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This historic building in Comfort, in the Hill Country of Central Texas, was originally a post office, and now is a small retail shop. Buildings like this are part of what makes rural America attractive to many urbanites. We should strive to preserve our heritage.

This site was developed and is maintaned by José E. Martínez

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Updated on: May 7, 2007

Rural Development

We have over twelve years of professional experience in rural development issues. Being familiar with small town planning needs- ranging from strategic to comprehensive planning, to downtown economic development to neighborhood planning- José E. Martínez, our President, is called upon by the Texas Leadership Institute to present short courses on these topics to elected and appointed officials from small Texas towns.

Our President served as a member of the Board of the Texas Rural Development Council (TRDC),a federally funded rural planning agency, for several years.

He was a member of the Board of Directors of Capital Area Economic Development District sponsored by the Capital Area Planning Council. This group developed an Action Economic Development Plan for the Capital Area State Planning Region surrounding Austin.

Another pro-bono example of José E. Martínez's interest in rural Texas is his involvement in the conception and development of the Texas Center for Rural Entrepreneurship. This Center was proposed by a dedicated group of public and private sector professionals interested in slowing the tide of disinvestment in small rural communities. While the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in rural Texas, the technical resources to aid potential and existing entrepreneurs are not always available. The Texas Center for Rural Entrepreneurship was proposed to help fill that gap, and make business creation and growth a possibility in rural Texas. To read a more detailed description (MS Word) of this initiative, click here. A graphic explaining on the proposed organization and function of the Center can be viewed by clicking here (You need Acrobat Reader to open this file). 

As a Transportation Planner at the Capital Area Planning Council, our President drafted a successful grant application that funded the Capital Area Rural Transportation System (CARTS). The system is currently operating. Concurrently, he functioned as the Capital State Planning Region's Aging Program Manager.

As a health systems planner with the Central Texas Health Systems Agency (CTHSA), a health planning agency that covered the four state planning regions in Central Texas (Capital State, Heart of Texas, Central Texas and Brazos Valley), our President worked to retain health services and systems in small communities in danger of being eliminated due to cutbacks in public funding. That system of HSAs that covered the entire nation lost its federal funding, but while CTHSA was operating, health providers and consumers came to the table to discuss health needs in the Central Texas region and develop plans to improve the delivery of health services to all residents in the area.

	Rural America possesses a wonderful variety of building infrastructure that must be preserved. The Gage Hotel in Marathon, in photo on the left, at the doorstep of the Big Bend National Park in West Texas is an oasis for visitors to this arid yet wonderful part of Texas.
The building on the right is used as the Lockhart Public Library, and it is bursting at the seams with books and people. Hopefully, the city leaders will realize that when it is replaced by a larger facility, it should be retained in the downtown area of this small Texas community.
	Georgetown, Texas is a progressive small, but growing, community "just a conversation away" from Austin, Texas. Note the curb cut, the red pavers, the antique looking lamp and the street banner on the light pole. This site is located across the street from the Williamson County Courthouse, the heart of the community.
As a native Texan, we take for granted sunset like this one in west Texas. If only we would be try to emulate the beauty of nature in our built environment, we could look at our towns and cities and feel as we do when we experience these gifts of nature.

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