More than 100 people gathered to hear updates about the city of Pilot Point from City Manager Britt Lusk, Municipal Development District Executive Director Denise Morris and Main Street Director Wendy Adkins.
Jimerson Adkins, the Pilot Point Chamber of Commerce president, introduced the trio to the crowd gathered at the Lone Star Lodge and Marina on Jan. 16.
“This is one of my favorite lunches, where we invite the city staff to give us a wrap up of what happened in 2024 and let us know a bit about what’s going to happen in 2025 and beyond,” Jimerson said.
Lusk presented the bulk of the information, starting with the highlights from the last year, which included the purchase of the fire department’s new ladder truck, the renovation of the building that now houses Development Services, the erection of the 1 million gallon water tank, Public Works’ Dustin Campbell earning his Class A water license and the ongoing construction of the additional fire station.
Lusk also spoke about the new additions to the city’s staff—Public Works Director Nestor Ramirez, Infrastructure Inspector Alex Romero, Librarian Jordyn Wallace, Code Compliance Manager James Kasper and soon-to-begin Police Chief Angela Mathews.
“Our police department is at full staff, so we have—all of our authorized positions are filled,” Lusk said. “We do have one person that is a cadet that’s in the academy now. As soon as they graduate, they’ll be on the streets as well, and then in March, we will open two additional positions.”
After discussing the additions to the staff, Lusk shifted to speaking about the near future, including Plan Pilot Point, which is an effort to combine a comprehensive plan, downtown master plan, parks and trails master plan, master thoroughfare plan, drainage master plan, the water and sewer master plan, and the comprehensive safety action plan to help provide direction for Pilot Point’s growth moving forward.
“These plans are the foundation of what we do,” he said. “… None of these plans are adopted yet; none of them have gone to council for adoption.”
Doing them at once means “they’re all going to tie together so much better,” he said, encouraging people to go to planpilotpoint.com to give their input.
“Now, granted, we all, including myself, would love to say, ‘We don’t want development. We don’t want 40-foot lots. We want all one-acre horse ranches or bigger all throughout Pilot Point.’ But we can’t do that,” Lusk said, explaining how state legislation has affected the say cities have in their development.
That leads to compromises during the development process, Lusk said, to retain some say in those developments as well as the ability to collect tax dollars that benefit the community as a whole.
He also mentioned that there are 2,400 bills before the state legislature for the session that runs through June 2.
A major sporting event, the Bassmaster Classic, is returning to Lake Ray Roberts in Marc 21-23, with Lusk saying, “this is where the best anglers in the nation all come together to go fishing.”
“That’s going to be thousands of people right here just for this event,” he said. “And they’re going to know Pilot Point because of Lake Ray Roberts.”
Lusk also spoke of the city’s growing and pending residential developments, including Mobberly Farms, Creekview Meadows, Bryson Ranch, Mustang Ranch and Maverick Farms, all east of U.S. 377, as well as a few that are opting to develop in the county instead of annexing into the city limits.
Morris was next up, and she shared economic facts from the state level down to the local.
She shared that the MDD gave $160,618 in grant money and that there was an increase in sales tax revenue of $595,243 from 2023 to 2024.
“If you want any more information on the whole policy [for the grant program] in its entirety, … it’s on Develop Pilot Point’s website under opportunities,” Morris said.
She also gave an update on Central Hall, which used to house the congregation of the Central Christian Church.
“We at City Hall have no mystery in what it takes to redo and invest in an old building,” Morris said. “There are no cutting corners for a city-owned property, … if you wondered about that. With each layer you peel back, you find something else.”
When the restoration is complete, the space will be available for special events.
Morris also spoke about Pilot Point Works, which will be on Feb. 28.
“We hope to see you all there to help these kiddos learn about career readiness,” Morris said.
Wendy stepped up with only a few minutes left to spare, sharing not only the plans for the downtown events for the year but also the statistics regarding downtown reinvestment of $2,424,375 in 2024.
That figure was derived from adding together the money invested through the Development Services Annex, the Square Center’s new awning, the Magnolia Station’s sale and the Pilot Point Post-Signal sale, as well as two public-private partnerships from Economic Development grants to Lowbrows Saloon and Notoriously Yours and other economic development projects, Wendy said.
“If you were one of the 11,000 people that came to our Main Street events last year, I thank you so much, because you really do make a difference when it comes to our downtown businesses, our smaller businesses that are starting out as being vendors and to the quality of life that exists here in Pilot Point,” she said.
