Clute to put all departments under same vision

The Facts
By ANDREW TINEO andrew.tineo@thefacts.com
October 18, 2022

CLUTE — Having multiple branding strategies amounts to not really having one at all, a situation Clute is confronting.

City leaders plan to use money from the Clute Economic Development Corp. to build a joint branding campaign for all of Clute’s entities, an initiative discussed during Thursday’s City Council meeting.

“We want it to be timeless and iconic, that folks are going to take a look at and go, ‘That’s Clute and we know that’s Clute,’” City Manager CJ Snipes said.

The focus of the EDC, funded by the city’s half-cent sales tax collections, is to promote and pay for economic development projects to benefit the city. It is providing about $75,000 from its reserves to put toward the branding campaign that can be used to raise the city’s profile among potential businesses and tourists.

“We’re trying to find something that’s going to carry through the city the EDC, the Clute Visitors Bureau and be the brand for the city,” he said. “Our goal is to have something that says, ‘Hey, you are in Clute now,’ and hopefully it’s something that folks identify with and just to capture a little bit of a differentiation there.”

In all, about $435,000 from the EDC — just a portion of its $2.41 million fund balance heading into the fiscal year that started Oct. 1 — is being divided among city projects.

One of those is new signage at city entrances costing about $60,000. Clute will work with the Texas Department of Transportation on options since the city’s main entry points are on state highways. That work will wait until after the new branding is decided so it can be incorporated into the signs, Snipes said.

Another $100,000 will go into assisting small businesses in the Clute, he said.

“We want folks to be creative, and if they have a need and they haven’t asked, they can bring it forward,” he said. “We’ll try and figure out a way to make that happen.”

Although the council has tossed around many ideas for its brand image, officials are going to wait for the final design before diving into strategic planning and branding efforts within the Livable Center program it intends to incorporate along Main Street.

Another slice of the money from the EDC will go toward correcting construction issues with the Clute Fire Station on Commerce Street, which opened in early 2018. About $150,000 will go toward fixing defects, including engineering electrical services and the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system.

There were significant interior issues with the building the city felt needed to be changed, Snipes said.