City uses state grant to pay for Buc-ee's frontage road
By BENJAMIN C. SHARP bensharp@journal-spectator.com

The City of Wharton beat out dozens of other communities in securing a grant that will help bring a new service station to a quickly developing highway interchange.

City officials believe the project's anticipated effect on the local job market was definitive in obtaining the funding.

"They (the state) look at the number of jobs being created," said city Manager Andres Garza Jr.

Around 75 jobs are expected to be produced by the new Bucee's, which will be located at FM 102 and U.S. 59, adjacent to an already present Murphy USA service station.

Dirt work has been ongoing at the site for the last week.

The $3 million store is expected to have an annual payroll of $1.5 million and generate roughly $17,000 in property taxes and $45,000 in sales taxes.

A new frontage road must be constructed to help traffic reach the store.

The $1.5 million project will in large part be funded by a $750,000 Texas Capital Fund grant.

City officials this past week officially accepted the grant in a "big check" ceremony in Houston.

The funds are provided by the federal government and administered through various Office of Rural Community Affairs programs.

The capital fund is one such program.

ORCA officials said more than $4.9 million has been issued to 30 different recipients between Sept. 1, 2006, and Aug. 31 of this year.

The funds will be used for everything from infrastructure development, disaster relief, healthcare accessibility enhancement and medical facility upgrades.

"We commend the efforts of every recipient for their dedication to supporting their rural Texas community," said ORCA executive director Charles Stone in a press release.

"ORCA was created to assist rural Texas with building their own communities, and I applaud everyone who applied for funding to address the needs of their community."

The grants are competitive, but Wharton has up to this point been highly successful in getting its share.

Previous ORCA grants obtained by the city include: around $1 million for Wal-Mart, $650,000 for Jr.'s Texas Best smokehouse and $750,000 for an upgrade of the wastewater treatment facility on U.S. 59.

"We've been very successful with that grant program. It's given us the opportunity to expand out tax base," Garza said.

City leaders just worry that such programs will be few and far between in the future as government cutbacks continue.

"Our concern has always been that these types of programs in the future could become very rare. We have to take advantage of whatever we can today," Garza said.