Brownwood Mayor Stephen Haynes presented his annual state of the city report on Friday at the Brownwood Area Chamber of Commerce monthly luncheon. Haynes touched on several topics during his presentation including the economy, the water supply, city codes, and possible upcoming projects to look forward to in 2012.
Haynes looked at several factors to evaluate the local economy including sales tax numbers, the real estate market, unemployment numbers, and business growth in the community.
Haynes said that sales tax collections in Brownwood were up 5.1% in 2011.
“What you see is a very positive outlook; we achieved an increase in sales tax in almost every month which is a sign of a recovery of our economy,” Haynes said. “You can see that when we talk about the importance of sales tax, the importance of buying things locally, and the importance of recruiting and promoting additional retail sales; as retail sales go up, it has a direct impact on our community.”
Haynes also looked at residential real estate sales with information provided by the Brownwood Board of Realtors. Although the number if real estate transactions decreased by almost 10% in 2011, the average sales price bumped up about 5% on the year. Waterfront property took a bigger hit with the number of transactions dropping 57.89% with average prices dropping 25%.
“The drought has affected us in many, many ways, but if you look at the lake real estate is a good indication of how badly the drought has affected the City of Brownwood,” Haynes said.
Haynes said that Brownwood’s unemployment rate fluctuated between 7-9% in 2011. He also pointed out that the local unemployment rate was .6% lower than the state average and 1.4% lower than the national average.
Mayor Haynes also pointed out businesses that have opened or expanded in the previous year including AT&T, Maurice’s, East Palace, and Superior Essex to name a few. He said that Superior Essex hired 54 new employees in 2011. Haynes also announced that a new Golden Chic restaurant will be building a store near Commerce Square sometime this year. Haynes said that according to the recent retail study for the city of Brownwood, there is $422 million in retail opportunity available in the area.
“If we recovered only 10% of those sales, the impact on the local economy through sales tax would be $840,000,” Haynes said. “The point of that is to shop locally and support our local businesses and to create new opportunities for retail sales.”
The mayor also outlined the current state of the lake and the city’s plan to help conserve water in the next year.
“The last report I got, the lake was about 38% (capacity) which is really scary when you stop and think about the lake being at 38%,” Haynes said. “And the word was that we had about 18 months worth of water at our current usage.”
Haynes said that it is likely that the city will restrict all outside watering before the spring and to move forward with the development of a new water treatment plant to recycle the city’s wastewater into drinking water to help extend the life of the current water supply. Haynes said that the new treatment plant is estimated to cost around $8 million and will take about one year before it comes online if all goes according to plan.
Haynes also discussed city codes and the importance of having codes and plans for the future.
“Nobody likes regulation, but you have to ask yourself the question ‘why do we have them,’” Haynes said.
Haynes said that the city tries to look at health and safety issues, but local code enforcement juggles not only local codes, but state and national codes as well. The city is looking to deregulate certain code and has a plan to move forward with this in 2012 through several steps, some of which are already in motion.
“There is need for regulation and there is a need for enforcement of that regulation,” Haynes said. “I recognize that there is a need to deregulate to the extent that all feasibly possible, for government to get out of the way especially for business development when we can.”
Haynes said that the city will create a new Unified Appeals Board which is designed to look at the local codes related to rulings by the city and will have the power to overrule the city if they believe the city has misinterpreted the code. This new board, which will be made up of mostly local contractors, can also make recommendations of changes to the code to the city.
Haynes said that the city is going to also focus on enforcement of local codes instead of being the policing force for state and federal codes.
“We are going to stop enforcing federal and state laws that we are not mandated to enforce,” Haynes said. “We will not refuse to issue you a permit on somebody else’s law.”
Looking forward, in addition to water issues, Haynes said that city street repair will be high on his agenda. Depending on how the construction of the new wastewater treatment plant project goes, Haynes will look at doing some sort of major street renovation project with the city looking to retire some debt later this year.
“I can tell you personally, this is on the tops of my agenda of what we would do with certificates of obligation, but it is a wait and see game,” Haynes said. “Because we are going to have a priority over water.”
Other future issues mentioned by Haynes that he would like to see addressed are the aging fire stations and a new water monitoring system.
