Latest / Conservation Stories / A History of AgriLife Extension and Poland's Role in Texas Gas with Dr. Jim Mazurikiewicz

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A History of AgriLife Extension and Poland's Role in Texas Gas with Dr. Jim Mazurikiewicz · Conservation Stories

• 0:15
  Speaker A: Welcome, friends, to this episode of Conservation Stories. I'm usually really excited about all the guests that I have, but today this is a really special treat for me and for you. I have with me today Dr. Jim Mezakevich. And Dr. Jim is the head of the Texas Agriculture Lifetime Leaders Program. And I just recently finished this two year program and I asked Dr. Jim to come on because I want to talk about the TAL program and what it does and why it's important, but also want to talk some more about what Dr. Jim does and just introduce you to him and what he does for the state of Texas. So, Dr. Jim, you may not know, but our little podcast here really features, you know, people that are pioneering new efforts, people that are doing what you're doing, building bridges, people that are, you know, trying to put, you know, businesses back into their small communities and really trying to educate people on agriculture. It's all things about. And not just, you know, ag, but I mean, everybody has a connection to it and the land somehow. And so we focus not just on rural, but also in urban areas as well. So thank you for joining us.
• 1:37
  Speaker B: Well, thank you for having me, Tillery. Certainly an honor to be on your podcast. And I'll tell you this, it was an absolute pleasure and an honor for me to have you in the program. You are a great asset, a great contributor and a role model for others in the program.
• 1:53
  Speaker A: Well, it was, it was a fabulous experience for me. I mean, just a fantastic. And I, I mean, I think, you know, I poured my, like, heart and soul into it for two years because I wanted to, like, get every single thing out of it that I could. And if anybody could get more out of it, I don't know how. So let's talk a little bit. Let's go back a little bit and tell them, give people kind of your background in history because it's really fascinating how your family got to Texas and how. Just how you got even to A and M is an amazing story. So kind of give us your history and up to the tall program.
• 2:31
  Speaker B: Well, Tillery, thank you again for having me and thank you for asking me about my story. I hope that it's not. I hope it is inspiring and not boring to some people. But, you know, I'm a fifth generation Polish Texan. My family came to Texas in about 1880 from central Poland, actually near the Poznan Bygost area because of what was going on in Europe at that time. They were an ethnic people without a country. My region where my family came from did not exist from 1772 to 1918. And because of the, you know, they, they were aggressors. Three super empires that took over Poland during that time period. And again it was an ethnic group without a country. Woodrow Woodrow Wilson, president promised American Polonia in 1918 if they won World War I. He put it back on the map and they did. I'm the first one to go back after 125 years. I went with the tall class in 2002. We went to Russia and Poland. And I was certainly, you know, it was very personal for me, but yet when I left there, it was very inspiring for me. And from that time forward I've become very active in Texas, Polonia as well as Texas, Texas A and M and Texas Agrilife extension. But going back to my family, as I said, I'm a fifth generation Polish Texan. I'm the first one to go past the seventh grade on my mother's side and I'm the first one to first generation on my dad's side to be literate, to read and write. And on mom's side, mom did go back and after a few years when I was in college and got her grd. Ged. I'm sorry and yes ma'am. And, and so I've, you know, I've been bilingual my whole life and, and it's quite an anomaly in Texas because most Polish Americans are in New York and Chicago and not. And not as many down here. But anyway, I grew up as a very poor kid. I never knew I was poor until I attended college. And you know, we were very, with family traditions, heritage and our faith. And I'm looking back now and I can see how rich I really was. And those are, you know, values that I still cherish to this day. But I was 8th grade and my grandmother told my mother one day we were sitting on the front porch that I think it's time for Jim to get a job. He's 13, he should be helping the family bring some money in. And my mother says, well, we're hoping you'll go to college one day. And my grandmother says, well, what does he need to do that for? And so we, you know, because no one had an education, no one could read and write and didn't quite understand the value of education. And so thanks to my mom, you know, that, you know, protected me and encouraged me to keep going. And I did finish. I graduated at 17, I was a year ahead in school and the top 10% of my class. Well, so it was time to decide to go to college. And at that time, I was working for a prominent family and in our area there. And the family, the last name is Hager? Yes, it's the same name as the state comptroller today. And so I was working for his great uncle and his grandfather. There was four brothers in the farming operation. So I would ride my horse or my bicycle to work because they only lived about 2, 3 miles from our house. And so I would go to work, and we'd either work cattle, fix fence, you know, work on the farm, whatever chores they had. And so I grew up around them. And my dad was good friends with the comptroller's grandfather and his uncles. They were good friends and hunting buddies and things like that. So I grew up with them. And so when it was time for me to choose a college, I had no idea. All I knew was rural Texas and agriculture. And so I asked Lawrence Hager senior at that time who I was probably building fence or working cows. And I'd ride my own horse to work, to work there. And I says, where's the closest and the best ag school around here? And he goes, well, it's Texas A and M. And I said, where is Texas am? He says, well, it's just up the road here in College Station. Well, I hadn't been anywhere but from Waller, Texas, to Chapel Hill, and that's only about 14 miles.
• 7:06
  Speaker A: Wow.
• 7:07
  Speaker B: And to my grandparents and back to my parents. And I had never traveled, and. And so it was. So I got the high school counselor to help me fill out my application. We submitted it, and I was accepted. Of course, I was in the top 10% of my class, and I really didn't know what that meant at the time either.
• 7:27
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 7:27
  Speaker B: And. But I didn't have any money, and my family couldn't send me. So she helped me apply for Hensel Hazelwood Loan. And I got. I got the loan, but I needed my dad to submit his. His, you know, his statement, his income tax papers, you know, for the year. Yeah. To show that I was actually in need, in need. And my dad wouldn't release those because he didn't want anybody to know how poor, poor we were. And so that was probably the biggest argument I ever seen between my mom and my dad. But mother one, we got. We got the information, submitted it, and I did get the loan, and I got to go to school, But I did work summers. I had my own hay business. We cut, raked and hauled hay. And it was square bales at that time, not round bales. So me and my brother had a Business together. And that's how I put myself through school with the loan and the monies I made in the summer. But thanks to Mr. Hager's or the Hager family, they would give me a job back at Christmas break when they really didn't need anybody. But they created a position for me so I could earn a little money in that four week Christmas break. But I did major in agriculture. But what turned me around and helped develop me was the opportunity to be on the livestock judging teams, the meats judging teams, the meats and livestock judging teams. I ended up being the worst kid on the team, starting out with 29, and ended up being the high individual in the United States on three different occasions in every species. And so I worked very hard at it. No, nothing different than what I tried to do with the tall program, but I'm very proud of that. But it taught me how to speak, it taught me how to write a set of reasons or get up in front of people and that type of stuff. It was an excellent leadership development program for me. And so with that, I graduated. And they wanted me to coach the meats judging team here at Texas A and M. But I was only 21 and I looked like I was 15. And so they wanted me. So they wanted me to go to work. So I went to work for USDA. Dr. Smith was the department head at that time. So I went to Chicago, and I chose Chicago. Why? Because it was the largest number of Polish people in the United States. And I was very polish, even at 21. And I wanted to learn more about my history. And so I went there, worked for a year, and I ended up being rated as the number one recruit in the nation that year.
• 9:50
  Speaker A: Wow.
• 9:51
  Speaker B: But. But I was a Texas boy. I was homesick for Texas. God loved Texas, and I still do. So I came home, married my sweetheart, which was Kathy, and we've been married 46 years. And so I came home and I needed a job. So I applied for extension. And it was just to be a carryover, just to get a job because I was getting married. And I started out as an assistant county agent in Guadalupe county, which is Seguin. But I fell in love with extension. And from there I moved to Knox county. And I was there for two years up in Benjamin, Texas. And from there I went to Odessa for five years.
• 10:27
  Speaker A: Wow. Very different.
• 10:29
  Speaker B: Yeah, very different. And the reason I had to move from Benjamin to Odessa, instead of twins born eight weeks early and back 43 years ago, it was a 50% chance that they would Survive. And I needed to be close to a major medical center. But anyway, went out to Odessa. The babies did fine. They're grown right now. You never know. They were preemies. And I was very successful as an agent. Then I got recruited by OD Butler to come here to be the county agent in Brazos County. And while I did that, while I was at Odessa, I worked on a master's at Texas Tech. And I would drive every Monday night and I took a course each semester. And then I took nine hours on the first summer session each summer to complete a Master's degree at Texas Tech in Ag Education and Animal Science. When I came here, I started a PhD. I was county agent here in Brazos county then for 12 years. Finished my PhD in 1995. In 1998, this job came open and I applied for it. And I've been the director of the TALL program since about 1998 till today. So I've been in this position about 26 years. Very proud of the TALL program, very proud of my extension career because it taught me about how to work with the local community, to work with people, how to raise money, how to manage and how to delegate. And those skills I brought with me to the TALL program. And my county just became the whole state. Well, after being in Tall for 26 years, we've expanded it from Texas to the East Coast, west coast, and certainly now internationally. I'm very proud of the international work that I'm doing as well.
• 12:14
  Speaker A: Tillery, give us a little bit of background on these leadership programs and where the TALL program stands in relationship to these other programs similar to this throughout the United States.
• 12:29
  Speaker B: Well, of course, you know, I'm going to be biased and I'm going to tell you that there's about 40 programs like this around the United States. They're agriculture and rural based. But many of them have gotten away from their roots in some of the basis of starting these programs. The program concept started at Michigan State in 1966 and Kellogg funded the first one. And it started out of the economics department there at Michigan. Texas didn't come on board till 1987 and we started our program. But what was unique about Texas, we have many, many partners, many sponsors, and you know, things change in that. But that diversity is what has kept us afloat. When the Kellogg stopped sponsoring, Michigan's program fell apart. And Texas has continued to thrive because we have over 300 partners that help support this program. The program is certainly, in my opinion, and from what I can see is one of the top Two programs across the United States. And we focus on issues and challenges facing agriculture, but we do not lobby. We don't do. We're an educational organization. We do study the issues, but we don't take issue with anyone. So, you know, what we're trying to do is provide insight and information so people can have more knowledge, more information in their toolbox to help make. Help make better decisions. There are, like I said, about 40 programs across the state. There's over probably 50 programs within the state of Texas, and all of them have been modeled after the Tall program.
• 14:08
  Speaker A: Wow.
• 14:08
  Speaker B: And that is the ultimate compliment for others to emulate another program or another person, in my opinion. That's the ultimate compliment.
• 14:19
  Speaker A: Yeah. And I know that that's very true there. There's an alumni at Texas Tech that started the MILE program. And I know that she, she. Lindsey worked with you. She. She. That's definitely a good example of one of those programs. And that is a fabulous program.
• 14:36
  Speaker B: Well, exactly. And most all the commodity groups, you know, Rob Hughes now at Texas Forest association, have a lead program. And, you know, the Rhizore association, the Cattle Feeders, the Cattle Raisers, we've got the four HM Livestock Ambassadors, we've got the Farm Bureau's lead program. And we can go on and on. And they all are great programs. I encourage everyone to participate. You cannot learn too much. And when you. When you quit learning, you quit growing. And I encourage you to stay. Stay active and continue to read and learn and listen.
• 15:09
  Speaker A: Exactly. So the two years that we. That our cohort, it's all two years. We went to places all across. All across the state. So we. We started in College Station and did some leadership development. And. But also we also learned about the. Just the enormous. I don't even know how to explain it. Like, it's the first time I'd been on the A and M campus and seen it, and I was shocked. I mean, I know there's other people are like, yes, hello. You know, but just the. How many. Yeah, but the programs and I mean, the things that are being studied there, I just. I had no clue, you know, that we had a spy, a former spy from the Cold War. That was the policy, you know, teaching policy. And, you know, also him and another person who were like, experts on Ukraine and then the Advancing Health Through Agriculture initiative and then the enormous capacity of the Forest Service.
• 16:23
  Speaker B: Well, the amount of the faculty that we have. So A and M is just the main campus, but within that is the A and M system. And with that, you have eight State agencies. You have a health science center. You have 11 universities across the state that are underneath this umbrella. We've got about 20,000 faculty. That's teachers, researchers, and extension and service faculty. And then we've got about 185,000 students and there's about 80,000 here at Texas AM. But when you figure the other sister universities like West Texas am, which many people in West Texas are familiar with it, Tarleton State University, Prairie View am, Kingsville am, Corpus Christi, et cetera, San Antonio AM and so forth, many, many other universities. We've got 13 experiment stations across the state and extension centers across the state. We've got a presence in all 254 counties across the state. We've got a forestry service presence throughout the state. We've got four different diagnostic labs around the state to service the beef industry, the poultry industry, to help our local veterinarians identify infectious diseases immediately.
• 17:39
  Speaker A: Right out here on the Texas plains, water is everything. And there's a resource that's as vital as it is fragile. Our Playa Lakes. These lakes are nature's reservoir, catching rainwater to recharge our aquifer and provide lifelines for wildlife. But now they need our help. In collaboration with the Texas Fly Lakes Conservation Initiative and the Cargill Global Water Challenge, Sarah has started the Our Legacy Is Tomorrow's Water initiative to install, inspire and work with landowners to restore and protect our Playa lakes. Each Playa we save helps secure a sustainable water future for the generations that will be coming after us. Whether it's improving soil health, restoring habitats, or recharging groundwater, we are committed to making a difference. Together, we can build a legacy that we can all be proud of. To learn how you can join in, visit the Playa Lakes Restoration Initiative page on the SARA website. Let's keep Texas water flowing strong for the future. Visit sarah-conservation.com our horticultural extension agent was featured on our podcast not long ago. And so she and I talked some about the extension service. And, you know, it's so different now than it was when I was a kid. You know, it's, it. I think it really has made some changes over the years. And I'm surprised at how many people even in agriculture, maybe don't even aren't even aware of it is what's been surprising to me, you know, your work. What I remember when you were an extension agent, that's the kind of extension. That's what I remember about extension. And I remember if there was ever a question, you knew exactly where to go. I mean, I Feel like extension was like Google for the rule folks.
• 19:57
  Speaker B: Breathing Google.
• 19:59
  Speaker A: Yes, yes. It was like there just felt like there was never a question that they couldn't answer or help with. I mean, it just. You always knew that's who you called.
• 20:06
  Speaker B: Well, you know, you've heard, you've heard me say many times that you don't have to know everything, you just need to know who does.
• 20:13
  Speaker A: Exactly.
• 20:14
  Speaker B: And I think that, you know, our, you know, extension, you know, is what I learned as county extension agent and I try to apply that with Paul because, you know, our industry is so diverse and there is so many moving parts to the agri industry, all the way from the consumer all the way back to the production, you know, at the farm. And it's just a lot of moving parts. But the thing is, as long as you know who to call or who to contact and, you know, building those relationships and trust are so important. I think one of the biggest takeaways from the TALL program is the networking and the friendships that you make. And the name that Dr. Pope and Polly, his wife, came up with, the Texas Agriculture Lifetime Leadership. Of course, they were from Michigan and they thought Texas ought to have a big, outstanding, everything big in Texas kind of name. It had a big, tall name. Yeah. So Polly. Polly actually came up with the name of Texas Agriculture Lifetime Leadership that it need to be tall, like a tall Texan. And, and I've tried to advocate that, trying to, you know, me and to learn and build a contact base because you never know when that resource is going to be needed.
• 21:31
  Speaker A: You're right. Exactly. And I think, you know, that is there were a lot of things I feel like that I got out at all, you know, not the least of which was just, you know, feeling like I was learning leadership skills through watching you, but also seeing, seeing you do that, that networking. And I'd love for you to tell the story about how you have used that gifting and talk about Poland and what, you know, what you have been able to help coordinate efforts for there and what that has meant for Poland.
• 22:11
  Speaker B: Okay, well, we don't have enough time.
• 22:15
  Speaker A: No, let's just talk about liquid natural gas, lng.
• 22:19
  Speaker B: Okay, well, let's just talk about that one. But let me talk about one more before we talk about that. Sustainable agriculture and minimum, till or no till is something that we helped introduce into Poland over 22 years ago.
• 22:34
  Speaker A: I did not know that.
• 22:36
  Speaker B: And so I'm very proud of that. And today they've got equipment and engineers and things that are just going 90 to 10 okay.
• 22:45
  Speaker A: Oh, way advanced. Yeah.
• 22:47
  Speaker B: And we've got some of those machinery companies are wanting to come into our Texas market and I've been helping them.
• 22:54
  Speaker A: And we'll talk about that because actually I'm going to have, um, I'm going to have them on the. A podcast. I'm going to do a podcast with them because Missouri.
• 23:05
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 23:05
  Speaker A: I was super impressed with their equipment. So amazing. And would love to see those options available to us farmers.
• 23:14
  Speaker B: Exactly. And so we're very proud of that. And I had over a guy that runs corn days for Poland, and he was here in 2011 and took that back and did some result demonstrations there at and for his field days that he would have there. And then the idea has grown from there. And of course people read and travel and things like that, but he was one of the first ones to showcase that upon his return from the great part of West Texas that we're also proud of. So anyway, let me just say this. Going back to the lng, during my travels over there, I was in Poland in 2002, and then I didn't go back to 2010, and then 2011, I hosted the first group of farmers from over there. And in that first group of farmers, I met them and got to know them, spent two weeks with them. And then in 2012, one of those farmers in that group leased the land from one of the province governors. They have 16 states or provinces. They call them Voivodesville. Anyway, he and his governor told me, she, you know what, we're going to Texas in 2012. And this farmer told him, he said, well, you need to meet this professor, Jim Mazarte Cabage. And so they came to the US at that time, they were studying oil and gas and the pros and cons of drilling and producing their own gas, trying to be energy independent. This was already 12 years ago. And they were talking about energy independence from Russia already back then.
• 24:46
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 24:46
  Speaker B: And so anyway, Chevron, Mobile, Schlumberger, Shell, all of them were over there already doing exploration and drilling and things like. But they were having some issues at that time because there was some negative propaganda coming out of Russia. Putin did not want to lose his cash cow there in Europe of selling to Germany, Poland and so forth. So he was putting out a bunch of negative propaganda about how it's going to ruin the water, the soil and everything like that. Also, there was some bureaucracy of getting permits in the EU where it take two years, a year and a half to get a permit. Texas, you can get one in 10 days. And also the fact is that they're different geological structure underneath that they didn't have the research and some money still needs to be done to have to explore that. But I knew that they were building also a LNG import in Schwarnabusta. It's right beyond the German Poland shoreline in the north, but it's on the Polish side. And it was going to be the largest LNG port in the entire Baltic system. All the countries there, there's 10, 12 countries up there in the Baltic. And. And I knew that we were becoming energy independent and that we had Cheniere Energy at Sabine Pass. And so I came home and I. My good friend that I'd been friendly through tall program was Mike Marcy, who was the deputy chief of staff of Governor Rick Perry at the time. And so I asked Mike, I said, look, I. I know that Rick's probably going to run for president again. And I said, I would like to promote Texas, give him some international opportunity and international exposure. And Mike went back to the governor and so cautiously did not know if I was for real or not. And I don't blame the governor, I would have done the same thing. He sent Michael with me and so we went over there and then I ended up taking Michael five more times. And as a result of that, the governor then put together the economic task force of about 15 billionaires. One of them at that time was the CEO of AT&P and many others like that to go over there. And so I did set up a trip for them and they got to go over there. He got to meet the President, the Prime Minister, the governor that I told you about earlier, he helped facilitate this because, you know, like in anything there was some politics about whether they would, you know, help them or not. Regardless of that, I helped them and we made it happen. We got to. They got to meet the Minister of Energy. And so what we did was, is actually put the Minister of Energy together with the Governor of Texas and Task Force Energy Economic Development that is under the governor here. And then they came to Texas, Poland came to Texas. We connected them through the Governor's office. I connected them to Cheniere energy. And in 2017, June 13, the first shipment of gas from Texas, Cheniere Energy came to the port of Schwinnowsta. The following year, they signed a 20 year contract and the rest is history. Today they're buying about $31 billion worth of gas for Poland and 95% of that gas comes from Texas.
• 28:07
  Speaker A: That's amazing. And they're very proud of it. Because we. That was where we went on our international trip for Tall. And if, you know, one thing was very clear was how realistic they are about the threat that Russia is to humanity, not just to. To Poland, to Ukraine, to Europe, but to human flourishing everywhere. I think that, that, that was probably one of the biggest takeaways that I, I had coming from there. And, And I certainly understand why it is so important to them to have as much independence from. From Russia as possible and how important it is to. For them to build up their defense so that they do not lose all that they have grown in the last 20 years since they've been, you know, part of the European Union.
• 28:56
  Speaker B: Well, well, let me just say this. They're a case study. And they transitioned and bit the bullet and did some tough decisions after 1989 when the Wall fell for their economy and transitioning from a communistic country to a democracy without a civil war. And if you'll study other countries around the world, ultimately they end up in civil war because the old regime doesn't want to give up power to the new ideas. And they did this with the ballot instead of a bullet. And whether I was Polish or not, I would be proud of them. I know Mike Morrissey is not Polish, and he's one of my dear friends, and he's still in Austin. He's the chief economist for the Lieutenant Governor. He can speak with just so much pride to see what they've done and how they did it and how difficult it was to change that system. Just think about it here. I mean, we're a democracy and we're proud of that. But if we were to change from what we have and by tomorrow and start to a whole different system that, you know, we can't even agree on some simple things here in America.
• 30:06
  Speaker A: Can't seem to agree on anything anymore here lately.
• 30:10
  Speaker B: And. But you can imagine that they did some really tough, tough decisions early on.
• 30:17
  Speaker A: So, you know, along that vein of. I think that of this networking and, and how I. Listeners. What listeners can take away, you know, one is tall. The cohort. The next cohort, Cohort 19, has been chosen. But a year from what, a year and a half from now, you'll be taking applications again for the next cohort, which will be 20. So I would be. I would love to tell anyone about Tall if they have any questions or wanting to. You think about applying. Happy to do that. A lot of people apply and pick about 20. Twenty what, four to 26?
• 30:54
  Speaker B: Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. There'll be 24 in the next cohort that'll start here on July 23rd. And the class has been selected and announced, and we'll begin here in College Station. And our next session will be coming to the Lubbock Amarillo area, which we're very excited to do that. I always call that mega agriculture. Yes. It is diversity. Diversity of agriculture up there is second to none. And I'm so proud of my friends up on the high plains.
• 31:21
  Speaker A: Well, and everyone. Every one of these trips is like, you know, drinking through a fire hose. But that's like, I don't know, three fire hoses at once or something. It is a lot. It's a lot.
• 31:32
  Speaker B: It is a lot. And the. The sad thing is, we probably don't even cover 10.
• 31:36
  Speaker A: No, absolutely not. All of us from here were like, but why didn't we do this? But why didn't we do this if there's not enough time?
• 31:43
  Speaker B: Exactly. Exactly. And what we try to do is some of these panel discussions where we can bring up as many of the different groups together in one room and talk about, you know, what we have in common and how we can work together.
• 31:55
  Speaker A: You know, I don't. One of. One of the taglines for the work that I try to do is identifying problems and finding solutions. And I feel like that is. That's kind of. That's you. I mean, you. Wherever you're going, you see the problem that's there. A lot of times people don't ever see problems. They don't know what their problems are. And you don't have to always have the answers. But it's exactly what you said. But you. You probably know someone that does.
• 32:23
  Speaker B: Yeah, well, we try our best. And. And I'm constantly. If you'll notice, I'm up at the front of the bus most of the time when we're traveling, and I'm never. I'm always doing something and connecting someone and putting. Putting people together that I think can help solve those problems or help make a situation better.
• 32:44
  Speaker A: Yes. So one of the things that. That you did several years ago was you. Well, you worked for many years on this. The Brazos County. I don't care. Remember the name of it. It's Expo Center. Expo Center.
• 33:01
  Speaker B: Yes, ma'am.
• 33:02
  Speaker A: So I would love for you to tell that story and the impact. Because I know that we have. We've had a discussion here. We'd like to open something similar in Lubbock, and getting it opened has seemed to be really difficult. So I'd love for you to tell about how long it took for you to get that up and rolling and then what, what the benefits are every year for that being there?
• 33:28
  Speaker B: Well, I'm proud to tell you a little bit about it. It's other than tall and my international work, this is the third leg of one of the three things I'm extremely proud of. And the Brazos County Expo Center. When I came here in 1986, this was the most educated community, educated county per capita of any community in the state. Without such a facility and for the lack of leadership or cooperation or whatever it was, it was initiated a couple of different times and we couldn't make any traction. And so when I left Bean county extension agent and took this job as tall, I was no longer, you know, tied to the local. I could, I had a little more freedom is what I'm saying, as a leader in the community. And so I started working on this project again. I'd been working on it from 1986 up till 2000. And what happened was in about 1998, we had a change in county judges. And I'd been working with the commissioner's court for years trying to make this their idea where they would have something that they could take credit for that would benefit the community. And when we had a new judge, Al Jones, come on board, I sold this idea to him and he ran on this idea and won and beat the previous county judge who had been in position for 28 years. And as a matter of fact, the old county judge laughed me out of his office and said it would never happen. I was a 30 year old, determined young man, as I am today. I was going to make sure, in my quiet way to continue working on this. So anyway, we had a new. Had an election, a new judge, and we started working on that project. And so we ended up putting it up for a bond issue. And I led the bond issue, led the campaign. We did a committee to a political action committee and I led that effort. And Nora Thompson was our treasurer, she's a bank president here today. And we moved forward with this deal. And so I was trying to collect money, you know, to run an ad on television because back then Everybody did watch TV in about, you know, 2000. And so I needed that. And so anyway, you know, anytime you talk about a bond issue, talk about taxes, things like that, people push back. And that was the only way we could get this thing initiated. I put together a committee, we put an action committee together and we started working all this. We had the 4H and the FFA helping mimic signs and all this kind of stuff. And then I found out that TV ad was going to cost about $5,000 or $6,000. And so I went to the commission's court and asked him and if they would do it as just get out and vote. Not to say you're far or against it, but this is going to be up for you to decide whether you want it or not.
• 36:33
  Speaker A: Right?
• 36:33
  Speaker B: Well, I got the, I got the attorney general from the state of Texas to agree that it was okay. But what happened was the newspaper got a hold of it and said I was doing something illegal with taxpayers money. And this was a week before. Oh no, their initial vote. And it was during the week of absentee voting. And so it made the front. And that was back when everybody read the newspaper and it was on the front page and it was going to kill the deal. So I met Nora down at the TV station, it was on a Thursday. And the real elect, you know, the in person election was going to be four or five days later on that Tuesday. Right. So this is on a Thursday. And I, I went up there and I told the TV station, I said, look, I did have permission from the attorney general, it is not illegal. And I said, you need to understand the history of what's happening here. And I said, you're about to kill the best thing that's ever happened to this community that's been tried since 1959, okay? And this is the year 2000. And I said this, I said, you're the very, you're killing this thing with your deal and you're not telling the whole story. And I said, if you don't listen to what I have to say and hear the whole story and what's behind it, I'm going to chain myself to a tree out here in front of this TV station. I said, I grew up, I grew up in the hippie era. I wasn't a hippie, but I grew up in that era. I know how to do this. I was paying attention and I said, I'm going to chain myself out there and then we're going to get a lot of attention. And I said, I. And so I sat there with her for two hours. And then that Friday at 6:00 and 10:00 we got a five minute segment on the 6:00 news, which normally you don't get but a 30 second. And they ran it Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and then on Tuesday when the election happened, when they opened the absentee votes, we lost by 1200. And, and so because all that negative stuff.
• 38:31
  Speaker A: Oh wow.
• 38:31
  Speaker B: And so. But when they opened, started opening the boxes, you know we were going to lose. And it got closer and closer or more positive. There was still negative pros and cons and that until they opened the last box and then we won by 153 votes and it passed. And I was already, during that time, it was 10 o'clock at night before we knew and I was working already the room, the people that were there, you know, waiting to hear the results about putting it up for a bond issue again the following May. Because this was November 2000 and it did come in, we did win and we went from there. The bond issue was 18.6 million, but that's a 63 million dollar facility out there today. What happened was there was a gentleman from the Panhandle that was a good friend of mine and he's not with us anymore. But David Swinford was a state representative and David created a new bill that helped the Amarillo center get a 2 cent hotel motel tax where only cities in the past could have access to that. He created that opportunity for counties to do it, for education, for development and like expo centers, things like this. And so David, my good friend I met through tall again, it's a tall connection, told me about this. So I brought it back to our county judge and we went to. Steve Ogden was the state senator at that time. And so anyway he helped us with that but my local lodging association was against it and so we put it up for a bond issue and it failed. The hotelers were against it and because they felt like it was going to raise the hotel prices and all this kind of stuff too much. And some of them just, it wasn't their idea, you know how that goes. And they weren't going to be far. So I, we worked with Senator Ogden and we got a rider put in and at the last 12th hour, he was chairman of Senate finance at that time. We got that put in and we got it put in anyway and, and so we got it that way into this day. We had, we get that two cents, it brings in about one and a half million dollars per year. That two cents. It's unbelievable. So with the, with the bond issue we built the phase one and then now with this two cent hotel moto tax we've had a second and a third expansion and everything is paid for out there and now it's not being expanded and growth with the local taxpayer dollars. It's with the Tucson hotel motel tax. That's what San Antonio, Houston. A lot of these others have done as well. And we need to give David Swinford a big, big credit for that and honor his memory and what he happened to do for agriculture in rural Texas today. Our expo center here last year, the economic impact just last year was 45 million. It was 30 million during COVID because they had no other place to go. So this thing has been open since 2009. So look at the economic impact that it has made from 2009 to 2024. And it's an economic engine for this particular community, and that's good for ag culture. Most of the state cattle shows, national cattle shows, tons of horse shows are here. We have weddings. We have. We have venues here that we don't even know. I never heard of. Last year, we had 465 event days out of 365 days. And so we're having multiple events. And my daughter's wedding will be out there in December on December 14th. So very proud of that. And I just want to give a shout out to my great friend David Swinford for making that happen years ago for Texas.
• 42:23
  Speaker A: That's. That is amazing. Well, I. I mean, I think we. We could just tell so many stories. This is something that I think is pertinent to us here in Lubbock, like why. Why a place like that is. Is really important and why sometimes you invest the money because it's going to have so much return on your investment, you know?
• 42:44
  Speaker B: Exactly. And there will be venues come to you that you hadn't even thought about.
• 42:48
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
• 42:49
  Speaker B: And now our facility is a major hurricane rescue center. When we have hurricanes on the Gulf coast, people bring their pets, their horses, their cattle. We're hosting and housing things there that we never even thought about when it was built. And so we can host now. We probably have 7, 800 stalls, but we can stall more than that. And we've got more phases of growth coming yet. And then we started a Brazos Valley Fair and Rodeo in October. We have a youth show in March, you know, 4H and FFA for the locals. But this is a state fair open to the state in October, and it's going to be, I think, 14 years. And I've served as president since day one, and it continues to grow, and we give scholarships and prize monies. And we couldn't have had that if we had not had this facility.
• 43:39
  Speaker A: Exactly. Well, that is. That is a really. That's just a great story, and you are full of great stories. And maybe we'll have to do this again so we can talk about more great stories.
• 43:49
  Speaker B: Well, that sounds good. Well, thank you for having me on. It's an. It was an honor for you to ask me. It was an absolute pleasure to have you in the tall program and for me now to call you a tall alumni.
• 44:00
  Speaker A: I know I'm a tall alumni. I am excited about it. Thank you, Dr. Jim. And thank you, listeners, for joining us on this episode of Conservation Stories.