The Levelland Economic Development Corporation (LEDC) leadership discussed their recent activity in Levelland, including a truck driving school addressed at the corporation’s Thursday meeting.
Justin Balderas, executive director of LEDC, said last year was strong for the corporation in regard to sales tax collection.
Even with a historic high in the 2022 fiscal year for comparison, it was still one of the strongest collection years they’ve ever had, he said.
Balderas said LEDC, which focuses on industrial manufacturing operations, uses the sales tax dollars for the promotion of economic activities in the area.
Regarding rail car counts, he said there was a decrease in rail car activity, stemming from factors like low yields and a plant closure in the agriculture sector, as well as ups and downs in oil and gas.
However, the executive director said overall, it was also not a bad year for rail cars.
“Even with those adversities, we still finished strong,” Balderas said.
He said rail park partners are still working on storm recovery, mentioning a partner’s facility that was leveled and multiple steps they have left in the rebuilding process.
“Everything could always be worse, you know,” Balderas said. “We didn’t have any humans get injured, so that’s always a plus.” Partners will probably continue to recover for six months and full relief will be sometime next year, Balderas said.
He also said Levelland has been seeing an uptick in franchisees in retail and commercial sale, including the introduction of businesses like Slim Chickens, HteaO and construction that is currently ongoing for the new Wendy’s restaurant.
“There’s a heightened interest in the city of Levelland,” Balderas said.
Something that drives interest is the strong local economy, in which consumers show investors that the area is a strong sector, he said. But they want to keep the momentum going without negatively affecting smaller businesses already existing in the city.
Part of creating interest in the city is marketing the community, Balderas said. They try to build relationships with investors’ site selectors at meetings.
“They help the conversation and make sure they have all their needs for a project,” Balderas said.
LEDC’s next meeting in Amarillo, for High Ground of Texas, will involve multiple members of an economic development group that spreads from the panhandle to the Permian Basin, Balderas said.
As Levelland is able to go to more events and conferences due to its larger population size, every member of High Ground can see the benefits of that, he said.
“Obviously, I always want a project to come to the city of Levelland,” Balderas said. “But, if it’s not gonna come here, we hope that it stays in the region.” LEDC’s involvement in the boards for both High Ground and the Texas Economic Development Council brings additional information not only to Levelland, but to the whole region, he said.
“We’re partners,” Balderas said, “we help our neighbors, you know.”
A regional relationship mentioned was with South Plains College (SPC) and Levelland ISD (LISD), in which the economic development corporation provides financial assistance in purchasing workforce equipment, he said.
Specifically with SPC, a truck driving school for the college has been an ongoing project and was discussed at LEDC’s Thursday meeting.
“I think we’ve made some significant headway there,” Balderas said.
The executive director mentioned the high demand for trucks in both the region and the United States, as well LISD’s struggles to hire bus drivers.
He said the board has authorized funds to go to the project, and there’s still a lot of work to be done. Next steps include a truck driving school site visit with engineers and the college.