By Treva Harper, candidate for Amarillo City Council Place 2
What I would like to do for Amarillo is a comprehensive plan to elevate the entire city.
A very important thing we must take care of is our infrastructure and our first responders. We need to prioritize the security and safety of all our citizens before other programs. With properly staffed, compensated, and trained first responders we can make our city as safe and secure as possible.
I want to lift up the neighborhoods that have been ignored for quite some time, the West and North sides of town that have been lacking development. They need crime reduction, parks, infrastructure, and the respect and care they deserve as part of Amarillo.
I also have an idea for helping the homeless that will take the cooperation between Housing First, contractors and building owners. We can help restore buildings and elevate the homeless at the same time. I want to see contractors take under their wings those of the homeless population who are able to be employed and apprentice them. Then offer a reasonable rate of renovation to the building owners of empty structures. This way the building owner gets a renovation for a reasonable price, construction companies can train future employees and expand their workforce, the homeless can learn a trade and become employable, stable, tax-paying citizens. Communities get beautified structures that are once again usable for the city, our workforce grows and we help the homeless at the same time. I call that a “win-win” for everyone.
Once we reduce our crime, particularly along Amarillo Boulevard, repair our roads across the entire town, fix the drainage issues we have and strengthen our workforce through continued higher education and apprenticeships then we will be in a prime condition to bring in manufacturing companies, warehousing companies, shipping companies and many other industries that would love to locate in a city with access to highways, an airport and railroads like Amarillo has.
Other issues I would like to address include a “no-kill” animal shelter, discounts for the elderly and disabled, restore the public comments at council meetings to evenings and seek new ways to enable input from the citizens as well as a transparent City Hall.
We can, by addressing the right issues, elevate all of Amarillo and raise the income levels of our population as a whole. It may take some time and hard work by many of us but I believe we can make Amarillo the shining city of the Panhandle of Texas that will make the rest of the state look to us as an example of how to grow, develop and sustain a grand city we will all be proud of!
