Business considering former Walmart location

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A possible business in the old Walmart building, funded through a loan, and a beautification committee seeking taxpayer money to beautify the square  downtown were among the top stories in October.
Snyder ISD also made news by revealing its plans to changes its accountability status, as well as naming a lone finalist to be superintendent.
No one spoke in opposition to a pair of interest-free, $750,000 loans the city has proposed to take out as part of its effort to bring Sutherlands to the old Walmart building during a public hearing at the October Snyder City Council meeting.
The loans, which would be part of the Texas Department of Agriculture community development block grant program, would allow the city to participate in Sutherlands’ purchase of the old Walmart store, according to Snyder City Manager Merle Taylor.
According to loan application documents made available to the public just before the hearing, the city would purchase the building and lease it to Sutherlands.
Taylor said at the time the city was trying to get clarification on what the loans would cover because he didn’t think the city would be the landlord, but would be a secondary lien holder to another lender and that Sutherlands would purchase the property from the current owner.
The Beautification Committee sought more than $40,000 for several projects on the downtown square, which they describe as the first phase of a communitywide effort.
Theresa Dupree said during a city council meeting that the committee had met twice and wanted to begin on the downtown square. The committee proposed removing the existing trash cans and replacing them with decorative containers, placing a planter on the concrete island at the southeast corner, removing existing trees and shrubs on sidewalks and covering those spaces with old city street bricks, building and installing eight pergolas and removing the four remaining mushroom-shaped structures and benches.
The cost went down to around $37,000 and the Development Corporation of Snyder board of directors approved funding half of the project.
Snyder ISD officials put together a plan that they said would remove the district from the improvement required (IR) status it received last year.
The targeted improvement plans for the district, Snyder Junior High School and Snyder Intermediate School were approved by the board of trustees.
The board also approved the district and individual campus improvement plans which will include the targeted improvement plans. The targeted improvement plans are required by the Texas Education Agency since the district and two schools were classified as IR.
Dr. Rachael McClain, the district’s chief academic officer, presented the targeted improvement plans during a public hearing.
“We plan not to be in IR after this year,” she said. “We have a plan to fix it.”
On Oct. 22, the board unanimously voted to name Jim Kirkland as the lone finalist to be SnyderISD’s superintendent.
Western Texas College’s enrollment was up compared to last year, but the contact hours were down. The fall enrollment was 2,126 and the total contact hours were 287,632. The enrollment for the fall 2014 semester was 2,113 and the contact hours were 315,088.
Snyder’s population grew in 2014 compared to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau figures released in October. Snyder had an estimated population of 11,571, an increase of 3.3 percent compared to the 2010 total of 11,202.
Sales tax revenues collected in the City of Snyder and Scurry County continued their slide during August, according to the October sales tax allocation figures.
The city’s allocation was 49.04 percent less than the October 2014 total while the county saw a drop of 33.05 percent. The city received $241,368 this month, down from $473,673 in October 2014.The county received $165,058, down from the October 2014 total of $246,541.
Deposits at two of five Scurry County banks showed year-over-year growth, but all four that report results were down compared to the end of the June quarter. Outstanding loans were up compared to the end of June, but were down compared to last September.
Combined, the banks who made information available reported holding $353.9 million in deposits as of Sept. 30, and $159 million in outstanding loans. The banks reported a combined $363.9 million in deposits in June 2015 and $338.7 million in deposits in June 2014.
Scurry County’s unemployment rate was below 4 percent for the second straight month, according to figures released by the Texas Workforce Commission. The September unemployment rate was 3.8 percent, down from 3.9 percent in August. The commission’s figures showed the county had 8,950 people in the workforce in September and 342 of those were unemployed.