Bay City, what a difference a year makes in the Economic Development world. Eighteen months ago we had double digit unemployment and our businesses were in real trouble. Today we have homes under construction and we have new apartments being built. We have increased our average income level by $2,000. Our Economic Development Team made us proud. You can’t pick up a paper or listen to a conversation without hearing about Tenaris. Our partnership with this real deal corporation is paying off for real people right here in Bay City. We have our friends and neighbors working for Tenaris. We have almost 500 construction workers in town shopping, eating out and spending money here every day. We have the Van Vleck ISD with a donation of $168,000 for a new scoreboard. We have Tenaris to thank for the water and wastewater upgrades to the east side of town- over 3 million dollars in infrastructure improvements that will benefit us all for years to come. We have Tenaris that has committed $500,000 to partner with WCJC to train our friends and neighbors for future employment. Making ourselves ready for employment is one of the ways we better our quality of life. Tenaris has also pledged $50,000 to be a member of our industrial education team. This team continues to donate dollars to educate Bay City and Matagorda County residents. Their future workforce is our high school graduates. City Council passed an agreement for Tenaris to buy water and wastewater services for 10 years. Tenaris has proven to be great partners. They sponsored the Bay City Boys & Girls Club event and the Matagorda County Fair & Rodeo. When traffic became a problem at the site, Tenaris hired off duty police officers to help with traffic, which is additional money for our police officers. There have been thousands of hours spent by local leaders and Tenaris management working out the details for a 1.8 billion dollar investment in our town. There are hundreds of cities that would trade places with us right now. This project is one of the biggest in the State of Texas if not the nation. Bay City, we understand this kind of growth after over 25 years of doing nothing is scary, but allowing unemployment and despair to continue is scary. So let’s learn from people we can trust, let’s look to the professionals. Fort Bend County went through this same set of questions and situations. Brazoria County, Pearland and other cities grew because a few elected officials stood up and embraced change. The underlying problem is fear. Let’s pull together, let’s grow; let’s provide higher paying jobs to our citizens. Don’t fear growth, let’s manage our growth. Bay City, let’s believe in ourselves, let’s believe we have what it takes to better each person. Low unemployment and high wages will bring the retail and the entertainment venues that we all want. But Bay City, let’s not stop here, lets prove to Texas businesses and national businesses that we mean what we say when we pass a resolution and that we will honor it. Even more industry will move here, even more growth, even more jobs and even more increased salaries. Bay City, now is the time to prove that you want to better your community for yourselves and your kids and your grandkids. Support Tenaris so they can support us in the future. Growth will happen if we are smart and cooperative.
Posted on: Wed, 04 Jun 2014 16:38:07 +0000
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