So call me crazy (“crazy”) but I came up with an idea that hopefully you will find amusing and interesting at the same time. Every morning I eat with my think tank and discuss the issues of the world. Almost every day the conversation circles back around to what would make our community better in Henderson County. In an effort to have the true pulse of the community, I decided that I will call everyone in the Henderson County phone book and ask them this simple question – “What do you believe our community needs to make it better?”
Here is my Top 5 after working my way through the phone book with many updates to follow. These are not in any particular order.
1. We need the Cain Center. People want a strong community center that provides activities for everyone. They don’t want to hear that the City doesn’t have it in the budget. They want the City to embrace this resource and figure out how to make it work.
2. Don’t call someone while they are cooking for friends coming to visit. They don’t like it. Women are more willing to chat on the phone than men. Only 4 people hung up on me after I introduced myself. My kids said everyone would hang up once I told them who was calling so it’s all good for now.
3. People want a thriving downtown whether you are talking about Athens, Brownsboro, Chandler, Eustace, Gun Barrel City, Kemp, Malakoff or Seven Points.
4. Drugs are a BIG problem. We are going to have to work together as a community to fix this problem. Whether it’s more law enforcement, faster prosecution, education, community watch, hiring experts to give us a roadmap or a combination, we have to make this mission 1 or pretty close to the top.
5. Most of the people I spoke with were originally from the DFW area. A light went on. Why don’t we simply find out what people in Dallas are looking for and market to their needs? You say you don’t want any more folks from DFW coming this way, ok, but we’ve promoted ourselves as a retirement community. Wouldn’t it be easier to promote ourselves to the 6,500,000 people 60 miles away than spend our time trying to get businesses to move from California to Henderson County?
I’ll keep you posted. Should be a very fun experiment. If you want to call me before I call you, please call 903-677-5333 and share with me your answer to the question.
We need something to occupy our youth in this county. They absolutely have nothing for them but to hang out at gas stations and car washes. We need better employment possibilities that families can survive on. we need to keep the Cain center
I moved here from the dfw area. You know there are a couple things that would be nice. Eating establishments that were not deep fat fried and covered in gravy. and the riddance of the KEMP PD NAZI PATROL & CAMS. Seems like the only way city of Kemp can keep afloat is there targeting motorist. Watch out for the lil pick up truck that is an outside contractor, (Not a real police officer) with a speed cam. My car got a ticket, I wasn’t driving, I was out of state at the time. but I got to pay the civil fine because speeding is no longer a criminal offense where you can face your accuser. And the outcome? I refuse to do business in Kemp…. Or Mabank.
Why don’t you run for mayor?
I agree about drugs being a big problem in our town and county but I believe our youth need a safe place to hang out protected from drug dealers for young people want to be with other young people.
Awesome!
Athens needs more jobs. Not just restaurants.. Jobs that help supports family
I have an idea similar to yours; but it centers on the youth of our county. The project would be two fold: First, talk to everyone who has a child in the county and find out what they think the county needs to do to improve our young peoples’ lives. Secondly, talk to all the young people (those old/mature enough to give decent responses) and find out their opinion as to what the county needs. Many will agree that the children are our most valuable assets. Addressing the true needs of the youth of our county will go a long ways towards reducing many of the problems that our county faces both now and in the future. (kind of an “Everything I need to know I learned in kindergarten” approach to improving Henderson County).
Affordable housing
I think those over 65 should not pay school taxes!
Athens needs a nice downtown “publc restroom” like the ones in Marshall, Sulphur Springs and many other East Texas towns. This would promote tourism and the downtown businesses.
Strong leadership and open progressive thinking people. Get out of the good ole boy mode and bring Athens up to the standard Henderson County deserves.
1) Cain Center is a MUST!
2) It’s hard to know when a good time to call is – and I haven’t gotten a phone call that I’m aware of – but if you call and I’m cooking dinner or sharing this precious time with my family – I’m gonna tell you to call back and hang up the phone – or not answer at all.
3) Downtown should be beautiful! What happened to Keep Athens Beautiful? Downtown with sad shops, empty eateries and dead plants in containers are disgraceful. We have plenty of talent in this community to make our downtown spectacular – yet shop owners or city or both don’t want to pay for service to keep it this way – put your money where your mouth is Athens and stop catering to the “chamber or commerce club” – give talented people jobs instead of being “give me give me give me – donate your time, your energy so I can get all the credit” mentality, how about hiring people that WANT our downtown beautiful and NEED a job! Get the “COC club” who want the accolades of their pathetic “I’m such a good citizen” social crap out of the way and create some real community service. Look for a REAL EVENT PLANNER and PAY THEM to be a First Monday Event planner for the square! I’ve got lots of ideas and a degree – but I’m not going to do it for free or for the good of my heart – been there – done that and the accolades were great but don’t pay the bills. Things planned for downtown fail because the good citizens who have and will donate time continue are pushed to do more at the expense of their careers and no connection to their audience…as you cover in #5…DFW people! Wake up!
4) Where are the drugs? Really…where are they? I know they are here…but where…do you know? I don’t know that our drug problem based on the community size is an issue…all communities are going to have casualties – but if the drug community is such a problem – why the HECK did Henderson County go wet? WHY CAN’T I GO TO A GROCERY STORE or GAS STATION WITHOUT BEING BOMBARDED BY ALCOHOL? – Think about it –
5) Who doesn’t love Dallas and Fort Worth? I’ve traveled all over the world and I’ll take these two cities for shopping, leisure, friendliness over just about anywhere (except Greece). These are the people we should target as our target audience as Steve Grant Real Estate and the Dallas Morning News know – does anyone read the paper anymore? We need to get the big fish out of the little pond and be the little fish in the big pond…all the other little fishes just need to get their head out of ….well, the fishbowl….
Please….keep up the fun…and who knows- maybe I’ll call you!
My husband and I consider Athens our home – unfortunately – we both have to work in Dallas and Grapevine so we are “required” to have a place to hang our clothes during the week. You can see our skid marks as we exit Dallas every Saturday and probably smell our brakes burning as we leave our home every Sunday night to return to the chaos.
All of our discretionary income goes into the Athens economy – even if the costs are higher or the product more expensive. We believe we are investing in our future – our home – and in the future of Athens and its citizens. We want Athens to be a strong community, with the solid infrastructure that is currently in place and we want to do everything we can to support the efforts of the local businesses and service providers. I certainly cannot speak for other “DFW-ers”, but I suspect that most of them feel as strongly as we do about supporting Athens.
Please know that we love Athens as much as you do – we just don’t get to stay “home” as often as we would like! We are counting the days!
Jeff, after working with kids and having 2 of my own, it seems problems start about 5-6th grade, coincidentally about the age parents “trust” kids to stay home alone after school,etc. The Cain Center would be a great place for 5th-8th graders to have an after school program. Yeah that’s a lot of liability, but could be well worth it if well run.
The county roads are in general very poor. Especially in neighborhoods which are in the county. It is terribad! FM roads – good. State maintenance is pretty good, but county roads are unacceptable.
Cain Center hardly influences anyone around Gun Barrel City. Maybe some PR would help them.
As a retirement community, I feel we limit ourselves. We’re a community!
We need a bigger tax base…which comes from bringing in business.