266 Express
Welcome to the 266 Express, your official podcast of Sanger, TX.
In every episode, we paint a picture of life in this beautiful North Texas town.
You will gain insight into everything from our rich history, community events, and the rapid growth and development of Sanger. Welcome to the 266 Express.
266 Express
Beyond the Rails: Sanger's Economic Vision
What makes a small town worth staying in for decades? According to John Payne, president of Sanger's Type B board, it's intentional planning that balances inevitable growth with preserving community spirit. Since arriving in 1997, Payne has witnessed Sanger transform while maintaining its small-town heart—a delicate balance achieved through strategic economic development.
The Type B board, established in 1998, has been instrumental in shaping Sanger's evolution by directing sales tax revenue toward quality of life improvements. Unlike general city funds that primarily support essential services, these dedicated dollars ensure community amenities receive proper attention. From the preservation of the historic Presbyterian church downtown to the creation of Porter Park and the popular splash park, these investments create gathering spaces that strengthen community bonds.
Looking forward, Sanger's economic landscape is poised for significant transformation. The long-awaited Tom Thumb grocery store is finally coming, representing a major victory for residents who have requested this amenity for years. Additionally, Porter Park Phase 2 will feature a groundbreaking Miracle League facility designed specifically for special needs children throughout North Texas—creating an inclusive space where every child can experience the joy of sports regardless of physical limitations.
What makes Sanger particularly attractive for both businesses and families? Its strategic location offers the perfect balance—close enough to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex for convenient commuting while maintaining distance from big-city congestion. With Lake Ray Roberts just minutes away, excellent schools, and housing that remains more affordable than neighboring communities, Sanger provides an attractive package for those looking to establish roots.
The success behind Sanger's thoughtful development stems from collaborative partnerships between the Type B board, city council, chamber of commerce, and school district. This coordination ensures aligned goals and maximizes resources across all community organizations. However, Payne notes that citizen participation remains critical yet often lacking in development decisions. He encourages residents to attend board meetings, provide input on projects, and consider serving on city boards to help shape Sanger's future.
Ready to be part of Sanger's story? Learn more about upcoming projects, board meetings, and community events at DiscoverSanger.com—or better yet, visit and experience firsthand what makes this growing North Texas gem a place where people come to raise families and decide to stay for decades.
You have been listening to The 266 Express, the official podcast of Sanger, TX. IF you have comments or suggestions, please send them to dgreen@sangertexas.org
Welcome to the 266 Express. I'm John Noblet and we have no Donna Green with us today, but we do have John Payne, president of our TOT-B board. John, welcome, thank you. As you know, we've been trying to get more of our board members in. We've had the mayor in. We're looking at several of our other boards. You're actually going to be the first board president we've had in outside the city council maybe the Planning and Zoning Commission. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what led you to serve on the Type B board?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I sure can. My family and I came to Sanger back in 1997. I'm the preacher for the Church of Christ here in Sanger and when we came we thought that this would be a great place to raise a family. And they've kept us and we've never wanted to leave. So I felt like, and do feel like, it's a responsibility of every citizen to get involved and to do what they can to make this place better. So done that in many different ways. I was on the Sanger Volunteer Fire Department for a great number of years and kids, athletics, sports, and the opportunity came up with connections that I had with the city manager at the time and those that were in some of those places of service, and was asked to join the 4B board not too long after we had moved here. And obviously it was established in 1998, which was the year after we moved here, so kind of got in very early in its production development, whatever you want to call it. So I've been doing that ever since.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Now can you tell us, for those people that aren't familiar, really what the Type B board does and really what your role as a president of that board is?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I sure can. I can still remember the first time that I ever came to one of their meetings, and at that time the president of the board was an ex-mayor and she had been in Sanger, I think, since Noah got off the ark. But anyhow.
Speaker 2:I was kind of intimidated because I really didn't know exactly how it was going to go or what it was that we were supposed to be doing All-scenes ways that we as individuals could help this community. It was really exciting. As I said, we established the 4B and the 4A boards, or this Economic Development Corporation, back in 1998. And its purpose is to take tax money that is collected by sales tax and use that for different projects that come to our attention or that are brought to us to improve just everything about Sanger. To improve just everything about Sanger.
Speaker 2:Ours, unlike the 4A, is well. From the webpage they say that we are responsible for things like improving life in the community. That includes things like professional and amateur sports and athletic facilities, tourism, entertainment, all kinds of facilities that go along that line and anything that we can do just to make life better here stores, restaurants a very minute part of the tax dollars that are brought in from the sales tax revenue and it doesn't seem like a lot but it does add up to quite a bit and we facilitate bringing projects to fruition throughout our community. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I think what a lot of people don't realize is that you take a portion of that tax dollar and ultimately a lot of these projects are in partnership with the city council, who approves a lot of those expenditures long term. But both the A and B and at some point we'll talk about A here with the A board but you are an independent corporation. Those funds come in from the sales tax as authorized by the voters, correct? They come in and you guys are really a key element in the city's strategic planning because you can hone in on things that we can't with those dollars, and I don't think a lot of people really understand that. Could you maybe give a couple of examples of your recent accomplishments and maybe some of the things that you guys are working on or looking forward to in the future?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I sure can, and it's great that you say that, because you know the misnomer is, when you see a project take place in the community, there are a lot of different opinions and obviously me being a preacher I know that you're not going to make everybody happy, and you recognize that in your position as well. I'm sure Everyone's happy, yeah, so what do you do when somebody says wow, I can't believe that the city of Sanger spent this much money on swing sets or baseball fields, when I can't drive down my street because the potholes are so bad? And what they don't realize is that the monies that they voted for us to take and to use are set aside for specific purposes. We're not the street department. We don't, we don't have anything to do with those costs or those needs. Ours are specifically engineered so that they can be set aside. Um and and and take place. Because you know, really honestly, if, if you think about it, if, If we don't designate things to be separate and have their own purpose, it's real easy for it all to get vacuumed up into other needs that are deemed more important.
Speaker 2:Some of the accomplishments. So, when I first came on the board, one of the things that we had was we had a really old Presbyterian church downtown. One of the things that we had was we had a really old Presbyterian church downtown and the idea at that point in time was to preserve this landmark in the city of Sanger and so we spent a lot of those tax dollars towards preservation and making that Presbyterian church and you can see it now. It is a venue that is used both by city staff and also the public as well and I think that it's a testament to preserving Sanger we have been involved in. If you drive downtown you can see some of the beautification stuff that we've done with picnic benches, park benches, that we've done with picnic benches, park benches, trash bins, the sidewalks All of that stuff has been redone with the monies that have come.
Speaker 2:In. The splash park that we've got over there by the city center, our community center was another project that we've done. The big, huge, shining diamond in our ring, I think has to be the Porter Park One project. That thing there has just—I drove by it yesterday morning and in the morning, when the sun is not hot yet, you can see just tons of mamas and babies using that, people getting the health benefit, our kids playing ball out there. Just the beautification grant is another one that I would just—we went and ate for the first time over at Papa D's the other night and the food there is excellent. Shout out to anybody that wants to go try some good Mexican food. But we have a beautification grant. So if you go to the donut shop or if you go to Papa D's or if you go to many of the other entities in Sanger a lot of the improvements that have been made and making those places desirable for people to come and spend their money we've been a part of helping them reach those goals.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so what about current projects that you guys are working on? We know that we have a lot going on on the city side of the table, but can you tell us some of the programs that you guys are going to be involved in in the future?
Speaker 2:You bet. So obviously the professional, amateur sports and athletic facilities and the tourism and all those kind of things are important and we're constantly looking forward to what we can do. Next, east side of Interstate 35, which is kind of the sister footprint of the Porter Park 1 that we already had finished. So we purchased that property and our intention was to expand Porter Park into a second phase and call it Porter Park Two. And the Porter Part Two project was supposed to be one in which we would address not only the needs for the girls and softball and so forth and so on, but we would also be able to put something together for the boys Over the course of time and trying to pay off the indebtedness that we incurred in doing the first project. We have now looked and re-looked at the Port-au-Parc II and one of the greatest things I think that we could have done to get this ball rolling and to finally turn a shovel of dirt is the inception and the creation of a Miracle League facility and that's going to be a ballpark, a baseball diamond for every special needs kid in North Texas. We have established an opportunity for them to have a league and now we're going to try to build them a facility where they can go out there and play, whether they're in a wheelchair, whether they're concerned about tripping and falling. It will be safe, it will be fun, it will be exercise and entertainment and meet the needs of a specific group of people that so many times gets overlooked, and that's going to be the center point, if you will, of that park. But we're going to include in that everything from walking trails we want to what is it? Pickleball is the big thing nowadays. That's been included in the plans. So we'd like to get that ball rolling. We'd like to be able to get that under construction.
Speaker 2:But it's not just that. We have a number of new economic interests that are coming into Sanger. I've heard for years why are we worried about all these different things when we can't get a grocery store? Well, guess what? We've got a grocery store coming and the 4B board was very much a huge part of getting the incentives necessary to bring that grocery store in and along with it. I was just talking to our economic development director, shani Bradshaw, the other day and she was telling me that the number of retail entities that want to come to Sanger are lining up at the door and so with that's going to come our necessity to be involved in shaking their hands and welcoming them and making them feel like this is the place that they ought to bring their business.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, and that is the Miracle Field and the Porter Park, Phase 2. Those are exciting projects because you know you have a long tenure on that board and there's been a focus there and a vision there. And to know that that thing it's not a vision anymore. I mean it's in actual planning phases right now. You know we've seen conceptuals on the Miracle Field, we've seen conceptuals on the Porter Park 2. The city's engaged with engineering on design. So I mean these things are not, these things are happening. They are happening and that's huge because it's the way that it parallels the growth in the community.
Speaker 1:As a community grows, it's going to require more quality of life amenities. It's going to require more infrastructure. It's going to require more quality of life amenities. It's going to require more infrastructure. It's going to require more things and more things require, you know, in our business, more revenue and that's, you know, sales and use tax and things of that nature. Can you tell me a little bit about a little more digging a little deeper, as in like the Tom Thumb, that was a, that was a huge, huge push by all entities to get that thing moving because of the need and the demand. But can you tell us how the board actually works to attract some of those new businesses while we support the ones that are also here as well as some of the other resources that might be available for those businesses that may be coming in or those businesses that exist now that we see that we want to retain or we want to expand in the future.
Speaker 2:Yeah, john, I'll tell you that it was impressive to me the day that I was invited to come out to the shovel turning ceremony at Tom Thumb and to realize that those that were putting that unveiling, if you will together quickly recognized that they didn't have enough shovels for the amount of people that were going to be involved in bringing Tom Thumb to Sanger. There are so many different people and I don't even care if we get any recognition at all. In my personal opinion, just the fact that we've got that on the books and it's coming to Sanger. But there are. Look, the 4B board looks at what can we do in so many different ways? Anybody in this area has seen some of the other communities in North Texas and probably have visited and enjoyed the amenities that they provide. Is that the 4B board can do things to bring people into the community, maybe not to live initially, but just to be entertained and enjoy what we have to offer.
Speaker 2:One of the things that we haven't talked about is another project, and that's the downtown park, and the downtown park is supposed to draw people into our downtown area where they can experience the brewery, where they can experience the ice cream shop, where they can experience Babes, where they can come and watch a movie on a big screen or they can see a concert, or the farmer's market will have a home and it will be like a. I hate to compare us to anybody, but what you get when you go to downtown Roanoke, for instance, that draws so many people to the community. So we wanted that park in itself is going to be a huge draw. But it's not just what we build, it's also what we can provide, and so our economic development corporation and the 4B in itself. We're more zoned in on what we can do for the retail side of things. Economic growth means more tax dollars, which means more projects that the Ford B-Board can fund, and so we want people here who are going to bring their business.
Speaker 2:But how do you get that started? How do you get them here? How do they feel comfortable in coming? And that's where we have to be able to come up with a strategic plan. We have Shani Bradshaw and her team go and they sell Sanger to all of these corporations that want to bring their people here. That's why we have Starbucks, that's why we have AutoZone now and so many more. I don't even know if I'm legal to even tell you who's coming, but they need someone to walk them through the process of how do I clear a spot of dirt and put my building up and get it open? How do I get through the permitting process. That's what we want to streamline and help with. That's why we have Chaney and some of those people in place. So if you're thinking that you want to come to Sanger, there are people here that can make that happen, and the 4B board is fully vested and involved in that process.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think you make a good point there, with the retail focus of the EDC and the big push now that we hear and the state is actively working on there in a special session right now as we talk that we need property tax relief. Everybody agrees that we need property tax relief. I think I don't think you'll find too many detractors on getting that property tax down. But when that property tax comes down, it has huge impacts on the school districts, has huge impacts on the municipalities. That revenue has to be made up somewhere and those retail businesses are a way to do it and I don't think that a lot of people. When you look at the big picture, sales tax is very volatile.
Speaker 1:It's very, very hard to budget to, so you need a lot of it you know, for every solid property tax that you know coming in, you need three businesses to make up that gap because they're going to be in different phases of their growth and their patterns. So I see it in here on Facebook. Well, you know, why do we have this business or why do we have that business? We have too many of these things and not enough of those things. Well, you know why do we have this business or why do we have that business? We have too many of these things and not enough of those things. And you know, at the baseline of what everybody is trying to do, we're trying to we're really trying to fill a gap so that we can continue to provide those core services police and fire and your water and sewer and then, on top of that, again having an EDC that can really assist at a high level with some of that infrastructure at times, as well as quality of life amenities. Because you nailed it early on, which is, if that dollar is applied all in the same place, it's going to go to public safety.
Speaker 1:Here right now, I mean that is the city's top priority, because growth creates new demands in your public safety, both for police and fire, by having that money dedicated out to a different group that has a little different focus but strategically is on the same page, is an immense tool for any community to have. And 4A boards and 4B boards, combination boards of A and B. Not every city has them. I mean your city had to make a commitment and you guys did, you know, in 98 to commit. Hey, we know that we're growing, we know what the dynamics of the community are now. We know what the community will be like 20 years from now. We want to put a tool in place now that we can leverage, so that we can still maintain the aesthetics and a little bit of the control of how that growth happens. I mean that's huge.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would say to you this Back in 1996, we were living in well, about halfway between Abilene and Fort Worth in Gorman, texas, and some friends of ours he was a coach there in Gorman he and his wife moved from Gorman to Gunter. I can still remember the conversation my wife and I had as we came back after helping them unpack some boxes and we came across Lake Ray Roberts and we were headed over to I-35 to go home and she looked at me and she says you know, john? She says this would be this little town here, sanger, texas, would be a cool place for us to maybe possibly someday live. Well, god blessed us and we came here. And if you think about our location, we are out of the big city but we have all of the benefits of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. We have all the benefits of being just 20 miles from the Oklahoma border and the Red River. We are at the coming together of I-35, east and west. It is an easy enough commute to get to any place that you want to work. But what's so appealing about Sanger is that it still has the small town atmosphere. It's not a Frisco, it's not a Plano, it is a hometown place where, if I still count right, I think we have two traffic signals.
Speaker 2:I know that's going to change. I know that we can't help but to see 455 expand. We are seeing the growth of the retail and so forth. But how do you maintain a place where people want to live and have that close-knit community feel to it and yet still accommodate growth?
Speaker 2:Because one thing I always tell people at church is that if it isn't growing, it's either dead or it's fake. So we're either going to die we're not going to be real or we're going to have to grow, and how we manage that is going to be so important. We don't want to become a I hate to say it this way an apartment community. We want this to be a place where people say you know what this, like John and his family did, came here to raise a family and to grow old and then enjoy a community and you can still do that here. A community, and you can still do that here. And I think that that is a hats off to a lot of people, like Richard Muir, our mayor for so long, and the string of city managers that we've had and our city council and all of those that are invested because they've grown up here and they've raised families here and they know what it's like to be a community.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's very intentional and that's what I love. You know, what drew me here was the intentionality. Leadership has always been a big thing for me and I don't remember leaders that plan five days out, you know. I remember the leaders that plan 25 years out and so that's, I think, what I have seen with the economic development boards, with the city council, with the planning and zoning commission. I mean the list goes on and on. There is a really solid group of advisors to that council and to my office and to your boards that really have have a good feel for what we want to be.
Speaker 2:You know, we're not.
Speaker 1:It's not a Sanger. Uh, we're not sitting around here going. I wonder how this plays out. I think we all know how it plays out and all the pieces are there to make that happen. Can you tell me a little bit about how? Because growth is hard. How is that board balancing that growth while we maintain that small? I mean, you know that we're trying to maintain that aesthetic and y'all do a good job. What are some of the ways that the boards are helping with that, including what industries are we looking at to draw more of in the future?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you know, you ask yourself the question how many Mexican restaurants do we need, you know? Or how many gas stations, for that matter, or how many gas stations for that matter, and we don't want to just get a long laundry list of people that want to come to Sanger and say you know, the door's open, everybody come in. Because if you get inundated with too much too fast, I think you get swallowed up in the process, and so we are trying our best to balance what we do and the projects that we get involved in so that there is some semblance of direction. One of the things that was brought to our attention here in the last year or so has been some kind of strategic economic growth plan and putting that down on paper so that we can identify the areas, the entities, the businesses, the industrial and so forth and so on. If you get too much of one and not enough of the other, then you get yourself in trouble and vice versa. So we don't want just to be an industrial hub, even though we stand poised, with a railroad track right next to us and the Metroplex right in front of us and I-35 running right through us to be able to be a huge industrial city. But is that good for the community city? But is that good for the community? So yeah, are we going to, and have we, and will we continue to help with industrial development? You bet, but we don't want to get one sided on that.
Speaker 2:Look, I challenge anybody that's listening to this to think. If you're a business coming to Sanger, or if you're a family looking to find a place to plant roots and grow as a family, ask yourself a question. If you're looking for a place to live, tell me how many places do you know? That is the gateway to one of the largest lakes in North Texas. Lake Ray Roberts is only five minutes from the downtown area. The school district that continues to grow. My wife has been in the school district ever since we first came here and she still, to this day, is teaching on a daily basis. The school district here, I would say, is on par with some of the best in North Texas.
Speaker 2:We have the I-35. We have the opportunities for mom and dads to find good-paying jobs in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and we have many that even go to church with us, that live here and work in Oklahoma. So that's a huge advantage as well. And so when I say to these businesses you know, come, take a look and see what lies in store for this community. I say to you we have it all. We have everything that you could want. We're trying to make sure that if you do move here, you have a place to walk your dog and you can run off a few pounds and your kids can play sports. And if you have special needs kids, we aren't throwing them under the bus, we are encouraging their development. The churches and the community all of those things we're looking at and seeing what we can do to help be a well-rounded kind of community that will draw people into this city.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I know that the boards are excellent partners with the city. Can you tell us a little more about your collaborations with the other organizations the chamber, the city, the schools?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, oh yeah. So not only do I get the privilege to be on the 4B board, but I also work with the Sanger Educational Foundation and we're members of the Chamber of Commerce, with the church as well, and there are—that's what's cool about the community right, when it comes to having events in the community, everybody gets on board, whether it's Sanger Celebration, whether it's our kids graduating from high school and all of the activities that are involved in it, graduating from high school and all of the activities that are involved in it, the school district and all of the things that take place there, the educational foundation gala that we do every year. And what's cool to me is it doesn't matter which one of those events that I go to or participate in you're going to see representation from the school district. You're going to see representation from the school district. You're going to see representation from the city itself. You're going to see representation from the council members. You're going to see representation from the mayor.
Speaker 2:All of those people working hand in hand to accomplish the main goal of taking care of the people in Sanger is obvious and evident in all of those things.
Speaker 2:We work directly with the city itself and what the city can.
Speaker 2:We don't approve anything or do anything with the tax monies that we have, without it then going to our city council for their approval and we've clashed on time and again over what we want to do and what they want to do. But we always come up with a compromise and we always work together and that's been huge. We work with the Chamber of Commerce and we are involved in promoting the events that they have. Shani is big on taking Sanger and the Chamber of Commerce and the things that are available and going to some of these workshops and these events where these huge retail entities come together looking for places to put their brick and mortar stores and that helps to sell our community to these people. So, hand in hand with city council, with city staff, with the Chamber of Commerce, with the school district I believe you just got done having a podcast with Jenny Flaw who works with the school district, a podcast with Jenny Flaw who works with the school district and the things that have taken place with us and with them have been huge.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's tremendous. Yeah, I was unfortunately not here with Jenny, but it was a great podcast. I got to listen to it on our Podbean or whatever we're using now, and we'll link that too, because it is very informative. What is actually going on? We talk about growth from the city side. Again, we have a different perspective than the other entities, but the same growth that we're talking about here and all our needs impacts the school tenfold.
Speaker 1:The school district's huge. I mean it's not just the city of Sanger that your school district covers, I mean they cover well out into Denton County and the surrounding areas. So all the issues and challenges we have they have, you know, two times over or more and the ability to partner with those entities across the board is a display of that community which you know I tout a lot. I mean good chamber, good schools, good city. That's a good community. I mean, if you're clicking on all cylinders, I actually yesterday I had coffee with Megan the chamber president, megan Moon, and we had the same discussion and the discussion always revolves around what can we do for one another?
Speaker 1:What resources do you need to help make you more successful, because that's the goal. If we're all successful, then we're all successful. Amen, yes, so quality of life, again that's a huge one. I've heard you hit on several items that the board has done and you know we even the destination park downtown and things like that. Those are all quality of life, huge quality of life issues that the city alone could not tackle. Can you tell me what role you think those quality of life issues that the city alone could not tackle, can you tell me what role you think those quality of life amenities play in attracting new businesses and residents to the community?
Speaker 2:Well, I think that if I were to explain it, it probably wouldn't make much sense. So let me give you an example. Being on the 4B board, we built Porter Park 1, and we were very, very excited when we finally got that accomplished and we saw the results of that. So we're rocking along and we're thinking about what the next project is on our list of things to do and what we can do. And one day the liaison between the city and the board came to us and they said you know what? We've got a teenage girl in our community that is involved in I can't even remember if it was FFA or one of those organizations through school and so forth and so on, and she's trying to get this project together and the only thing that's holding her back is money. And we're like why come to us? Well, you need to hear the project. And I said okay.
Speaker 2:So, to make a long story short, she came to us and she said what I want to do is we have this awesome park, but we really don't have anywhere or anything in that park where people can go and just enjoy themselves as a group and not feel like they're just out in the open. And so her idea was we need to build a pavilion. I'm like, this is a teenager with this kind of an aspiration. And so we're like, okay, so what do you need? She said, well, I just need money. And we're like, okay, not anything that's ever come to us before, right? And we're thinking to ourselves, wow, how do we do we do this? Is this the right thing to do? And everybody looked at each other, you bet, without even a hesitation. And so if you go to Porter Park now and you pull up in the parking lot, yeah, you're going to see the ball fields and yeah, you're going to see the creek and the pond and the walking track, but you're also going to see a pavilion that's been built out there by a teenager, right, that's been built out there by a teenager, right.
Speaker 2:And when word gets out that we have that kind of investment in our young people, that's the kind of thing that draws families to a community where we're not just, you know, busing them to a schoolhouse and they sit and play on computers when they're at home alone at night, but we are actively trying to find ways to make them feel a part of what's going on.
Speaker 2:And so when you talk about quality of life, anything that we can do. Just take for a moment if you get a chance that we can do. Just take for a moment if you get a chance, on any given summer day, when it's 90-something degrees outside, take a drive by the Splash Park and just see how great it is, for maybe a family that doesn't have a whole lot of money or transportation for that matter can walk over there with their toddlers or little kids and they can cool off and get wet and it doesn't cost them a dime. That's quality of life. That's saying I don't have to worry about air conditioning, I don't have to worry about buying a ticket, I don't have to worry about anything. I can take my kids down the street and we can have fun as a family and enjoy living in this community and having something to do. Those are the things that I don't think you can put a price tag on if you're looking for a place to raise a family.
Speaker 1:I agree, I agree 100%. Well, what, john, has been the most rewarding part of serving on that board? Like I said, you're probably one of the longest tenured board members we have. You've seen a lot. Can you nail one down?
Speaker 2:Oh well, one that really kind of makes my you know, kind of makes that hair stand up on my arms is back early on, when I was first put on the board. I was highly involved, since my oldest is his name is Nathan and he's in his 30s now but back then he was still a single-digit kid and Dad was his baseball coach and we were. I was coaching and we were playing ball over here at the railroad fields. I don't know if you knew this or not, but that field was here long before we came and it was built right on top of a landfill and, boy, I tell you, it was nuts, try to play out there and the 4B board. When I came on it.
Speaker 2:One of the projects that we oversaw and that we spent money on was renovating that place to make it so that it was number one safe for the kids and number one usable for the kids. And so much time and effort was put into that field concession stand, bathrooms, lighting, fences, resurfacing, adding an extra field so that there would be enough to meet the needs of all the kids. And for years our kids have played on those fields and have had the chance to grow up and have their kids play on those fields. So that was a huge one for me. When we saw the change of how the downtown park and the beautification of downtown took place, that was huge Because so many.
Speaker 2:I was on the fire when Smith's Country Store burnt down and boy that place was rickety, to say the least, from the get-go. And to see how everything has turned a corner and been preserved and now looks beautiful and desirable for people to come and explore and enjoy, that's been huge. I don't care about getting any recognition. I don't care if anybody ever knows that the 4B board was behind those projects. All I care about is that people can come to Sanger and they can say, wow, this community is doing something good for its people.
Speaker 1:A hundred percent. I mean I, I, I, you tell that story about railroad park. I love that because you know, right now we're in the process, we we know it's on the landfill and we're in the process of redoing all the permitting and get everything sorted out so that we can renovate those fields. Again, Again right and maintain those well into the future. Some people don't know that. You know right now there's no intent for those fields to go away. Porter Park, too, is actually an enhancement of our quality of life?
Speaker 2:Yes, because we've got so many kids coming in.
Speaker 1:A hundred percent. A hundred percent. What is one thing? You wish more residents knew about what the board does.
Speaker 2:I wish they knew. Number one we don't get paid. We've been volunteers and we will continue to be so, because I don't want any strings to ties. I don't want there to be any kind of agenda. I don't want there to be this being a situation that it's just a rubber stamp to be able to say, okay, we've got the citizens' input and approval is still there. They have a heart for the city and for its development and to see Sanger continue to be Sanger, as Sanger continues to grow to be the big Sanger that it is going to be. We don't have any choice about that at this point. But they also need to recognize that it is going to have to be a cooperative effort.
Speaker 2:We talked about Port-au-Park One. What people don't realize is that it would have taken us probably 50 years of collecting sales tax revenue to be able to have enough money to build that park. We had to utilize a bond issue to be able to not only get the ball rolling and get it built and congratulations to the community that will be paid off in 2026. 2026. We did a bond issue for the splash park that took out the old swimming pool that was there and revitalized that entire park and that splash park area and so forth and so on, and that has been paid off by the Ford Beat Board and congratulations to the community. You guys made that happen.
Speaker 2:We need you to realize that if in the future which you will have to see us being able to bring the Miracle League Park into fruition, the downtown park into fruition, it's going to take bond issues.
Speaker 2:But know this, with the amount of growth that we have with the 4B board and the tax revenue that's coming in with all of this retail, that we have the ability to service that debt and to make these projects happen and to just arbitrarily vote against it as opposed to voting for it is going to handcuff us. We need people to realize that this is going to be a collaborative effort. You're going to have to say yes, I want this by your vote and realize that you've got good people that are going to be responsible with those monies to make these things happen. Costs continue to go up. You know you go get a hamburger and it can cost you 20 bucks to feed two people. It's the same way with building stuff and we can do it. We know that we have the resources, but we're going to have to have everybody join hand in hand with us and make these things happen.
Speaker 1:And that's probably one of the biggest way people can get involved in economic growth. Right is support the programs that are proposed when they make sense to you. And they're only going to make sense to you if you're informed.
Speaker 2:Yes, Stay informed Look between the city's page.
Speaker 1:The EDC has a page. We utilize discoverSangercom now for a lot of the activities and the quality of life things going on and that's where you'll find a lot of that information. Or just call in the offices, I mean it's out there.
Speaker 2:And I would say this to you If you have a question, ask. Look, I've got my phone with me. It's rang three times since we started this podcast and I've just had to silence it, but I will get back to those phone calls. I'm open to anyone that has any questions about what they see come on the ballots, what we do, what they might propose as a project. We are always open to ideas.
Speaker 2:And just to circle back around on the finance side of the 4B board, sanger needs to know that, because of the responsibility of our city manager and our city staff and those that are on this 4B board, we have serviced all of that debt and we are fixed to have it paid off without ever sacrificing any of the projects that have already been put in place. And we have monies that we have been judiciously setting aside to be able to do these big ticket items in the future. And we will, as a result of paying off the indebtedness that we have with the current bond, we'll be able, without hurting anybody's feelings or doing anything different, to continue that debt service. If the approval of future bonds are made by the city and by the residents of Sanger, that's fantastic what other things do you think that listeners could do to get involved in the economic growth of Sanger?
Speaker 2:Okay, so here's a big one. You ready for this? I'm ready. Okay, here it is.
Speaker 2:Whenever we have a big decision, whether it be the 4B city council, 4a, whatever the case may be, the law dictates that we have to have meetings that are the community is notified well in advance and that the community needs to express their opinions, and that the community needs to express their opinions. Over the years, I cannot tell you how many times that we have had a big-time decision to go by a what do you call it? A citizen input, and those citizen input periods of time are always put in place before we have a discussion and a decision about what we're going to do. I cannot remember one that we opened. You know it's 7 o'clock on Tuesday, july, the 22nd. Citizen input time is now officially open and we look around the room and all it is is board members and we give it a few minutes and we're sitting there waiting for a seat, see if there's anybody that's going to show up and talk to us and tell us what they think or feel, and after a couple of minutes have gone by, we say, okay, nobody's here, let's go ahead and close that part of the meeting. It is so simple and so easy for you to spend five minutes out of your afternoon or your evening and come to those meetings and, if nothing else, ask questions, give input, share your experiences, make sure that we haven't forgotten or missed something that's really important in the development of this park.
Speaker 2:Let me give you a for instance. We built Porter Park One. We had all of the engineers, we had all of the drawings done, we had all of the citizen input done, we had the contractors ready to turn the dirt and to get things started and we built that park. And then, about five years after it was built, we had boundaries of what it needs to be to qualify for these events.
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness, I'm sitting there thinking are you kidding me? How does that happen with this big of a project? How does that happen with this big of a project? Well, come to find out. All of those softball gurus that have been a part of this community never once took a tape measure out there, never once gave us any kind of information that there was a problem, and so we ended up going back and using 4B money once again to make those corrections years after it was done. Money once again to make those corrections years after it was done, so you can participate in a powerful and important way to keep us from doing things that are wrong and screwing up.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I mean you've got large groups of imperfect people trying to do what's in the best interest of the whole. It always helps to have another voice.
Speaker 2:Amen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree with that. I would even go so far as to say keep an eye on the boards and commissions on the city's webpage. And if you have an interest in economic development, whether it be the 4A, the 4B, or planning, planning and zoning, historic preservation parks the list goes on and on Take a look at when those board openings come up and put in an application, because we have, from the public support side of things, it's getting much better than it was, but it is still hard to fill a board in the city and we need need that to change because, again, we're in that limited window of being able to make those decisions that maintain the integrity of these plans that we have moving forward. So that's fantastic. John, thank you for being here today.
Speaker 2:Hey, no problem. I would say this to you, though If you want people to know about Sanger, bring them to Sanger. I have a good friend of mine. She goes to church with us and she is a foot doctor that I see in Corinth, and I was at her office because I had an injury and she was taking care of me, and one of her little nurses came in and so we got to talking and I said you know how are things going? And she's like oh, everything's going great. Um, me and my husband, we were looking for a place to buy a house and I said where you been looking.
Speaker 2:She says, well, we are looking, but the prices, the cost of finding a home around here, are just crazy nuts out of the world expensive. And I said have you thought about coming to Sanger? And she's like, well, no, I guess we really haven't. And I said if you want to have babies and grow a family, I said you need to go check out Sanger Next time I came in for an appointment. We were talking once again and she said you know, we are now looking at Sanger. And she said I am so impressed with the housing market, the schools, the location, the small-town atmosphere.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for giving me a heads up to go check it out, and so I tell people if you want to help Sanger, tell people about Sanger, because it is a great place to live.
Speaker 1:Agreed, Agreed. Well, you have been listening to the 266 Express. I'm John Knoplett and I appreciate you listening in to what's going on in our small little North Texas town.