HOWE’S HAPPENINGS Victory Independent Publishing
Yesterday was a sad day for many of us in this country, such a wide variety of awful events occurred, reflecting a poor state of affairs in the United States. As a huge believer in freedom of speech and supporter of those who respectfully engage with others they disagree with, Charlie Kirk’s assassination was particularly disturbing to me.
To be honest, for my own attempt at sanity I don’t pay attention to as much news as you would think a newspaper owner would. I do not keep up with “influencers”, I do not have a Tik Tok and barely have an Instagram to speak of. I did not know who Charlie Kirk was until I heard about his assassination yesterday. I don’t know all of his views, I have no ability to speak on that but from what it appears to me he was a Christian who encouraged open conversations. And now he is dead. I am a pretty big “conspiracy theorist” by most people’s standards, although I am happy to see as a whole we are treated better and offered less tin foil hats by others as more truth comes out. There are many interesting theories already of who actually killed him, but right now, all I see are two things: some people, particularly conservative Christians, who are saddened and upset, and then unfortunately what I would call just pure hatefulness of others rejoicing over the death of someone who encouraged free exchange of ideas. You all know where I stand based on this publication and if you know me– I am a Christian, above all else. I also truly enjoy the free exchange of ideas and information about the world. Stay open to others, love your neighbor and pray for America! EDITOR’S NOTE—This column is reserved as an editorial column and may not necessarily reflect the policy of this publication.
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Thursday, September 11, 2025
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Local Leadership Attends Interface Conference Group Ashley Husbands This week, we sat down with Monte Walker, City Administrator and Chief Operating Officer of the Economic Development Committee in Howe, to discuss a recent Interface Conference Group meeting some of the leadership of Howe attended this Tuesday. Walker was also a moderator at this event. The meeting was specified for North Texas and DFW, with many brokers, retailers, industrial investors, manufacturing investors and residential land use developers. Here is what Walker had to say about the conference and how it affects the future of Howe: “It was interesting (attending), in that we figured out what the DFW players; frame of mind is as far as where the growth is happening. Everybody understands that this is a growth pattern and what I got out of it is that DFW is the number one tier market in the country because of the economics. If you're investing in LA or New York, your rate of return is not going to be nearly what it would be here based upon all the economic components that go into that as far as the housing market., what are workers paying per income, per home, is they get so much more bang for the buck here than they would in New York or LA. That's why you're seeing DFW just explode the way it is because they're they're bringing their workforce here, they're relocating all of their operations here. That was eye opening- It's not that I didn't understand that or know that already, but to hear it so many times from so many big players was huge.” Walker explained that Howe had not previously attended meetings such as this, and at this time the “big players” of DFW in the top markets rarely mentioned north of Anna. Walker expanded that he believes Howe will “sneak up on a lot of people” over time because we did not have the infrastructure in place to handle any kind of industrial or even residential growthwhich leads to commercial growth, to be part of these conversations, prior to now. Commercial growth, such as restaurants, retail, etc. are based upon current numbers of housing in an area, as the area expands in “rooftops” the ability to bring in new things will open up. According the Walker, there are a few steps in this process of growth that are key factors. Economy factors, such as waiting for interest rates to drop have affected things- as
Howe Leadership at the Interface Conference Group Meeting soon as interest rates drop, he says “we are going to see velocity of this industrial and retail markets just explode”. Additionally, Howe must begin to build “rooftops” in order to have the numbers of residents to meet the requirements of businesses such as restaurants, grocery stores etc. that would like to come to town. Our proximity to Sherman is also a factor: Walker expressed that due to our proximity of TI and Global Wafers, we will hopefully have the ability to have supplier businesses for those industries here, creating many new jobs in the future. Tuesday “was about exposure, opening up how to get on the
radar for some of these big players in Dallas in the North Texas region. That’s really what it was about, we were the highest level sponsor and our EDC supported so that we could get in front of some of these players.”, Walker. When asked what metroplex town Howe leadership is hoping to pattern off of, Walker answered, “I think we have a great opportunity to be in the position we are because we can look at Melissa and Anna and Van Alstyne and say, Do we want this? Do we want that? Do we want this? I think early on what Melissa was doing is a great pattern for us residentially. Obviously, you want all the commer-
Photo Credit: Karla McDonald
cial and retail that Anna is getting but I don't know that you necessarily want to drive your residential pattern in the same direction that Anna has gone. The newspaper asked, “So y'all are thinking residentially more Melissa commercial, more Anna?” Walker answered, “Yes, and that's going to be tougher because obviously, if you go the Anna route, you're guaranteed all of those commercial drivers. If you go to the Melissa route of larger lots it becomes a residentially friendly community (the last three words were paraphrased by the newspaper editor). You know that's what we want to do. We don't want to become a place where, you know, Colin County's fleeing
Colin County because of what it has become. We don't want to be a destination of what they're trying to escape. I think if we can stay on that pattern, and if we can do it the right way, and maintain our zoning etc. I think we'll be in great shape to be able to attract a lot of what Anna has done commercial wise. It may not happen as quickly as it did in Anna just because they just smashed everybody in there in a very quick amount of time, but I'd rather do it the right way than the quick way.” Thank you to Mr. Walker for your interview this week and for your work with the City of Howe!