NEVER A DULL MOMENT!
(For more pictures, scroll to bottom of article and click to enlarge.)
I keep telling myself that one day things are going to slow down enough around here for me to catch up on the things that are piling up in my “in-box.” Included in this stack of minutiae are all the articles and reports that I receive on a weekly basis that I deem important enough to get back to at a later date, but not important enough to do any more than scan as they arrive at my desk.
Out of a sick sense of curiosity the other day I dared to dive to the bottom of that pile to see how far back into history these items go. To my amazement, the oldest article in the pile dates to August 2006. The first part of this article encompasses three quarters of the front page of the business section of the Temple Daily Telegram and the focus of it is the growth west of town.
Come to think of it, there were quite a few articles about growth throughout Bell County in the past six months or so. This is good news for the local building economy.
With the growth of course comes the need for expansion of City services and, you guessed it, more attention to regulations. These are two items that we keep a close eye on here at TABA and as I’ve already noted more times than I care to in the past few months, both of these topics are being addressed at high speed over at City Hall.
Likewise, issues that you’ve likely not heard much about, but that have just as much impact on your business are being hashed out at the State House in Austin.
In effort to address these issues, more than 20 representatives of TABA recently visited our legislators at the State Capitol to let them know that we are very interested in the job that they are doing for us and that we need them to work hard to assure that the legislation that they consider will allow our development efforts to remain on the fast track in coming years.
This will require sufficient compliments to a key economic engine of our area and assurance that quality development is allowed to occur without the burden of additional regulation that is sometimes created when policy wonks put their minds to it.
To this end, we asked our legislators to support the initiatives of our state association—the Texas Association of Builders. They have several pressing issues that they are working to get taken care of this session and we asked both Representative Dianne Delisi and Senator Troy Fraser, who are very good friends of our industry, to make sure they listen when our friends from TAB come calling to ask for their support.
As importantly, we also asked them to be in support of Scott & White and our local medical community. It is paramount that our legislators give their all to assure the continued growth and viability of our friends over on the hill.
If our medical and bioscience communities grow, Temple grows and our industry keeps working to make sure that everyone has an affordable and high quality home to go to when they leave work at the end of the day.
MANY TO THANK!!!
Like many good parents, athletes, actors, preachers, and teachers have taught me, it is always important to thank the Good Lord, and especially when an event like Rally Day works out. There are many things that come up or can go wrong during an event like this and it wasn't without God's grace that we were able to pull this event off. Those that were there know good and well what I'm talking about.
Thanks again to those who joined me for Rally Day 2007 in Austin!!! This long and distinguished list of folks includes our Legislative Captain, John Kiella; Jared Bryan; Jason Peavy; Pat Patterson; John Paysse; Cheryl Copeland; Mike Pilkington; Derrick Hunt; Ben Pamplin; Bruce Walker; Chris Alexander; Jason Carothers; Tony Gallagher; Mat Naegele; Jim Howe; Brad Turner; Jamey Secrest; Buck Prewitt; Thomas Baird; Kelly Hosch; and Wendell Williams.
I would be remiss if I failed to once again thank our sponsors for footing the a big part of the bill for the day. Bruce Walker, John Kiella, Jason Carothers, and Brad Turner were kind enough to take care of the group’s food and drinks on the day of the event.
Last and very importantly, I'd like to thank the legislators and their staffs for making every effort to make sure our time in Austin was a complete success. Alicia Winegar, District Director for Representative Delisi; Terri Mathis, Scheduler for Senator Fraser; and Janice McCoy, Chief of Staff for Senator Fraser all worked very hard to make sure that TABA got to meet personally with each of our legislators.
A big thanks goes out to each of these folks and to Representive Delisi and Senator Fraser for making sure that our meetings worked out!
A great time was had by all and everyone that attended contributed to the success of the day.
Be sure to thank these guys for giving their time to go and lobby for you and your industry in order to assure that our voices were heard loud and clear by the 80th Texas Legislature. I assure you that your message was delivered!
