Kyle City Limits
by BRENDA STEWART
Well, I tell you what. A year ago I would have bet money against writing this particular column. At that time, my side of town was locked horn-to-horn with city manager Tom Mattis over the placement of the new library. Just looking at him made my blood boil and his condescendence was appalling. He fought a hard battle and, in the end, he lost. As far as I was concerned, justice prevailed and it was time to move on.
But then, somehow something morphed and Mattis seemed to become the favorite whipping boy for issues that he either didn’t have any influence over or, should not been given the power to influence. Somehow, and this happened either before I got here or before I started keeping count, the fox was left in charge of the hen house. For years. I honestly thought that he ran the council and they answered to him. (My naivety concerning city government, I acquiesce, but from the dais, that king was holding court and had a slew of jesters at his beck and call.)
He was charged with pulling podunk Kyle out of it’s dusty, second-class-citizen mentality and into this century. From what I hear (and see) he was a powerhouse. An incredible advocate for Kyle in general and downtown, in specific. He began a streetscape project that we probably all take for granted now. He pushed through the construction of a modern city hall and has been instrumental in the completion of the renovation of our historic city hall on the square.
The town went from 5000 people to 30,000 during this decade. And we wanted shops and overpasses and pools and rec centers and we needed schools and roads and bridges and cops. And the money from our population explosion was pouring in with the promise of more tomorrow. And then the economy crashed. And everything came to a screeching halt, except for the spending. The council and city government was on a roll and putting the breaks on proved harder than revving up that engine.
So we swept them all out and replaced them with a relatively young council with the promise of great things to come. And our new mayor is exhibiting the backbone that she alluded to during her campaign. She’ll have tougher decisions than just placing the city manager with the city staff during council meetings. It’s going to be a rocky road ahead and I think that, if we are all really in this together for the betterment of Kyle like we profess to be, it might behoove us all if we tap into each other’s strengths and start to exhibit some mutual respect for the unique role we all play in making this a great place to live.
