Wish You Were HERE

A RADICAL RELOCATION PROGRAM AND OTHER PROGRESSIVE IDEAS ARE DRAWING NEWCOMERS TO DEEP-ROOTED RUSTON

ANYONE WHO THINKS scrolling on a phone is always a poor use of time has never met Andrew Halbrook. The public works manager for the City of Ruston was doing just that when he hatched an idea that would eventually lead to one of the state’s most innovative economic and civic programs.

That lightbulb moment happened just after Christmas in 2020, when the pandemic’s impacts were being felt not just around the city and country but right there in Halbrook’s home. “My wife had COVID at the time, and we were both quarantined, so we were just sitting around when an ad popped up on my phone that said ‘10 cities that will pay you to move there,’” Halbrook recalls. “I clicked on it and started looking at these programs, and it really intrigued me to think about how the world had taken such a quick and dramatic jump toward remote working. It was being rapidly adopted so businesses could continue to operate.”

Halbrook put down the phone and pulled out his laptop. “I started typing out kind of a thesis of what a program like that could look like for Ruston—the attributes Ruston had and what amenities we could leverage to promote such an opportunity,” he says. “I did some benefit-cost analysis—does this make sense for Ruston?”

With parameters including minimum income requirements in place, Halbrook presented his idea to Ruston Mayor Ronnie Walker. “He loved the idea, and so we kind of took off running with it,” Halbrook says. “And it’s been a success ever since.”

To date, more than 200 individuals have applied for the “Welcome to Ruston” relocation incentive program, with 16 fulltime remote workers being accepted and invited to move to the area in exchange for a $10,000 grant paid out over a three-year period. Preference is given to applicants who are eager to get involved locally. In addition to the cash, the award also in- cludes discounted tickets to local sporting events and access to a community liaison to help participants find their footing.

“I’m happy to say it wasn’t a purely original thought,” Halbrook says. “But I realized no one else in the state of Louisiana was doing it, and I said, ‘Why not Ruston?’ And we made it happen.”

Partnering with Louisiana Tech and Grambling State University, the city began spreading the word about its relocation grant program through digital ad campaigns in major metropolitan areas within a day’s drive, and officials also tapped into local universities’ alumni databases in hopes of luring some home. And while it might seem that young single professionals would be the most likely candidates, Halbrook says the program has drawn several young families and even retirees who have jumped back into the working world on a remote basis. Participants have moved here from as far as the Pacific Northwest and the Northeast.

With an initial allocation of $250,000 for 25 program slots, the Welcome to Ruston program is still accepting applicants.

“We’ll reevaluate once we get to 25, and we’ll see where the market is with remote work at that point,” Halbrook says. “We’ll continue to gauge the interest and level of success.”

The Ruston Sports Complex, opened in January 2022, offers recreation and sports activities for locals including walking and biking trails, playgrounds, a stocked pond and more on 185 acres. And RSC is also a sports tournament destination with state-of-the-art amenities for baseball, softball, tennis, football and soccer.

The innovative spirit of this headline-making program is hardly new in this town that was founded in 1883 on the Vicksburg, Shreveport and Pacific Rail road line. “Ruston started as a railroad town and it quickly grew into a univer sity town,” says Ruston Main Street director Amy Stegall. “Even from the late 1800s, it’s always been a place where people came because there was something special and unique about it. And that his tory of entrepreneurship and education together made this melting pot of lots of different people from lots of different places.”

Among the many business leaders who have left a legacy here over the years are T.L. James, a former sawmill worker who in 1926 launched what would become one of the South’s largest construction companies; James Davison, whose trucking business grew into a variety of other areas and who has made a number of significant contributions to his alma mater, Louisiana Tech; and Hollis Graham, who in 1962 launched Lincoln Builders, a firm that has completed more than 125 projects totaling nearly $350 million in Lincoln Parish alone.

In January of this year, the Ruston-Lincoln Chamber of Commerce awarded its Robert E. Russ Award to Lincoln Builders’ second-generation leaders, Ronny and Danny Graham, for what chamber president Will Dearmon calls “their tremendous impact on the civic, business and cultural advancement” of the area. “This family and organization are a great ness excellence and giving back to one’s community can be seamlessly intertwined here,” says Dearmon.

A Winnfield native who attended Louisiana Tech, where he served as student body president, Dearmon moved to Texas for a few years before returning to Ruston. The Tech-to-Texas route is a common one among many local graduates, but it’s one that the city is working to disrupt with a host of new offerings.

“There are so many things that make Ruston a phenomenal place,” says Halbrook, who was born and raised here but like Dearmon moved to the Lone Star State with his wife after graduating from Louisiana Tech. “Thankfully, we had the opportunity to come back, because Ruston is where we wanted to raise a family. I think it’s only gotten better over the last eight years or so, with amenities you would typically only find in larger areas, but without the hustle and bustle.”

Stegall, who grew up in Shreveport, says Ruston felt “kind of quiet and sleepy” ana Tech in the 1990s. Vacant storefronts were prominent in the downtown district, and concerted efforts were not yet being made to get the local universities’ students to remain here after graduation. “Most people would come to school here and then leave, and even when they were in school, it felt like everyone left on the weekend,” she says. “But now we’ve really made an intentional investment in our relationship with the universities, so that not only are those kids staying for the weekend, but some are graduating and staying here and being a part of the community. They’re engaged and involved more than ever.”

Investments in improving the downtown infrastructure, combined with public art in the form of large-scale murals and colorfully painted bulldog statues, have helped to make it appealing not only for university alumni but for potential business owners. “Downtown has evolved tremendously,” Stegall says. “Now it’s vibrant, and it’s welcoming to everyone.

We’re creating more opportunities for community, and we’re on the cusp of some really cool things happening.”

One of the most well known of those “cool things” is the planned construction of a Buc-ee’s travel center at a new I-20 exchange on the western edge of the city. The announcement was made in January after Ruston spent nearly three years wooing the popular Texas-based store. The new Buc-ee’s is projected to open in 2025, offering 120 gas pumps, famously clean restrooms, and a host of snacking options.

“From an economic development standpoint, it’s exciting because of the organic development that follows a brand like that,” Dearmon says. “I’m excited about the opportunities for local business owners and executives who will see expansion and development opportunities because of that singular investment.”

Local officials are also eager to see how they might entice Buc-ee’s shoppers to travel deeper into town. Experience Ruston, as the local CVB is known, is already tapping into new ways to capture data about where Buc-ee’s visitors are from and what their interests are, in order to inspire them to stay a little longer. “It’s crazy to think about the impact of the tax revenue generated from Buc-ee’s as well,” says Experience Ruston president Amanda Carrier. “That’s money that is paid into our economy by non-residents that goes to support our community and the quality of life for our residents.”

City officials hope to draw more travelers to linger and enjoy not just downtown but also arts and entertainment events put on by the universities, as well as sports activities both on campus and at the new Ruston Sports Complex, which opened in January 2022. “It has been a game changer when it comes to youth sports in Ruston,” Halbrook says of the latter, “and not only do we get to enjoy it, but people from across the Southeast come and enjoy it too.”

Other local lifestyle amenities include the Tom Fazio-designed golf course at Squire Creek Country Club, which was ranked the top course in Louisiana by Golf Digest in 2021; the Rock Island Greenway walking and cycling trail that will eventually encompass six miles of connected paths; and the Dixie Center for the Arts, housed in a renovated historic movie theater. But even with all those attractions, officials attest that there’s something even more alluring about this city.

“I say this all the time: One of the things I believe makes Ruston so special is the people here,” says Carrier. “Our community rallies. We show up. Our community will wrap its arms around people, whether they are locals or visitors, and you can feel that.”

As a Winnsboro native and graduate of the University of Louisiana Monroe, Carrier knows this feeling from personal experience. “I didn’t know anyone when I moved here, but within months, I was so immersed in this community,” she says. “It felt like, how have I not been here my whole life? Business owners know what you like, and restaurants know what you’re going to order. It’s almost like a Hallmark movie, but it’s real.”

Testimonies like that one keep the applications flowing in for the “Welcome to Ruston” relocation grant program. Officials say the initiative pays for itself not just economically but also in the form of community-minded and engaged citizens who serve on nonprofit boards, participate in local events, and otherwise support their new home. “This is an opportunity to incentivize that return for a professional working remotely to add to our business ecosystem, to bring their business insights and experience,” Dearmon says. “If we can get them back here, they’re going to pour into our community and our business environment in a positive manner.”

Main Street

Through expanded chamber offerings including a recently launched executive speaker series and a soon-to-be-announced workforce development initiative, Dearmon and his team hope to “come alongside local employers” as they seek to grow—and maybe even innovate—in the current economic environment. It’s a sentiment that echoes down I-20 all the way to the site of what will be the new Buc-ee’s.

“The roots of this communi ty are unchanged,” Dearmon says. “This community is built on the backs of risk takers. What’s unique is that that root system is continuing to blossom today.” 

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