Sherman City Council takes new steps to boost well-being of downtown

SHERMAN, Texas (KXII) - During a time of growth, the city of Sherman said it’s making sure its heart, downtown, isn’t left behind.

“Any small business is a foundation for the town,” said Mychah Simpson. “This is our livelihood. This is what we do for a living. We give back, we pay taxes to be here, and we don’t even have anywhere to park.”

The number one problem in downtown Sherman for business owner Mychah Simpson is parking.

“Free parking would be great or even meters or just a different solution than every three hours having to move your vehicle,” said Simpson.

Sherman city council recently addressed just that with a plan to move the reserved parking at the lot on Crockett and Houston further back, opening up sixty new spots.

“One complaint we hear downtown is that there is just not enough parking,” said Nate Strauch, spokesperson for the city of Sherman.

Another part of the city’s plan to boost downtown is new street lights.

“We can hang speakers off of them, planter baskets, hang lights across the street, and things like that in order to try to really beautify the space,” said Strauch.

It’s also doubling its budget for businesses renovating vacant downtown buildings.

“We’re adding more money to the pot so that instead of adding $25,000 dollars per project, we’ll have $50,000 per project,” said Strauch.

As the city sees growth along U.S. 75, it said taking care of the heart of Sherman is just as crucial.

“We know it’s important to a lot of people,” said Strauch. “We know it’s important, of course, to the people that own businesses downtown, and we want to make sure we are doing everything we can, on the city’s side, to help make them successful.”

Strauch said changes would begin early next year.

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