Special to the News Messenger
The Marshall Lions Club welcomed Marshall Mayor Amy Ware on Nov 15. Ware was elected in May 2019 to serve the citizens of District 4 and currently serves as mayor. Her current term will end in 2024.
According to Ware, her driving mantra during her campaign was update of an antiquated City Charter. At the time, the document was over 100 years old and in conflict with numerous State of Texas laws. This initiative was widely popular within the city and led to her election to the City Council. Since her election, the document has been updated and now truly supports Marshall as a home rule city to provide and support rights and freedoms for the citizens the city serves. Further, the updated City Charter increased City Council terms from two to four years to provide continuity of government.
Ware was quick to praise our new City Manager, Terrell Smith. As Ware describes, it, Terrell brings strengths to the job to enable Marshall to be the best version of us. As we discovered, Smith sees Marshall as a beautiful city that can be a gateway for travelers as they travel to and through the city. With the city’s prime location, beautiful downtown, proximity to Caddo Lake, and if you factor in our four colleges (East Texas Baptist University, Wiley College, Texas State Technical College and Panola College) there becomes a lot of untapped potential and room for growth.
As with Smith, Ware recognizes that change doesn’t happen overnight. And for Marshall to reach unimaginable heights, there must be a focus on citywide capital improvements. Indeed, based upon Ware’s comments, the City Council appears to be aligned to a single vision and focusing all efforts on a common goal. With their goal aligned to the city’s budget, there is little doubt that Marshal under the council’s direction will continue to flourish.
While Ware does not want Marshall to be compared to larger cities such as Tyler and Longview, she recognizes the need to modernize to make sure the City of Marshall does not become stagnant. As a result, infrastructure is required to respond to city needs similar to what anyone would find in other areas of Texas. In her opinion, it is always important to take lessons from other cities while capturing their innovative ideas so Marshall continues to improve.
Ware also mentioned the development of a new capital improvement plan for Marshall. The previous plan was not comprehensive and contained little focus on infrastructure. With its new development, the council possesses a roadmap to drive infrastructure investment. But investment of this magnitude is impossible without assumption of debt to accomplish much needed costly upgrades. Based upon the work of the council, the capital improvement plan will drive all future city-wide upgrades. As Ware closed, she was quick to remind the audience that whenever the community benefits, we all reap benefit too.
If interested in learning more about Marshall Lions Club and/or becoming a Lion, please attend a noon Tuesday meeting in the Panola Harrison Cooperative Building located at 410 E. Houston St. in Marshall.
