Dedication to a bright future in Cass County

I believe that Cass County is on the cusp of growth. With the continued infrastructure improvements in our community and the trickle of new businesses, the prospect of a bright future for our community seems strong. Regardless of what your thoughts are about Starbucks building a location in our community, businesses like CEFCO and Starbucks aren’t going to invest in a dying community.

As reported by the Journal-Sun, within Cass County they have discovered one of the largest deposits of lithium in the world. As a result of that discovery, we have seen several outside firms and oil companies trying to buy lithium mineral rights. The Journal- Sun has also learned of additional oil exploration and drilling within Cass County.

As I will discuss later in the article, to keep our community strong and help future wealth and blessings in our community we all have a role to play. Staying informed to help keep the wealth in our community is essential. For that reason, the Journal-Sun has encouraged landowners to be shrewd with their property rights. The Journal-Sun continues to consult with experts and write stories on how to safeguard our landowners’ investments.

Interstate 69 will be working its way through our county eventually. Not if but when. They have not disclosed an exact route through our area, but I am guessing we will know more soon. https://www.txdot.gov/projects/projects-studies/statewide/interstate- 69-system-in-texas.html There are several new businesses and growth in our community. I don’t want to forget anyone but pretty sure I will. I apologize if I missed you. But I do appreciate coming to our community and welcome you!

The old Brooks Hospital is being turned into an animal rescue center. Downtown Atlanta is welcoming an individual who is turning one of the old buildings into a multi-business complex. Great growth and beautification of the old Miller Grade School continues to give a facelift to our downtown.

Several new restaurants are coming to the area from Linden to Queen City. In Atlanta, a gourmet steakhouse, The Branding Iron, has opened its doors. In Linden a Fryway 59, a barbeque restaurant and coffee shop have popped up. Linden lost the local favorite County Seat Café but will welcome in its place the Texarkana hotspot, an Ironwood Grill location.

In 2022 the City of Linden passed a huge bond to fix the much-needed work on the streets. Late 2023 they received their USDA loans to fix their water and sewer lines. I expect to see overall growth in Linden. With the infrastructure changes, it will continue to be a more attractive community to live in.

Atlanta recently hired its first Tourism Director, Kelsey Know (Article coming soon). In 2023 propositions were passed in Atlanta and Queen City to reallocate funds to help with roads and raise wages for local police departments that are struggling to stay competitive with larger cities for wages. The benefits are yet to be seen since it is so close to the election, but the desire to try to look forward and improve our community is positive.

Atlanta building a new water tower with a larger capacity shows forward-looking and increased capacity for growth.

Also showing forward-looking, and community beautification is the desire to give our City Park a facelift. Public meetings happened in 2023 seeking community participation.

There is even more to look back at this last year I missed and excitement for the future. I believe to continue the blessings and growth in our community it will be all our responsibilities as citizens to help our community flourish.

As a member of our community, we all have gifts and talents to benefit and grow our County. Qualities like hard work, community volunteerism, civic participation, ingenuity, neighborly kindness, grace, patience, faith, hope, and love can only continue to make our community better moving into 2024.

My hope is that this coming year we will all have a greater awareness of what is happening in our community and participate in more community functions and events. COVID robbed of us so much community. I hope this is the year we continue to struggle to get it back.

Final thought, I recently shared the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14–30) with my youngest. I believe we are all required to give back with the measure that was given to us. They always say that 20% does 80% of the work. It doesn’t have to be that way.

A late Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!