SUMMER

ISSUE 21

2016

COMMUNITY

UPDATE

Mount Pleasant

EVERYTHING tEXAS shootout & golf open

Gr eer far m Back in busin ess

P.6 Moun t pleasan t far mer ’ s Mar ket down town

P.8

Mount pl easant evo lv ing

Mount Pleasant

contents:

mtpleas-

Partners 4

Greer Farm 6

Mount Pleasant Farmer’s Market 8

Everything Texas Shootout & Golf Open 10

Mount Pleasant Evolving 12

#JOHNNYSIGHTINGS 14

Eat Local Challenge Results 16

Everything Texas Heartbeat: Beverly Austin 18

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10

16

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A&A&D Food Service LLC - Church's Chicken ABC Auto Parts AEP-Southwestern Electric Power Company Alamo Mission Museum Arnold Walker Arnold & Co PC Bates Cooper Sloan Funeral Home Big Tex Trailer Mfg., Inc. BLK Locksmith Brookshire Food Store Camp Langston Castletop Roofing & Construction Chambers Home Health and Physical Therapy Chambers Home Health and Physical Therapy Chuck Barkow Company Name Cross Country Communications Cutting Edge Lawn & Landscape Designin' Women

Don Juan's Mexican Restaurant East Texas Broadcasting El Chico Restaurant Elliott Ford Lincoln Firmins Office Supply First Baptist Church Gary's Gun & Pawn Shop Gladewater Baptist Church Hansen's Collision Specialist Housing Authority City of Mount Pleasant IHOP Restaurant #3232 John L. Greene DDS Larry Lawrence Construction Let's Roll Lowe's Luigi's Italian Cafe M.O.M Ministering Our Military Massage Therapy by Krislyn Pierce

Mill's Flower Shop Mount Pleasant Pet Resort Mount Pleasant Rodeo Association North East Texas Credit Union Northeast Small Business Development Center Offenhauser & Company Insurance Outlaw's Bar-B-Que Randy's Burgers Rychlik Auto Wrecker Service Servpro of Paris Stansells City Cleaners & Laundry Inc Staples #1152 The Landing The Lodge Assisted Living/Memory Care The Pediatric Clinic PA Todd Jaggers - Texas Farm Bureau

Renewing Partners Mar 1, 2016 - Apr 30, 2016

Taking

New Partners

To the next level

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Mar 1, 2016 - Apr 30, 2016

ALAS Alma Mart Bodies By Brandon Burkes Outlet Classica Gold Enterprise Company Name Crain's Customs Cypress Home Care Inc David Beards Catfish King Ergon Asphalt & Emulsions

Evento Keyolis Farmers Insurance - Dillon Lee Agency Hefner Roofing & Construction Kountry Korner La Neveria Michoacana Law Office of Ramsey Strube Ministerio Agape Moore Music Entertainment NovaTech Green Space Contracting Pearl's Kitchen

Restaurante El Mana Round Eye Sushi Guy Seth Alexander Sheppard Street Church of Christ Stewart Real Estate Inspections Sur Hair Lounge, Boutique & More Texas Twister Travis Mortgage - Ester Ramirez-Smith United Country: Rocking T Ranch Realty Willow Creek Farming Company

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Sid and Eva Greer had decided to put their farm and ranch up for auc-tion in April, then had to delay it, but they made a 360 degree turn

and decided to pull out altogether. The online auction was originally scheduled for April 28, but they started to get a bad feeling. “We had a significant number of bidders that got in the game late that needed to see the farm, so we delayed the auction to give them time to do that, and in that process, we re-evaluated what we were do-ing and the risk we were taking,” Sid Greer said. “It’s not that we’ve changed our minds about eventual-

ly selling. The reasons we pursued the auction haven’t changed.” The couple had planned to retire

because managing the huge operation was getting to be more than they could easily manage by themselves. They were hoping to find a buyer to continue the business, but would have been fine, they orig-inally thought, with it becom-ing a private retreat. How-ever, during the process leading up to the auction,

they got a clear sense that the bidders looking at the properties were not interest-ed in carrying on the legacy they had built. The auction was to have in-cluded two properties - the 250-acre farm, the 160-year old farmhouse, a commercial cooking facility, guest cot-tages, and an 11-acre lake as well as the Greer’s 133-acre Rocky Branch Ranch

near Naples, which is home to the couple’s Maine-Anjou cattle opera-tion and features a 16-acre lake. When they announced they were selling, Greer said they received 700 emails and notes from people. “They were shocked and sad and encouraging to us. It was a pretty amazing array of responses,” he said. “Just that series of things led us to the decision not to sell. It was right there in front of us. If this farm

is

Greer Farm is back to business

as usual.

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that special to us and that special to other people, we thought it needs to go to somebody that is going to keep that legacy, not somebody who is going to lock the gates.” Once the decision was made to cancel the auction, Greer said he posted a photo on his Face-book page announc-ing the farm was not for sale and that the blackberry and blue-berry crop would be huge this season. “Normally on Face-book, I get about 400-500 people that click on a post. This one reached over 32,000, and we got another 800 emails and notes,” he said. “All of

them were ecstatic with joy that we weren’t going anywhere. It was very touching and emotional. Nei-ther one of us had any idea that this place meant that much to so many people.”

Greer said the farm and ranch are not currently on the market and he and Eva are in no hurry to sell.

“We haven’t decided exactly what we’re going to do, but we know

we’re going to take a non-traditional approach to this. We want to try to find the right buyer at a price that we feel is fair to us and them,” he said. Greer said he and his wife felt that God was orchestrat-ing the plan all along through the daily devotionals they’d been reading together. “Having God in this and hav-ing him taking the stress away from us has really helped,” he said. They plan to have their thumb-sized sweet blackber-ries and bumper crop of blue-berries available at the Mount Pleasant Farmer’s Market and the Longview Farmer’s Market. They have an abundance of free-range eggs available right now too, and 165 baby chicks

running around three and a half acres of pasture land. “We lost our major buyer in Dallas, so we can offer people a good deal on eggs,” he said.

They have also recently harvested lamb and beef and pork. The cabins are open for summer

bookings, and Eva has scheduled her Farm-to-Table cooking classes for June and July and will be up to her el-bows soon in can-ning jars making jams and jellies. He said the dates for the classes will be posted on their website, and fans can keep up with them on their Face-book page. “It’s not an easy

decision where we are, but we are going to keep on keeping on, and do what we do,” Greer said.

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The Chamber farmer’s market this year has a new name and a new location. The farmer’s mar-ket committee changed the branding for the already suc-cessful summer event and moved it to the Titus County Courthouse parking lot. The Mount Pleasant Farmer’s Market – Down-town begins June 7. “It will run for six weeks instead of four this year, and it will be downtown on the square on Tuesday nights,” said Chamber CEO Katie Stedman. “We polled the farmers, and having it on Tuesday in-stead of Thursday gives them time to get ready for the Saturday farmer’s markets they go to in the region.” Heading up the farmer’s market committee this year are John and Aliza Kilburn of Comeback Creek Farm and The Farmer’s Wife Spe-cialty Food & Farm Market. Stedman said the goal is to make the event bigger and better than it has ever been by expanding the types of items available at the market. You’ll not only find fresh fruits and vegetables from local

farms, but also prepared foods from some of the Chamber mem-bers and handmade items from local artisans and crafters, such as lotions, soaps, wood crafts and jewelry.

“We’ll have street tacos, hand-made pies from Pearl’s Kitchen, and cold fresh beverages,” Sted-man said. “We want it to be something that families can bring the kids to, eat a meal, and shop for unique items while they are getting their produce for the week.” Grass-fed beef and dairy prod-ucts are also among the items people will find at the market.

“We’re trying to put together a market that can draw many of the local producers that we have in our area and make it a source for good products for customers,” said John Kilburn. Moving it downtown will also give the mar-

ket more visibility, high-light the great shops downtown and bring life to the square area on a weeknight, he said. “The heart and soul of any community is the downtown square, and Mount Pleasant is no ex-ception. Having it there just makes sense. It will bring traffic to the area at night, and we’re hop-ing that it becomes a festive thing for people,”

Kilburn said. “We hope that busi-nesses on the square stay open a little later so people can hang out and shop at the market and chill out on the sidewalks or go into the shops downtown. We want it to be more than just peo-ple selling produce; we want it to be something that entices the community to come together and be involved.” Kilburn said it’s important to have a vibrant farmer’s market in

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the community to encourage people to make eating fresh pro-duce and farm-to-table prod-ucts. “If it’s produced in your area then you’re eating what is in season, so you are going to in-crease the diversity of the vege-tables you eat,” he said. He said most of the growers in the area are not growing varie-ties designed to be shipped thousands of miles and last for weeks on a grocery store shelf, so customers are getting pro-duce that is picked at the height of its flavor. “You’re also getting produce that is in season, so you’re get-ting high quality stuff,” he said. “Everything tastes better in sea-son when it’s picked fresh.” The market will run from 4-7 p.m. on Tuesdays from June 7 through July 12. Stedman said the chamber is currently recruit-ing vendors and talking to the downtown businesses to en-courage them to stay open later on those nights. The presenting sponsor for the market is Prief-ert and is also supported by Pic-N-Pay, Conroy Tractor and Tex-as Farm Bureau Insurance. “We really have high hopes for the market this year,” she said.

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It will soon be time to tee off at the annual Everything Texas Shootout & Golf Open presented by Pil-grim’s. The annual golf event is set for June 25 at the Mount Pleasant Country Club. Golf Tournament Committee Chair Brad Lowry said there are no major changes to the tournament day or night this year. “The Chamber has had another great response from the communi-ty in sponsoring and registering early to play. There were 34 teams

pre-registered, and we would love to have around 40 teams to fill out the morning and afternoon flights,” Lowry said. “With this being the 3rd

annual event, we still have a lot of momentum from the first two years of success that we’ve had.” Registration forms are available at the Chamber office. The entry fee for Chamber member teams is $550 per 4-player teams and $650 for non-Chamber member teams. Lunch is provided. Prizes will be

awarded for the putting contest, 1st and 2

nd Place for the Everything

Texas Shootout, 1st team gross and 1st team net, longest drive, closest to the hole and hole-in-one. There are two rounds of golf with tee times at 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. Lunch will be served at noon. The putting contest is set for 6:30 p.m., and the Shootout begins at 6:30 p.m.

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Improvements to the downtown area, including brand new side-walks and rose bushes between Second and Third Streets, and quaint tables and chairs along the side-walks around the square are the beginnings of continued growth of Mount Pleasant’s Main Street vision. Jacob Hatfield, the City of Mount Pleasant’s director of community services and Main Street director, said there has been more than $700,000 in private reinvestment downtown, according to the latest quarterly reinvestment report. That includes repairs and remodels of buildings inside and out. “Changes to our current ordinance to allow downtown living and crea-tion of the historic preservation or-dinance has spurred owners to im-prove their properties and know their investment is secure,” Hatfield said. Hatfield said the city is putting out the welcome mat to “a new genera-tion to shop downtown, live down-town and make memories down-

town.” “These memories help the next and

upcoming genera-tions want to keep our historic area because they, too, will take ownership of the area and be part of their history. We want to make sure they have a

reason to save our downtown and keep it thriving for many genera-tions to come,” he said. Hatfield said downtown events like Hot Night, Cool Music, Cinco de Mayo on the Square and Christmas on the Square, along with the sidewalk improvements and new businesses moving in help attract and welcome everyone to the area. The Cham-ber is taking advantage of the ener-gy downtown by moving its annual Farmer’s Market to the Downtown Square in June.

“The fresh sidewalks, the beautiful roses and outdoor seating invite people to sit and stay awhile and enjoy the sites and feel of a vibrant historic downtown,” he said. Recent/Upcoming Downtown im-provements:

Sidewalks have been replaced on both sides of Madison and Jef-ferson Avenues between 2nd Street

and 3rd.

More than 500 double red knockout roses have been plant-ed at the edge of the sidewalks.

Roses have been planted in the grates around the square to

brighten up the walkways.

Tables and chairs have been placed in sev-eral locations so visitors can sit and have coffee, dine, or just stop for a rest during their shopping.

Prior to a planned road overlay and sidewalk construction, utilities on Madison Avenue between 2nd and 3rd have been enhanced and updated to accommodate future growth and expanding use of downtown buildings.

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The splash pad at Caldwell Park, a project that was completed last November is up and running.

Aliza Kilburn and Richard With-erspoon announced a business partnership to open Jimmy Nardello’s Pizza Tavern on the ground floor of the Rogers Building. The restaurant will include an out-door patio on the space under the “Mount Pleasant, The Good Life” mural. It will feature wood-fired, made-from-scratch pizzas with high quality, locally-sourced toppings, farm-to-table salads, and desserts as well as a bar with a view of the pizza oven serving craft beer and wine. It is ex-pected to open in October.

Round Eye Sushi Guy recently held its grand open-ing at the thriving new res-taurant on 3rd Street. The crowds keeps streaming in from all over Northeast Tex-as, including Tyler, for the top-notch, made-fresh sushi and teriyaki dishes, dump-lings, noodles and Japa-nese vegeta-bles. The restau-rant is also getting into the Every-thing Texas spirit by adding the Texan Sushi Roll, which features cooked steak and green onions. The restaurant, which encourages online orders and take-out in logo-branded boxes, also features a quaint space for dining in and a cute, inviting patio in front of the store for relaxing with chopsticks in hand in the open air. And coming to the menu in June, Mount Fuji

Shaved Ice!

Print Works opened its new lo-cation on the downtown square in February and is quickly becoming a great new source for t-shirt printing in Mount Pleasant. The facility opened in the newly remodeled showroom on West Madi-son Street next to Laura’s Cheesecake. Print Works, whose main headquarters is in Paris, prides itself on quality customer service, swift turnarounds and of-fering customers “the best

price for the best products.”

The Farmer’s Wife Farm Market on Madison Ave-nue recently cele-brated its 1st anni-versary. The shop is awash in color with all kinds of fresh veggies and fruits from Come-back Creek Farm and other local

sources. They recently announced the mar-ket was “keeping it really local and super high-quality” with two incredi-ble products from The Farm Next Door in nearby Omaha: bone-in pork chops and fresh bacon. They also announced Kuhdoo Soap Co's seasonal Bluebonnet candle is

back in the shop. The candle has a delicate floral bouquet and is as delightful as being among a blanket of Bluebonnets on a spring day in Texas.

Jo’s Coffee Shop, also recently turned one year old and has be-

come an anchor business on the corner of First and North Jefferson, catering to coffee connoisseurs, craft soda lovers and the working-through-lunch-crowd who can snag some free Wi-Fi while munching on handcrafted Paninis, Bistro boxes or wraps. And Jo’s original

summertime drinks are back. The special menu features the Summer Fling with pomegranate, the Cast Away with mocha and coconut and the Beach Bum with green tea and coconut milk.

Renovations to the Russell Building next to Hamilton’s Jewel-ers are still underway, but plans for the first floor space have not been officially revealed.

Renovations to the Witt Build-ing have begun although plans for its use have not yet been made.

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The 2016 Eat Local campaign was more successful than ever. The 42 participating restaurants collected nearly 11,000 receipts during the month-long campaign in April. “It is our desire to connect mem-bers of our community with the fab-ulous businesses we have in town, and this campaign is just one way we do that,” said Chamber CEO Katie Stedman. “When people spend their money here at locally

owned businesses, it is beneficial for everyone.” A more concentrated marketing effort was one of the reasons for its huge success, according to Beverly Austin, chair of the Chamber’s Shop Local Task Force. “There was more promotion with flyers, through newspaper, social media and the Eat Local signs in front of the restaurants, so there

was a lot of buzz,” Austin said. “I thought it went very well. People were a lot more engaged.” The Eat Local Task Force was on a mission, too. “We changed up the strategy and made sure every restaurant mem-ber had someone on the task force visit them or eat at their restaurant. We split up the task force and each of us took two, three or four restau-

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rants,” Austin said. That personal engagement from the task force volunteers generated more excitement among the res-taurants and their staffs. “We wanted all of our restaurant members to know how much we appreciate them,” she said. Some of the restaurants even had their own contests for employees within the overall contest which awarded diners and employees with prizes. “They were having a lot of fun with it, and we tried to make it as fun as possible,” Austin said. The other change from years past that made the campaign work bet-ter is the fact that diners didn’t have to take their receipts to the Chamber office. “Instead of tasking the diners to bring their receipts in, we decided

to have an Eat Local box at each location and they just dropped their receipts in the box with their name and number and their server’s name,” Austin said. Doing it that way, the Chamber was able to collect nine boxes the first week and 21 boxes the second week of the campaign. “And, it just increased even more during the third and fourth weeks. We could tell it was going well, too, because everybody we talked to had heard of it,” Austin said. Stedman thanked the Eat Local sponsors, ‘Pic-N-Pay, Hamilton's Jewelers, Brookshire's and H&R Distributors which made the cam-paign possible. “And, we are thankful to all of the restaurants who participated and to all the diners who shopped local in April," she said.

2016 Eat Local Winners: Herschel's Family Restaurant - Mount Pleasant was the winning restaurant with over 3,000 receipts submitted. They will be keeping the Eat Local Traveling Trophy that they won last year and received prize money from the Chamber for their amazing participation in the campaign. Kelly Lewis was the lucky diner who ate at Jo's Downtown and won a 48" Sony Bravia Television. Elizabeth Hansen, a barista at Jo's Downtown, won the $200 gift card to Hamilton's Jewelers.

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Beverly Austin brings a wealth of expertise to her vol-unteer roles. A business advisor for the Northeast Small Business Development Center, Austin brings a background in bank-ing, real estate and certifica-tion as an economic develop-ment finance professional to the boards and committees on which she serves. She got involved with Cham-bers when she moved to the area from California in 2008. She has been on the Mount Pleasant/Titus County Cham-ber of Commerce board for three years. Her term ends this year. She also serves as the chair of the Shop Local Committee, which is a perfect fit for someone committed to helping small businesses succeed. She has worked for the

Northeast SBDC for seven years, an organi-zation that is affiliated with Northeast Texas Community College with offices at the old Mount Pleasant ISD building on Riddle Street. “I help people expand their business, grow their business or start a business through one-on-one counseling,” Austin said. She guides start-ups through the process of securing loans, business analysis, marketing, sales, advertising, busi-ness planning and man-agement. “Our focus is retail, res-taurants and manufac-turing. We want to be the premiere resource for businesses,” she said.

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“Volunteering improves communities, supports children

and schools and saves resources that small communities do

not have to spend.”

She also assists economic devel-opment centers and foundations in a six county area with business planning, loans and research, so she has used that expertise as a member of the board of directors for the Daingerfield Industrial Foundation in the city where she lives with her husband, Joe Austin. She volunteered on the Morris County Fair board for three years and also served on the Main Street board in Winnsboro for three years, chairing the economic re-structuring committee. “Mainly, we helped Main Street with infrastructure, bringing in busi-ness and helped with education,” she said. Austin earned her Bachelor’s De-gree in Business Administration from Texas A&M Texarkana. For the Mount Pleasant Chamber, she headed up the successful Eat Local campaign throughout the month of April that included more than 40 restaurants generating more than 11,000 receipts. The Shop Local Task Force is gearing up for the Grow Local campaign in June, featuring the Mount Pleasant Farmer’s Market, which runs for six weeks. She will also oversee the

Shop Local campaigns planned for the remainder of the year. Her commitment to serving her community, she says, is a way to give back for everything she’s been given. “I believe that a community is only as strong as its citizens,” she said. “I believe that job creation and a desire to visit a community is there because there is a sense that the people care. So, my vision is that the communities I work in become strong and become a destination that people want to come to, and I do my part to help with that vision.” She said she encourages people to use their unique skill set to help their cities grow and prosper be-cause it is two-fold. “Volunteering improves communi-ties, supports children and schools and saves resources that small communities do not have to spend. You meet people, build lasting re-lationships, bring people together and promote personal growth. You discover talents you never knew you had, and it's fun,” she said. “It helps me in terms of giving back to a place that has given me so much.”

MOUNT PLEASANT BUSINESS REPORT

An official publication of the Mount Pleasant/Titus County Chamber of

Commerce and Visitors Council 1604 North Jefferson | Mount Pleasant Texas 75455

903.572.8567 | mtpleasanttx.com

Mount Pleasant/Titus County Chamber Publisher Katie Stedman Editor in Chief

Mandy Stringer Creative Director Mandy Stringer Graphic Design, Layout

Lynda Stringer Contributing Writer Echo Publishing Co. Printing

on Social Media

Mount Pleasant/Titus County Chamber of Commerce 1604 North Jefferson Avenue Mount Pleasant, TX 75455

www.mtpleasanttx.com info@mtpleasanttx.com

(p) 903.572.8567 (f) 903.572.0613