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Small School District Fights To Keep CSCOPE 6/18/13
Monahans Struggling To Recruit Builders 09/21/12
CBS 7 News
Robert Guaderrama
rguaderrama@cbs7.com
September 21, 2012
MONAHANS, TX – A west Texas town struggles to find home builders but fear of the bust is leaving the town's growth stunted. City leaders in Monahans are now considering taking matters into their own hands.
Growth in Monahans is coming to a halt all because of a lack housing. City leaders have been desperately working to attract developers but once they learn about the oil industry, they shy away.
"When they go visit with their banker and their banker says well you're in the oil and gas industry out there and you have a boom bust cycle and we've seen what happened in the past and they are concerned about that," said Mayor David Cutbirth, Mayor of Monahans.
And Mayor David Cutbirth is doing all he can to persuade developers that their investment has long-term promises.
"As long as you have a world economy that demands oil is gonna be there because we do not have excess oil capacity in the world so we believe and we're trying to convince those developers that you need to build for long term," said Mayor Cutbirth.
But Monahans hasn't had much luck and city leaders fear this is hindering economic growth.
"Those companies will not be in your community, they'll drive up and say there's no labor here, we can't stay in your community we're gonna go someplace where we have a labor force to hire so it's critical, it is absolutely number 1 to have housing for workers," said Mayor Cutbirth.
So Mayor Cutbirth says leaders are looking at taking matters into their own hands.
"It's not completely beyond reason that we wouldn't get a group of local investors together, go down to the bank and build the thing ourselves because we know we need them long term, we feel like now is our opportunity, now is our chance to shine and we need to take advantage of it," said Mayor Cutbirth.
Mayor Cutbirth tells me a new hotel is in the works and the city is in discussion with several apartment builders but nothing is set in stone.