Ransom outlines city's positioning for future

Mayor Jerry Ransom addresses the chamber about the State of the City.
Hank Murphy | Herald-Banner

Herald Banner
Hank Murphy Editor
Mar 10, 2023

In his annual State of the City speech, Mayor Jerry Ransom suggested Friday that Greenville is positioning itself to accommodate today’s growth while looking to the future to improve quality of life and meet the challenges of tomorrow.

Ransom, who made his remarks at the Texas Theater during the Chamber of Commerce’s quarterly meeting, touched on how the city is bolstering its water resources, improving streets and public safety, and looking to leverage Majors Field as an instrument for economic opportunity.

“We’re going to grow, but it’s how we grow that’s going to be important for our future,” Ransom said.

Based on internal metrics and other factors, Ransom said he believes the U.S. Census count of just over 28,000 people in Greenville is inaccurate on the low side.

“We’re one of the fastest growing cities in Texas for cities our size,” Ransom contends, and he believes it’s possible for Greenville to grow to 43,000 people by 2030.

He pointed to the availability of jobs, lower housing costs than in the Metroplex, a lower crime rate and a good quality of life.

“I think quality of life is something we take for granted, and when people get here they enjoy what they see,” he remarked.

There is one area, however, where he believes the city has fallen short.

“Over the years we really haven’t focused on maintaining our infrastructure,” said Ransom.

With a growing need for more water and wastewater treatment capacity, the city has undertaken a major project to increase the volume of water it will take from the eastern shore of Lake Tawakoni with construction of a larger and sturdier raw waterline. Also, the city has purchased land on which it can increase its capacity to treat wastewater.

Additionally, the city continues to move forward on its $50 million street improvement initiative.

On the public safety front, Ransom revealed that the city is in negotiations with Paris Junior College to locate a new fire administration building on the PJC campus. Also, PJC would work with the city to develop a new fire academy training center, the mayor noted.

“We’re going to develop an outstanding fire academy,” he said.

Ransom also mentioned the new city emergency dispatch/radio system recently purchase from Motorola Solutions, which, he said, will drastically improve interoperability among police, fire and other city departments.

Despite the need to keep up with growth, the Greenville City Council in the past five years has effectively reduced the tax rate by 22 cents, according to Ransom’s calculation.

Ransom also addressed the City Council’s plan to develop a 100,000-square-foot recreational center at the SportsPark as well as make a 26,000-square-foot expansion at the Reecy Davis Center.

The council recently approved a $5 million payment to an architectural firm to develop plans. The council intends to issue Certificate of Obligation bonds to fund the remainder of the project. Operating funds would come from memberships as well as other revenue streams. According to Ransom, Brett Quarles, the city’s director of parks and recreation, has identified as many as 50 potential revenue streams for the planned recreation center. Among other things, it will include basketball courts, turf soccer fields, pickle ball courts, golf simulators, a gym and exercise space, a lap pool, walking track and a 5,000-square-foot sports medicine and physical therapy center.

“It will become a magnet for a five-county area,” said Ransom. “I think it will be transformative for our region.”

Another big ticket item that may be coming to Greenville is a new hotel-convention center developed in association with Wildcatter Realty Partners, the same firm that’s developing The Greenbelt project in Greenville, according to Ransom.