Butch Davis, engineer with Parkhill Smith & Cooper and coordinator for the city's ongoing bond projects, was unable to attend Tuesday's meeting and deliver a planned update, thanks to icy roads between Big Spring and Lubbock, but will make the presentation in the near future, according to city officials.

The council did unanimously approve — with Councilwoman Stephanie Horton absent — an inter-local agreement between the city and several local agencies to hire a grant writer.

The plan callsl for the Big Spring Independent School District, Howard College, Howard County, the city of Big Spring and the Big Spring Economic Development Corporation to each donate $20,000, and Coahoma ISD and Forsan ISD to donate $10,000 each.

The agreement calls for the grant writer to be employed by the Permian Basin Workforce Development Board, according to City Attorney Linda Sjogren, and answer directly to the government agencies funding the project.

“This group of entities is trying to solve community-wide problems, and one of the ideas they came up with was to jointly hire a grant writer,” said Sjogren. “Howard College worked out a deal with Permian Basin Workforce Development Board ... and this deal will allow us to have a full-time grant writer working on county-wide projects.”

According to Mayor Russ McEwen, the idea for the agreement came from recent meetings between several local entities trying to solve some of the problems faced by Howard County as a whole.

“I've learned so much about education since we started meeting, and the challenges facing our educational systems are beyond comprehension,” said McEwen. “I know one of the things we're really looking for, and benefits us all, would be the development of some type of vocational training in our high schools — all three high schools, as well as Howard College. Believe it or not, there is no vocational training in the city of Big Spring right now, at any level whatsoever. There are a lot of kids that are dropping out of high school and not progressing because we don't offer avenues other than core curriculum type situations.”

McEwen said the grant writer would also allow the agencies to take advantage of federal stimulus funds, many of which are expected to be directed at something the city of Big Spring has a huge stake in: infrastructure.

“Additionally, as you look at stimulus packages that are coming down from the federal government, we need to be in a position where we can put our best foot forward and try to be part of that,” said McEwen. “Everything we're reading is it will be about infrastructure, and as we all know, we have plenty of problems and we could do untold amounts of water line, sewer line and street work.

“We believe this will be a positive thing for us, but beyond that, I truly believe that if any one of the entities receives a grant because of this particular position, then it will benefit the entire community. If Howard County has money for bridges, we're going to benefit. If the school districts gets money for education, we'll all benefit. It's my expectation the city of Big Spring will get direct benefit from this, but even if we don't get any direct money, it's still going to be beneficial to our community. It's something we need to do.”

Several other local agencies — including Howard County, Big Spring ISD, Big Spring EDC and Howard College —have already shown their support for the position, and agreed to fund the project.

Also during Tuesday night's meeting, the council voted unanimously to award the bond project to renovate and repair downtown roadways to local contractor Price Construction.

Contact Staff Writer Thomas Jenkins at 263-7331 ext. 232 or by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it