After roughly 10 years of planning, Bruceville-Eddy is finally starting work on a multimillion-dollar project for a new city center that’s scheduled to be built within the next year.
The city has suffered since construction on I-35 began a few years ago, but Monday some of the businesses and residents in the community celebrated as the city broke ground on the new project. Now councilman Halbert Wilcox said Bruceville-Eddy is on the road to new development.
“We're going to have to bank here for the first time in 70-something years, we’re also going to have a brand new city hall here,” Wilcox said.
And for the first time ever, the city will finally build a water sewage system after the U-S department of agriculture donated 11-million dollars to fund it. It’s something the city has been longing for since it was established in 1974.
“Everything is all on septic systems, everybody has a septic tank,” Halbert said.
The expected upgrades come after many people in the area complained about the negative impact highway construction had on the community.
“Construction of I-35 did greatly affect us, not only our quality of life, but we had businesses not here anymore,” Gary Lucas said.
Another councilman, Jason Dean, said the highway needed improvements but it really put some city businesses in a bind.
“The expansion of I-35 was a necessary evil I mean it had to happen we all travel 35 we knew it needed to happen,” Dean said.
Chris Grider is the owner of Kissing Tree Vineyards, a local winery in the downtown area. He claims it had the opposite effect on his establishment.
“It actually almost seems to have kind of increased traffic here,” Grider said.
And even though the customers kept coming, Grider said he's still looking forward to seeing more new people in the community. Others are hopeful the new development will bring a new gas station in town so people in the community no longer have to make a 14-miles round trip to fill up their tanks.
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