Crockett Downtown Benches Set for Makeover
By Greg Ritchie
Messenger Reporter
CROCKETT – The Downtown Crockett Association (DCA), along with a number of other groups in the community have joined forces to get the two-dozen pedestrian benches scatted around downtown Crockett repaired and re-painted, after months of planning and organizing.
The Messenger reported earlier in the year on the idea, which is finally now coming together, with the first benches to be removed and taken for their makeover this week. DCA President Connie Strban reported the group is working with several segments of the community in order to make the project work. One of the most important aspects to the project is not just keeping all the work local, but involving the local students and allowing them to help rebuild and beautify the town they will someday inherit.
The benches – well made and extremely heavy – will be first removed, then taken to the Crockett ISD Ag Department to make repairs, before being sanded by Top Secret Powder Coating in Latexo, before their repainting. Local businesswoman Robin Ogg has been spearheading the push, along with DCA and the City of Crockett, Communities Unlimited, Keep Crockett Beautiful and Crockett Iron Works. The project will also re-coat and re-paint downtown Crockett’s trash cans, too. Ogg confirmed the plaques on each bench, some in memory of residents who passed away, will be preserved, in their honor.
DCA is a 501c3 non-profit organization promoting not only the downtown area, but growth and tourism in the city and beyond. The group has handled the Christmas lights in downtown and has taken over the traditional tour of homes, along with the recent Blues Jam and advocating for projects such as beautifying downtown and keeping big trucks off of the Crockett square.
“I had so many people saying, ‘I want to buy a building downtown, but I want to have my business below and I want to live above it.’ Well, that was prohibited by an old city code,” Strban said. “It was a literal two-year project – we worked our heads off on that thing, everybody on planning and zoning, and DCA helped a lot, and the city really listened. We got that zoning changed after it went out to a vote of the people. Now, on the square and two blocks in every direction, roughly, we have had probably eight people who have built residences or Airbnb’s above or behind their businesses.”
Much of the work the group does is to preserve the look and feel of historic downtown Crockett, in order to maintain the ‘feel’ of the area and avoid historic buildings being torn down, with something of glass and steel taking its place.
Given some of the high-profile closings of certain businesses downtown, what does Strban see as the future for the area?
“Every town, every business, has its ups and downs, and we do too,” Strban said. “I’ve been here over 18 years and it is head and shoulders above what it was when I came. We are seeing an influx of people. My general opinion is we are on an upward swing. We have been on an upward swing for the last four or five years and of course, it’s not a straight line going, there are up’s and little valleys but for the most part, uphill and growing.”
DCA meets the second Thursday of each month at 5:30 p.m. at the county annex building. The meetings are open to all and membership is not confined to downtown businesses and costs only $100 a month.
Greg Ritchie can be reached at [email protected]
