Royal City hopes community spirit is 'contagious'

Businesses to begin setting out barrels, flags

ROYAL CITY - If 12 Royal City citizens have their way, there's about to be an epidemic in their community.

The residents hope a desire to improve the community is catching, as evidenced by a meeting Monday morning in Royal City Hall. The forum was held to discuss recent town beautification efforts, and look for people willing to help out on a variety of projects.

Projects discussed or looking for participants included the use of decorative barrels in which to hold flowers, leadership programs for local youth, town beautification efforts, rehabilitation of the city's welcome sign and a community electronic reader board.

Business owner Kent Pratt stressed during the meeting the importance of first impressions, and said he would like to see more upkeep on weeds and lots around town.

"It takes a group effort to get something done, and everybody needs to pitch in and do some helping," Pratt said following the meeting.

Leslie Fanning said she was in attendance because she was community-minded, and said a lot of the things mentioned were things she would like to see done.

"We live here, this is our community," she said. "We need community cohesiveness. We want to make Royal City a nice place to live. Everybody's important and everybody can do a little bit to help to make the whole better."

The Rev. Jesus Ramirez spoke of the need to work with teenagers, and said his church has started two groups to offer counseling and education. Ramirez said he has invited people like Royal City Mayor Justin Jenks to visit his parish so that people can get to know them.

"I want our teenagers to feel proud of their own town, that they don't feel they have to go to other places," he said, adding he would like to start offering leadership training to give local teens something to do on their own and feel proud about. "Something healthy that they can enjoy without getting into drugs, alcohol and anything like that."

With immigration laws receiving national attention, Ramirez called for more education and communication to avoid arguments and mistrust between people.

"If we don't do things together, and some bad things happen, then we start retaliating against each other," he said, adding he hopes for local churches to begin meeting with each other.

Farrah Brown decided to attend because she foresees her community falling apart if people don't start taking pride in Royal City now. Everybody needs to be active and step up, she said.

"There's not a lot of younger people here, but I think the younger people need to start being accountable and appreciating our town," she said, calling the meeting a good start, and the resulting decision to begin putting out flags and decorative barrels. "I think it will be contagious; I think a few businesses will do it and I think everybody will join in."