Page 76 - FDI Alliance International Magazine. Winter 2020 Digital Interactive Issue.

This year has been nothing short of one incredible journey. A formation of a downtown merchant’s group. Our goal is to be an
journey that has taught our community the real meaning of extension of their efforts and a resource to aid and encourage their
economic development, and given us an entirely new appreciation expansion. We are consistently working to make our community a
and perspective on adapting & overcoming this “new normal in stop, rather than a spot on the map.
business.” 2020 has given us not perfect but improved vision to
embrace diversity in “how it’s always been done” in order to survive » Development of Housing & Hotel Space
& thrive towards a new way of being successful in business. So, as The Jacksboro EDC is on a mission to partner with developers and
we enter into 2021, these are just a few of the areas of growth and builders in order to provide additional housing and hotel space.
expansion that Jacksboro, Texas will be focused on. We don’t only want people to come to Jacksboro, we want them
to stay in Jacksboro.
» Downtown Revitalization
One of our greatest needs at the current time is affordable, well built,
In rural America, downtown is the heartbeat of your community.
Everything else branches and grows from the success and traffic single family and multi-family living space. We have reached out
to our largest employers within our community and have identified
that it stimulates within the local economy. So, when we talk about
putting Jacksboro on the map, we must first look at where the map that the majority of their workforce lives outside of Jacksboro. So
leads us. Five major highways lead into our historic downtown one of our latest goals is to provide the ultimate living experience
square. Thus, the reason for our coined phase that “All roads lead through work, school and play, but in order to accomplish that we
have to keep our workforce as our residents. We have also identified
to Jacksboro TX.”
As more and more look to take up residence in rural communities, that with the influx of traffic from metro to rural and the special
they are searching for that nostalgic hometown feel. They are eager events that we are now hosting, that there is an immediate need for
to find the restaurant with a legendary menu item. The drugstore additional hotel space. As I mentioned earlier, Jacksboro has five
major highways leading to and through it, thus bringing us large
where the pharmacists knows your name accompanied by a soda
fountain that serves one of the meanest milkshakes around. They daily traffic counts. Our community has also become known for
want to be able to purchase one of kind items or items made locally. hitting it out of the park by hosting over 900 little league baseball/
So, as we explore economic growth and advancement, we have softball games from April to July at state-of-the-art fields.
to focus our efforts on assisting local downtown businesses with
the means to revitalize that brick and mortar, that ultimately will Jacksboro ISD also offers top of the line educational and sporting
increase traffic, tourism and tax dollars. facilities, thus allowing us to host regular basketball tournaments and
playoff games. Not to mention that with our nationally recognized
The Jacksboro EDC has recently initiated multiple efforts to assist hospital and healthcare system, that we receive many families
and aid our downtown merchants either through additional business traveling from out of town that need a place to stay, while they look
training, grants or property enhancement assistance and the recent after their loved ones.

76. FDI ALLIANCE INTERNATIONAL