Linden updates
Linden City Administrator Lee Elliott was the speaker at the Linden Lions Club on Thursday, March 10, replacing Paul Ellinger because of medical reasons. At the meeting, Elliot gave some updates about the street conditions, new businesses, water repair, and moving the RV park away from the grade school. He also brought attention to the new street signs. After the meeting, Elliot gave some additional details to the Journal-Sun. To start, Linden received some good news regarding business updates recently.
“Open Hearts plans on opening April 15th. By June 30th, the plan is for them being fully open and to have added 11 new jobs to our local economy. The lumber mill is tentatively planning on opening mid-year, bringing 15 new jobs to the area and adding 10 more over a 12-month period after opening. Unfortunately, like a lot of the businesses throughout the world, equipment is becoming queued up and is not coming in on schedule. We have a new Christian boutique that has opened recently and we have a new bbq restaurant looking to be built on Highway 59. We recently have met with a prospect looking to put in an upper-scale RV park.
Since sewage has been an issue for a while Elliott addressed some of the challenges the city has faced, and hopefully some good news on the horizon. “The City has been working for 8-years on a $4 million USDA loan/grant for water line repair. We should have this project in motion by the end of the summer.
“With our water loss high, pressure in our system struggling, this waterline repair is hugely important to stabilizing our utility fund financially and improving customer service. We should be receiving our second tranche of our ARPA grant funds in June. The Council has earmarked these grant funds for fixed-based meters. “These new meters will replace our antiquated meter system-im
“These new meters will replace our antiquated meter system-improving customer service and providing an accurate reading for our utilities. Once these two above-listed projects are completed, our water distribution system should be in a considerably better position. This summer, we will begin analyzing the condition of our wastewater system and develop a plan for the sewer collection system which has been depreciated for an extended period of time.”
Lee also highlighted another challenge for Linden at the meeting, “The biggest challenge is our street infrastructure. Unfortunately, our street infrastructure needs anywhere from $6-$10 million to comprehensively repair this part of our infrastructure. Being a small taxing entity, this generates some financial challenges. The increased cost of petroleum impacting asphalt prices does not help. We will be having a town hall meeting in the near future with our citizenry to discuss the street plan.
“We are (also) hiring a financial planner to assist in the generation of a street bond. We can not patch our way out of our street problems and will need to borrow funds to overlay our arterial and collector streets (e.g., Kaufman…Graham Streets). The council will make a decision whether to do a certificate of obligation non-voter approved bond, which can happen more quickly than a voter-approved general obligation bond which would occur in November. With interest rates foreasted to be increased by the Federal Reserve throughout this year and the terrible condition of our streets, timing is very important.”
There were several other issues that were brought up Thursday that Lee went on to discuss including”
“Our Ad-hoc RV Park Committee is recommending we not replace the RV Park. The location next to our elementary school is not an ideal location. In its place at the Linden Park, the recommendation will be a replication of our pickle shed which will be used for a farmer’s market and other events such as school events or live music.
“Through our EDC and HOT funds, we paid for and are currently putting up decorative street signs for our Main Street District. Our community is rallying around improving the baseball and softball facilities at Crow Heath Park. These facilities had been in disrepair and we are seeing the community buy into upgrading these important facilities for our youth.
“Our Main Street Committee has approved and purchased new spring banners for the Downtown. The City Council will be making a decision over the next month as to what we will do with the 1930’s Fire Station. Preservation Texas is proposing within 2-years, refurbishing it and possibly leasing it out to a business, or making it an office for them. The Linden Heritage Foundation is proposing tearing down the old fire station and making it a pocket park.
“Our proactive code compliance is making quick in-roads cleaning up our community. The vast majority of notices of violations are voluntarily coming into compliance.
“We are interviewing 4-applicants for our Chief of Police position. We should have our Chief in place over the next 6 weeks. The $2 million GLO drainage grant is approximately 80% complete. This project will assist in removing stormwater from our street infrastructure improving safety and slowing down depreciation of our pavement.
“Over the next month, construction will begin on Rush Street and sidewalks throughout our Main Street District. These improvements are from a Main Street grant.
“The new poly-carts have been delivered and look awesome. The poly-carts are in royal blue matching the L-K CISD school colors. Having uniformity of trash pick up should assist in cleaning up our community.
“Our Shop Linden First campaign has shown a 15% increase in sales tax collection in comparison to the same time last year. Shopping locally is hugely important to keeping our businesses open, tax dollars to improve our community and quality of life. Our citizenry is doing an awesome job supporting our local economy!
“The EDC will be hosting a marketing seminar by Northeast Texas SBDC for businesses in our local area.”