Doing the study involved visiting every business in person to create the necessary metrics to measure improvements in the Southern and Central parts of Haltom City

HALTOM CITY, TX, March 7, 2023 /24-7PressRelease/ — Joe Palmer, Director of Communications for Haltom United Business Alliance (HUBA), says the alliance recently received a study of the businesses on Belknap, NE 28th St., Denton Highway and Carson, visiting every single business to gather contact information and create a report showing types of businesses, occupancies and vacancies. The data gathered by the study is intended to be a starting point for measuring improvements.

The report will be provided at an upcoming Council meeting. The business alliance has submitted various reports and recommendations to the council over the last 18 months, but all were ignored, as the council doesn’t believe business owners who do not live in the city should have a seat at the table planning how businesses are treated.

Ron Sturgeon, founding member of HUBA, says, “We need this report, which we’ve asked the city to do on numerous occasions over the last year, so that we can measure against ourselves how many businesses are coming to and leaving from the beleaguered areas in the southern and central parts of Haltom City.” Sturgeon says that HUBA will be repeating the business census in December 2023 to measure these same items.

The alliance obtained a list of the certificate of occupancy from the city as of July 1, 2022, but found the list to be deeply flawed. The city keeps track of all the new certificates of occupancy. Unfortunately, it does not keep track of businesses that move or go out of business.

“When we started trying to contact customers by mailing to them from the city’s list, almost all the mail was returned,” says Palmer. We recently just requested this exhaustive study so that we can communicate with the businesses in Haltom City and adequately represent them in our goal of making it easier to do business in Haltom City, says Palmer.

“We want to bring more small businesses to South and Central Haltom City, and we hope to find new candidates to serve on the city Council since our existing Haltom City Council has no members with meaningful business experience and since its members have made it clear that they don’t believe businesses should have a seat at the table when the city makes decisions about how it treats businesses,” says Palmer.

To help revitalize South and Central Haltom City, HUBA Founder Ron Sturgeon has started a campaign to Make Haltom City Thrive Again. To draw attention to the initiative a series of billboard point to a website that has a detailed plan to attract the hundreds of millions of dollars in private investment necessary to bring prosperity back to the older parts of Haltom City. Learn more by visiting MakeHaltomCityThriveAgain.com.

About Haltom City
Haltom City is a diverse, majority working-class city located between Dallas and Fort Worth in Tarrant County, TX. Haltom City is minutes from both the DFW Airport and Downtown Fort Worth with direct access to major highways including I-820 and SH-121. Due to an outdated and restrictive use matrix that discourages new business and deters growth, several areas of Haltom City have seen a decline in small businesses which provided goods and services and were a significant source of jobs, including the once-thriving automotive industry. However, Haltom City has the opportunity to reverse this trend and should prioritize development of inner-city land and vacant buildings, particularly in the major corridors close to the city’s center. The city is financially healthy with a capable manager and staff who would like to see diverse business development occur and need the support of the City Council to make it happen.

About Make Haltom City Thrive Again
The Make Haltom City Thrive Again website offers information and resources about its purpose and goals. For more on Sturgeon’s personal ideas and background, check out his book Keeping the Lights on Downtown in America’s Small Cities and watch the videos on his Facebook page. Ron is also the founder of the Haltom United Business Alliance (HUBA) which represents existing business interests in Haltom City and promotes growth of diverse businesses as well. HUBA is not a political action committee and does not endorse candidates. If/when Ron endorses candidates, he will do so on his own with the Make Haltom City Thrive Again organization.

About Haltom United Business Alliance
Haltom United Business Alliance (HUBA) is a group of business owners dedicated to representing existing business interests in Haltom City and promoting the growth of diverse businesses as well. Innovative strategies are needed to create a strong tax base and enhance quality of life for residents, city employees, and business owners. All Haltom City business owners are eligible to join HUBA. For more information, contact Joe Palmer at (682) 310-0591 or by email at [email protected] or visit the group’s Facebook page at Haltom United Business Alliance.

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