I traveled 1421 miles this week to San Antonio for three days, then Houston, San Marcos, Austin and back to Snyder. Along the way I met the CEO of CPS energy in San Antonio and learned from a prospect and the CEO that Snyders prospect may be the winner of an RFP that over 100 companies competed in.
On Tuesday I learned that were were granted our RBEG grant from the USDA. DCOS first grant application!
We had a board meeting on Wednesday that I teleconferences in to.
I went to a NASA job fair that had over 1800 displaced workers attend. It was overwhelming. I didn't have a table so I went around the room asking people about their specialties and if they would consider relocating to Snyder. I met with close to 100 people and have some favorable response. The most interesting person I met was a 53 yr old man who had built the astronauts space suits in a lab for the last 20 years. It was surreal seeing so many highly skilled people who will be out of a job by July. Who would have ever dreamed NASA would go out of business?
I attended the 2nd annual statewide tx rural challenge for economic developers. My intern Kayla Clark from the tx dept of agriculture joined me there along with 6 other interns from around Tx. I met Rick Rhodes the Assistant Commissioner of Agriculture who I had spoken to and email several times, it was a real pleasure meeting him and getting to know him. The speakers and programs were excellent. I will share my best take aways from the conference.
1) Rainwater harvesting / using rainwater irrigate lawns gardens etc. A practice widely used in rural Texas in the past that we should return to because of the drought and water issues.
2) Affordable sustainable workforce housing that is scalable and can be deployed in disaster areas. I had pursued this previously but that company had never build a home. This company has product built in Venice, La that I will go visit, they want to visit Snyder in July as well.
3) Wineries are the fastest growing industry, and pay he most taxes by industry in Texas. The speaker will be visiting Snyder soon to see about a winery or growers here.
4) few electric co ops use the RLEG funds from USDA. I have been working with Big Country do use this program. On Thursday night after teleconferencing into their board meeting they voted to work with DCOS to use these funds to help Snyder and their members.
I had dinner Thursday night in Austin with the CPS RFP potential winner about Snyder's proposal that he emailed on Wednesday. We had a great discussion and dinner and I feel great about the future opportunities with this company.
Friday I found a couple of great funding sources/ partners and look forward to discussions from them.
While I was away the Al developers closed on their first tract of land in Snyder. They experienced the Power of Snyder first hand...
" Out back on the patio, Leslie said she heard there was some "bad news" today. I mean, you were not kidding when you said it was a small town. It was hilarious. Some guy who used to sell cars, is probably early 50s and got married three weeks ago picked up our entire bill. He invited us to some party on 34th street. Everybody kept asking us if we were going to "the Welders party".
We didn't of course.
Got to say, your people out there are accomodating, welcoming and, most importantly, motivated. Snyder is not going to have trouble being successful with folks that "get it" like that. And, it certainly feels like a solid place to raise your family."
I returned to buy a jar of kylitos salsa that was made by Snyder Custom Foods and purchased at United. That was pretty cool, and it tastes good too!
It has been a very interesting, exciting and eventful week. I can't wait to see what next week brings to Snyder Texas.
Our new branding lines are:
Snyder, Texas The energy capital of the nation.
Snyder, Texas Our people make us the best place for business.
