Changes on the horizon highlight common goals

By Vance Rodgers
Our City will see many major changes over the next three to six years. Many of us are uncomfortable with changes but all of us know they are inevitable and present many challenges.
I have been here most of my 60-plus years, and I fondly remember the late-“50s when there were very few people here I did not know. Up until about two years ago when I

went to the store, I rarely saw someone that I did not know. Now, it”s rare that I know half of those I see. With all these new faces in the area, new businesses have and will continue to come to Lockhart. In addition, expansions of existing businesses will continue as demand for their goods and services increase.
The new Highway 130 will bring more commercial and industrial growth along the western and northern sections of our City, creating the need of even more housing all over the community. Just last week, technician crews were out on the San Marcos highway near the Kyle road collecting soil core information for the purpose of designing overpasses and the new roadway. Much of the agricultural property in that area was recently re-zoned to commercial and industrial at the request of the new owners. This is just the beginning of many changes on the horizon.
A real challenge in the midst of all the forthcoming changes and the accompanying hustle and bustle is not losing sight of the fact that Lockhart in the opinion of many people has been and is still a good place to raise our children and hopefully for them to rear their own. It has been good to see former Lockhart residents moving back to the area, many of which are willing to commute for employment in order live here. Hopefully with the right type of new business and industrial growth, these and other bread-winners will have a choice as to commute or not.
Even minimal changes are challenging and involve choices. Recently I witnessed an example of this at City Hall. I overheard an elderly couple in the lobby as they were looking at the new garbage carts and auguring about whether they needed a large or small one. The “Mrs.,” after stating reasons to support her choice of the small one, began to fondly poke at her husband with a walking cane asking him to tell her the “number one reason” why he wanted the large cart. As he moved cautiously away from the end of that walking cane, he told the Mrs., “Dear, you won”t fit in the small one.” They both began to laugh out loud as they hugged and agreed on the large one.
Working together toward common community goals in the midst a variety of changes is another real challenge.