Mineral Wells council updated on airport plan, Main Street and economic development success

MINERAL WELLS — Council members concluded Tuesday’s meeting with applause after a raft of reports revealed jobs, new businesses, sales tax revenue and tourism on the rise.

“Every single report we just received was awesome,” Mayor Regan Johnson said, before the immediate-past economic development director reminded the room he had promised that plans they laid in 2019 would not sit on a shelf.

“Those plans will not sit on the shelf, either,” David Hawes added, looking forward. “Nor, should they. A lot’s been accomplished, and it’s been accomplished because you wanted it to.”

Hawes, a Mineral Wells native who returned after more than three decades in Houston urban development and consulting, went on to hint that a former good-old boy system of municipal government is no more in the town.

“Everybody’s being treated equally and fairly, and I think that is the most important part,” he said. “I think the biggest thing we did was setting the stage for the next generation. You’ve got a really great core of a team here.”

Those comments followed updates on economic development, the downtown Main Street Program and a newly unveiled comprehensive city plan encompassing parks, transportation, water/sewer planning and growing without losing the city’s unique identity.

They also followed an annual outside audit of how accurately Finance Director Jason Breisch and staff kept the books in the 2022-23 fiscal year.

“I’m happy to report we didn’t have any audit findings for this fiscal year,” CPA Mishal Majewski said. “Every finding that was issued by the previous auditor last year was resolved.”

Her firm, statewide accountants Patillo Brown & Hill, issued an “unmodified opinion.”

“That means a clean opinion,” she said. “We didn’t find anything that was materially deficient or a material misstatement.”

Later, Hawes and Economic Development Corp. Executive Director Nathan Dyher reviewed progress since the city trained its eyes on business health five years ago.

One indicator, sales tax receipts, is up nearly 55 percent since 2019, Dyher reported. Those revenues were at $3.4 million in 2022, were nearly $5.3 million last year and top $2.6 million so far this year, he said.

Tourists likely drive much of that increase, as Main Street Program Manager Brittany Brown said 20 events in 2023 drew an estimated 30,000 visitors.

“We already have 14 new standalone businesses that are open or opening in 2024,” she added.

Brown counted 56 businesses opening downtown since 2018. The historic district now puts more than 550 people to work, she said.

Beyond downtown, Dyher counted Atwood’s, Boot Barn, HTeaO beverages and Integrated Urgent Care among retail successes. Those are soon to be joined by a Popeye’s chicken franchise, he said.

Hawes also noted newly hired Gage Engineers making progress on flood mitigation including with Crystal Canal along the western edge of downtown. The engineers are using a $250,000 grant.

“We are off to the races in trying to solve downtown flooding,” he said, adding hopes for future work on walking/biking paths. “That grant will lead to much larger grants — hopefully $10 million, $20 million, $30 million.”

Dyher also reported an Associated Fiberglas subsidiary new in town has 65 employees with plans to hire 35 more. Revenues at the business are up threefold, he said.

Another recent recruit, Advanced Foam Recycling, first expanded from Las Vegas, Nevada, to Dallas and now Mineral Wells.

Dyher said that company has 85 front-line workers and 11 executives.

“They said this is a really good area for what they want to accomplish,” he said.

Earlier in a special session, consultant Tony Allende said community input that launched the comprehensive plan produced priorities which he asked the council to rank in importance after some already have chimed in.

Items high on that ranking, so far, have been topped by water/sewer planning. Allende called that a “pretty prominent theme” among partial council responses since the list was sent the previous Friday afternoon.

Others included establishment of neighborhood “pocket parks,” a Northeast First Avenue pedestrian-friendly corridor off downtown and zoning codes that protect the “viewshed” of the city’s mountainous vistas, he said.

Tuesday’s meeting opened with the council honoring Capt. Larry L. Taylor, (ret.), an Army helicopter corps member for his Congressional Medal of Honor.

The Fort Wolters Army Air Camp alumnus earned the nation’s highest military honor for actions in Vietnam on June 18, 1968.