A Few Suggestions
To the Editor:
Community and Economic Development is not the role of government and just another area government is overreaching.
I went to the City of La Grange Public Hearing where the city asked the community to show up to discuss community ideas and needs. This turned out to be a one sided discussion by the city manager telling the full room where the next water and waste water pipes were being updated.
The current funds towards community and economic development are received from hotel and motel taxes and a half cent sales tax and administered by a silo of salaried staff. All wonderful people that would make great team members for small businesses in our community.
Ideally, this silo should be eliminated and tax monies returned to the community; however, I don’t expect this to happen, so am proposing a few things in wake of hundreds of conversations with small businesses, non-profit leaders, parents, education facilitators, and community leaders.
1. Work together with the county to develop bathrooms on the square. Tear down the gate to Founders Park and offer 24-hour bathrooms for patrons on the Square. Our town is a ghost town after 5 p.m. This will have immediate impact.
2. Be as concerned about what is happening inside our historical buildings as the facades. A building owner can get $10,000 from the city coffers to paint a building that doesn’t need to be painted, but can’t get the same funds to update inadequate electrical and plumbing. What if our city worked together with those investing in our community?
3. Open the Casino Hall to regional events. Work together with the Chamber of Commerce to bring in talent from Houston and Austin to perform. Bring people to our businesses, let them spend their money, and convince them to come back another time.
4. Support our local youth programs. It’s not what our youth are learning in school that’s concerning, it’s what they are not learning. According to an April FCR article, the only programs that were defunded by our city (because of the pandemic) were those providing education services to our youth. What if our city worked together with local youth organizations whose missions were teaching life skills like empathy, skills trades, problem solving, financial literacy, starting a business, or getting to know and have a personal relationship with Him?
We are fortunate to live in a community that has a significant amount of resources for community and economic development via sales tax, hotel/motel tax, and a gas contract (a topic with many unanswered questions). We should either give this back to the citizens or use it for community and economic development activities that attract industry that provide opportunities for our citizens while offering a beacon of hope for our youth.
Brandon Schielack
La Grange