‘Our future is very bright’

Florence Mayor Ben Daniel used a photo of a rainbow over the city’s downtown as a visual depiction of the city’s future during the community’s first-ever State of the City address. 

“What is the state of the city of Florence? Very, very hopeful,” he said Friday, November 14. “Our future is very bright. With the things that are happening, I don’t see how anyone wouldn’t want to be a part of what’s happening.”

City hall was filled with residents, businesses, community members and elected officials. The hour and a half long meeting consisted of presentations on how the city has grown in the past year and where the city is heading in the near future.

Eight key goals for the city 

Mayor Daniel presented eight future goals he and the city want to achieve in the near future under the Florence Forward initiative: infrastructure, economic development, communication, city’s history, the function of the mayor’s office, the purpose of city hall and Florence’s motto and culture. 

“Infrastructure, this is my number one focus — water, wastewater and our aging infrastructure in the ground,” he said. “This is what I think about; this is what I go to bed to and wake up to.”

To help combat Florence’s aging infrastructure, the city has some road projects with the county and the Texas Department of Transportation. Additionally, Florence has received federal aid to clean out the creek on Farm to Market 970 to prevent flooding. 

His second priority is boosting Florence’s economic development. Mayor Daniel explained that the city operates on the sales tax it generates. Simply the more sales tax from businesses it gets, the more services a city can provide. 

In the past year, Florence has added family-owned restaurant Sailer's Place on Main Street, a child care business and a new retail store called 205 Mercentile. In the future, Florence is set to get an ice cream shop on the corner of College and Main Street.

“I think we would mostly think about economic development as it elevates our business community,” he said. “[But it’s] the life of our community, this is why we work on economic development. We want to see, you know, they say, ‘The tide makes all ships rise.’ So we want to see all of our citizens rise as we improve.”

Mayor Daniel concluded his talk with Florence’s history and how that impacts the culture of the town going forward. As the home of the Gualt archaeological site that has one of the largest prehistoric human artifacts in the Western hemisphere, Mr. Daniel said there is something about Florence that makes people want to gather here. 

“ ‘Good government’ is encouraging people to be good neighbors,” he said. “[Florence] is a great place to gather. . . We are not becoming that; that is just who we are.” 

City administration

Florence City Administrator Tamela Louvier discussed the steps city staff has taken to improve procedures for city customers over the past year. 

“When I came to Florence, I believed in its potential. I believe in it even more [today] because of you, our residents, our staff, our partners,” she said. “We are building stronger foundations for our future,” she concluded. “We’re doing it together. Florence is more than a city. It is a community with heart, resilience and pride, and I am grateful every day for the privilege of serving you and making Florence a great place to gather.”

The city hired City Treasurer David Tropea, who is a certified public accountant. Ms. Louvier said Mr. Tropea’s work has been critical in strengthening the city’s financial system for the future.

In the Public Works Department, the city promoted Stacey Adams to Public Works Director. Florence is supporting the continuing education of wastewater operator Brian Boone in obtaining his wastewater licensing. Additionally, the city added Jim Johnson to the Public Works staff, who has more than 20 years of experience in public works, Ms. Louvier said. 

Internally, the city has updated policies and procedures to improve transparency, consistency and accountability across departments. Ms. Louvier said the city conducted city-wide utility audits to ensure accuracy and fairness for all of its customers. This has helped correct long-standing issues and strengthened financial integrity, she said.

Regarding city infrastructure, the staff this year implemented “Pothole Fridays,” where the city sets a time to improve some of the roads across the city. 

Ms. Louvier said the West Main and South Main Street projects are modernizing the roads and drainage systems, supporting long term growth, improving residents' everyday travel, and the city’s water and wastewater systems. 

Florence Police Department 

Florence Police Chief Wayne Thompson, who recently celebrated his first year working for the city, said there are 11 officers in the agency: seven are full-time, two are reserve volunteers and the last two are volunteer chaplains.

As far as the day-to-day operations, FPD is tasked with code enforcement and enforcing municipal and state laws. Chief Thompson said the biggest problem the agency faced are traffic violations.

“It’s not like you’re going to have a stranger-on-stranger crime here in Florence,” he explained. “It’s more likely to be reckless drivers, speeding and traffic crashes, that type of thing.  And we like to keep it that way.” 

One of the major events for the police department was its National Night Out Festival on October 8. With 34 organizations coming to the event, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Texas Game Warden, Florence’s NNO was the largest event in Williamson County. 

Chief Thompson decided the department works as the unofficial administrators of the city, from officers, to code enforcement, to tour guides and realtors. With growth in Wilco, FPD wants to stay ahead of it.

 “We want to be approachable and responsive to the needs of the community,” he said. “We do our best to do that with the manpower and equipment we have, but I’m excited. I’m excited for where we’re headed.”