Letters – Business owner offers thoughts on “impact”

To the Editor:

Economic development flows both ways.

While the news of the new construction on Highway 183 is a blessing to Lockhart, let me share what really would have been a boom to the economy of the area.

Wouldn’t have been great if these business owners had actually given the local contractors and laborers a chance to work on these projects.

If you think the

economic impact of these out of town workers eating in the local establishments was important, how about if the $2.391 million sent to out-of-town contractors would have “trickled down” by our own people.

With the exception of the concrete work on the two credit unions, I do not believe any local subcontractors were used for the new construction or remodels in the past eight months.

So the next time you: Eat a hamburger, order a fried chicken dinner, buy a cell phone, finance a car, deposit your pay check, or get a loan for a house, ask the owner who did the work on their building.

This town is full of talented, honest and capable tradesmen. None of whom were used on these projects.

Can’t for the life of me understand the reasoning?

As stated recently in this newspaper: “the first line of defense as a community is to shop Lockhart. One purchase can rotate up to seven times through a community, but a purchase made outside our community has no positive impact on our local economy,” Sandra Mauldin, Lockhart Economic Development Director

Let’s see… 7 x $2.391 million = $16.7 million.

Pretty big impact.

Jim Smith

Lockhart