At today’s monthly luncheon of the Brownwood Area Chamber of Commerce, Brownwood Mayor Stephen Haynes delivered his annual “State of the City” address.  The first part of the presentation included some economic statistics:

*** Unemployment in Brownwood is about 4.5%, down from about 6.0% in 2021

*** Sales tax collections in 2022 (for the City of Brownwood and the Brownwood Municipal Development District, combined) were $8.9 million, up from $6.1 million in 2013

*** Private investment in new businesses in 2022 was $3.9 million, matched with $769,897 from the Brownwood Municipal Development District

*** Annual construction valuation in 2022 was more than $36 million, up from $27 million in 2017 and only $10 million in 2018

*** Visitor spending from tourism in 2021 was $62 million, up from $49 million in 2020.  (Visitor spending numbers run one year behind.)

*** Number of crimes reported in 2022 was about 450 compared to about 600 in 2021 and about 1,000 in 2020.

Haynes commented “We’re seeing growth in every sector of the economy from national retail like Boot Barn and T.J. Maxx to our downtown businesses.  I think there were ten or twelve downtown businesses that opened in 2022 and a couple more that are already on the charts for this year.  It’s just really an exciting time to see new businesses opening in our community and the economy is performing quite well.”

Haynes reviewed some of the new happenings in 2022, such as the new Boot Barn store, Over the Rainbow ice cream shop, Twisted Axes, Fuzzy’s Tacos, and the new, larger Common Grounds store, as well as public improvements such as the updates to the Brownwood Coliseum (now leased to Howard Payne University), the HPU Welcome Center, the city landfill expansion, and the ongoing construction of the new city event center.  Upcoming this year and in future years will be the new T. J. Maxx store, Tea2Go, a new Providencia Mexican restaurant in the Texas Funco building downtown, a new unannounced business in the old Kroger building, and new development in the old OYO hotel location.  Also the City is developing a new Downtown Master Plan, a new Parks Master Plan, and planning major upgrades to the Bennie Houston Center.  Haynes said “We have a new restaurant opening in downtown in the old Texas Funco building, called Providencia.  We have Tea2Go that’s going to be opening up in the old Common Grounds building, and T. J. Maxx is planning to open in March.  Over the next 90-120 days we’ll have some really substantial openings and hopefully we’ll continue that pattern throughout the year.”

City Manager Emily Crawford and Ray Tipton, Director of the Brownwood Municipal Development District, gave a presentation covering all the departments in the City, with some statistics of their activities in 2022:

Airport: 1.9 miles of new paving, and 7,306 flights in 2022

Planning and Development: 958 construction permits issued

Fire Department:  2300 calls in 2022.  Also the Fire Department received an upgraded ISO rating of “II” this year.  Only 7% of fire departments in the country have an ISO-II rating, and it can lead to lower property insurance rates.

Health Department: 29,386 services provided in 2022, including immunizations, health department inspections, and WIC services.

Landfill: took in 116,548 tons of waste material, and demolished 25 dilapidated buildings.

Municipal Court: heard 2,340 violation cases, and furnished 1,600 hours of community service

Lehnis Train Museum: recorded 8,200 visitors, and gave 4,400 train rides

Parks and Recreation: 4,065 athletic games were played in City parks in 2022.  Also planted 32 trees and 650 plants

Police: answered 42,000 calls

Community Facilities: hosted 130 events

Sanitation:  collected 30,000 tons of trash and 865 loads of brush

Senior Citizen Center: served 102,900 meals, including home delivery of more than 200 per day

Street Department: repaired 6,564 pot holes, and swept 2,000 miles of streets

Utilities: repaired 504 leaks/chokes on city water lines

Wastewater: treated 615 million gallons of wastewater

Haynes commented:  The City of Brownwood has 290 employees and they all do a tremendous job.  Everything from the landfill to our Senior Citizen program to the airport – when you look at the numbers and the activities that they are getting done in a year it really is impressive, and I am just super proud of all of them.”