City Council - Regular Meeting

Seeing we have a quorum of four for a specially called meeting, I called to order the city of Kyma City Council and Kyma Public Facilities Corporation special meeting, 04/08/2026 at 4PM. The first thing on our agenda is oh, we do not have the pledges. I'm so sorry. In a specially called meeting. We have invitation to address council. And the first one on our list is West Tipton. And, mister Tipton, if you'd be sure the microphone is on when you go up there, and you'll have three minutes. There should be a clock somewhere around here. Well, it's over there today.

An apparent property dispute going on, I guess, with my organization in the city over there right now. And I'd really like to get it settled and have everybody happy. Me and mister Don had a meeting with some city representatives several months back. We heard that all that land was slated to be a park. And we were just saying, hey, we have concerns about how this is gonna affect our use of this property because we've kinda always seen it as an alleyway or a drainage easement that drains our properties.

So we had concerns. The city said they wanted to lease it out. They wanted to lease our property out along with the city's property to some

And I

think

only that that's And wanted to know what was going on back there with the drainage and what our rights to were with the drainage. So when you have properties that connect with no established boundary markers, like obvious fence post, it makes sense to get with your neighbor and say, hey, we're gonna do a survey. Do you wanna do a survey? You know, several months ago, the city started mowing way over our property. So I put some wooden stakes up back there that lined up with the map lines.

So there's still room for dispute on where the property lines go. When we get it figured out, I'm willing to take down stakes I've put up in the past that may be over onto the city's property. If I encroach them properly, I'm sorry. I know the city surveyor was just recently found to have been trying to take two feet of the property for the city's sake for me and Dairy Queen and Patron building. He actually moved his survey stakes back two feet.

So if I didn't stand up and make a stink, that we would have had to give up that two feet of property when we're having to give up our access rights that we believe are back there at the same time already. So we just really would have appreciated it if the city would have said, given us an opportunity to lease it if it's truly leasable before a property that doesn't even connect to us. And we're just asking to put the pause if you can or to let Kyma hardware know, hey. You might have this for now. It might not be a permanent thing. Thank you.

Uh-huh. Next on the list is Shalia Thorne.

Good afternoon. Thank you for allowing me to speak with you. I don't always speak, information on disputes and or alleged disputes. Please, please, the city has enough litigation. Anything, just be mindful of the actions that you take.

In my opinion, the city doesn't need more litigations about who owns this, who owns that, what are we doing with it. You're supposed to work for the citizens and businesses of the city, not any individual's own interest. And on a lighter note, I am saddened to see our communications director will be leaving. I want to personally commend her. She probably doesn't even remember this, but when we met, it was actually at an Easter egg hunt.

It was the first one she worked, and it went stupendous, and it's been going blockbusters ever since. So, I've truly enjoyed working with her. The city's gonna have some big shoes to fill, but, again, I just want to personally commend you. Thank you.

Patty, the is the presentation, is she?

Mayor, I

Oh, sorry, wanna go ahead?

Miss Thorne did steal a little bit of the point that we were gonna make. We wanted some time before we started the presentation to actually acknowledge miss Patty Jett. So miss Thorne did take the prelude us or transfer us into that. I'd like to take a moment of personal privilege to thank miss Patty for this opportunity and for the short time that we've had to work together. She's been able to keep up with some of the demands and requests. And if it's okay, she would like to just say a few words.

I do.

And so.

I do. Y'all, it's been a pleasure to work with all of you and to work here in Kyma. Kyma holds such a special place in my heart. It did before, but it does even more now. And you're gonna make me cry. In the last two years, I am always gonna cheerlead for Kima. I am always gonna be your biggest fan. And as much as I'm looking forward to this new chapter in my life, it's really bittersweet for me because there's some great projects down the line, and I'm going to be watching you guys and making sure you do all of them. And when you do them, I'm going to be here for groundbreakings and ribbon cuttings and cheering and then maybe go on the new water slide over at the boardwalk. So that's about it.

Okay, and is Madeline here?

No, I think we need to flip flop the two items and she can go when this one's done if that's okay with y'all.

We have a motion by councilman Darren Broaddus and a second by councilman Doug Meisinger to move proclamations down to after the presentation. Presentation. So three a will be after three b. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Okay, Cesar, I'll turn it over to you. And do you have a list of our distinguished guests? I don't know that I know everybody I

do have a running list. I keep trying to go turn each time. As we queue up the presentation and allow our presenters to come forward, I do want to take the privilege to also welcome County Commissioner Appel who's here and is present. And I know there's other dignitaries from different I see Bayhep is present. I see our partners at the City of Seabrook are present. I see members of the community, residents, business owners are here to hear what is we have to say. Members of MMD1, members of WCID. There's a long, long list to do that. But if anybody would like to just thank you so much for your time. And if anybody would like to say something in regards to that, if you could please leave your comments until the end.

There are, for those members of media that are here, there are some media packets in the back that we will make available for you here shortly. That said, mayor, Natasha, if we're ready. Excellent.

Is the microphone on? The button green at the bottom?

It's green. It's green. Great. Is our floor?

Yes, sir.

Alright. Good afternoon, mayor, council members. My name is Saul Valentin. I am founding principal of Collaborate Architects. Next to me is Chris Kay, also a principal with Collaborate. In the back, shout out to the staff that is here to support us as well. But today, we're here very excited to, after what you said, go into the heels of what is an exciting growth and new future for the city of Kyma. Go ahead and go to the next slide. I'm not telling you anything new about Kyma. I've had the pleasure and privilege to be in this area for the last thirty two years of my life.

So there is something that we're looking to do, which is which is grow and build upon what's already here. What you see in front of you is the town center announcement. It's something that we're gonna continue to build anchored by sports, anchored by entertainment, anchored by hospitality, resident focus, and it's gonna build on the economic impact of the city and build to the future. Next slide. The vision is to maintain the local character that we already have here.

We're not here to change anything. We're here to improve and build upon what we have. The next few slides are going to tell you a lot of information about what that future looks like, specifically in this area that we're talking about. But it's going be again anchored by sports, hospitality, walkability, citizen centric. It's gonna be a destination rooted completely in the local character of what's already here for the generations to come. Before

I get into the details, maybe Kyle, you can talk to this slide a little bit about the structure that we're tying into. But this is a project. The vision is it's a 30 acre site on off of 146 And Grady Road, and then it's backed by Evergreen. It's adjacent to your new park that's under development. We're proposing a mixed use city center development with a really interesting anchor, which is a public private partnership for a sports and event center, which is going to host hundreds of events a year.

But most importantly, what it does is it provides a lot of diversity and resiliency for the city as well as we already know the city is a strong tourism destination, but it's seasonal. And you also have this project's gonna bring sports and event tourism, which is different, and it's going to promote new businesses, new retail, new hospitality, and really energize the city's tax base. And also, really, it's recognition. It's already recognized as a tourism hub, but this is going to really take it to a completely different level as well as transform the the financial resiliency of the city for years to come. So how we're gonna do this, you know, you have about 70 plus million dollars a year that's going to the state right now that you're not you don't get the benefit of.

And there's a bill a program that the state has pledged 6.25% of its sales tax back to the city for this project. And I don't know, Kyle, if there's a a legal description of this bill that I'm

They amended the tax code 09/01/2019, and they added 351.1021, which gives us the opportunity to build a facility like this, obtain the 6.2% sales tax for all businesses within a 2,500 square feet as opposed to 1,000. And we qualify under three fifty one. Ten twenty one.

Thank you. So the project is in two parts. The first part is the sports complex that will be paid for by the state, so there will be no impact to to the residents. On the contrary, without this project, the the residents would, over time, have to bear potentially as you build out your infrastructure and you improve your community, you'd have to bear a higher tax base. In this case, this this is going to really help that situation because it's gonna bring a lot of new taxes to to offset that.

The the second phase will be about 200 plus thousand square feet of hospitality and lifestyle centric retail, entertainment, everything you'd think of in a city modern city center. It's gonna be pedestrian centric. It's going to have lots of green space. It's gonna tie to the park, and it'll be a place where residents can gather during the week or tourist tourism during the weekend and really have another place to go and and really diversify the city. What you see there is a site conceptual conceptual site plan of the two phases.

The first phase, being the sports event community center up on the top. Placement may change to the left or to the right a little bit, but generally, it's in the correct location. And then the remainder is a conceptual plan of the hotels, the walkable spaces, dining. Everything will be golf cart accessible, tied back into the 146 improvements that are being done. So it's really going to be an exciting place and a real great place to visit.

Next look. Just high level map of of the area. You know, of course, when you build a a center like this, the first question that we have to deal with is gonna be traffic and circulation. So we really examined that. We wanted to make sure that we had secondary entrances and access points from, F M 518 and then Evergreen on the backside and then, of course, 96 on the opposite side.

So, circulation should not interfere with the residents, on on the other side of, 11 46. And then it really ties back into City Hall, and we get an opportunity here to create a celebrate the entry into Kima City Center. There's no name that's been selected. I refer to it as Kima City Center. That will be determined by the community at a later date.

Next slide. So in addition to circulation, we're going to add 1,300 more parking spaces, possibly more. 500 to 600 will be on-site, distributed strategically throughout the center. So you're not gonna see a huge parking lot. It's gonna feel like a city center with mixed use amenities, restaurants, etcetera.

So it'll be very comfortable, a place you wanna go spend time with your family and kids, socialize with your friends. And then we will have parking in the easements that currently CenterPoint controls where we'll have mass parking for the events. And that same parking will be able to be used by the rest of the city, by the retailers. And when you have special events throughout the city and you'll be able to connect with your transit system or with the carts, there'll also be

a walk Those conversations have already started with CenterPoint. That's a long

term process.

Right. Next slide. This is just a visual of the Sports And Event Conference Center. It's fairly large building, anywhere between 90,000 to 120,000 square feet, depending on the final program. The importance of it is that it's going to be unique to this part of Texas. And I want to just stop briefly for moment and invite our partner with, Sports Facilities Company. They are the leading sports facilities operator in the country. And, maybe you can introduce yourself, tell a little bit about the company and how how we are working together.

Yes. Mayor and council, JD Wood. I'm the vice president of business development for SFC. Thank you guys for the opportunity today to speak with you all. We we have been able to, over twenty three years, support over 3,500 communities that are looking at developing items like this, whether it's recreation, sports, entertainment, all the above.

We actually have a 108 venues that we operate across the country currently, with 10 of those in the state of Texas. Not the same, but up to the conversation we've had about hosting tourism based events. You have the Legends Event Center in Bryan, Texas, to put it as an example if anyone's had the opportunity to see that. That's one of the venues that we helped do with the feasibility study for develop and manage it full time for the city of Bryan, Texas. Again, we are in the process against supporting from a feasibility perspective.

So again, this is what these kind of conversations are about, you know, work with the community, get feedback, and those kind of conversations to be had. But looking at the destination of Kiema as a tourism destination, you're looking at a perspective of eight basketball courts, 16 volleyball courts, 24 pickleball courts. That is what a tourism based anchor entity like this would need to host those championship volleyball and associated events that go with that. So we're excited about what that is. And that's just from the tourism perspective.

When you're looking at from a community perspective, parks and recreation, looking at hosting chamber meetings, looking at hosting local clubs and associations, looking at doing anything from chess club to to design club to wrestling events and judo events and all of those kinda locally. So allowing us to expand local usage as well as bring in different kind of events across this area is something that we will benefit to the community. And SFC is happy to be here as a partner with the city as well as collaborate to support those goals and aspirations. So

that is part one of the project. But the other part, which is the the retail and the entertainment, the city center, that's that's that's an investment that we'll be making with our development partners is a significant investment in Kyma. And frankly, we wouldn't do that without having an anchor that would drive demand like a sports and event center, like the one sports facilities group just described. It really creates the gravitas necessary to justify such a large development in this community. The the circle that you see on the site plan represents the 2,500 square foot radius.

The and the businesses that are within that radius that would would be we would be tapping into on that 6.25% tax to pay for the sports stadium, the sports facility. But that has nothing to do with the private development. That's coming from private funds that we will be investing in the city of King.

And just to expand a little bit more on the circles that you see, at the end of the day, there's really four different circles that could be drawn to incorporate the 2,500 square feet that we're talking about that would kind of contribute the 6.25 state sales tax that goes back to the state that could contribute and will contribute to the $70,000,000 that we talked about earlier that will go for this project.

And the other thing this project will do is you currently, you're losing about 35% of of of revenue opportunities from tourism and hotel stays to other surrounding communities. And you're also spending quite a bit of money to be able to go and send your kids to tournaments in other communities. All that would stay here. So again, it would benefit your community and your tax base. It also gives you an opportunity to really cement a city center and really provide an alternate location other than the boardwalk for additional amenities.

These these are some visuals of what the sports complex might look like inside, and then just some feel good shots of the retail and entertainment. So lots of walkable city center spaces, plazas, the golf carts, accessibility in order to be able to tie into other parts of the city, retail, dining, sports, fitness, wellness. We plan on we're talking to a a pediatrics orthopedics group that is very, very interested in in in joining the project, and then also enhanced economic development. Of course, the branding part, really, a project like this takes Kyma to another level when it comes to sports tourism. It would be unique and arguably the only center in this part of the state capable of meeting

these types. And some of the points that we wanna make is, on those bullet points, really we thought through the process of how would the residents benefit from a development like this. And the idea was in addition to economic development, in addition to other people coming in to visit, those are some of the things that we foresee that the residents would benefit from. Access directly into the park, golf cart accessible spaces, walkability around the dining and the retail. So these are things that are really, really important to us. As you're gonna see in the next few slides, we're gonna have an opportunity to to engage.

Yeah. This project enhances your existing boardwalk and village area with your current retailers. We not only wanna help offload some of the parking, but we think we can complement what you have there with a whole host of alternative retail and entertainment. Also, the sports complex is going to you should anticipate about on tournaments, about four to 5,000 people a weekend coming in. Those folks would stay overnight.

We're anticipating building 150 bed suites hotel, family centric hotel on the site. We believe this project warrants two of those hotels, but we'll start with rates, and but, you know, you just don't have the capacity to meet the demand with your current tourism, let alone additional tourism. So we think hotels would be very viable here and would really support the tourism. And the the next steps get to all this is really updating our feasibility study. We did one about a year ago.

We're updating it now. Things have changed considerably. It looks a lot better. Third party financial agreements that we have to finalize between the city, the state. But all that needs to be worked through, approved by third parties, and then we can get into the final approval and the public outreach and input. We really don't wanna start start what we call schematic design until we finish the the agreement and then really get into the the outreach, community outreach, community engagement, town hall meetings. We wanna meet with business leaders. We wanna meet with the community, and we want this to be their project. So I'll leave it at that.

I just wanna close with, the fact that you saw the economic impact. You saw, how it's gonna be paid for. It's gonna be coming from the state. But we want to reiterate the fact that this is gonna be a project that is gonna be centric also around the residents. We keep mentioning that as the last bullet point that you see in there.

There's gonna be public outreach, as Chris mentioned, some meetings where we're gonna gather together and have some working sessions to really gather all the different thoughts and incorporate them into this. We're very excited about the opportunity. We're very excited about the next chapter of what Kyma, can be and build upon what everybody here has really contributed to making. So we're just thank you for opportunity.

In in closing, I I just wanted to give a little historical content to this. This is not new. City of Kyma started working on this project originally back in 2015 under the original statute. So parliaments to all those that were involved and led that initiative dating back to that time back in 2015. It's had different reiterations, updates in the statute, different things that have happened.

The urgency for doing this and proceeding now is we have a a a clock that essentially says we are we are going to be eligible for this through a c o date of 2030. Next steps engage in us getting this project through this actual feasibility. It's already had one feasibility study. We're going to update that feasibility study to make sure that it's updated and make sure we have the most up to date content, numbers and valuations possible. We're going to have this third party reviewed for both financials and legal to make sure that we're all on the same page.

This is not a final. Those were drawings on a box that will change. They will change based on we're gonna move the building 10 feet this way, we're gonna move this over here. That's also, comments from the community as to we do want a fitness center. Did you consider having an indoor walkable track? Well, let's add that. Okay. Let's do that. Now is the time for us to have comments on the things that you want added to this building. This is not a right now.

To our respect to this council that's up here now and the council that's gonna be up here when it gets passed and future council when this thing is programmed in 2030, who knows what could happen? The future that we start today is we're planting the seed. We're continuing to cultivate the seed that was planted back in 2015. The benefit that this will have I mean, we have I have a district coach of the year that's present. You have got one of the longest standing travel programs that's here, that that's had this this an actual basketball program here in Ward and Mike Evans.

You've got representatives of different businesses, boardwalks, residents that are here. Kyma is more than just a boardwalk. The next epicenter and the drive that council has given us was to try to reduce property taxes, improve the quality of service for all residents. Now is the pivotal moment where we take that next step. But what this could mean for the county, what this could mean for all of the residents, all the neighboring cities as well, and hopefully, ultimately, for the quality of life of Kima is something like nothing else.

We've looked at this thoroughly. I've been doing this since probably the day before I started here, looking at this day and night. There's not much else that could happen with property that would make as much sense here. Let's be honest, that property is under contract. That property could be something else. Quima doesn't have zoning. We're trying to maximize the best highest best use that provides the most quality of life for our residents and our visitors and still allows us to maximize from from the sales tax revenue. I leave you with this. Right now, today, the 2,500 foot circumference will bring in $7,100,000 of revenue per year for ten years. That's $71,000,000.

That's at today's dollars, not including inflation and not including one single new building going in and not including one single new business within that 2,500 feet increasing 1%. That number is only gonna go up. Some some preliminary projections show that it could possibly be as high as 10,000,000 per year when this thing's all said and done. It's a lot of vacant space. That 7.1 does not include whatever sales tax that town center's gonna bring.

We've been ultra conservative at this. At the end of the day, when this thing is done ten years from now, we expect this thing to be paid for and to be an asset for the city to do whatever it wishes to do for in the future. There's a reason why we're trying to partner with the absolute best in the nation at running facilities like this. If you haven't been to Legends, you haven't been to some of these centers around, go take a look at them. I implore anybody on council that wants to go, I will drive you myself.

I've been there several times. And an important impact that we're not we're missing is there's plenty of parents in here, and and I could probably take a poll that either have a nephew, a cousin, a grandchild, somebody that plays travel sports. Mostly, all are tired of going to these towns where there is nothing else to do around it. The beauty of Quima is that we already are that destination. There's different cities that are building this to create a destination around them.

You have the perfect fit. There's a reason why folks are coming forward to have this project possible. The next steps include for us to garner questions through our office for what else we need to what steps we need to take as we finalize whatever the contract and the final envelope of this building will look like and what it'll contain. Those are the next sense of importance. There's nothing to vote on today. There's no action to take. I'm sure there'll be a lot of questions that'll come afterwards. Those of you that know me know that my phone is on 247. So that's all we have to conclude this item, mayor.

Thank you gentlemen for the presentation. I appreciate it.

Do you want

to?

Okay. We're

Just Councilman, know that we may not have the answers for you readily available.

They're pretty easy questions, actually. That rebate, where does it go?

The rebate? Mhmm. Comes to the city. Is it is a city program.

What do do we do?

We pay off whatever is accumulated to build a building. It goes to what?

To the money rebate money we get, we don't keep, just goes to paying for that thing.

Absolutely. We we we

That's that's We we We don't get to keep that one.

No one said we.

Okay. The other thing I wanted to ask about. Look, there's good news and bad news. The bad news is I absolutely hate this project. The good news is I'm not running for reelection so you're not going have to deal with me being in about it. But and I know I remember this I remember where this started. I remember how it started. I remember and it's you're right. It's changed a lot. The thing that the thing that irks me about it is that and I say this as somebody that probably would stand to benefit for my with my business from this, but I I still don't think it's good for this city.

Every city sort of has a personality, sort of has an identity. I don't think this blends with our identity whatsoever. I think, and I've thought for a long time that Keema's teetering on the verge of it's a nice place to visit, but I sure wouldn't wanna live there. And the thing that kept us from becoming that was the other side of 146.

That was still kind of

a bedroom community. Was That still kind of a nice little you got your homes. You got your your developments. You got your wall back. And now we're gonna take another beast, which we already have on this side. Believe me. If you're on this side of 146, you know this is double traffic. This is nothing but noise. This is nothing but tourists, but people. And it's it's a weird thing to decide we want more of. And to put it so we're actually eliminating the other side of the city where it is sort of a bedroom community and kind of it it's are are we to the point? And maybe we are. Hell, I don't know. But are we to the point where we just want nothing but tourists in here and nobody's living in this town any longer? Because they're not a they're not a business or a tourist that's ever voted me in office.

But a bunch of people who lived here did. And I'm like, what about them? I I I think and it's easy to say this because I'm rolling out of here. Nothing like this should happen without going on a ballot. We put a damn parking garage on ballot once, and that thing lost and that thing got shut down with fire. I think the only reason to not put this on the ballot is the fear of it getting shot down. But I I don't know. I mean, I would anybody that lives in would you want this in your

backyard? Councilman?

We're not going to what? K. Well, we're not gonna open it up to the public. We're gonna adjourn the meeting. And anyone that wants to I mean, not right this second, but any any of y'all that wanna talk about this or ask questions, you can get with Cesar, get with Darren. He's worked on it a long time, so is Isaac. And all the gentlemen that are that have been working on it are here and available tonight for any any of you to talk to or get a card from Cesar or whatever you want to after the meeting.

Sorry, turning into a snickerskin

That's for okay. Is there anyone else up here, any other councilman that would like to make any comments? Ask any questions?

Sort of what Doug was leading to as far as the bedroom community. I'm really concerned with the presentation was really nice. But you mentioned Evergreen, you mentioned Gordie, and you mentioned 146, but we didn't mention the folks that live in Kemah Crossing that this is going to be in the backyard. I'm really concerned with what we can do if comes to pass to protect those folks that live there? Because it it's basically gonna be right in their backyard.

I mean, is there is there anything that we can do as far as leaving trees up? I That's from from everyone that I've talked to over there, that's their big concern. They love they love sitting in their backyard. They love looking at the birds and hearing the crickets and everything else.

I'll take it. So the design that's in place now shows a buffer. And it does show a landscaping buffer as well as obviously fencing that was available in one of the previous slides. So there is a plan for that. The average buffer that exists between developments like this is usually 20 to 40 feet. We extended for it to be 60 to 80 feet with a landscape buffer included in that. So that's to answer that question. Some of the other questions that were asked without getting into who likes or who wants or whatever the case is, that I'm sure there'll be plenty of debate that's going to happen from there. But the truth is this is a private development that happens to have a city component with an asset that we can partake in. The city is not in a position to own a $70,000,000 asset with our current state of finances, but we do have a mechanism to do so right now.

We have the mechanism to do so. So the question is, are we going to forego these funds and respectfully to members of the state and the governor's office who are here waiting for their presentation? Do we want it to go back to the state? Or do we want to have an asset or an economic driver that could do that while also providing the quality of life for folks? As you mentioned, that residential community, where do those folks go to recu rate now? There is no community center. There is no fitness center. There is no place for them to go play pickleball now. There is no other aspect of that. So there's that part of the community as well that would like to partake in those type of activities.

There is no place for after school programming, homeschooling, or any other type of activities like that. Similar to what other cities around us, including Deer Park when they just opened their actual Dallas Center. They have a very similar center. Invite anybody who like to go down the street to Deer Park. Actually, was there today, and guess what I saw? A Kemah resident. Kemah resident was there working out because we don't have that type of facility here within our area. And that's not a problem. At the end of the day, it is the will of this group to do this, but we are far from where we need to be. Right now, we need to decide a final product of what we're trying to do, and I say final because the inside is the programming.

Are we building this thing or are we not? We have to get final right off from the state to say what we're doing next, and then we move this thing forward. And then we're talking about a two, three year process to get this thing built out. Having said that, that concludes the presentation. If nothing further, I'll be more than happy to entertain any questions afterwards. But I respect the members of our governor's office and all of our guests are here to hear the second part of the presentation.

Next on the agenda is the presentation of the Tourism Friendly Communities Certification. I don't know where Patty went.

Can you grab, Devin, could you grab Maddie for me, please? As a testament to the work that that's been done by Patty, one of the things that this council approved for us to do is to go out and seek tourism certification. The state of Texas through its department of economic development has what's called the tourism friendly Texas community Certification. And we're very happy to have sought that certification for over a year and now in position to receive it. So there's a member here from the governor's office who's probably outside being interviewed trying to maximize her time, who's here to make that

Thank you guys so much, and thank you for your patience. We are very excited to be able to speak with the press today, and just listening in on the presentation. We had a little bit of a precursor to the event center, and it sounds like a really exciting project. And I'm really excited to be here today to present the tourism friendly certification. Just like to say a few words Absolutely. On behalf of the governor's office.

And name is Madeline Phillips?

Madeline Phillips. Yes ma'am.

Happy to have you with us today.

Well, you. I'm actually a Houston resident, so I grew up sailing down the street at Seabrook Sailing Club. I know Kima very well. I have family that live at Lakewood Yacht Club, so I'm very familiar with the area. It's nice to come back and be able to signify all that you guys do and all the hard work that Patty and her office has accomplished.

Let me just pull up my speech here. Perfect. It's truly an honor today to be here and recognize the city of Kemah as an official tourism friendly Texas certified community. First, I wanna thank city council and your local leadership for your continued support of tourism as an economic driver. That alignment is critical and it's clear that Kyma understands the value of investing in its visitor economy.

I also want to recognize Patty Jett and the Visit Kyma for their leading for leading this effort on behalf of the city. Kyma is like what we like to call small but mighty, and that couldn't be more true when looking at the impact tourism is generating here. 38,700,000.0 in direct annual visitor spending from 2024, an almost $1,500,000 generated in local tax revenue. For a community of this size, that level of impact is significant. Those dollars don't just come into Kyma, they work for Kyma.

They support local businesses, fund essential public services, and enhance the overall quality of life for residences. And just like what we see across Texas, visitor generated tax revenue helps reduce the burden on local households. In Galveston County, that equates to over a thousand dollars saved per tax household in 2024 alone. A powerful reminder that tourism isn't just about attracting visitors. It's not just a leisure or luxury item, but it's about supporting the people who call this community home.

Kyma has built a destination that people don't just visit, they come back to time and time again as an embedded in some of their most cherished memories. From the iconic Kyma Boardwalk to the charm of the Lighthouse District, to local favorites like T Bone Toms, and the cultural institutions like the Butler Longhorn Museum, Kyma offers something that is authentic, memorable, and distinctly Texas. I also wanna recognize the partners and stakeholders who help make this certification possible. We ask that at least three letters of recommendation come from the local community. Patty surpassed that by quite a few.

We got letters from the Kyma Boardwalk, Elite Fishing, T Bone Toms, Kyma State Company, Bay Area Houston Partnership, and the Galveston Bay Foundation. This certification represents a collective effort, and it's clear that Kyma's success is built on strong partnerships and a shared vision for the future. At the governor's office, we view tourism as economic development, plain and simple. And Kyma is a perfect example of how a community can leverage tourism not just to attract visitors, but to drive real measurable economic impact. This certification is not just a recognition of where you are today.

It's a foundation for continued growth, continued investment, and continued success. So on behalf of the governor's office, it's my honor to officially recognize the city of Kemah as a tourism friendly Texas certified community. Congratulations on this achievement, and thank you for your continue continuing to show that when a community invests in tourism, it invests in the future.

Thank you so much.

Council, can you guys please come forward for a picture?

Oh, okay. We do we do not have any reason for an executive session tonight, so we will just adjourn the meeting at 04:44PM.