Donna Dodgen, Mayor, City of Seguin
As a historic city in Texas, Seguin continues to trailblaze its destiny and reputation within the San Antonio market. As it paves the way for future business and population growth, Seguin is hard at work making the needed infrastructure improvements for the years to come, according to Mayor Donna Dodgen. “There will be continuous building and infrastructure improvements that, once completed, will be game changers for our community,” Dodgen told Invest:
What makes the city of Seguin a good place to live, work, and play in the San Antonio market?
Seguin is strategically located near I-10 and with easy access to I-35 and multiple feeders in between to get around the area. We have available and affordable land. We have an incredible workforce, and we are making great progress in workforce development as Texas State Technical College is building a campus in our city. We have an attitude of “how can we make this work” for the betterment of our community, which helps us manage some of our growing pains.
What are the challenges facing the city, and what is the city’s strategy to navigate these?
Our strategy is to improve traffic and infrastructure. We are working with our partners, namely the Texas Department of Highways, to help us mitigate these challenges. We want to be transparent and keep the citizens informed of the progress, and build better relationships regionally. We were founded in 1838, so we have lots of rich history, which is why we are always working on infrastructure improvements to create more capacity for the future.
How do you approach the challenges of the city’s economic landscape?
We need to be creative and work with the tools that we have. We need to keep an open mind as to what is coming here. We have seen little economic fluctuations due to our available resources, namely land affordability. We try to think outside of the box and evaluate how to make our available resources work for us and what we can bring to our community that is not already here and that can help bolster the economic outlook for the next 40, 50, and 60 years.
What are the key development opportunities for the city?
We completed a long-term economic impact forecast that evaluated what is around and where things are moving. We are looking at those strategies and continue to use our budget to bolster these strategies to ensure that investments speak to the plans that we’ve laid out. For example, we have about 14% of Texas’ manufacturing jobs in our city. We evaluate how we can keep these jobs in Seguin and how we can help bolster their growth. We look at what kinds of programs, incentives, and plans we can put in place to improve our small businesses. Incrementally, we have been working on this for the last couple of years.
What key industries are driving the economy in the city?
For us, it is the whole manufacturing base. We have a huge steel industry, a water bottling plant, and Caterpillar, which produces engineering equipment. Those are the industries that make up our foundation. We evaluate how to shore up our manufacturing and steel industries. We try to pull from the technology growth that is happening in the San Antonio area, as well. We look at who wants to come into the city and how they fit into what we are doing. We want to tell the Seguin story, which is our numbers, what we have, our growth, and allow that to drive who wants to come into the city. It is about attracting multiple offers for saturation and how they fit into our story.
How is the city addressing housing affordability?
This is a huge priority for us. We have looked at creative options. We have looked at alternative types of housing, such as injection molding dwellings and partnering with organizations that help first responders and teachers, for example, achieve housing. This population segment is educated and hard-working, but many times they cannot afford housing, so we evaluate options to help them achieve their housing needs. We have been working hard at this and want to stay creative, even considering tiny homes, for example. You need to be creative in how you go about incentivizing affordable development. Our goal is a village of 70 to 120 available homes, which would be a game changer for our community. These homes are for working people who work hard and need adequate housing.
What is the state of the local labor pool?
We work in tandem with our Economic Development Council to gauge the needs of local businesses. This is why Texas State Community College is coming into our city. There is a need for workforce development, which will change the city’s economic outlook for our citizens. This will allow people to thrive and achieve higher wages while at the same time bolstering development and investing in our region in the coming years. We have been working in tandem with the manufacturing sector to analyze their workforce needs and how we can assist them in creating an educational track for those workers to be highly trained. We have been working with our local high schools to have better alignment with the needs of the local businesses. We have a local university with an outstanding nursing program, which has been glorious for our healthcare sector.
What are some ways the city works with the local business community to address challenges and concerns?
The local mayors meet once a month to talk about regional concerns. Our economic development experts have constant roundtables with manufacturing leaders. We are available to speak with the community. We are trying to always be engaged as a region. We want to be ahead of any potential concerns before they become bigger. We want to be out and be open with the community and have the trust of the citizens. We work hard to do what is best for our city.
What is the outlook for the city in the coming year?
I believe the next 12-18 months are going to be phenomenal. I think we will see the businesses that people want coming here, and we will see further change. There will be continuous building and infrastructure improvements that, once completed, will be game changers for our community.
