A tale of two cities

Okay, so Howe isn't quite the dramatic Charles Dickens story of London and Paris, however, he might even be impressed with the differences of this one city from just a few years ago to the one in which we find of current state. Two years ago this month, we had the worst football facilities, a defunct downtown commercial district and one of our most historic landmarks in complete disarray.

Before we can get to 2013, we have to go back in time to 2007 That's when some mismanagement of city funds by prior city leaders coupled with the ramifications of expected growth of the mid-2000's housing boom that soon followed by the housing crisis strapped Howe with an enormous water and budget crisis Tough decisions had to be made by new Mayor Jeff Stanley and new City Administrator Joe Shephard They weren't faced with righting the ship, they were faced with keeping it above water The move to raise water bills was something that the city was not interested in doing, but had to do in order to fix the financial atrocity

Those moves led Howe to make it through those desperate times during the depths of the economic cesspool that the country found itself in. It hit Howe at the absolute worst time Had the housing crisis not happened, Summit Hill would have over 120 homes already on the ground and that is just phase one of five that will expand to the south of the current property But the crisis did happen and houses were not being built in Howe and Summit Hill began to look like a leftover Hollywood movie set that everyone forgot about.

But lets fast forward to 2013 because it seems like so much has changed with our city since then In April, My Estrella Mexican Restaurant opened under new ownership in Downtown Howe The restaurant left six downtown units vacant. Howe landed

Salvage Junky in September to go along with M&M's Hardware, Designer Cuts and Clinton Upholsery That, my friends, were the only downtown businesses. Before My Estrella, seven of the nine downtown units were vacant About the time My Estrella settled in, Howe ISD was in the process of hiring a young energetic athletic director/head football coach/salesman I included salesman in that because it may be continued on Page #6