At Monday July 15 meeting, Mayor Stephen Santellana gave an update about Wichita Falls, with comments in categories of the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

 

All in all we are making progress. As the 2019 elections happen November Mayor Santellana is looking forward to getting the new council members on board, focusing on recruiting more jobs to Wichita Falls and executing the strategic plan.

Lindsay Barker, Director of Wichita Falls Convention and Visitors Bureau presented information about the Hotel Occupancy Tax to SW Rotary July 1.  Her first slide summarizes the HOT Tax as the tax we don't pay since we sleep in our own beds as residents of the community.  This tax would raise hotel costs by 2% or $2 for a $100 hotel room. In the course of a year, would raise about $600,000.  This revenue could be used to pay a long term $6M bond for needed repairs to the MPEC facilities as well as Memorial Auditorium to make our aging facilities more attractive as entertainment venues, boosting the amount of money spent by visitors.

 

Lindsay noted that in 2018, travel spending was $239M, supporting over 3,000 jobs in Wichita County.

 

Sue Gross, Education and Family Care Specialist, talked to SW Rotary Monday January 28, 2019. She talked to us about Alzheimers and its precursor dementia.  Dementia covers 99 different sets of symptoms. "About 65 percent of all dementias diagnosed is Alzheimer's," said Sue. "Education about all forms of dementias is paramount when it comes to understanding the diseases and in the caring for those with them."  

 

We also learned that Alzheimer’s is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States and is responsible for more deaths than breast and prostate cancer combined. Of the top 10 causes of death, Alzheimer’s is the only cause that has no way to prevent, stop, or cure it. The current 5.3 million people diagnosed with this disease will triple to 16 million by 2050 if a cure is not found. No part of dementia is part of the normal aging process.

 

For more info, you can reach Sue at 940-767-8800 or go to alz.org/WichitaFalls.