THE NEED FOR R.U.G.
Florence is a small rural community located in northwestern Williamson County, the fastest growing county in Texas. Killeen is 20 miles to the west on highway 195. Georgetown is about 18 miles east from Florence.
There is one elementary school, one middle school and one high school in the Florence Independent School District. There is one grocery store, one hardware store, one pharmacy/craft store, barber shop, pawn shop, three convenient store/gas stations, three restaurants and other locally owned businesses. There are eight churches in the Florence area. Florence has an outdoor swimming pool (closed during the school year), a park with baseball fields and library. There is a volunteer Fire Department in Florence. Union State Bank’s main branch of the bank is located in Florence. There are churches with youth groups and other clubs in the community but there is no community facility that can be used by these groups.
We envision the activity center to be a place that reflects family values. R.U.G. Activity Center will be a place where families enjoy being together and helping each other. The activity center will be a restful place where the pace is much slower and relaxed.
R.U.G. Activity Center will provide for a number of needs for the community of Florence. First, it will provide a place for the youth, families, and senior citizens to socialize and play games.
R.U.G. Activity Center will provide classroom space for a variety of subjects from CPR to conversational Spanish. Homework assistance and computers will be provided for those that need to word process or access the web.
R.U.G. Activity Center will provide a place to hold lectures, concerts, and small stage productions.
R.U.G. Activity Center will provide a place for parties, receptions and community meals.
R.U.G. Activity Center will provide a place for kids to ride skateboards and inline skates away from the city streets and sidewalks.
Currently, there is no place in Florence for clubs to meet or for kids to get together beyond the schools, churches and restaurants in Florence. Business owners don’t like the kids to “hang out” in their businesses because they feel they would lose business. The schools do not offer a place for small groups to meet. They offer only the gym and cafeteria for larger groups to meet, but neither one is very comfortable. Churches only have small areas for the community to meet. It is difficult for two groups who want to meet at the same time. We will work with the schools and churches to provide an alternative place for meetings.
Many of the businesses in Florence close by 6p.m. This leaves no place for the youth of Florence with a driver’s license to go except for out of town using highway 195, a notoriously dangerous highway. Many fatal accidents have occurred there. There are a lot of youth that don’t drive, so they just walk the streets and hang out in the town. Some of the youth get in trouble by just “hanging out.” The most frequent calls made to the police department regarding the youth are those concerning criminal mischief and vandalism. Skateboarders are another sore spot for the police department. The police department has written a number of citations and warnings to youth that ride their skateboards on Main Street, at the bank, post office, and fire station. These youngsters have no place to go and nothing else to occupy their time.
The senior citizens have no place to meet in Florence. There are 11,435 senior citizens, or 26 percent of the population, age 55 and older in and around Florence according to the 2000 census report. Many sit on benches on Main Street or on their front porches. R.U.G. Activity Center would provide a place where they could socialize. They can drive around Florence in the daytime and evening because they are familiar with the area, but are not comfortable driving out of town.
The closest place for children to meet and play games is about 18 miles away. Florence has lost a number of its’ youth in auto accidents because they drive to other cities to meet. According to the 2000 census report there are 7,895 kids, which is 18 percent of the population, between the ages of 6 and 17 that reside within in a fifteen-mile ring of the proposed site of the activity center
This page was last modified on Wednesday, March 28, 2007