Senator Nichols puts priority on development
By SHARON KERR Staff Writer

Texas state Senator Robert Nichols stopped by The Jasper Newsboy office last Wednesday, Feb. 20, on a tour to meet the media in District 3 and discuss the issues facing Deep East Texas.

The Republican Senator and his staff met with Newsboy Publisher Jeff Reedy, Lakecaster Editor Patty Lenderman and reporter Sharon Kerr.

Lenderman told the senator that droughts in recent years threatened businesses around the lake and the "very lucrative" fishing tournaments and tourism industry.

Nichols explained how recent agreements were reached between the utility companies and the Texas and Louisiana Sabine River Authorities of Toledo Bend to maintain the water level behind the dam at a minimum of 168' msl (mean sea level), formerly 162'.

The agreement which Nichols helped negotiate allows the combined Sabine River Authorities to pay the difference for any replacement power the utility companies have to buy when lake levels fall below minimum.

Nichols also told Lenderman he is working with the Texas state legislature to make it possible for Texas Parks and Wildlife to tap the unclaimed motorboat fuel tax fund to help control noxious weeds on the lakes.

Nichols is relatively new to the Texas Senate. He is an engineer and businessman who served as Jacksonville's mayor and on their Economic Development Corporation board before being selected by then-governor George W. Bush to serve as a commissioner for the Texas Department of Transportation.

When told that the Jasper City Council is putting an item on the ballot to take half of the JEDCO (Jasper Economic Development Corporation) funding to use for street repairs, he said, "That's a really bad idea."

Nichols said the purpose of an economic development corporation should be job retention and creation. He said in seven years the Jacksonville Economic Development was credited with 1,200 jobs earned by helping business expand and finding new businesses that were a match.

Their approach was to call on existing companies, thank them, and find out what would help them grow. Included in that conversation, Nichols said they would find out what services or products those businesses were buying outside the area, because that represented an opportunity to recruit those suppliers and vendors.

To provide a skilled work force, Nichols said one of their more successful approaches was to take out ads in northern publications in the dead of winter, ads that highlighted the lakes and forests and the quality of life in Texas compared to the frigid north.

The Jacksonville Economic Development Company inventoried empty buildings and land available for development. Nichols said it is important to have all the information a new business might want, right down to the water pressure.

They calculated that it was economically viable to invest up to $5,000 for each new job that paid in the $10 to $15 range. That might go to the new or expanding business in terms of help with relocation expenses, or, after an independent audit confirmed the jobs, they might reimburse employers up to $1,500 per employee.

"We had an advisory team to work with prospects and use their creative juices to help business," Nichols said.

Jacksonville is a city of more than 13,000 located in Cherokee County (compared to Jasper's 8,000) with similar demographics to Jasper.