adaptiman

Yesterday, the lead article in The Eagle was about Gena and Chuck Norris, Navasota locals, launching their new water bottling company in Navasota, CForce. The article describes how the artesian water source was discovered by accident on the Norris family ranch. More importantly, the article describes how the company will support their non-profit organization, Kickstart Kids. “We’re setting up a legacy, not for our family, but for the foundation…We’re going to be able to give back long after we’re gone. It’s very important to us, because children matter,” said Gena Norris.

This new business is significant for Navasota because it brings new jobs and prosperity to our community, “prestige” as our mayor put it. And while this will be good for our community, I’m more interested in the character of the company – that it supports a greater mission – the kids of our community, state, and nation. That mission is in line with the idea behind NBC – that we hope to achieve something for our community. I think CForce will contribute to our growing NForce.

Incidentally, water is one of three ingredients in beer (the Germans didn’t know about yeast). Navasota Brewing Cooperative has a commitment to use local ingredients where possible. We’ve been using Jacob’s Well water, a reverse-osmosis water company in Bryan, but as we ramp up our volume, the trip will become more and more difficult. I wonder if we can work out a deal with CForce? Then, our water would be REALLY local.

 

Has anyone noticed that Navasota seems to be on the edge of something good? I took my recycling to our single-stream facility last week. I was greeted by Enrique, who is always smiling and happy to see me. The fact that we have a single-stream recycling facility is a great feature of our little town.

After taking the recycling, I stopped by Prosperity Bank’s lobby to make a deposit. Does anyone else think that building is beautiful? Then I walked across the street to WC Mercantile to pickup a #2 circular bamboo needle for my knitting, and chatted with Stephanie for a few minutes. After that, I went next door (after dumping my home-brewed coffee in the gutter) to the Classic Rock Coffee Company where I got a refill of “Breakfast in America” in my Yeti tumbler and a “War Pig” breakfast sandwich – delish’. Yes, downtown is looking pretty sharp.

But there’s more to it than that. I happened to peruse the Grimes County Appraisal District’s report for 2016. Did you know that our property values have increased by almost $125M this year, and more importantly, new construction has almost doubled over the 2015 valuations to $79M? College Station continues to march south toward our county line, and although I think it will still be some years before Navasota becomes a suburb of CS, things seem to be picking up. People are taking more pride in our community. All of this under less than stellar economic conditions over the last several years. Now we have an ostensibly Republican president about to take office with a Republican Congress and strong Republican leadership in our state. Our leaders are claiming to grow our economy and focus on America first. I, for one, think we need a little of that.  I’m beginning to feel optimistic.