Lone Star, TX, Economic Development Corp

03/04/2025

The Lone Star Senior Citizens will be holding a raffle beginning March 5 and ending on April 12.
The attached flyer contains all of the information on prizes, ticket prices, and the giveaway date and location.
The Lone Star Senior Citizens Association would like to thank all of the businesses who are donating prizes and to all of the citizens for participating.

02/20/2025

We are excited for have Sand Bar Leather Company as a new business in the City of Lone Star. Please stop by and welcome them at your earliest convenience. Lone Star Texas growing one business at a time. Congratulations Danny and Rebekah. We look forward to a long and successful business relationship.

12/03/2024

Rudy Dudley, Lone Star Economic Development Corporation is shown presenting a $2,000 check to Mr. Vikrant Punj for the upgraded signage to Punj liquor located in the former Crumps shopping center.
We are excited to have Mr. Punj and his new business Lone Star. We look forward to a long relationship. Please visit Punj Liquor for all your needs.
Lone Star EDC "We're In It to Win It!"
"LSEDC Making Lone Star Great!"

08/15/2024

08/08/2024

This is another post by Mr. Jeff Seigler, Author of "Your City is Sick".
it brings into the forefront an issue I believe we have in Lone Star. The way a city looks is an indication of how we become complacent to what Mr. Seigler deems as an "unenviable environment".
Here is the article in its entirety.

"A rundown city will eventually be full of rundown people. Those that don’t want to acclimate to declining conditions will shuffle on down the road, and the rest will eventually, and sadly, adapt to their unenviable environment.

Pretty matters. Appearances are how we tell others who we are and what we are about. The appearance of your town is the one marketing tool that is working 24/7/365, announcing 100% of the time what your community stands for. What does the condition of your downtown say about you? What will a stranger glean about your self-esteem when they roll down Main Street? What story does the appearance of your downtown tell about the people that live there?

How is the appearance of your community shaping the self-esteem of its residents? Do you feel confident showing off your town? Are you proud of it? Does it boost your self-esteem to walk around your neighborhood?

Appearances don’t just influence how others feel about us, they influence how we feel about ourselves. Don’t deny that the right outfit can send you out the door with some swagger. A good haircut can put a little extra wiggle in your butt. Hitting the gym hard might get you confident to bust out some speedos next summer.

Yes, this is all very superficial. Our actions matter. The decisions we make dictate who we are. Confidence, pride and self-worth stem from our collective actions and how we go about our business. But looks matter and if your town looks like hell, the people in your town are feeling like hell.

So tune out the bankers and smack anyone that talks about putting lipstick on a pig. You have my blessing. Finances matter, but so does art and poetry and whimsy and beauty. They matter more in fact, because no one is ever going to invest financially in your community if they can’t get invested emotionally.

We must tend to appearances. Maintenance is not an option. The external inevitably becomes the internal. Our surroundings become ourselves. Our conditions condition us."

Any comments or suggestions with respect to this article are welcomed.

08/08/2024

My apologies for not making any posts or answering any comments for the past week or so. Someone knocked down a pole in the neighborhood and it took out the access to email and other items.
So now we are back up and running. Please let me know of any questions or comments concerning the LSEDC and its activities and potential projects. We are always looking for input from our citizens.
As was said in a recent EDC meeting by one of the board members, "It's frustrating when we are seeking input from citizens on what they want to have in this town, and we get no input from anyone."
We want our town to be business friendly. We want to bring in business that will enable our citizens to buy and shop local. We want to create spaces and places for people to go and have community gatherings. But to do this we need you to participate. We try to make suggestions for new businesses and places for activities. It's extremely difficult when the only feedback we seem to get is I don't want that, or that's not what I think should be done.
That's why we seek input.
If you have any constructive input we would love to hear from you. We are all citizens of the community and we need to be on the same page moving forward. As always, we welcome you to our meetings the first Monday of each month. We post our agendas on the cities webpage three (3) days in advance of the meeting.
Bring your ideas so we can discuss and try to figure out common ideas that will benefit us all.
Please stop any member of the LSEDC, or contact them or myself to discuss.
You may direct message me and I will be more than happy to meet with you individually or in a group setting. If you would rather discuss on the phone, give me a call. If you call me and I don't answer it may be because I don't' recognize the number. Leave a message and I will be more than happy to return your call, or I can have a member of the LSEDC call you back at your convenience.
Thanks and have a great day.
"We're In It To Win It"
"Making Lone Star Great Again!"

Call now to connect with business.

07/16/2024

Mr. Jeff Siegler is the author of the podcast A Matter of Place.
After listening to the podcast I ran across this post from Heidi Kerr-Schalefer. It makes perfect sense and can be aptly applied to our town and its current situation.
As someone with a hashtag background, some of it was a wee bit hurtful. "Promotional videos just don't matter" for instance. However, in the past five years, I've started thinking that all those videos look the same regardless of the destination. Every place (at least in Colorado) is marketing itself as an "outdoor recreation" destination. This truly bothered me!

So, this blog post was speaking to me.

And then this...

"Why is it so damn important to sell your town to people that don't live in your town?"

"It's a good question. Yes, outsiders bring money, but we've spent years overlooking the importance of our own residents, and those residents have grown apathetic about their towns, which, according to a quote I heard on Rebecca Undem's podcast, is the opposite of love. Apathy is the opposite of love... think about that for a moment.

No one even wants to visit a town full of apathetic people, they want to visit places where the people who live there love to be.

This is what I preach, if there's no love for our towns, there's no hope for successful tourism or hashtag . That's the painful truth. "

The LSEDC is focused on Quality of Life Issues for our community. We are working on bringing in new business that will benefit all of the community as well as attracting visitors and increasing the "tourism" factor for our town. We have a beautiful lake and we need to take advantage of it as a focal point.

As always we encourage our citizens and visitors to let us know what types of businesses you want to see in our town. I hear people say "We want a Taco Bell" or "We want a Burger King". My response to that is we are contacting the corporate and regional headquarters of these types of franchises to attract them to our town. We are also focusing on bringing in businesses that benefit or community, such as beauty salons, etc.
We are in a unique situation here that most towns don't have to contend with. Most small communities have a defined downtown area and buildings that have been neglected over time and can be refurbished. We have a very limited amount of this type of infrastructure so we are attempting to find creative ways to bring in new businesses. We need to understand that without the physical buildings we will need to come up with ways to assist businesses in building physical infrastructure to have a business. If anyone has ideas they would like to share please reach out. We want to make Lone Star a place where the citizens and visitors are proud of and want to come.
I don;t know if any of you have visited Big Bens since they reopened at their new location on Saturday. I encourage you to go visit and shop. They have added a section for fishing and hunting, and they have also added a soda shop in the back of the store where you can purchase ice cream, floats, soft drinks and more.
The Lone Star EDC is proud to have help facilitate this expansion and relocation. Congratulations to Amy and the staff. Keep up the great work. You are helping make Lone Star Great Again!
If you have a business looking for a home, or wanting to expand reach out to us. We are willing to sit down and discuss your needs.

07/16/2024

Why is maintenance of the city's business infrastructure important?

This is an excerpt from Mr. Jeff Seigler's book "Your City is Sick". I think it really hits home for our town. The LSEDC is in the process of putting together a program to address this issue. We welcome your feedback. Without our care for fixing the way our town looks to visitors and hometown members we cannot expect to gain new business or attract visitors.

"Everything in this world requires maintenance and when we stop tending to things, they decline. When things decline, we stop caring for them. This is what happened to your city. When you wonder why apathy creeped into your town, this is why. The part of your town people cared about went away. The places that mattered were discarded. They were all replaced by things that didn’t matter. Of course people stopped caring. What is there to care about? Are they going to fall in love with the parking lot?. Are they going to share photos of the Cracker Barrel ? Will they brag to their friends about the sweet new ‘right turn only’ lane? No. Humans are emotional creatures and we systematically removed emotion from our community decision making process. This apathetic outcome shouldn’t surprise anyone."

07/15/2024

Just received this report on West Nile Virus. Please be cautious and use appropriate items to help prevent the spread.
Article by Parks Kugle
A second positive sample of West Nile was found from Pinnacle Park in Georgetown Texas.
"According to the Williamson County and cities Health Department, symptoms of West Nile virus include fever, headache, body aches, skin rash and swollen lymph nodes.

People age 50 and older as well as those with compromised immune systems are at higher risk for severe symptoms.

As part of the WCCHD’s Fight the Bite campaign, which focuses on eliminating places where mosquitoes can breed and reducing mosquito bites, health officials recommend:
Draining any standing water
Treating standing water with Environmental Protection Agency-approved larvicides
Protecting and cleaning pools and ponds
Cleaning bird baths once a week
Fixing water leaks
Using EPA-registered insect repellent
Dressing in long sleeves and pants
Installing screens on windows and doors
Keeping grass short."

07/14/2024

Lone Star Economic Development Corporation will be meeting at 6pm Monday, July 15, at the Senior Citizens Building. Attached is a copy of the meeting agenda. Everyone is invited to attend.
Bring your ideas for our town. We are always anxious to hear new ideas about what the citizens want to see in the way of new businesses.

07/13/2024

Big Bens has fishing supplies. If you’re going to fish they have worms, live minnows and frozen shad. You don’t have to drive to Daingerfield or 155, just stop by and see Amy and the staff. They’re always willing to help.