Arissa Viering | 7/29/2020 | Goodday Mineral Wells | The Wishing Well of Mineral Wells | Texas Government Updates | Palo Pinto County News

PALO PINTO COUNTY, TX – On Thursday, July 23rd, 2020, the Goodday Mineral Wells team joined Dr. Glenn Rogers at Holt River Ranch to discuss the Texas House District 60 Runoff Election and future plans for representation of rural communities within Austin, TX.

As the first, elected person from Palo Pinto County in thirty-nine years acting as Texas State Representative for District 60 in Austin, TX, Dr. Rogers has big shoes to fill. Understanding his background, a winning campaign journey, core values, and future plans has provided a great number of individuals in Mineral Wells with confidence in his devotion to a strong representation of District 60.

HOLT RIVER RANCH

Holt River Ranch has been owned by Rogers’ family since 1906 and sits within the historic Post Oak Bend of the Brazos River. The river borders the ranch and provides a calm, serene presence. Originally referred to as the “River Ranch,” a portion of the property was bought by Glenn’s great-great grandfather, James Thomas “Tank” Holt in 1906. “Tank” Holt started buying land in Palo Pinto County in the late 1800’s up until his death in 1919. He built a hotel in Mineral Wells called “The Colonial” and was part of the early heyday of Palo Pinto County.

The Holt River Ranch was named after Franklin Holt Rogers, Glenn’s son, who was affectionately called “Holt” by family and friends. Holt Rogers was born in 1986 and passed tragically in a bicycle/automobile accident in 1993. Overlooking the Brazos River, stands an unshakable, stone cross that reads:

“In Memory of Holt Rogers. 9-10-1986 to 4-23-1993. “I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.” 2 Samuel 12:23.”

The Holt River Ranch is a piece of the Rogers family history that is representative of more than a century of hard work, passion, and dedication. Dr. Rogers represents the fifth generation of the family to own and manage the ranch. With many awards for his conservation efforts, his hard work in management of the land does not go unnoticed.

THE DECISION

One year ago, Dr. Rogers reflected greatly on his initial decision to run for the Texas State Representative of District 60 position. He consulted his wife, family members, and many individuals prior to making the decision to run. As a man who believes strongly in conserving rural Texas, Dr. Rogers was unable to let go of the calling.

Dr. Rogers holds many core values that define his actions and purpose greatly:

“The core value that I want people to know is that I believe strongly in the resilience of people and that I believe people are good. I want to know as many people as I can in this county and I want to work for them . . . It’s not about me going down to Austin and doing what I want to do. It’s about me going down to Austin after I’ve listened to as many people as possible throughout the district and find out ‘What are the needs?’ and ‘What are the issues?’ . . . I’m very good at listening and working as a team.”

CHOOSING THE TEAM

With these core values and a great love for rural Texas, Dr. Rogers made the decision to run and chose his campaign team. The entire campaign team is made up of “five guys from the hills of Palo Pinto County.”

• Jeff Hinkson of Strawn, TX: Campaign Manager, who’s family has been within Palo Pinto County since the 1850’s. Hinkson has experience in marketing, public speaking, and communications. He was a key player in the creation of the state park and chamber of commerce in Strawn, TX.
• Cayler Banks of Mineral Wells, TX: Marketing Director and recent graduate from Tarleton State University. President of The Banks Media Group; member of the 2019-2022 Mineral Wells Chamber of Commerce Board.
• Judson Meeks of Mineral Wells, TX: Longtime oil & gas industry consultant. Currently serving as a strategic communication consultant while finishing up my PhD at Texas Tech University.
• Laramie Stroud of Strawn, TX: Policy Advisor

Jeff, Cayler, and Judson have unique ties to Glenn. Glenn was Jeff’s family’s ranch veterinarian back in the early 1990’s. They re-established their relationship last year at Glenn’s annual dove hunt in September 2019. It was there that Glenn asked Jeff if he could help out for a few weeks. That was 10 months ago. Cayler’s mother worked for Glenn at the sale barn when she was younger (her name is Jonna Banks, and she recently won the runoff election for Palo Pinto County District Clerk). Judson’s grandfather worked for Glenn’s grandfather on his ranch – and, as a child, Glenn would often ride with Judson’s grandfather as he did work around the ranch. Though Laramie had no previous ties to Glenn, he did grow up with Jeff in Strawn. He has also been a longtime staffer in Austin, TX.

THE CAMPAIGN

Dr. Rogers describes his campaign as an experience with “mostly great memories.” The hard-fought campaign pushed him to meet many great people that would soon help him to beat the “biggest political machine.” Through unending phone calls, boots on the ground, hot days at voting polls, and a lot of teamwork, the campaign became a success that would ultimately change Dr. Rogers’ life within a moment.

“I got to meet some of the best people I ever met – many that will be friends for life. I ran to be a representative for this district and to serve the people of this district.”

MOVING FORWARD

Dr. Rogers lists his three, major priorities within office: Public education, economic development, and healthcare within rural communities.

“Most support for Donald Trump was received in rural America . . . In order to keep our backbone of the country strong, we have to do everything we can to support our rural communities.”

Most of all, Dr. Rogers focuses on the proper representation and provision of services for rural communities.

PUBLIC EDUCATION

“I know there is a lot of concern for public education.”

With the COVID-19 pandemic in full force, Dr. Rogers describes the tremendous impacts on the public education system, especially within rural communities:

“They have to prepare for teaching in the classroom and online at the same time. We need to get behind public schools, get behind teachers, and do everything we can to support them.”

Dr. Rogers addresses one of the key obstacles that the school districts had to overcome within Palo Pinto County: availability of high speed broadband internet. While this is a heavy expense, Dr. Rogers understands that this need became most apparent when the COVID-19 pandemic initially impacted the schools last spring.

Currently, 500,000 households in Texas do not have access to high speed broadband internet. While there has been a large effort and many contributors to the campaign to provide students with hotspots through schools, Dr. Rogers believes that every family should have access to high speed broadband. Currently, progress is being made to ensure this dream becomes a reality. Per Dr. Rogers, United Electric Cooperative is trying to have access to high speed broadband by all of their users within a five year timeline. While five years does seem like a long time, the complex infrastructure will take a great deal of work before it can be completed.

RURAL HEALTHCARE

Texas currently leads the nation in rural hospital closures. With District 60 currently holding a few of those small, rural hospitals that are threatened by the possibility of shutting their doors permanently, Dr. Rogers understands the need to act quickly.

“We are fortunate here within Palo Pinto County to have a strong hospital. Now more than ever with COVID, we see how critical healthcare is to our world.”

Currently, one of the greatest threats to face rural communities is the lack of access to healthcare resources. For an individual with a disability, within a crisis, or in need of acute care, time can make the difference between life and death. One of the great advancements within the healthcare field (especially during the COVID pandemic) that can be utilized as a tool to combat this is Telemedicine:

“Telemedicine is an excellent tool to use and we need to expand our ability to use telemedicine, but it can never take the place of the patient-doctor relationship and the importance of that one-on-one relationship. The more highly-developed that relationship is between the doctor and the patient, the more we can subsequently use telemedicine. My experience is with veterinary medicine and we can use telemedicine, but only after we have an initial doctor-client-patient relationship because any attempt to start a relationship by telemedicine is flawed. I think what COVID has taught us is that these tools are very effective. They don’t take the place, but they augment what we are already doing and we need to continue to pursue ways to continue to use telehealth capabilities to increase technology. As we try to find dollars to support people with disabilities in rural areas, it’s not just about throwing money at it. It’s ‘how do we become more efficient?’ and ‘How do we use the technology that’s available more efficiently?’ . . . The general tone and way we approach that needs to be to embrace it fully and try to learn as much as we can on how we can expand that and give the care that’s needed to disabled people in rural communities.”

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Dr. Rogers recognizes the need for rural communities in Texas to have proper representation within Austin to encourage economic development.

“Economic development in Mineral Wells is just a shining example of what can happen when people begin to work together and when you have visionaries like Randy Nix. When I first met Randy, he said Mineral Wells will be more of a destination city than Fredericksburg in five years and I believe him . . . I want to do everything that I can to support Mineral Wells and to support Palo Pinto County. Not to the exclusion of others within the district, but every rural community in the district has something that they can build on and grow on.”

ENSURING PROPER REPRESENTATION

“If you look at the rural representation in Austin, we have fewer representatives west of the I-35 corridor than we have in metropolitan Houston . . . It’s important that we work together to represent rural Texas. Redistricting is coming up and we must preserve what we can in this district.”

Every 10 years, the federal government conducts the census. This determines how federal funding is divided to the states, and it determines representation in the United states House of Representatives.

The upcoming state legislature will be responsible for redistricting the state based on the Census numbers. Currently, there are fewer Texas House districts west of I-35 than there are in the Houston metro area. It is incredibly important that the rural districts have representatives that will fight to keep the districts from being carved up by more urban areas. This is why it is so important to have someone like Glenn who has strong rural roots and understands the importance of rural Texas as the representative for House District 60. 

The census may be completed online, by mail, or over the phone. For further information, please click here.

WISHING WELL

With each article that is applicable to The Wishing Well of Mineral Wells, the Goodday Mineral Wells team asks one question:

“What do you wish for Mineral Wells?”

“I wish that every child in Mineral Wells would have access to high speed broadband and be able to connect. I know that the ‘Backpack Buddies’ program has just been wonderful and I know that, during the COVID shutdown, they were feeding 1,000 children per day. So, that means that 2,000 meals would be provided. On one hand, that’s really good that people have contributed to that and keeping that going even when school wasn’t in session, but we also need to look at why the numbers are so high. What can we do? Certainly from a bigger perspective, we need to constantly be looking at how we can create more jobs and create more opportunities and continue to grow this community.”

The Goodday Mineral Wells team and The Wishing Well of Mineral Wells team are grateful to have had the opportunity to interview Dr. Glenn Rogers.

Until next time, Mineral Wells – Have a Goodday! – Arissa Viering, Writer

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