Ringgold for Water, Education for Workforce = Future Volunteers
It's 2050 — are Gen Alpha volunteers helping nonprofits address our community needs? Today, our community is short workers, jobs, and businesses while facing a new drought. Until the rain returns, there probably isn’t much that can be done beyond conservation, requiring personal responsibility for the good of all.
In Texas, water law is basically divided into two categories: groundwater, with the landowner having rights, and surface water belonging to the State. The Texas Water Development Board 2021 plan has a 50-year view 2020-2070. The 2026 regional inputs are in discussion with planned release later this year. Wichita Falls Director of Public Works, Russell Schreiber is one of 19 board members of the Region B Regional Water Planning Group representing 11 counties in the development and submission of bottom up future projections by category: municipal, irrigation, livestock, manufacturing, mining, and steam electric power.
Manufacturing water supplies 17 users in Region B; 12 in Wichita County and 3 in Wilbarger County of the 1,618 manufacturing water-users statewide. I imagine owners of the new hydrogen plant needed assured supply of industrial water (not municipal water) to get investors and funding for a $4 billion-dollar investment. And our city saw an opportunity to get the water use restrictions added such that the hydrogen plant’s water supply also scales, just like other customers. With financial terms amended to the maximum by state law, this looks win-win business friendly to me. I say job well done Russel et al. Let’s get Lake Ringgold moving, follow through on Falls Future 2.0.
Our 45,000-person workforce is insufficient for the jobs we have. About 10,000 of these workers are 55 or older and will retire in next 10 years. My focus is the education to build our workforce. How do we replace the workforce, much less build the workforce that brings new employers to town? If we did that, then we would have a town full of people with the energy to care about one another and our nonprofits will thrive.
Volunteers needed: Meals on Wheels, Wichita Falls Food Bank, Big Brothers Big Sisters Camp Fire, Hospice is looking for volunteers for different roles: https://www.howf.org/volunteer/
Sept. 22 is the end of the first six weeks of school. WFISD needs volunteers to signup on their website https://wfisd.ezcommunicator.net/edu/wfisd/login_form.aspx?app=0
Make a difference, be effective. It’s our grandkids future.
Service Above Self,
Mr B MrB@NewCollarCoach.com
This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Ringgold for Water, Education for Workforce = Future Volunteers
