New Beautification board sets mission statement, vision

The newly created Gonzales Beautification and Design Board met Tuesday, June 6 at City Hall and established both a mission statement and a vision for the group that they hope will inspire civic pride.

Board members voted to adopt a mission statement of “being a welcoming community” and a five-part vision that promotes Gonzales as a place to “come and see it, come and shop it, come and stay it, come and live it and come and love it.”

New economic development director Susan Sankey and Main Street Director Tiffany Hutchison-Padilla helped guide the group.

“What I'm hearing is that we want to make our town welcoming to the community,” Hutchison-Padilla said.

“You want it to be nice for those of us that live here, people who live here and people who visit,” board member Dee Senglemann replied.

“You want it to look nice, so that people who live here can enjoy it, so it's welcoming to the people who live here and welcoming to people who visit so they want to come back, and maybe even live here too,” Sankey added.

Inquirer Publisher Lew Cohn suggested the five-point vision for the group, using the historic motto of “Come and Take It” to create marketing for the community that would be eye-catching.

“These are all the kind of things that you're all looking for,” Cohn said. “You're wanting people to come here and to see the town, spend money in the town, perhaps stay, perhaps choose to move here. And then while they're here, do what they can to love it by making it a better place to live.”

Board members discussed the possibility of promoting a “Yard of the Month” for Gonzales as well as looking into signage and murals that would be more welcoming to traffic on Water Street and perhaps convince people to turn off onto US 183 Business (Saint Joseph Street).

Senglemann, who is also with the Spade and Trowel Club, suggested that club could perhaps sponsor and run the “Yard of the Month” program to help shoulder the load and allow the Beautification Board and city staff to concentrate on other pressing matters.

The board also discussed the current Jim Price Cleanup, which is held on the Saturday closest to April 22 every year. In the past, it was more community-driven, but has become a city function in recent years, and board members expressed a desire to see it become more of a way to get people working together in a grass-roots fashion, rather than just using the event as a way to dump trash once a year.

Suggestions included having a cookout in conjunction with the cleanup and having businesses take part in promotions along with the cleanup, in addition to having groups engage in beautification efforts within their own neighborhoods.