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The first decade of the 21st century is already behind us, with most Americans and businesses across our country having experienced the volatile economic swings that will greatly impact our future plans. As we look ahead to the next decade with optimism and caution, it is essential for businesses and communities to have a clear vision and a plan in order to stay afloat, weather both the good and the bad, and to be successful in achieving their goals. Many successful businesses and projects begin by creating a vision and developing a plan that may take several years before their goal of opening a business is achieved. This analogy often describes how the economic development wheel turns for business growth in your community. Successful businesses and projects require time and long-term planning, which is sometimes in conflict with our human nature to have everything we want now! Today our local community is experiencing that same process for economic development as we plan what our future will look like for the next twenty years. Over the last 3-4 years several developments have occurred to reshape our community’s vision for the future. Probably the most significant project, and the one having the largest economic development impact in our community, was the new Peterson Regional Medical Center facility. The decision to build a new hospital for our community’s future took many years and began with a vision and a planning process to implement the actions necessary to achieve their goal. The PRMC Board of Trustees, staff and our local community worked hand in hand to achieve this goal. Since the completion of the PRMC development, we can say the Kerrville community officially began the “Planning Years Era” for the future of our community. Several economic projects are currently in progress, while others are being explored, but I would like to highlight one project in particular that is currently under construction and one that our community should be very grateful for, The Salvation Army Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Center.
The Salvation Army Corps organization has provided a long history of helping many people both physically and spiritually here in Kerrville. Over the years our community has been very blessed to have great leadership serving on the Salvation Army Advisory Board as well as the staff to implement their programs. Today, current operations of the Salvation Army include thirteen full-time and seven part-time jobs as well as numerous seasonal jobs. Programs currently offered at the Corps include Christmas and back to school (seasonal programs); After-School; Day Camp; Commodities (groceries for those who need them); Re-Connect (drug/alcohol recovery); Shelter; and Soup Kitchen programs. In 2009, over 14,000 individuals were assisted through programs at The Salvation Army. To the taxpayers in our community, the benefits of the Army’s programs provide a significant savings to our local economy, not to mention the encouragement and development of one’s spiritual character. The current expansion project underway on Holdsworth Drive can be attributed to an organization who many years ago had a vision, developed a plan and were committed to making this important project happen in our community.
The birth and development of the Salvation Army Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Center being constructed in Kerrville followed a similar path in the economic development wheel that PRMC followed in achieving their project. In 1998, Mrs. Joan Kroc, widow of McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc, donated $90 million to build a comprehensive community center in San Diego, CA. Her wish was to create a center supported in part by the community where children and families would be exposed to different people, activities and arts that would otherwise be beyond their reach. The San Diego center was completed in 2001. Mrs. Kroc passed away in 2003 leaving much of her estate to The Salvation Army, by far the largest charitable gift ever given to The Army and the largest single gift given to a charity at one time. Today the gift has grown to over $1.8 billion and is designated to build a series of state of the art Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Centers much like the San Diego facility and distributed equally across the four regions of our country. With the development of the first center in San Diego and the gift from the Kroc Estate to The Salvation Army Corps, our local Salvation Army Advisory Board and staff from the Corps began their vision and planning to attract a Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Center to Kerrville. Early planning on this project began as far back as 2000 and over a period of years, after much discussion, they saw that this vision could actually become a reality. Thanks to many years of hard work and planning from our local Salvation Army Advisory Board, Corps staff, and the outpouring of contributions and gifts from this community, this project was funded and Kerrville was honored to be selected as a Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Center site. The Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Center located in Kerrville is only one of twenty five centers planned being built across the nation and is the first to be built in Texas. As of 2009, six centers have been completed and seven centers are scheduled to open in 2010, including the new 47,000 square foot facility in Kerrville.
The local economic development benefit to our community during the construction and after completion is significant to the overall economy. The cost of construction for The Salvation Army Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Center is $16.6 dollars with a direct impact of employing 126 jobs for the project. As a result of those jobs being employed, there is an additional creation of 22 indirect jobs working locally to assist in buying materials and supplies for the project, with wages having an additional buying power of $2.5 million. Both direct and indirect impacts create additional buying power of $3.1 million and another 28 jobs are created that is induced in the community, such as having dinner in a local restaurant or visiting a local retail shop. As a result of the construction of the Kroc Center in Kerrville, the total economic benefit to the community, including both direct/indirect and induced effects, is over $22 million and employs 177 people.
Once the Kroc Center opens, additional jobs created in our local economy will consist of 22 full-time, 34 part-time, and 35 seasonal jobs with an annual budget allocation of $2.8 million to operate the facility and a total output benefit of $4.2 million for the local economy. The Center will bring eight new programs consisting of Aquatics, Fitness, Performing Arts, Teen Outreach, Senior Activities, Sports and Boys and Girls Clubs. The Kroc Center also received the HPRP Government Stimulus Grant of $1 million to assist programs for the 2009-2010 & 2010-2011 year. Tentative date for opening The Salvation Army Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Center is October 20, 2010. Our community is extremely blessed to be the recipient of such a gracious gift and those responsible who began with just a hope and a vision are proof that the most successful economic development projects require time, long-term planning, and determination.
