The Village of Salado will elect a Mayor to a two-year term on May 7. Mayor Michael Coggin filed for a position on the ballot. Linda Reynolds has filed as a write-in candidate.

We asked the following questions:

Question 1: Is the Village of Salado prepared for the next tornado, ice storm or flood? If not, what can be done to be better prepared? (200 words)

Question 2: Is Salado a safe place? What can be done to make it a safer place to live? (200 words)

Question 3: What can or should the Village government do, if anything, to protect and promote the aesthetics, history, art and charm of Salado? (200 words)

Question 4: What kind of businesses and industries, if any, should the Village work to bring to Salado? How can the Village do to attract those investments? (200 words)

Question 5: What kind of business, industries and other kinds of growth should the Village thwart or prevent? How can the Village do this? (200 words)

Michael Coggin, PE 

Question 1:  I am very proud of how we have responded to the pandemic, ice storm and recent tornado emergencies.  

Pandemic – our team provided guidance, resources and vaccination location information.  We continued to provide police and village office services during the pandemic while our staff was limited due to illness.  Our village went through the pandemic with very limited impacts to our services.

Ice Storm – our police team were heroes during the Ice Storm by checking on seniors, helping stranded motorists and patrolling our streets.  Our staff was in constant communications with utility providers to restore services.  We have since worked with the electrical service provider to upgrade our services and improve reliability (power poles and transformers replaced, additional lines added and new electrical substation constructed).

Tornado – our police were some of the first responders at the tornado, we have provided phones and manpower to support the victims.

We are definitely prepared to handle the next emergency.  We have great relationships with Bell County and other emergency responders.  We also have a great staff with emergency response experience which positions us to be able to respond to future events.

Question 2: Salado is the safest or one of the safest areas to live in central Texas.  As your mayor, I will budget and provide a responsive police department to keep up with our growth.  As mayor, I have implemented the license plate reader protection – this has been a huge success with controlling crime and has lead the area in cutting edge police support.  Other towns are now considering this protective measure due to the success seen in our village.   I will continue to  prioritize our police team with increased salaries (fairly managed to keep up with cost of living and other police agencies), upgraded police vehicles and cutting edge equipment.  We also have improved our police force coverage to provide 24/7 response.  As our tax base funding increases we will add additional patrol hours, support our Citizens on Patrol (COPS) program and provide the necessary training and certifications to our officers.   My promise if elected is to continue to fund (not defund) our police force and to grow our team as the Village of Salado grows.  

Question 3: My duty as your mayor is to maintain our current small-town charm, preserve our historical areas, promote the arts and tourism for our community.  All of these are key and dependent on each other. Under my guidance, the village administration is very sensitive to any changes to our historical sites and provides services by guiding prospective businesses, working with historical architects on restoration projects, and bringing tourists to our town.  Keeping our Main Street as a historic area and enforcing our zoning is key. I am an active board member on the Salado Historical Society and love how our SHS works to keep our historic past in the present of Salado! 

Our tourist visitation is critical for our village economy.  I have added a key team member to our village staff when we hired our tourism director.  Our director has been instrumental to bring in visitors to Salado and also to provide village support for our Art Shows, Wine Festivals and other visitor events.  Please vote for Michael Coggin to continue to keep Salado’s heritage and promote tourism.

Question 4: Our village does a great job of steering ventures into the correct locations by using zoning and direct input when businesses seek locations in Salado.   We are currently visiting with a gym, daycare, restaurants, convenience stores in the new developments and new mercantile stores along Main Street.  These types of businesses come in our doors weekly to see what is necessary to build in Salado.  We also have discussions with the hotels who have expressed an interest to annex into Salado.  All of these businesses are very interested in calling Salado home.  No tax rebates or incentives are necessary to attract these types of businesses – it is their desire to come to our booming area.

I also would like to see an assisted-living or nursing home built near Salado soon – I have seen the need for this service in this town instead of driving miles to visit loved ones.  Again, no tax rebates or incentives are necessary since we are a growing area.  If elected as your mayor, I will work to keep our Main Street as our historic tourism center and work to have compatible businesses properly located in zoned areas.

Question 5: I love how our small businesses come to Salado and become a part of the Salado family.  Salado is truly a fantastic community for small businesses to grow roots – art galleries, cabinet makers, window sales and service, restaurants, residential home builders and professional medical practices.  We have much room for these small businesses to build and thrive.  We have zoned areas and can furnish sewage service if requested.   I will continue to partner with small businesses to come grow in Salado.

I am not in support of large truck stops and large industrial complexes.  Our zoning needs to remain strong to keep these large complexes out of Salado.

As your mayor, I will continue to assist small businesses to come to Salado and fight to keep truck stops and large industrial complexes out of Salado!

Linda Reynolds

Question 1: Salado has a strong, self-reliant character, and a firm sense of volunteerism. When enough voters  saw our VFD was becoming overwhelmed, we bit the bullet and committed to the Emergency District.

No one is ever ready for all that Nature throws at us, but I do feel most learned from past disasters. 

Nevertheless, take some evening or weekend morning and drive up College Hill to see the disaster our Village leaders have visited on a lovely neighborhood. And then drive down FM 2268 East to Salado Oaks dr. View the torn earth your neighbors endured while the developer strip mined agricultural-taxed land. Truckload after truckload of stone was removed all last year, while Salado People showed cute donkey photos.

No one is ever ready for your own Government to forsake beautiful neighborhoods. It’s sort of like those Southside residents had to endure ice storms, tornados, and floods every day.

Question 2: I lived on the Southside of Salado for 10 years. Most of the traffic passing my home was people walking dogs. 

Once a horse escaped from Wildfire, and I tried to offer him a carrot. The cowboy, angrily chasing him, seemed more dangerous than the horse! 

Now, I’ve moved into the house where I cared for mom for the last years of her life. Cars fly down the street and deer, squirrels, birds, and walkers risk injury from speeders and potholes. 

Safety is up in the air while the Village doubles in size with Sanctuary, Royal st, Apartment buildings, and Carothers‘ houses across from the new middle school. One thousand + new Village Voters will determine our Safety level.

Wildfire, for sale for $48 million, could easily draw Federal funds and affordable housing.  That land is currently in the Village, and we MUST provide sewer unless we disannex it before any development occurs. 

Growth may make our Village more and more unsafe?

Time will tell.

Question 3: We have Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Directors. We have an Arts League, Volunteer Mowers, Historical Society, Lions, Legacy and several others….all promote Salado in this 2 1/2 miles, 2,300 resident Village. 

The Village Government should care for ALL THE RESIDENTS’ Safety and Welfare. Do hundreds of houses on small lots contribute to our safety, charm, and aesthetics? Will they contribute to flooding, crime and roadway danger? 

Drive up College Hill and down Salado Oaks Dr. How concerned have government leaders been about charm and aesthetics, or even the Safety of Southside Village residents!

Time will tell.

Question 4: Today, the village is quietly filling up with Airbnb homes, and individuals who work remotely. 

We have the potential to double the voter rolls with all the recently contracted developments current village leadership has accepted in the name of village residents.

Soon we will see apartment buildings sprouting where we were promised Old World Charm. 

Let’s focus on getting developed every bit of empty land in the village, and along I-35. 

Let’s focus on the Northside where businesses were NOT allowed to join the sewer while leadership “negotiated” with The Sanctuary.

Otherwise, we are going to lose valuable businesses already in existence and valuable land ready to be developed without begging PID millions from the Village Government. 

As a resident, I demand progress, not development stagnation. Shoving dirt and strip mining is not progress.

Question 5: “Thwarting” is what zoning and the PNZ board is for. In theory, our government must follow Village zoning laws and the laws of Texas.

The Historical Society, Salado Planning and Zoning, and Voting Aldermen decide on accepting new developments. 

And as far as any new businesses succeed when entering the Salado market, we all vote with our pocketbooks. If you do not support a Salado business, it will go away. If it is poorly run, it will go away. If it is so over priced that a trip to nearby cities makes sense, it will go away. 

We all could make a long list of what businesses we never want to see in Salado. Good luck with that.