Jim Holmes has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, ran with bulls and walked across a flying plane. But if you ask him what his favorite adventure has been…
Jim Holmes: “Nothing has been as exciting as working on city council and now running for mayor.”
Holmes served on the Waco city council for eight years before running for mayor in the general election earlier this month. Holmes won 70 percent of the vote while defeating attorney Aubrey Robertson and activist Eric Brown in a three-way race.
After being formally sworn in on Tuesday evening, Holmes is officially the new mayor of Waco, and he has high hopes for the city.
Jim Holmes: “In the next year, continuing the economic development. And then on top of that I really want to track very visible ways of service improvement. Particularly in code enforcement and inspection. Making sure our police departments are effective, our fire department is effective. And that we have a good and fair and transparent infrastructure plan.”
Holmes says he’s excited about the economic development Waco has seen in the last several years, and he hopes to expand it further.
Jim Holmes: “We're in a great place on bringing those businesses in and people have found out about Waco and the secret's out, you know. And so we've got Amazon here, we've got Envases, a couple of big Mexican global companies that are here. A couple of very large German global companies have chosen to move here. Space X is in the greater Waco area. But I think, again, the secret's out and people want to come to Waco and we're starting to fill up our industrial and commercial districts with very good companies that employ people and give people a good wage and like I said, provide financial security. We've got great tailwinds with the Texas economy. And then our geographical location between Austin and Dallas is optimal. Then as big businesses see that, they want to be in Waco, and as we're able to kind of pick and choose the best kinds of business businesses for Waco and then kind of where they go also.”
Another priority for Holmes is to finish developing downtown Waco and improving city infrastructure like roads and sidewalks.
Jim Holmes: “It's very expensive. Streets and sidewalks are super expensive and trying to figure out a way to pay for all that in the general fund. So we'll continue to work on streets and sidewalks without creating too big of a tax burden or fee burden for the residents.”
You can listen to the full 30-minute interview with Mayor Holmes online at kwbu.org.
