Key City progress report: Abilene's State of the City 2025

Yahoo

05-02-2025

ABILENE, Texas () – The 2025 Abilene State of the City address featured local city, county, educational, and law enforcement leaders who took the stage at the Doubletree Hilton Hotel in Downtown Abilene to give a progress report to the public.
Mayor Weldon Hurt opened the night with a look at what's to come through project completion in 2025-2026.
'What a great day. Just look around. This is just fantastic that we can come together today.' Said Hurt.
Mayor Hurt touched on many ongoing projects such as the Cypress Street improvement project, Street maintenance progress, water and the future of water, quality of life and safety, completion of the Jane and Phil Guitar Pet Adoption and Resource Center (PARC), the new Camp Barkley dog park, Cedar Creek Walkway project, future completion of Abilene Fire Department Station 9 which will expand emergency service accessibility to much of southern Abilene, improvements and expansion at the Abilene Zoo, Development at the Abilene Youth Sports Authority (AYSA) youth sports flat fields, New Recreation Center construction projects at Cesar Chavez & G.V. Daniels parks, and the Rebuild ABI project.
RECAP: Mayor Hurt's City of Abilene's 2025 State of the City address
One topic the mayor spoke on at length was Abilene's water situation, saying, 'On a recent trip to D.C. City Manager Robert Hanna and Councilman Brian Yates went and met with our legislators in D.C., and 90% of our conversation was about water, whether it be wastewater, some of the PFAS level (perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoralkyl substances), things that we're gonna have to deal with as a city: or Cedar Creek Reservoir, or a West Texas coalition. We always want to let everyone know that water is always on our mind. And the future of Abilene depends on water. And we need more sources, and we need to take care of the sources that we have.'
Following Mayor Hurt's address, a panel of local leaders took the stage to answer top-of-mind questions concerning their sectors' contributions to the larger goals the City and County are working towards.
That panel included:
Taylor County Judge Phil Crowley
Misty Mayo, CEO of the Development Corporation of Abilene
Abilene ISD Superintendent Dr. John Kuhn.
Wylie ISD Superintendent Joey Light.
Doug Peters with the Chamber of Commerce
Weldon Hurt, Mayor
Robert Hanna, City Manager
City Manager Robert Hanna fielded the first question concerning developments made in the city water supply, speaking on the recent City Council retreat, saying, 'We have done a number of things in the last ten years to really reinvest in our water supplies. The first, of course, was attaching to the Brazos Rivers Authority system at Possum Kingdom. And as we kind of come in and out of different water restrictions with the lack of rain we've had recently, we're getting ready to activate and start our possum kingdom system for the first time. We're probably about maybe 12 months away from that, so we'll be ready to go when we need it. So that's one outcome of the retreat.'
Moving on down the line to education, AISD's Dr. John Kuhn spoke on the district's Building Brighter Futures initiative, which he says is a program that works in tandem with the needs of the city and county.
'I've always believed that what's good for a school district is good for a city, and what's good for a city is good for a school district… Abilene needs to make sure that we do our part to be something that people look at and say, I want to be a part of Abilene, Texas. When business owners look at this region and decide whether or not to move a business here, they need to know that we will provide a workforce for them, not just us, Austin, Wylie, and the other schools. And then, when residents are looking at these houses that are infill and are fixing up, they need to say, Am I content? Am I happy with the schools that are available for my children?' Said Kuhn.
Kuhn asked about the recent announcement of the sunsetting of two elementary schools and the planned implementation of a school choice program to allow families to choose between multiple schools in their district rather than be restricted to a singular school. Kuhn said the decision to call this a 'school choice' program was deliberate on the district's part.
EXPLAINER: Abilene ISD is closing/repurposing two schools, what happens next?
'We chose to use the word choice on purpose. We want to co-opt that whole idea. Obviously, most people in this area are opposed to vouchers; I'm opposed to vouchers. And the the voucher movement has has called itself the school choice movement. And it's a misnomer because parents have always had choices….There's tons of choices for parents, and we want to expand that internally so that if you are at a school and you feel like another school best suits your needs or the needs of your child, you, as a parent, feel like you have the freedom to choose between those schools and we want to expand this idea across the entire district.' Kuhn said.
Taylor County Judge Phil Crowley then addressed infrastructure upgrades and maintenance in county school districts, the Jail and other law enforcement centers, and the Taylor County Expo Center. Continuing through to funding for the court system and speaking on the expansion of EMS service in the county.
'Taylor County EMS, which is a nonprofit. Their calls have doubled since 2015. So we want to go out for bid and get some more ambulance service. We've now tripled our ambulance service out in the county. So we've gone from one full-time and one part-time ambulance to three full-time stations. You have one in Tuscola, 24/7, for the first time ever. We have one 24/7 station in Merkel for the first time since 2015. And then you also have that View-Caps Station 24/7 still. And the moral of the story, our response times have dropped by almost 50% since October. So that's another important infrastructure.' Said Crowley.
A little later in the night, Crowley mentioned his thanks to the Development Corporation of Abilene (DCOA) team for their work in attracting and growing the Lancium/Crusoe clean-compute development project. Crowley says the county will benefit from the tax revenue and be able to put that money into emergency response categories.
That Lancium project comprises the bulk of DCOA Executive Director Misty Mayo's address. Mayo first mentioned that the DCOA has been responsible for partnering with 40 companies outside the city and local businesses.
The Key City's recent White House shout-out was a significant topic of discussion also concerning the DCOA's work. President Donald Trump mentioned Abilene and its role in the ongoing Stargate project.
'We have spent almost five years working with Lancium on the development that apparently has been just an overnight success in the last two weeks,' Mayo told the crowd to laughter and applause.
KTAB/KRBC had a chance to speak with Mayo after the event. Regarding the continued interest in Abilene as a leader in the technology industry and national attention on the Lancium Project, she told KTAB/KRBC, 'Quite frankly, it's the most remarkable opportunity I believe has ever had in economic development. And we're working night and day to ensure that we're growing that future for our community.'
Closing out the night in his final State of the City address after two decades of service, City Manager Robert Hanna left the audience with a call to action.
'What are you going to do? How are you going to help Abilene be the best version of itself? I'm going to looking at a room full of businesswomen and businessmen, leaders in their field, leaders in their community. Let's roll our sleeves up. Let's make this the best frickin place on the planet. Thanks for your time. Thanks for being here.' Hanna said.
All slides used in the Abilene State of the City 2025 address, containing statistics and projects of interest, can be found in PDF format at this link.
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