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
How A Small North Texas Town Managed Big Growth, Strengthened The Grid, And Kept Community At The Center
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 Knoblett here with co-host Donna Green. Donna, who do we have with us today?
SPEAKER_01:We have us.
SPEAKER_02:Me and you.
SPEAKER_01:Me and you. That's it.
SPEAKER_02:That's all that we could all we could rally with. That happens. Yeah. Right. No, uh, we thought it would be a good time, right? We we run a little different. We know December's busy for everybody. Uh, we know we're going into November. We thought it'd probably be a good time, or as good a time as any, maybe to do kind of a recap of our last year uh in the city. That's right. All right. Well, uh 2025 was, I think, a standout year for us.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. We accomplished a lot in every area.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. And I think that that uh some of these accomplishments that we'll talk about, or some of these successes that we've had as a community. And being very clear, we're not just talking about what we've done as a city, we're talking about what we've done as a community, uh, will help maybe lead into our plans for 26.
SPEAKER_01:I hope so. Yeah, I'm hoping maybe you might disclose a few things at the end that maybe even I don't know about.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, we'll see. We'll see how that goes. Donna, tell me, tell me. Um, I mean, we so um in 2023, uh I showed up. Um, take it or leave it, um, mixed emotions, however you feel about it. That's when I got here.
SPEAKER_01:I think you were here in 21.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, it was 21, wasn't it? Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_01:Been here a minute.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. 21. I just blocked out those first two, maybe. All right. So I get here in 21. 21, we're working through a lot. Um cities going starting to go through some changes. Um perception, I think, probably was a big deal. Yeah. I mean, there's um, you know, we're we're coming out of a a period in time where government, I guess historically, has been a lot of people think it's closed off, right? That we exist in a bubble. Um, and then uh we we uh we run out and uh we we talk about what we can do to change that perception. We think we need somebody on board to to help with that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I'm pretty sure you and I got the best person ever.
SPEAKER_02:We got we got you.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, you did.
SPEAKER_02:So you you come on board and your key task, right, is help us fix our our our image problem, right? And how do we do that? You know, we need to be more transparent, we need to we need to control the narrative to a degree. I mean, when a lot of people I've heard when they say, hey, well, this is just what the city is telling you, some that's very true in a lot of ways because it's by design. You know, we want to be the source for those facts.
SPEAKER_01:For sure.
SPEAKER_02:Um so when we go through the initial portions of what that looks like and putting together a strategy, and here we are uh in 2025, and this is the second year we've kind of gone beyond just locally and gone out and really attracted more attention. And with that attention has come some awards and things like that. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
SPEAKER_01:Um yes. So that was that was one of the things that I wanted to do is I wanted to establish that we are the true source for what's going on in the city. And then um with that, the work that we've done, we've we've earned some uh some accolades for it. So, for example, um we uh we were awarded the Tameo Award of Honor for um best flyer for a population that are 75,000. And that's a big deal when you're going out against all of these cities and you're promoting your city that you get that kind of recognition. Um, our podcast, um, we were named a finalist in PR Daily social media and digital awards. Um and PR Daily, that's we're playing with the big boys. I mean, Coca-Cola's in that uh Toyota, so it's not just city government, you're playing against the big boys. It's a big deal. So it is a big deal, yep. Um we won the Lit Advertising Award for our best for the best t-shirt for the Old Albert Station Songwriter Festival. Um and then we were a finalist uh for the PR Daily Nonprofit Communications Award. Um, and we were recognized for uh Blue Santa and the swag program. And then um Freedom Fest, uh one of my babies, uh earned the Tameo Award honor for Best Recurring Special Event. So we've earned a lot of that for just a lot of the things that the city is doing, which was exciting. But we've also had a few other awards that are uh kind of nice to talk about, and one of them um was for you. Uh you were honored as uh American City and and uh County's exemplary public servants for commitment to effective community-centered leadership. You want to tell us a little bit about that?
SPEAKER_02:Uh sure. No, I mean, I mean that you know that's uh that's one of those awards, um, you know, and I I think we have another one coming, right, with Gov Business for similar, similar thing. I think um for me, that's more a demonstration of the team that is here in the city, right? What what I do um can't happen without the hard work that you and our other department directors put in, without the the uh vision of the city council uh helping us with legislation and policy. Um but yeah, I mean that's a nice recognition to receive. It says to other communities in the business world that that um that there's leadership here that is on par with leadership around the country that is trying to do what's in the best interest of both the community and the organization. So that's huge, you know, because I think it I think it's uh kind of a green flag when you when that's out there, I think it's a green flag for people to say that's a safe place to invest, whether it's in my business or uh in my in my life. You know, I this might be a good place to go raise my kids. Uh and so again, I think it's a fantastic recognition to receive. I'm honored to receive it. And uh and uh again, um I just don't want anybody to lose sight of it is this organization, the people in the organization that make those things happen. Um but there are milestones that come with that, you know. Um we we've done quite a bit since 24 and into 25. Uh we we got the long-term power agreement with LCRA. Um we know that uh even recently we've had some um some power outages and things like that. Uh some people will exist on CoServe, some on the city of um Sanger's electric side. We're always gonna have issues like that to arise. Uh, but when we have better agreements, it helps us uh it helps us mitigate some of that risk and it helps us uh primarily reduce the cost of some of those challenges that we have. I mean, the long-term power agreement for us, what that means for the community is that we're able to maintain a pretty consistent uh pricing. And um, you know, obviously we have margins that we have to, we are a business, we have margins we we have to control, but we're able to maintain those margins in a way that we hope over the next 16 years, be 15 years by the time this airs, over the next 15 years that we're able to control those costs in a in a way that benefits people for the next 15. And so, you know, when you look at your power bill now, we know there's times when you look at your bill and you go, my bill is extremely high. There'll be times where that's probably you may be a little higher than you think you should be, but you know, we're able to maintain that stability over a decade, whereas some of the other organizations might not be able to do that, you know. So so that's a that's a big, big win for the organization. We think a big win for the citizens. Uh Brazos Electric is a big part of what we do. I mean, we're a wholesale electric provider. Brazos runs our transmission station, and as we as we grow, that substation requires more power and it could uh redundancy. Uh, you know, when the power goes out, uh, the power is out right now. We're a single transformer sub. Well, we've been able to partner with Brazos and there. I looked at their plans just yesterday on the new substation design where they're going to add an additional uh additional uh transformer, which will give us more capacity, allowing us to accommodate the growth without negatively impacting our existing customer base, but also a little bit of redundancy. Whenever the power goes down, we we may be able to reroute some of that power and get the lights back on sooner, which I don't know how much sooner we can get the lights back on than we already do because uh the electric crew, Ronnie and his team, do a fabulous job getting out there and getting the lights back on when they go out. Uh incredible team over there. And then uh we also welcome Sanger's first ever ladder truck. I mean, it's a quint. Yeah, I mean that's a that's a they call it a quint because it has uh five things that it will will do for us. But the biggest one is a ladder truck as as as we grow, buildings grow. I mean, people move from horizontal to vertical in their growth, and this gives us better tools to utilize to keep the community safe. So we're super excited. Those are uh again, those are big milestones for us.
SPEAKER_01:So well, talking about community growth, it's been a very exciting uh year for for Sanger. We've had a lot of growth and development. We've had countless new businesses. I mean, I'll never name them all, but yeah, you know, we had Everything Gifts and Papa D's finally opened. That was super exciting. Smile Bliss um and the windmill. So just that's just a name, just touching on a few, but there's been a lot of them, the uh the uh our emergent care center, so a a lot of things.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Um, but we have a lot of um new development on the books right now that's coming sooner rather than later. Do you want to talk about a little bit of that?
SPEAKER_02:Well, I mean, I was surprised you just didn't lead with Tom Thumb, right? I mean, that's uh I mean everybody can see it now. You you drive by, it's uh it's a reality. Uh long time coming for some, a long time coming for us. You know, there's uh a lot of things with development. We know getting the pipeline early. I mean, there are numerous things now that we just can't talk about, but we're super excited about, and you everybody that listens here has to wait.
SPEAKER_01:You know, I was I was talking with someone yesterday that he said that he grew up here and he couldn't believe that we were getting a Tom Thumb. And I said, Well, you've seen it for a couple of years. I said, but you need to understand the city's known a grocery store, not necessarily what grocery store, was coming for a long time, and we just can't, and until the developers are ready to announce that, we can't. So um just people not really understanding how much work goes on and how long it takes to get all of that stuff in.
SPEAKER_02:But yeah, and that development is huge for us because it's it's uh it's really Sanger's first, probably real mixed-use development that includes uh multifamily, single family, and commercial. Uh and everybody sees the tom thumb, which we hope will be open by the end of the year. Yeah. Pretty, pretty, pretty confident that they can make it. You know, you're we're I know they're in the inspection phase right now on some of their finals and things like that. Um you can see on the backside where they have a few of the townhouses and the apartments going up now. I mean, that's you know, that's gonna be, you know, a lot of of new uh new families coming into the community. What we don't see is, you know, there's uh about a dozen more or better commercial lots around that property that they're already booking. So that that um you you will see more retail availability in in Sanger than you have ever seen, you know, by the by the end of 27 for sure, um we'll see, we will see as an organization, we'll see a a very measurable shift between our sales tax and our property tax, you know, which is very helpful because as as property tax uh gets relief, we we have to find a way to um to replace those revenue streams for essential services, police and and fire and public works. Um the timing with commercial development and sanger is gonna coincide with that shift if if the if everything trends like it appears with with legislation coming down from the state, that that we won't have to skip too many beats because that revenue that we're losing on the property tax side for those services we should be able to make up through the sales and use tax size side, uh, which is uh, you know, uh for for us um and for the community to not have to have a lull in essential services. That doesn't happen often. So we're we're uh we're pleased with that. But that development will impact it, right? You've got 2,000 plus uh residential units booked, probably 4,000 in permitting now. You've got another uh three or four uh in discussions. We've got, you know, there's talk of MUDs are a big one, these municipal municipal utility districts. You have several of those in the county that will will impact uh impact you regionally because they're close. They're not in the city limits or in our what we call our ETJ, but they're on top of you, and those are gonna be users that are gonna draw from some of your essential services, which is just the nature of how that happens. You know, there's probably another, you know, 20,000 units over the next 10 years that you could see reasonably just in the muds, right? So, so our population growth and that 2040 plan that we put together were very timely because that is the roadmap that we're using to manage this uh this growth. So we're we're, you know, you you and that doesn't uh we didn't even talk about the industrial side where you see Blue Star has their two two warehouses now, and they're they're looking at another 40, 41,000 square foot gold storage facility. Um so I mean we are we are seeing all those things um coming and um and because there's been a lot of strategic planning that came before us, there's not a lot of fear with what we're doing. There's just a lot of putting your head down and and doing the work because the planning's been put in. So um, so we're we're positioned really well for the community growth. And you know, we've added, you know, our growth rates probably, you know, between three and five percent annually and has been since I've since I've been here. Um, you know, who knows what the next census will will will tell us about where we actually sit once they count count heads, but Sanger is not the town it was a decade ago.
SPEAKER_01:So it's not the town it was five years ago. But I mean if you think about if you got 2,000 homes, like they're they're coming up, they're coming up now. Like those are being they're actively working, people they're they're being built or being started, right? You think about, I mean, even if you just figure two people per home, you're in a town of 10,000 right now, that's 4,000 more people just right there. And then you've got a lot more that's on in, you know, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you can break it down, right? I mean, you've got you've got uh a population just under 10,000, there's about 3,200 homes on the ground.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_02:So you think for every 3,200, you get another 10,000 people. You're you're you're headed to 30,000 people. Do you do we think that will happen? Do you think that's manageable? We we think it's manageable. We don't know that will happen. We know that our service area will certainly serve that many people and and and much more. And when we talk about growth and retail and even the industrial and the jobs that are needed, those things impact us in a positive way, right? Uh we're again, I've always said you can you can either manage your growth or it will manage you, right? We're managing that growth. And I think we're doing a good job. I think the uh I think the regionally and statewide, and even nationally, we're seeing people look at Sanger and kind of look. I mean, um develop the development department and myself, we've uh we we've had three or four conferences where we've we've gone out to planning conferences and talked about what we're doing here because people are interested not just in what we're doing, but how we're doing it. You know, I would love for Sanger to be a white sheet city for how you handle exponential growth because the exponential growth is there. Now we just have to make sure that as a team we're hitting our marks to manage it in the way we plan so that we can go out and share how we did that with others because there's no blueprint really for what we're doing. I mean, most cities that have this type of growth are um not all, but most that we've experienced, they're tucked up, they're they're much closer suburbs to large markets. You know, now we have seen like the friscoes and things like that spring up, but they were still proximity-wise pretty pretty close to that DFW market as a whole. Now that that has crept, these small towns with min that have had minimal resources and minimal finances are having to figure out how you're going to capital plan for you know$100 million in sewer plants and you know$250 million in in streets and and water. Uh and you know, for us, uh, you know, six or eight million over the next, you know, three or four years just to cover the expansion of the electrical system to make sure people have services. So um so it's it's fun. I mean, I'm having a good time. Uh yeah.
SPEAKER_01:That sounds like maybe we should write a white paper. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. There's something to do. Something to do.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, because I didn't have anything else to do, right?
SPEAKER_02:Tell us about community events, Donna.
SPEAKER_01:Community events, uh my heartbeat, right? Um let's see, we do a lot of we do a lot of stuff in the city of Sanger. Um, we have some small stuff and we do some large events, but we have the uh art exhibit of the library that started a couple years ago. Talk about an event that has out it's almost outgrown the library. We may need a new library pretty soon, so if we're gonna keep that up. Um then Easter Egg of Palooza. Uh that is a big hit. I've never seen um 40,000 plastic eggs get picked up, so it takes forever to put them out, but it takes like five seconds for them to be picked up. Um then we do the two cleanup days. So we um we just had one of those. I know uh October, right? Yeah, we just had one of those, and I think Ryan said they they got rid of four dumpsters fulls of just recyclable metals, so there was a lot done there. Um then we do our citywide garage sale um in April, which is cool. We added touch a truck, uh, so that was been a really cool event. Um gives the kids an opportunity to come out and climb all over the police trucks and the fire trucks and that type of thing. And then Freedom Fest. Um I'm running out of room. So hopefully we get the other park uh, you know, so I can have at least some more parking. But uh that's a great event. It's gonna be great this year. Uh there's a roller coaster coming this year, so that's pretty exciting. Um, then we started National Night Out last year and we repeated that this year.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's a good one.
SPEAKER_01:That was a good event. Yeah, that was a really good event. Uh congratulations this year to the police department, even though the fire department says they might or might not have won that on Fair and Square, but that was cool. But then the kids knocked it out of the park. Um, we had a blue Santa this year, that's um in cooperation with uh the Sanger ISD and the Education Foundation. Um and then my favorite and your very favorite, right?
SPEAKER_02:But I saw where you where this year's theme was in honor of me.
SPEAKER_01:It is. So Christmas on the square and our holiday parade, and it's the Grant in Hooville this year. So yeah, I did that just for you. Um but then we have other community events, right? We have uh the celebration um that with the chamber puts on, and then they do SafeSpook Spook, which will be coming up at the end of this month. But by the time we launch this, it will happen, I guess. Um then we do lunch with the city leaders that's put on by the Education Foundation. That's a great event where the community gets to come out and really hear from the horse's mouth what's going on and what to expect. And they do the annual gala, but we also have car shows. We're doing two Sanger's doing two or three car shows now that are very well attended. And we've added the farmer's market and there's just several others. So um in the last four years, it really has taken off for events. We we try to offer something for everybody, and I think we're we're hitting it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and I I think it's important that people uh know that um, you know, the the Chamber of Commerce, uh the farmers market organization, the the the foundation, um, the the ISD itself. I mean, those are the those organizations are all great partners with the city. And they are they are putting a lot of these things on the ground for the community as well. And so we we very much appreciate the partnerships that we have with them. And we believe uh that really that that that again is what makes a good community when everybody we may not always agree on everything, but we agree on what matters, and that is community. You know, what are we doing to build a community that's not um just safe or all the buzzwords, right? What are what are we doing? We're we're I think we're all very much, what are we doing to build a community where we can live our our lives together? Right, right. I mean, you know, we're it's not Mayberry, you know, long gone are those days, but are we looking out for one another? Are we looking out for our neighbors? And how do we do that? And I think it starts at the at the top. I think it starts with the these organizations. If if we can if we can figure out how to work with one another, even when we don't always agree, that should be a good example for everybody living here that we can all find common ground. And we see it. The events are growing. People uh the I the I'm a big fan of of the songwriter festival.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely, yep.
SPEAKER_02:And I will tell you to see um it's not it's not a huge event uh yet. I'm gonna keep hitting the table, Mike. You're gonna have to fix that. Um the uh it's not a huge event yet, but there's if ever you were gonna have any kind of trouble at an event, that might be the one where people would point the finger and not not a lick. Everybody is having a good time, they're enjoying themselves, everybody's getting along, and and and everybody, I mean, when you walk into a place and everybody, I met, I don't know, people from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, you know, of course, everybody coming from Nashville and they always drag their people with them. Just like they just like they live here. I mean, it I mean it is it is one of those events. Fourth of July is another one, where everybody comes down, they get along, and you can see that this is Sanger's a community. It's not just a bunch of people that that live here and work somewhere else. It's people that want to be involved with one an with one another. I think that's great.
SPEAKER_01:We received a lot of that feedback from the songwriter festival. Um we saw it on uh social media, people posting it, but then the songwriters themselves said that they came in and they felt like they had lived here forever. It was so welcoming, and so we really I think it is a special event and it is growing. Uh so we've got a few tweaks that we need to make to it, but that's that's uh that was one that terrified me to do, but I'm so glad that we've done it now because it's it's a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_02:It is a lot of fun. It is a lot of fun, you know. And the uh you're right about Easter Egapalooza. I mean, so many eggs and gone so fast.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I mean like I don't get that done. I mean, they it's I've yeah, they just zoom them up.
SPEAKER_01:But you know, at least they don't have we don't have to take all the candy, they get to do that.
SPEAKER_02:So that's why I'm not allowed at Egapalooza.
SPEAKER_01:You know, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I would eat all the candy.
SPEAKER_01:So what are we gonna do in 2026? Anything we should know about or not know about, or maybe should know about?
SPEAKER_02:I mean, you're we're gonna we're gonna keep keep on trucking, right? We're gonna do what we do. Development is gonna continue. I mean, uh actively now if you drive down McReynolds or even 455, you can see the Lane Ranch project is still moving. It's a lot of single-family homes. Uh you'll see uh what was always referred to as the town center project. Uh you'll see a lot of movement on that. You'll continue to see a lot of things on I-35. Unfortunately, you'll still see a lot of construction as they finish, uh finish probably fall of 26. They may finish the 455 portion, you know, that's still in flux. Anytime you're having a project like that, um, you'll you'll see a lot of construction related to that, but then they're moving from that directly to the expansion of I-35. So we are still gonna see a lot of construction activity that uh that we're gonna need to be aware of. Uh you'll see the uh city and the county are gonna be working along uh Bells and Marion Road, those projects are moving along. Uh Bells, of course, you'll see continue to expand. We got some development to the north there. Uh Sanger uh Sanger authorized its first PID, which is a public improvement district. It's just north of on Bells Road, on Bells and Corner of Bells and Met. So you'll see construction um there. So all of those all of those things will will um will be going on. So you'll have to be really aware because all of those things will um will create um traffic where there's already going to be a lot of traffic as they divert traffic back and forth, whatever the whatever Text Dot says their plan is gonna be, you can see them putting the service roads together now. They will definitely be diverting some of that traffic as they prepare some of those right-of-aways. We just don't know what that looks like yet, but um we'll make sure that people, if they pay attention to the website, that we're when we get those traffic plans that they're up, Facebook, you know, all our social feeds, that they'll get that information. But you need to be aware to look for it. We'll we'll put it out there, but you may have to go find it. We're gonna tell you where you can find it, but you're gonna you're gonna want to look at it. We're gonna give you every opportunity to find it. Uh, and we're gonna give you every opportunity if we miss our mark to let us know that you couldn't find it so that we can we can do better. Um, of course, we already talked a little bit about the substation. Um, absolutely, the the reliability through our LCRA partnership uh and the addition of the substation is going to provide us, we hope, with much more reliability. Again, I I believe that historically, even long before my arrival, Sanger did a fantastic job with the reliability of their system. People saw that during uh Winterstorm Ure. I wasn't around for Winterstorm Uri, but I I looked at what was done and how it was done, and it was it was handled extremely well. And uh and uh kudos to the council and management at that time. Um that could have that could have been a deal breaker for the city. It cost a lot of cities a lot of lot of money, uh, but they were able to manage that system that didn't cost any money really for the community. You know, where subsidies were you know tens, tens of thousands, sometimes millions of dollars. Uh your reliability there and the way it was managed up to that point were spot on. We're gonna continue that, right? Uh if it's not broke, don't fix it. Right. Um add to it, enhance it, but don't don't break it thinking you you you're gonna reinvent the wheel. So uh so that will be going on. Uh you're gonna see the SUMP program very active. Uh we have a capital improvements manager that will be working. We've uh engaged Kimley Horn to uh begin to build those packages. Uh that is the street and utility maintenance program. What we call the SUMP program is the long-term, probably it will be a perpetual program. It hopefully it will be in place long after we're gone to go in. Uh all the streets have been identified. Now they're going to go in, build packages, and we're going to begin to repair those streets and the utilities in those streets uh systematically until we have a a really town that is full of operable roads. I mean, there are roads here we know are not drivable. They're not the best maintained. Uh they they're um they're just problematic. I mean, you can drive two blocks in a lot of direct directions and find one. We're we're fixing that. You know, the council has agreed to to fix that, and they're investing a lot of time and money to do that. This is not the gonna replace our regular maintenance program. The things that you see in the summer where we go through and we're we're uh replacing these these uh streets, these resurfaces uh and things like that. They're not full reconstructions of roads, those will still happen. So we're gonna have two road programs that we hope will expedite our ability to uh to improve our transportation system. Um public safety, of course, the fire department um has their new trucking service. They are going to be remodeling their current station. And then as part of our long-term capital plan, we, you know, we're looking at building a public safety facility. That won't happen next year. It probably won't happen the year after that, but the planning and the uh the property acquisition uh and and maybe some of the design, those things that have to take place sequentially to make that happen, those will be those will be starting uh in next year. Um so uh you've got your community. What do what have you got planned there on these events?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, well. Well we want to expand um some more on the arts and recreation. So I know uh uh Parks and Rec is working really diligently to put a lot more programming in place. Um and then uh the library is bringing in tons of art stuff. Right. So um kind of lets me off the hook a little bit, don't it?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Put it off on them a little bit. Um no, I mean we we've talked about you know adding more and more of the arts components. So just looking for different ways to do that that makes sense without adding another event. I don't think we need another event right now. We just need to focus on the ones that we have. And um, I don't know that I can make Freedom Fest any bigger, although I could give it a whirl, but uh if we can make it any bigger. Bet you could. Yeah. Um so uh, you know, I think um we'll maintain, of course, change up things like Freedom Fest. I want to continue to grow the songwriter festival. We did like the sneak peek this year, so I think it's feasible to do a full two-day event uh soon. Um and then Christmas on the square, we definitely should expand that. Um maybe do the, you know, Denton does the Halloween 31 days. Maybe we could do the 31 days of Christmas or 25 days of Christmas. So I don't know. I mean, it's just a thought. Just a thought, not the 12. We should do them all. We should do the countdown. Let's do the countdown of Christmas.
SPEAKER_02:We should do Christmas on the square advent where every day there's a something new is revealed.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. Something new. Yeah, that's a great idea. I'll I'll run with that. Um I think that's for you know, for that type of thing. For I think that's kind of where we're gonna stay now when it comes to our community engagement events. I know we do want to expand upon those. Um you do you do your uh city manager events now. We do uh a couple events with the police department. Um I'd like to uh involve maybe uh the city council or maybe our directors or something. Uh look at a town hall possibly where it makes sense. So just kind of exploring those opportunities to get in front of the different parts of the community on different timescales that work for them. So we want to grow that. So that's kind of that's kind of what I'm thinking focused on for next year.
SPEAKER_02:That's good. That's good because as you know, as we grow economic development-wise, right? We've got a lot, a lot of new commercial opportunities. When those roads are done, uh well, the roads are not even done, and we're seeing a lot of commercial activity and a lot of discussions when they're done, certainly. Uh, you're gonna have a lot more. Um uh that you've got the new business uh attraction campaigns through our Discover Sanger for sure.com. Um so that'll be fun.
SPEAKER_01:That's gonna be a fun campaign this year.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I mean, so so those things, right, allow us to enhance those events too, you know. So being able to pull back and and really, really focus some more time and effort to what are already great events to make them even better. Uh I that's a great idea. Um that when we talk about enhancing those events, though, like Old Bolivar's Station Songwriter Festival, um, that was an event that that um started from nothing. Literally. Yeah. And uh and um and now we're planning uh, well, we talk about the miracle field, right? Miracle field, we put the miracle field in. That's an active project. Uh you'll see fundraising start on that probably next year. It's not solely a project that requires fundraising, but we're looking, we'll be looking to fundraise a large portion of the miracle field. Um part of that is because we we believe that uh if you have a little bit of skin in the game, it changes how that park is you utilized and maintained when it becomes your park and not just the city park. Right. We think that changes the dynamic. You know, we see it all the time. Uh, you know, communities where they do community playground ground builds and things, most cities will report hey, not only did we fundraise for this, we built it, and there's some of the best maintained and least vandalized parks you'll find in most cities. So we think that concept kind of goes the same way. You know, the more and more people we have involved with a little bit of skin in the game, uh, we we believe the better park that we can have, field we can have, as well as uh hopefully build a better volunteer base to help, you know, operate and utilize it long term. Uh, but that is not the only park we're doing. Uh what we're looking at the down town park, which had the uh conceptuals redone late last year. Yep. Um and that is um currently the warehouse along the railroad track off Bolivar is being utilized as a temporary fire station while we remodel our current station. But the plans are in place to uh to uh renovate that entire city block into a new park, and it's uh the the council and and and the uh economic development boards who are involved, and the parks boards are looking at making that a destination park. So there'll be a venue there, uh there'll be uh open open rentable space, flexible space, and we're hoping we'll be able to move some events down there. All that planning will continue to go on into 26 as well. But that that park, that park is what we believe ties into our comprehensive plan. The city doesn't have a lot of control over what goes on in your downtown. If you don't own it, it's like any any development. If you don't own it, you don't have a lot of leverage in what you can do with it. But if you own it, you have a little flexibility. We own it and we feel that um that we know that the comprehensive plan is looking at expanding the downtown footprint and changing that into a more multi uh use type area, with you know, at some point you may see more residential, you know, density there as well as commercial mixed uses throughout, uh, but from where we where we exist now, from Bolivar all the way down to 455, uh, and then from seventh back to to second. Well, we hope that if we invest where where we own to change the dynamic there, that it will spur some of that investment. And that's where that came from. And part of that investment that the council um chose to support is based on are we building events that that we can utilize this venue for uh to to make it viable? And the Songwriter Festival is one of those uh discussions we had uh as as well as um Christmas. Christmas and uh the farmers market was a portion of that discussion, food trucks was a portion of that discussion. So we're seeing the council uh councils, your council has always been a little visionary. Right. Uh we're we're seeing now that we have the resources to follow through on some of these things, that that they are really assisting us and helping us get to where we're we're going.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I'm I for one am super jazzed about that downtown park. I can't wait.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's gonna be fabulous.
SPEAKER_01:I got 20 million ideas. I can't wait to throw them all at you.
SPEAKER_02:Just not at once this time.
SPEAKER_01:This time, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So, yeah, I mean it's been a fantastic year. Um, I'm very appreciative to everybody in the community for the time and effort they put out there. I mean, we talked about uh we, you know, we don't DEF recycling, you know. They uh they really um have stepped up year after year after year, right? To to sponsor events, Freedom Fest being the biggest one. We talk about Uptown Rail. Uh, we were talking about them before we got on and all the things that they do. Uh they're a big contributor to helping us with the L Boliver uh Station Songwriter Festival because they have a venue that not others have, but the windmill and vintage variety, they're all part of that. I mean, we're we're we're seeing we're seeing a community that wants to succeed, and we're glad to partner with them. And we're seeing a group of young families come in and young professionals that want to make Sanger their home, and they're stepping out of their comfort zone, and we're seeing more of them be involved in various ways, whether it's with us and our various boards and commissions, whether it's with the school boards or whether it's uh volunteering with the foundation. I'm just appreciative to see how all of this is beginning to gel for Sanger. And I'm appreciative to everybody out there that wants to be involved. And if I wanted to be involved, how do I do that, Donna?
SPEAKER_01:Um, if you want to be involved with a city, you can contact the city and just uh I mean, if you want to be on one of the boards, you'd want to talk to uh to Kelly, our city secretary, she can definitely point you in the right direction. If you're wanting to volunteer for events, well uh Ryan and I will always take you, so you can contact either Ryan or I. Um and if you just want to get involved and you're not sure where you want to get involved, the best thing to do is just call City Hall and talk, they'll they'll put you in contact with one of us. So there's there are a multitude of opportunities um to participate and be involved. If you want to be a part of the uh there's the Lions Club, there's the education foundation, there's all kinds of Kawantas Club started back up too. That's right. The Kawantas Club has started back up. So lots of uh places to plug yourself in. So the seniors group, I mean, you know, I know they're they're uh looking for more people to get involved there as well. So there's lots of just lots of wherever, whatever suits you or whatever you're interested in, there's a place where you can be as involved as you want to be.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. Awesome, awesome. Now, last thing, where do they find us?
SPEAKER_01:So they can find us at a couple of places. Our main page, our our city, our city, I call it the boring site and the fun site, but that's not really what they are. But one's more of the works, the you know, the governmental site, and the other one's the fun site. Um but you can go to Sangertexas.org. That's the city's website. Um you can go to discoversanger.com, that's kind of our tourism site. Um, but you can also find us on Facebook. We have Discover Sanger, we have the city of Sanger, Texas. You can follow the library, you can follow the police department, the fire department. Um everybody has a everybody has something that's going on. Uh Discover Sangers where like anything going on in the city, whether it's a city event or somebody else's event or whatever, if you want to know what's going on, that's the best place to go, or to our website. But if all things that are related to like living here and that type of thing, you want to go to the council meetings, water leaks.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:All the complaint department is all there. Yep.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And we encourage you um to be involved. We encourage you to contact us. Again, a lot of times we don't know there's an issue uh and l unless we're told. You know, we can't can't hit them all. And a lot of times we don't know we're doing a good job if we're not being told. Some of those things that we we uh uh that that we've done over the past several years, I think we we've lost some good programs because we didn't think we were hitting our marks when we were. A lot of people reached out and said, Hey, why aren't we doing that anymore? You know, so so contact us. Let us know. Get with your countsmen, you know, let them let them know what what kind of job uh you you think we're doing, you know, uh, because again, we're we're here to serve the public. At the end of the day, we run the government of the city, we don't run the city, but we're doing that for the for the purpose of the people we serve.
SPEAKER_01:And also the uh coffees with you. I mean, that's a great time for people who want to have that one-on-one interaction with you. You know, you're there, you're available, and you'll sit down and talk to them. You stay as long as you want to want you to.
SPEAKER_02:So Yeah, I love coffee. Yeah. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01:You'll stay all day.
SPEAKER_02:All day long. I'll be a little jittery in the afternoon, but I'll I'll stay all morning.
SPEAKER_01:Mental note, wait till the later part of the day, you'll get more out of him because he just he'll be all hyped up on caffeine.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I'm hyper, hyper focused. Hyper focused. All right. Well, it's been a good year.
SPEAKER_01:It's been a good year.
SPEAKER_02:Next year's gonna be better.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02:I I think uh I think that we are uh I I I can say it because nobody's here to say no, right? I think we're on the right track. I think we're on the right track. And so we're super excited. Looking forward to December coming up.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:Uh I think probably hear from somebody from the North Pole next month.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I'm I'm pretty sure I'm trying to get I'm trying to see if we can get Santa back in here, but if not, uh, you know, we've I know he's busy. He is busy, but I got a couple of the elves that are uh you know the ones that kind of run the show up there. So we'll get somebody.
SPEAKER_02:There we go. So so listen in next month. Again, you've been listening to the 26 Express. I'm John Knoblett.
SPEAKER_01:I'm Donna Green.
SPEAKER_02:Thanks for listening in to what's going on in our small little North Texas town.