charles Craig, DDS, retired dentist, of
Floydada began flying in the United States Air Force in 1944 during
World War II. He has been flying ever since for pleasure and on many
one week medical trips to the needy Indian tribes in southern Mexico
and Central America.
He has a very interesting selection of pictures
taken on these trips on display through October at the First National
Bank in Floydada. The public is invited to come by the bank and view
these photos.
Dr. Craig said, "These (medical) trips began in
1967 with Dr. Jack Jordan, M.D. In the beginning, we had a missionary
contact in Guatemala with the Wickliff Bible Translators named
McIntosh. Most of our trips and work has been with WBT and Missionary
Aviation Fellowship.
"We would fly from Floydada to an area close to
the working place, then we would be taken into the short mountain air
strips by the MAF pilots," Dr. Craig added.
Dr. Craig said he went on 35 consecutive yearly
medical trips and 41 total trips. His medical trips over these many
years included Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and Panama.
"We've flown to all of those places and done
mission work there. I did the dentistry work, while Dr. Jordan did
the medical and medicine work. We took in all our own medical and
dental supplies. In the 1975 Guatemalan earthquake, we carried in a
lot of medical supplies in two airplanes."
Some of the Indian tribes that Dr. Craig has
worked with in Chiapas, Mexico and Latin America are the Mayans, the
Lacondons, the Chinontecs, the Chitanos, the Tzotzils, the Tzeltals,
the San Blas Cunas, and many others.
"Some of my favorite areas and trips were with the
Lacondon Indians in Chiapas, Mexico," Dr. Craig said. "Several
hundred people would be treated on each one of these
trips."
"Just last year we were in Tuxtla Gutierrez,
Chiapas. We went to the governor's office and tried to give one of my
dental offices to the Locndons. We are still working on
this."
Concerning the revolution going on in Chiapas
today, Dr. Craig said, "They are going to have problems as long as
those Indians are starving. And they will be starving as long as they
are there.
"The missionary family, the Baers (of the WBT),
sponsored us there. They went to the Lacondon Indians in 1943 and
have been there with these Indians for 58 years. Fifty of those years
they lived with these Indians and furnished them medicine in exchange
for housing and food. They (the Baers) gave the Lacondons a written
language, which they did not have prior to that time. Also, these
Indians gave up their practice of polygamy as they were converted,"
Dr. Craig concluded.
Some of the local people that have gone on trips
with Dr. Craig have been: Dr. Jack Jordan (35 trips), Louis Lloyd (27
trips), Jimmy Cervantes (8 trips), L.B. Stewart (5 trips), Bill
Brown, Rick Jordan, and Dr. Tommy Bonds of Muleshoe. Others who
traveled with Dr. Craig, but are now deceased, were: Doodle Milton,
Jerry Thompson, Dr. Guthrie, Bob Copeland, Jack McIntosh (25 trips),
Kender Farris (who helped retrieve a plane), Pastor Wright, Richard
Thomas, and Randall Jones.
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