The Gun Barrel City Economic Development Corp. recently hired an executive director who will answer to the group's board of directors rather than the city manager or City Council.

EDC President David Skains said Sean Overeynder will start work in Gun Barrel City soon. He now serves as executive director of the Floydada, TX, EDC.

Overeynder will earn a $45,000 annual salary, plus bonus and a $300 monthly car allowance.

Skains said that he and other members of a search committee selected Overeynder for the position after interviewing several candidates.

New Gun Barrel City Councilman Rob Rea, who formerly served on the EDC before being elected to the council recently, recommended that the City Council give its "blessing" to the plan to hire an ececutive director to pursue new economic development for the city.

Skains recently told the City Council that one of the EDC's first projects to be overseen by Overeynder will be the development of a skate park at Gun Barrel City Park. The development of a skate park will reduce the chance of youths on skateboards being injured in an accident on a road or in a parking lot, he said.

"If your town doesn't have a skate park, it is a skate park," Skains said.

A police department representative supported the need for a skate park in the city, saying it would be a benefit to the police department to have skaters all in one place and 'give kids something to do."

The council approved revising the EDC budget by $200,000 for the skate park's development. The first expenditure will be $20,000 for concept and design that will also include plans for the development of a community center for senior citizens.

Skate Park of America is being consulted in the development plan.

New Councilwoman Linda Rankin said 39 percent of Gun Barrel City residents are in the age group of 25 and younger and 35 percent are 55 and older. The development of a skate park and a community center would benefit the majority of citizens, she said.

Another project considered by the EDC was a shallow water boat ramp, but the recent rains filled the lake and solved that problem.

Pictured below is Overeynder.

This is his biography:

Age: 37

Married: My wife has her Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Science

We have a 6 year old daughter.

With a background in local government, my undergraduate degree is in Political Science and I interned for the South Plains Association of Governments during my final two years of study. I am currently the Executive Director for the Floydada Economic Development Corporation. Floydada is a rural community in West Texas, home to about 3,000 citizens. In addition to this, I attended the Basic Economic Development Course and received my certification through the Texas Economic Development Council. This training consisted of various areas in economic development ranging from sustainability, tourism, business expansion and retention, marketing for economic development, and financing, just to name a few key topics.

Since my time as Executive Director, we began a Downtown Revitalization project, forming a committee of eight community individuals ranging from city and county representatives to community residents. In addition to this, we began to see growth in various industries moving their operations to Floydada, therefore creating employment. In addition, I recreated our Business Retention, Assistance, and Expansion program so that it was a more sought after resource to our current businesses in the community. Additionally, I have been able to gain attention from site selectors and developers that otherwise would have overlooked us. By showing them the need for their industry through analytics and data, they simply did not realize a need for certain growth endeavors that were so viable to the success of the community, as well as a financial augmentation to their business.

The future of Gun Barrel City shows promise. The fact that there has been robust growth seen over the years mixed with the expansion of retail along with the community’s desire to bring a lasting quality of life is positive for such a young rural community. This brings a great opportunity for more businesses to take a look at what Gun Barrel City has to offer.

There are many areas to begin to seek growth for the city, so there is actually no single area that needs to be explored more than any other. With business expansion, we must not overlook the need for a strong and diverse workforce. In desiring other areas of dynamic sustainability, we will also look at areas of tourism, truly making Gun Barrel City a destination point for anyone. Going back to the topic that I touched on in bringing a deeper quality of life to all residents and visitors, this is another area that is healthy for the community. So in this we see that there are many topics that can be tackled, and each one will be explored as opportunities arise.