Monday, March 24, 1997
After a long downward slide, Gorman's downtown
is looking up
By KEN ELLSWORTH
Senior Staff Writer
GORMAN - Downtown Gorman is not what it used to be and that's
good news. Barely two years ago Gorman's downtown was approaching
ghost town status. Half the buildings were empty deteriorating
shells, victims of an economic downhill slide that began in the
mid-1980s. A local bank failed and good businesses moved away.
Population declined also. Gorman's 1990 population of 1,190 represented
a 10 percent decline from 1980's count.
That it was a downhill slide typical of many rural communities
at the time was small comfort if you were still trying to make
your way in Gorman.
"The large stores like Wal-Mart and them have really put
a crunch on us ... It makes it hard to compete. They're just killing
us," complained Gene Foster, a downtown florist and president
of the Chamber of Commerce, in a 1988 newspaper article.
But now if you look around you won't see a boarded up window
and all but one of the Gorman downtown buildings are occupied
- this despite two straight poor peanut harvest years, which is
the local economy's bread and butter. Two large large peanut processing
plants in the community are by far the major employers.
"You should have seen it (downtown). This place was a
mess. But all of a sudden we've had a pickup, a spurt of business.
Next thing we knew everybody was trying to get a downtown place
and put something in it," Foster said last week as he smiled
and leaned back in office chair in the back of his downtown floral
shop.
"It is quite a change. We use to look around and wonder
who would be the next to go (out of business). Now we don't."
The difference, say most, was the opening of a surprisingly
successful Z J's Steakhouse in downtown Gorman. Providing steak,
seafood, hamburgers, and chicken dinners, Z J's opened in September,
1995, and soon began building a large, avid clientele, a clientele
that was more than willing to drive downtown to be served while
sitting at linenless tables on a concrete floor Sunday noons,
and Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings.
Soon, other businesses began opening, mimicking the restaurant's
hours, said Foster. Now, new businesses include an antique clock
shop, an ice cream shop, a new barbecue restaurant, a pizza place
in the grocery store, a resale clothing shop, a bakery, and a
small publishing firm of childrens' books.
"They all went into empty buildings," Foster said.
"Most of us feel like if Z J's hadn't come to town those
other shops wouldn't have opened. It just goes to show, if you've
got something that's good, people will come."
More businesses are on their way, too. An opera house in a
large old building will open in about six weeks, with the expectation
that the people coming to town might desire some entertainment.
In the same building, a health food and vitamin store and a craft
shop are planned.
It was Judy Morris who was the first to take the risk of investing
in Gorman's deteriorating downtown, Foster said.
Morris is the owner of CMS Health Care. With a staff of 15,
she is a provider of skilled nursing, home health aides, and medical
supplies. In 1995, she bought half a block of deserted, deteriorating
downtown buildings. She wanted a portion of the building for her
new parent office, while still leaving a branch office in Comanche.
The rest of the investment was speculation, she said, but she
hoped to attract restauranteur Zelda Watkins, the owner of Z J's
Steakhouse, a restaurant which had recently been destroyed by
fire in Gustine.
"It wasn't by entrepreneurial wisdom. I just saw an opportunity,"
Morris said, as she looked out her office window onto Gorman's
main street.
She said she had known Zelda Watkins a long time, and though
it was a risk, she thought it was a good one. Fortunately for
Morris and the town, Watkins agreed to open Z J's in one of Morris'
vacant buildings. The restaurant was a success from the beginning.
So successful, in fact, that former Ft. Worth restauranteur
Jonathan Van Dusen made an offer to Watkins and bought Z J's last
November, moving to town with his wife and four children.
Van Dusen has since added seating and a new banquet room to
the establishment. Regular seating in the restaurant is 165. The
new banquet room seats 150.
"She (Zelda) took a heck of a risk doing this. I would
never have done it," Van Dusen said over coffee at one of
his tables. "Restaurant's are extremely risky, but I just
looked at her books and saw it was a good business and my experience
(as a restaurant owner) reduced my risk factor as well. And it
is a good business and the community is great to live in as well."
His restaurant employs 20. Ten of the jobs are full time. Van
Dusen said 30 to 40 percents of his clients were from Gorman.
The rest of his clients drive in from 30 to 40 miles away.
Foster marveled at the restaurant's power to fill all those
seats.
"My god, he won't ever be able to fill this place up,"
Foster said was his first reaction. "But you should see it.
There are people lined up on Friday and Saturday nights and you
can't find a parking place within two blocks. This helps everybody."
Foster said the local bank, Security State Bank, Gorman Branch,
had helped several new downtown businesses get a start.
"We've helped some, but not all. Sure it (investing in
small town downtown businesses) is risky, but we're very much
behind helping on our main street. You have to invest in you community
or you don't have any business being in the community," said
Ron Keller, a bank vice-president and branch manager. "We've
hit snags, though, and there has been a lot we've had to learn."
The city government's appears to be getting some help, too.
Sales tax receipts, which represent one percent of the sales tax,
are up, though city clerk Debra Clark is not sure how much is
attributable to downtown sales.
"There are other businesses here, too, and there was a
big expansion at Birdsong Peanuts," she said.
Still, the figures look good. Clark said total sales tax receipts
were $34,279 in 1995, $37,385 in 1996, and $34,922 in just the
first quarter alone of 1997.
In additiion, Foster believes the Gorman population is growing,
though he does not know why.
"I see a lot of people going into the post office that
I don't know," he said.
Though there has been no official count since 1990, school
superintendent Gene Shackleford agreed there are signs of growth,
especially in the school system.
"We had 330 students in the district when I came four
years ago. We have 450 right now," he said. "We built
six new classes at the high school over a year ago and we're filled
up again. We're out of room."
Shackleford said the number of teachers has increased from
20 to 30 and he speculated that a new high school might be the
only answer to the school district's growth. Another sign of growth,
he said, is an increasing tax base, which has allowed lower property
tax rates, while over-all tax revenue in the district increased.
He said some of the growth was attributable to students who
live outside the district electing to attend Gorman schools, but
said he also believes there is also growth in the community.
There is, however, among all the positive economic Gorman news,
still room for concern. Price supports for peanut producers are
being phased out. Farmers are entering now the third year of the
federal government's seven-year plan to gradually reduce price
supports until they are non-existent.
As a result, while people are continuing to invest in the community,
those same people are wary, even nervous.
"There are a lot of peanut related industries we sure
would not want to lose," Foster said.
Van Dusen agreed. "Gorman's going to have to do something
different. Maybe go to tourism, or something," he suggested.
"It hasn't hindered what we're doing over there (downtown),
but it is a concern of mine and of the bank's and a lot of people
around here," Keller said. "But I have hope that we
are going to make it through this."
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Copyright ©1997,
Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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