From housing to a hotel — along with areas on Hwy. 14 and elsewhere — development group continues push for bigger and better things in Tracy
By Per Peterson
Dairy Queen. Red Rooster.
In their prime, they were two pretty good places to eat and socialize for Tracy residents and others passing through on Hwy. 14. Today, one is a shuttered building, the other an empty lot. The two former businesses are now history, but they share another thing in common: They were topics of conversation at last Wednesday’s Tracy Development Corporation presentation.
A number of TDC representatives addressed a good-sized crowd about the group’s mission and goals, and highlighted some of the myriad things they are working to complete for the betterment of Tracy.
“If we can increase jobs, we can increase the tax base,” said TDC President Jim Keul. “Some people are very short-sighted about the benefit of that. Family Dollar is about $15,000 in taxes, Dollar General, about $15,000 a year in taxes — that’s 30-grand the city wouldn’t get without economic development. The more of that we get, the less tax burden homeowners get.”
The TDC has been working for many months on the Red Rooster property. The Rooster was once an iconic eatery and gas station in town, but today the lot sits empty. Filling the lot with a business became the TDC’s first project.
See this week’s Headlight Herald for more on this article.