Linden City Administrator, Bob Swisher, gave the Linden Heritage Foundation permission to republish his June 2016 Linden Update. Information which may be of special interest to Foundation members has been highlighted.
“Linden has made some strides in May! First of all the City Council unanimously passed the resolution to apply for the “Texas Main Street” program. The program is designed to revitalize the historic downtown commercial area. We will put together a first rate package and hope that the Texas Historical Commission sees what a gem Linden really is. You will hear rumors about mandates and requirements, this is a voluntary program for downtown business owners. It comes with free architectural and design assistance for the front of the building. The person that will manage the program will also help with events and event planning.
“LINDEN 2025” is the 10 year plan for the City of Linden. It touches on everything from child care to sewer, water and streets. There will soon be a copy on the Linden Texas Facebook page and the Linden website for you to read. We are already engaging in areas that the LINDEN 2025 plan recommended. We have a new police station opening the first of June and are having fiber optic cable brought to the City Hall and new Police station. Fiber optic lines will transmit data at the speed of light,
much faster than copper wire and are buried to ensure function. As Linden businesses grow, they will demand this level of internet capability and we will be ready.
With a great amount of assistance from the Linden Heritage Foundation the City council approved a package to be sent out to request proposals to use the water tower and old fire station for commercial ventures. They are both historic and could lend themselves to an economic enterprise of some sort. We will wait to see what kind of proposals we get. Expect to hear more on this in the fall.
We are asking people to please monitor the amounts of grease you allow to go into the sewer. Most of our sewer blockages are caused by household cooking grease building up in sewer pipes. Often it will collect on small roots or debris and cause backups. Several people commented on how many blockages there are during the holidays, when we are cooking turkeys and large meals. Please pour the grease in a container let it cool and place it in the garbage. We could reduce man hours by 10% to 20% if we could get more cooperation from residents on this one item.
Last, but not least, the Linden Volunteer Fire Department has started the process to place on this Novembers Ballot an initiative to create an Emergency Services District. This would mean that everyone within the response district would be taxed to help upgrade the Fire Department. The plus side of this would be that all would share the cost of the Fire Department and the additional funds would be used for upgrades to equipment that would save you money on your home insurance. We are currently an ISO 7, Atlanta is an ISO 3. If we can get to an ISO 3 it would save a homeowner with a $100,000 house approximately $200 a year. The new tax would only be $100 on that house. More importantly we would have an increased capability when it came to saving lives and fighting wild fires, which we all know is one of our major threats.
Bob Swisher, Linden City Administrator”
#LindenHeritageFdn
“Legendary artist and Linden native Don Henley will be honored THIS Friday, October 9 at 2pm with a ribbon cutting celebrating the new billboard located on Hwy 59 in Linden (next to the EZ Mart/Shell station) promoting his new solo album Cass County, a nod to his Texas turf. Area residents are encouraged to come show support for this first official landmark honoring Henley, a long time East Texas friend an