Episode 101: From Catfish Grill to Capitol Hill: Ron Kitchens Gets Real

🎧 This week’s highlights include:

• 🏛️ Government spending rants, budget myths, and why Congress needs a reset

• 😱 The Great “Gulf of America” Debate (yes, really…)

• 🐟 Love it or hate it, we spotlight Catfish Grill on Southwest Parkway — Mike’s a fan, Trey’s a hater, and Terry… well, he’s just not into dirt-eating fish. BUT they all agree: solid home-cooked meals and definitely worth a visit!

• 🌆 Ron Kitchens, President & CEO of the Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce, joins the crew to talk BIG local developments:

• 🏭 Panda Biotech’s quiet but booming operation

• ☀️ Vitro bringing solar manufacturing stateside

• 📦 Amazon’s last-mile facility expansion

• 🛒 Winco Foods coming to town!

• 💰 $1.2 BILLION in construction already underway

🤝 Bonus chatter on:

• 🧃 Why orange juice is the cure-all

• 😆 Sincere vs. soulless customer service (Looking at you, Flying J)

• 💬 The importance of being radically nice in retail

🔥 Support our awesome local sponsors!

• 🍎 MacTech Solutions – Your Apple experts in Wichita Falls

• 🏍️ Eddie Hill’s Fun Cycles – Where the fun begins

• 🍭 Lollie and Pops Sweet Shop – Life’s just better with sugar

👉 Don’t miss out! Subscribe now and catch every juicy episode at 🎧 getitrighttexoma.com

🧾 3. People & Places Mentioned

People:

• Mike Hendren

• Terry McAdams

• Trey Sralla

• Ron Kitchens – President & CEO of the Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce

• Elon Musk

• AOC (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez)

• Ted Cruz, John Cornyn, Chuck Schumer, Bernie Sanders, Ronnie Jackson

Local Businesses & Organizations:

• 🎣 Catfish Grill – Home-cooked meals on Southwest Parkway

• 🏢 Panda Biotech

• ☀️ Vitro

• 📦 Amazon Last-Mile Facility

• 🛒 Winco Foods

• 🛫 Sheppard Air Force Base & NATO training operations

• 🏫 WFISD (Wichita Falls ISD)

• 🛠️ Workforce Solutions

• 🧹 Work Services Corporation

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You make this rather snappy,won't you?
I have some very heavythinking to do before 10:00.
Hey, welcome to anotherepisode of Get It Right, Texoma with
the trio.
Mike Handren, Terry McAdams,Trey Sorala.
Very happy to have you with us.
We get together here with youto entertain and inform you and hopefully
enlighten you on local events,news and happenings and things going

(00:22):
on all around the globe andall around the universe.
So hope everybody's doing well.
I'll tell you what, this.
This flu that's been goingaround, it's hit a bunch of people.
I don't know about y'all, butI know a bunch of people have been
hit with it.
A lot of our employees have.
I.
I hadn't been sick, but I've had.
At.
At any time.
One time.
We've had a third of ouremployees at it.
Yeah.
At one time or another.

(00:43):
Well, that's because you'vegot Superman's immune system.
Yeah.
Been fortunate enough.
I drink a lot of orange juice.
Yeah.
This time of year.
Stay healthy.
Stay healthy.
Yeah, definitely.
Ron Kitchens will be in withus, by the way.
Yes.
Ron Kitchens is the presidentand CEO of the Wichita Fall Chamber
of Commerce.
And you'll be seated rightover there.
Right here on that corner.
He's just not here right now.

(01:03):
Yes, yes.
But currently in the green room.
Yes, yes.
Putting on.
Putting on the makeup.
Yeah.
At the craft services tableback there.
You know, this is a bigproduction here.
Right.
There you go.
You'll be with us here shortly on.
On Get It Right, Texoma.
So let's kick it off here.
We'll talk about.
We've been focusing on alocal, locally owned restaurant every.

(01:23):
Every time that we gettogether to do this.
And this particular focus thistime around is going to be on CA
Grill, which is on Southwest Parkway.
They've been there a long time.
Long time.
I haven't been there in a while.
On Southwest Parkway.
At the end, I was telling you,you know where the billiards place
is closer to.

(01:43):
Closer to Sutherlands and thatthere's a strip mall there.
Yeah, yeah.
The Catfish Grill is one.
It's at the end of that strip mall.
Okay.
Well, be close to Professionaland Southwest Parkway in that area.
You'll probably take my Texaslicense away, but, you know, being
a tech, my.
My citizenship away.
But I'm not a big catfish.
I don't like catfish at all.
Oh, well, I love catfish, and I'm.

(02:05):
I'm as Texan as you can get.
I've had people say, you mustnot be Texan.
I'm like, f you.
I am.
I just don't like, I don'tlike stuff that eats off the, eats
dirt off the bottom of the, ofthe river.
Yeah.
Because that's always myfavorite thing.
When people say, I go, man, italways tastes.
Dirt tastes kind of dirty.
It's like.
Yeah, because they're bottom feeders.
Okay, then don't eat it.
But.
And I cook a lot of catfishwith of course, with redneck culinary.

(02:28):
I don't actually cook it.
I do a lot of the breading.
I've breaded thousands andthousands, tens of thousands of people
of cat pieces of catfish.
But I'm not a fan.
Yeah, but like catfish.
I'll let y'all share if youlike it.
But they have more than catfish.
They have a lot of neat.
They have a good home cooked menu.
Yeah, a lot of really good food.
It's, it's been a while sinceI've been there as well and it's

(02:48):
just kind of one of those.
I don't, I'm not over there.
I don't live over by there.
So if you get a chance, swingby and go see Catfish Grill and tell
them that we sent you.
Yes, go see them indeed.
What's going on around the area?
We've got the HarlemGlobetrotters, surprise, surprise,
coming back to Wichita Falls.
Are going to be at the KYColiseum 5pm on Sunday.

(03:09):
March Tooth.
That's right.
That's the second for those ofyou March the second.
They, they seem to come hereevery year.
Apparently it's popular.
People show up.
Well, they're, they're selling tickets.
They wouldn't come if they were.
They weren't playing to aneat, empty arena.
Know, I just, I, I've seenthem four or five times over the

(03:31):
years and yeah, you know, it'skind of the same show to me.
You know, different, differentplayers, you know, usually.
But, but I think it's a lotreally good.
Geared towards kids.
It is.
Oh, they will very much.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So.
So I'm not knocking it.
I'm just saying, you know,but, but they're going to be here
March 2nd, 5:00.
I'm sure tickets are availableright now.

(03:54):
WFMpeg.com is the website togo to to purchase tickets and also
see the complete schedule ofwhat's coming to the impact over
the course of the next severalweeks and months ahead.
We can skip these other two ifyou want to because they're a long
way out.
Okay.
Okay.
Well, we could do that.
Well, do we want to getanything before we get into Ron or

(04:14):
do we want to just.
You want to go ahead and wecan do our, do our regular show if
you want to.
Well, let's come back with Ronat the end.
Yeah, we can do that and thenwe can come back and do a quick wrap
up.
So the executive orders thatTrump has issued, there's been a
whole, there's been a wholelot of going on and on about these

(04:34):
executive orders.
Let me tell you something.
First of all, every president,every single president, when they
come into office, one of thefirst things that they do is they
sign executive orders.
Now, there are certain thingsthat they want to see happen as immediately
as possible.
Right.
And some of them meansomething, and some of them really
don't mean a whole lot becauseit's like, oh, we're going to focus

(04:55):
on this.
Well, all they're saying isbasically they're saying this is
going to be a focus, but itdoesn't instantly translate to something.
Yeah, but I will tell you, theexecutive orders, and I'm not a big,
I'll be honest, I'm not a bigfan of them with any president.
Obama's the one that reallyramped up the executive orders, Right.
I got a pen and a phone.
You remember that?
Oh, yeah, yeah.

(05:15):
So, so this is, you know, foryears, executive orders, a lot of
it was naming parks, naming national.
National parks, naming this,naming that, special days.
There was a lot of that.
But I believe in myrecollection, Barack Obama was one
that really kind of rampedthose executive orders up where a
lot of them had a lot more meaning.
And Trump did it when he gotin, then Biden did it, and then Trump

(05:37):
is doing it again.
Well, let me ask you a question.
Like, let's take for example here.
Okay.
And I'll switch it.
We've got, we got on thescreen here some of the, some of
the executive orders.
And just kind of scrollthrough some of that for you there.
I mean, let's take, forexample, the renaming of the Gulf
of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

(06:00):
Y'all, Trump is trolling you here.
This is kind of his way ofjust going, see what I can do.
Yeah, okay.
I don't like it, though.
I'm not a fan.
It's the same thing as Ididn't like when they were changing
all these forts names and, andstatues names and all this other
stuff.
I didn't like all that changing.
I'm the same way on this Mexico.

(06:20):
It's been The Gulf of Mexicofor over 400 years.
Mexico has a bigger, longercoastline than America does.
I'm not a big.
I'm not a fan of that.
Well, here's the deal, y'all.
Look, okay, this is my thoughton it.
We have so much that we needto be doing that we need to be addressing.

(06:42):
Right.
This is a very trivial thing.
Yeah, but this is Trump.
This is.
This is Trump the entertainerthumbing his nose at you.
Like I said, there's somethings I like about it, some things
I don't like, and I don't carefor this because I think it's a waste
of time.
It is causing consternationfor no reason.
Well, and that.
And the whole.
They.
I guess they're trying to getGreenland going and, you know.

(07:04):
Well, Greenland is more of a strategic.
I'm not.
I'm not against that.
I'm not.
Again.
No, I'm not.
Again.
Because Greenland.
I'm not saying that it's goingto happen or not, but there's a strategic
reason for being.
Yes.
Change is a damn name of theGulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
Oh, this is a waste of timeand money.
Later, I think later in hisadministration, that would be more

(07:25):
appropriate.
But of course, he's alreadydone it.
Well, I know there's a lot.
This is the thing that gets meright now is all this doji stuff
that's going on with Musk.
The amount of wastefulspending that they're bringing out.
I don't give a damn if you'rea Republican, a Democrat, libertarian,

(07:49):
independent.
I don't care how you identify politically.
This should outrage you ifyou've ever.
Paid a nickel's worth of taxes.
Exactly.
You should.
You should be absolutely angryover this.
Well, and there's so manypeople that are just, you know, they're
clearly biased in it.
But if you can step back for amoment and look at this objectively.
Yeah.
Somebody has to go in at somepoint and shake it up.

(08:11):
Okay.
Because I think the governmenthas not.
You know, we talk.
We always say, well, thegovernment's doing this, and the
government.
Well, the government's just abunch of people.
Okay.
And the people within thegovernment that have been in charge,
you know, it's been anattitude, it's been a culture and
all of that.
And what's happened is we endup, I think, making something happen

(08:33):
because it has some value,maybe, but the slant has been towards
just making their jobs cush.
Or there's something.
But not about efficiency andnot about taking care of the business
of the American people, as allpresidents have always talked about.
You know, we're going to dothe business of the American people
and all this.
And what's happened is they'vejust, they've been taking care of

(08:56):
themselves and it's justcreeped in over time and it's, and
it's maybe if I had a choice,maybe it's more about saving my job
in the, in the long run orsaving my people's job.
And they feel like, oh,they're entitled to these jobs.
And it's just over and overand over and nobody's ever taken
time to really examine it froma zero based, either budget or a

(09:19):
zero.
Do we need the job?
Does that job need to be done?
The American people have beenso disconnected from it.
You're familiar with the termbread and circuses.
I mean that's just, well, givethe people bread and circuses and
you keep them distracted.
Keep people distracted?
Bread and circuses has gone tofast food and cell phones.

(09:40):
Yes.
People are so distracted bytheir own lives and as long as they
can get their Starbucks, theirMcDonald's, and as long as they can
scroll Facebook 17 hours aday, they're fine.
And it's just out of hand thatpeople will not pay attention.
Well now all of a suddenyou've got someone there who's not
just talking the talk, they'retrying to walk their walk.

(10:01):
They're bringing this stuff tothe forefront.
And Elon Musk was talkingabout this the other day.
Most of the media completelyignored it because they just don't
want to pay attention to itand they want you distracted.
More bread and circuses for you.
But he brought this up andI've been saying that you guys have
heard me talk about this whenwe were doing radio years ago.

(10:25):
How do you have someone whomakes a medium six figure income
who now has suddenly has a networth in the millions of dollars?
How does that happen?
Yeah, every one of us in thisroom, I'm sure knows more than a
few people who make prettygood six figure incomes every year.

(10:46):
But they're not millionaires.
Nowhere close.
They don't have stockportfolios worth 10, 15, $20 million,
making 160,000, 70, $80,000 a year.
We've got people working forthe United States government who
are making 150 to $200,000 ayear somewhere in that range.

(11:06):
And they've got net worth inthe millions of dollars.
How did they get there?
Famously aoc Remember when shefirst went to Congress, she was Complaining
about she needed a loan to getan apartment in D.C.
she was complaining about shedidn't have enough money to even
get a.
Put a deposit down in anapartment in D.C.
and now she's worth millions.

(11:27):
She'd been a bartender.
She was a bartender.
She'd been worked.
She's worth meds.
And by the way, I mean, we'rejumping on the Doge thing real quick
here.
First off, I'm so sick andtired of it.
It's mostly Democrats that I'mhearing this.
They're going this unelectedofficial folks.
There's only one electedperson in the executive branch ever.

(11:47):
Pete Hegses is not elected.
Tulsi Gabbard is unelected.
They're not elected people.
They're appointed.
That's how the executivebranch works.
The executive branch, the wethe people elect one person and that
one person appoints people towork for him.
That's the way our system works.
And it worked.
Joe Biden, that were.

(12:08):
It worked under his system all his.
You know, Rice was an elected official.
Right.
You know, you know, you justthink about all these people that
people are going nuts becauseElon Musk is not elected.
No, he's not.
He's appointed.
That's.
That's the job.
Elected person.
These arguments are empty.
You know, the whole.
They're so disingenuous andthere's no, there's no weight to

(12:30):
it at all.
They're just mad.
They're mad because Trump won.
They're mad because thisstuff's being uncovered.
There's a lot of people thathave been profiting off the taxpayer,
that have been enrichingthemselves at the well of the taxpayer
for many, many years.
And now suddenly that is beingthreatened in a very real way.

(12:50):
And here's what pisses me off,and it really ought to piss everybody
off.
Our Congress people,Republicans and Democrats, have,
have had oversight on this andhas done a goddamn thing.
That's right.
Well, I am sorry, I'm for awholesale change in Congress because
if you've served in Congress,I'm going to say a couple of terms,
because look, if you're there,one term, especially if you're in

(13:12):
the House, you probably don'tknow where the bathroom is yet, let
alone what's going on withthis stuff.
But if you've been there forseveral terms, and especially if
you've been there for decadesand stuff like that, you either you
knew about this and we'reletting it go, or you should have
known about this because it'spart of.
Your job at some point youbecome complicit, Right?
Yes.
And.
Well, that's saying that webuild programs that.

(13:33):
Questionable whether theyreally should exist, and then we
build a program to supportthat program.
Yes.
And you have to then support that.
I mean, it's like just, it's,it's this, this, this bureaucracy
just grows and grows andgrows, and nobody ever goes back
to question whether theprogram that they started even needs
to exist.
But we perpetually fund these things.

(13:57):
There's always a.
It seems to be, you say, whatdid we have last year?
Oh, we need X number more.
No, not back.
To justify your existence.
And, you know, I guess there'sa pension fund that he found the
other day that's in somebasement or cave somewhere that they
have.
It's all 90s technology.
And, and, you know, they're,they're trying, you know, I think

(14:19):
there are people.
That are working there thatare, that are on the payroll just
to get, have, have jobs.
Yeah.
And it's just they, they'venot implemented any technology in
this particular case.
And, and that they're.
Everybody's worried abouttheir jobs, which is, you know, and
that's fair.
And you got to take care of yourself.
But at the same time, I understand.
It, but you don't have a rightto it.
This is what kills me.
We've been talking for decadesabout Social Security is going to

(14:43):
go bankrupt in 20 years.
Social Security will beinsolvent and Medicare will be insolvent.
And then they find out that we.
What they found like a dozenpeople over 150 years of age receiving
Social Security checks.
Hundreds over 100 years oldreceiving social.
These people are dead.

(15:03):
Well, here's the crazy.
They're not alive.
And Terry, you know this frombeing in the military, and it's one
of those things.
And I will tell you, when Ifirst heard about this when I worked
on Bass when I was in college,it, I didn't like it then, but it's
almost a joke where when you.
All of a sudden plants startgetting planted in the base and things
get beautified and the golfcourse looks a lot better and just
have to be right at the end ofthe fiscal year.

(15:25):
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
End of year.
And it's.
And it's.
We're going to start, we'regoing to start just.
We're just going to startthrowing money away.
We're going to spend money, asmuch money as we can.
It's called fallout money.
That is the term we use.
Money.
It's Money that's been setaside or not budgeted, it's been
budgeted, but they didn't endup needing to spend it.

(15:47):
But then they have to allocateit around and move it around to make
sure that it meets the law.
Because Congress willsometimes carve out a certain amount
of money that can only bespent for a certain thing or even
within the departments,they'll divide and slice it up.
But ultimately, and I'll tellyou, Ken, who works for us, he's
now moved to Michigan.
He's a remote worker now, buthe and I worked in the computer office.

(16:09):
Well, he was so good at thisthat he had a package.
So when this money comes down,you have hours, maybe a day or two
to get.
The commanders have a day ortwo to kind of figure out who can
spend it, but it's who.
Who has the package ready, thepaperwork with all the things that
you're ready to be able to goand give a credit card to a vendor

(16:32):
and say it's on order.
And that is what.
He had a $5,000 package.
He had a $10,000.
He had a 50,000.
He had a hundred thousand.
I think it's funny, Terryspent five minutes talking about
another man's package.
Paperwork package.
But anyway, he had everythingready to go, and he was just good

(16:53):
at it, at having it ready.
And then all you had to do ismake minor modifications because
maybe it's not going to beexactly 100,000, but it'll be close.
And so you say, well, I onlyneed 10 of these instead of 15 to
fit the budget.
And then.
And he gets it.
And it's who can get thepaperwork to the commanders the fastest.
And then that money is spent now.
Doesn't mean we don'tnecessarily need it.

(17:14):
But I can say that if nobodyelse is coming, even if the need
is greater over here, it'swho's ready to go.
And so there was never any.
And I don't know, of course,then we're beat on our head.
Fraud, waste and abuse.
Don't do it.
And of course, anybodychallenges that, well, you're being
command.
I mean, you're being orderedto do it right.

(17:34):
The system, it goes back.
It's.
The system is wrong.
It goes back to.
Like you said, some of thatmay be needed, but some of it is
not needed.
I know I had a situation whenI was on the school board where a.
Instead of throwing names inthe bus, because it really doesn't
matter.
This was a long time ago in myschool, early school board Career.
An employee of the WFISD stoodup and told, gave us a presentation

(18:00):
about a computer system, ourcurrent computer system, and then
an additional module to thecomputer system that had been budgeted.
He basically spent 10 minutestelling us he didn't, we didn't need
it.
We did this, we've done this,we've done this.
We can work around without it.
And then said, use the word.
But it's been budgeted.

(18:22):
And I went, whoa, hang on.
I said, so that means we'renot going to buy it?
Well, yeah, because it's been budgeted.
I said, just because it's been budgeted.
I said, is a check been written?
He said, four or five timesit's been budgeted.
I said, let me ask you something.
I had to break it down.
Is the money in the bank rightnow in our checking account, or has

(18:43):
it already gone to the other.
The company's checking account?
He said, it's in our checking account.
I said, I make a motion thatwe, that we.
I make a motion that weknocked that allocation.
Whatever.
I said, I had had it in myhead how to do it then, but I made
a motion right then to notspend that budgeted money.
Yeah, because.
But that was in.

(19:04):
In the mindset.
And once again, he's a, He's agovernment employee because school
districts are government too.
But his mindset was.
But it's been budgeted.
Well, he's like, well, no,because if you ever in the private
sector and if you, you tell,you could tell one of your employees,
Terry, hey, run to runsomewhere and spend $300 on this.

(19:25):
And the guy goes, well,really, I already did this to fix
that.
You're not gonna go ahead andgo do it?
Because I've already decidedI'm gonna spend the money.
Well, large enough companiesactually end up.
Large companies end up in thesame mindset.
The top level.
Not necessarily, but theworker is.
It's pushed down to you.
You've got your budget, youbetter spend it or you'll lose it.

(19:45):
It's the same thing.
Yeah, and it just, it's really.
The smaller.
It needs to stop.
It needs to stop.
It needs to slow down.
Look, I'm not for not spending money.
We need entitlement programs,we need welfare, we need all this
things.
I'm not against that.
What I'm saying is let's firststart looking at all this.
All these billions of dollarswe're throwing away in other parts

(20:06):
of the world.
Yes.
Yeah, let's start there.
I don't even want to start inAmerica yet.
I mean, we'll get there, right?
Let's start everywhere else.
We're sending this on thislittle thing for Guatemala and this
thing for this.
And then come back and go,okay, why are we spending this?
And how is the American public benefiting?
Yeah.
And the answer is not done.
Over.
We're not doing that anymore.

(20:26):
Exactly.
And start bringing all thatmoney back in.
Because the fact of the matteris, the more of those.
And the thing that pisses meoff when I hear people go, oh, it's
just a drop in the bucket.
I get it, It's a drop in the bucket.
But if you take a drop in abucket and drop in a bucket and drop
in a bucket and drop in abucket, all of a sudden you end up
with a shitload of money.
Well, no, but I mean, even,Even if it's $200 million, that's

(20:46):
what some people say, that's adrop in the bucket.
Well, $200 million, that's,that's a.
I mean, you and I, we couldn't.
I mean, yes, we can imagineit, but we, we would like, oh, my
God, $200 million.
We probably share that with alot of people.
And I look at it and I say,how many people.
How many people could you feedwith that?
Oh, yeah, feed.
How many Americans can you.

(21:07):
How many veterans, how many.
How many houses, tiny homescan you build for homeless veterans?
How many.
I mean, there's so many thingsthat we can do if we could recapture
that money and take care ofour people first.
Yes, well, totally, but we gotto get that.
What's our deficit runningright now?
We don't spend every now.
But I'm just saying.
No, I'm just saying we arespending more than we take in, so

(21:30):
we've got to get that undercontrol first.
Well, and that's what you do.
You pull all this money backand you recapture those funds.
You start paying that down andgo, oh, by the way, now we've, we've
modernized this and we've,we've streamlined it.
Now we've got a homeless veteran.
Homeless veteran issue.
Okay?
Let's find some tiny homeswith communities and let's take this
money instead of thegovernment trying to run it, let's

(21:52):
go to, like, tunnels fortowers or someplace where they'll
tell you, I mean, FrankSiller, I've seen him.
And it's, I don't if it's 96,95, 94.3, or whatever, but there
is a massive percentage thatgoes towards their mission and only
a Very small percentage goestowards administrative.
Well, in Texas there seems tobe a large number of services that

(22:14):
the government does that isactually I say farmed out but contracted
to non profit companiesbecause I guess there's some benefit
to that.
There's no profit motive.
But yet with that mindset of anon profit that runs these programs

(22:35):
like the Workforce Solutions Ibelieve is a nonprofit, but they
work for Texas Workforce.
They're under that umbrella.
So there's some.
So they get their funding.
They get their funding fromthere, but they run it like a business.
Well, in work services don'tthey get some contracts, you know,
to do things.
But again it's a service.
They clean the facilities onthe highways and stuff like that.

(22:57):
Take the trash.
Multiple contracts.
Right versus versus going tonecessari to a for profit, which
I'm not saying is one isbetter than the other necessarily,
but it is an interestingconcept though.
Well, we need to recapturethis money.
But and by the way, if peopleare going crazy over this, look,
I can't imagine that, that ifyou're an American taxpayer, you've

(23:19):
ever paid any money in theAmerican taxes that you can be against
this.
I'm not saying you're going tobe for all the cuts.
Right.
But you can't.
How can you be against lookinginto it?
How can you be againstexposing it and having it all out
there?
And then let's have a conversation.
What are we going to keep andwhat are we going to not?
Well, like I said, at somepoint when you have that attitude

(23:39):
and you actually desire for itto be overlooked, at some point you
become complicit in the problem.
You just do.
And here's the thing, I thinkwe're shaking it up and it's good
because I think if it's agray, especially if it's in the gray
area of legalities andconstitutionality and all that, but
shake it up and let's force itto make, to go up through the court

(24:01):
system.
I think that's partly our, ourcourt system is set up to do that
sort of stuff and I think itneeds to be.
But, but I'll go back tosomething he said a moment ago.
But Congress, you know,Congress was doing their job.
If they've been doing their job.
All spending bills originatein the House of Representatives.
They have oversight of everything.
They control the purse strings.

(24:21):
Absolutely.
And they, they've abdicated that.
They, if they were doing theirjob and really doing their job, we
wouldn't even be having this conversation.
We're having this conversationbecause Congress has abdicated so
much of their responsibility.
You got all these three andfour letter agencies that they've
just handed all this powerover to, and Congress does nothing.

(24:43):
And by the way, I'm nottalking about just Bernie Sanders
and just Chuck Schumer.
I'm talking about Ted Cruz.
I'm talking about John Cornyn.
I'm talking about people thathave been there a long time.
Ronnie Jackson.
I mean, I don't know if he's,he's probably, he's probably on the
cusp of what I would considercomplicit in this.
Yep.
On the cusp, you know, becauseonce again, it's hard.

(25:04):
It's hard to right off the batknow everything well.
But people that have beenthere for a long time, especially
John Cornyn, especially ChuckSchumer, especially Bernie Sanders,
especially, you know, I don'tcare what side of the aisle.
What I'm, my point is I don'tgive a what side of the aisle they're
on.
I'm telling you, they're all complicit.
If they've been around for awhile, they're complicit.
The answer, the short answerto the problem with Congress is term

(25:28):
limits.
Absolutely.
That, that would solve a wholelot of problems.
It would solve a lot of things.
We're going to go ahead andtake a break here.
When we come back, RonKitchens, the president and CEO of
the Wichita Falls Chamber ofCommerce, will be our guest.
Hey, welcome back to Get ItRight Tech Soma with the trio.

(25:50):
And our very special guest, asmentioned earlier, is Ron Kitchens,
the president, CEO, the masterof all things, maybe king, perhaps.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's true.

(26:12):
The president wants to feedhim more than cake, so.
I know.
That was cool.
The Witchnoff Halls Chamber of Commerce.
How are you, sir?
Awesome.
Oh, gosh.
How is, how is life?
How long you been in the role now?
Two and a half years.
Wow.
Wow.
Two and a half years alreadycooking along.
Goodness.
Great.
Does it feel like it's beenthat long?
No, it doesn't.
Yeah.
No.

(26:32):
Time has moved very swiftly.
It has lots going on.
Yeah.
Well, you've been very busy.
Been doing a little travelingon behalf.
Of this city and we're on theroad next week.
The next two weeks.
I'm on the road.
Wow.
Wow, wow.
So we're off to Arizona forsales calls with some companies.

(26:53):
And then for about almost 30years, I have hosted an annual Dutch
treat meeting of 20 to 30economic development CEOs from all
over the country.
And we spend a day and a halfSolving each other's problems.
Oh, so everybody brings an issue.

(27:13):
Everybody.
Then you have the wisdom ofthey're probably average tenure.
These guys is probably over 20 years.
Oh, wow.
So all of a sudden you have500 years of knowledge in the room
and you go, hey, here'ssomething working on.
Give me your thoughts.
Right.
Everybody kind of brings thatidea and you can just accelerate

(27:36):
so much.
It validates or it talks youoff the ledge.
That's the stupidest idea everheard of.
In the automobile business, inthe power sports business, we 20
clubs.
And not, not every dealer ispart of a 20 club or 20 group, but
it's a lot like that.
And that's.
And roughly the, the.
It's 20 instead of like awhole bunch.
It's 20.
It's 20 groups of people.
But you share information.

(27:57):
There's your non competitors.
I mean, like, in other words,I wouldn't be in a 20 club from somebody
from Dallas, but I'd be in a20 club, somebody from Los Angeles.
Awesome.
So.
So we're not.
So we can share data andnumbers and ideas and thoughts, but
we're not directly competing.
Same concept.
Yeah.
The great thing about acollaboration like that is, you know,
especially if you've got anissue that you've been working on
and you just keep hitting awall, hitting wall, hitting a wall.

(28:20):
Somebody else comes to thetable who's had a similar situation
and they've found thebreakthrough, fresh ideas, they share
it with you.
Yeah.
Get a fresh set of eyes andears on something can make a big
difference.
I mean, think about how manytimes have you had a problem, no
matter what it is, and youjust call somebody in and they don't
even have to be an expert, andthey look at it and within 30 seconds

(28:41):
they give you an idea andeither they come up with a problem
or they say two or threethings and you go, boom.
Oh, there we go.
Elon Musk.
There's a clip out there thatI think he was being interviewed
by some reporter, I guess,science reporter, and I guess they
were fairly knowledgeable.
But anyway, he was askingabout the rockets and doing a certain
thing.

(29:01):
And anyway he brought up,well, are you going to do this?
And this again?
It's very general there.
But he asked Elon and Elongoes, well, we could do that.
No, we're not doing that, butoh my God.
And it was something, youcould see his idea, like just click.
And he had.
I hadn't thought of that.
And he just, you know, barelysaving them, like tons of money.

(29:24):
Yeah.
So we'll do that in Phoenixnext week and then the following
week direct go directly toWashington, D.C.
where we've got 24 communityleaders from the city, the Economic
development corporation, the4B board.
Let's see who else is in there.
The chamber board.
And I think that's mostly.

(29:44):
I think everybody's affiliatedwith one of those groups.
And so we'll be meeting withour congressmen, both the United
States senators.
We've got better part of a dayof meetings at the Pentagon with
various efforts.
Part of it's to say thanks forwhat we have, and part of it to say,
yes.
May I have more?
Yeah, yeah.
And then we're doing an eventwith the.

(30:06):
At the German embassy.
So German embassy is hostingus for dinner.
As you all know, the Germansand NATO would not be here in Jep.
Would not be here had theGermans not demanded.
Might not be the right word,but demanded that that operation
be here.
There were lots of places theywere considering, and the Germans
said, no, no, this is theplace we're comfortable.

(30:28):
They actually own.
The German government ownsmost of the training planes out there,
I believe.
No, not anymore.
Okay.
There was a time.
There was.
There was a time.
But now we're.
You know, they're a major component.
They have three or 400permanent employees that are here.
People have been here for 20 years.
Yeah.
So we'll be with them.
We're also at the Saudi Embassy.

(30:51):
We have the largest contingentof the Saudi Royal Air Force outside
of Saudi Arabia anywhere inthe world.
So we're anytime.
300 or so Saudis on basetraining out there, mostly on the
maintainer side.
So that's.
We want to go say thanksbecause we think there's opportunities

(31:12):
for them to expand.
We want to know that.
We want them to know they'rewelcome and their money spends here,
and we want more of it.
I did hear something about thepossibility of a new mission or some
sort of expansion of a missionat shepherd just in the last few
days.
Is it anything we can talk about?
So, Shepard.
Well, probably what you heard.
Right now there are twocommands at the base.

(31:34):
So the general, if you will,has two commands underneath him.
He commands training, and hecommands the base.
Then there's the NATO commandin jet.
The army's making that three commands.
So you'll have a basecommander, the city manager, if you
will.
Then you'll have the training commander.
Then you'll have a NATO commander.

(31:55):
So we'll have one more flag,if you will.
Okay.
Wing commanders.
Okay.
So that's probably what you're hearing.
So the mission's not changed,but they're going to add a upper
echelon of management.
They are.
They're going to divide that so.
Because it doesn't really makesense because, like the training
command, I think he has 57bases where he's got training going

(32:18):
on all over the world.
Wow.
And also worrying aboutwhether or not the, you know, the
Internet's working on the baseprobably isn't strategically the
best use of people's time.
That makes sense.
And so I think that's the ideaof dividing it up.
Gives us three base commandersor three commanders out on the wing
there.
Okay.
All right.
Well, I know the last time youwere on with us, we were.

(32:40):
We were probably talkingabout, for example, Panda Biotech
and them ramping up.
And that has happened.
They're booming.
If you, you know, the hardthing about Panda is you drive by
and it looks like nothing'sgoing on because the parking lot
out front's empty, becauseeverything's behind.
They need to go.
They need to buy a whole bunchof junk cars and just let them sit
down every once in a while, goand move around.

(33:03):
You don't even have to getthem run.
You could just get something.
No engines.
Just go out there with aforklift and move around tonight.
Park them a little weird.
Park one up on the, on the, onthe grass or something to make it
look like the guy got drunkand showed up at work.
But they're.
They're so full that they'restoring raw material outside now.
I noticed that.
And so that, that's where weneeded to be.

(33:25):
And that's intentional becausethe crop comes in essentially at
one time and then getsprocessed throughout the year.
So it isn't that they don'thave any place to anywhere process
it.
It's that that's intentional.
They gotta.
They want to feed that out ina strategic manner.
There's a flow.
It's their flow of work, whichmakes sense.
Yeah.
You don't, you don't want tokill everybody and run, you know,

(33:47):
wide open for a couple ofmonths and then have nobody sitting
around doing it.
And you're end up storing thefinished product.
Exactly.
Right.
Customers not ready.
Exactly.
Yeah.
It makes a lot of sense.
Yeah.
I think probably the criticsand the naysayers on that project
have pretty much.
And shut down now.
Yeah, I think so.
Yeah.
We don't get much pushback on it.
You know, Texas Monthly did aphenomenal feature on them two magazines

(34:10):
ago.
And so that kind of is thevalidating point of this is real
and it's a big deal for us.
Yeah.
And then next door to them weannounced what, three weeks ago now.
Vitro.
Yes.
So in the solar panel world,you have never purchased or seen
a solar panel that was made inthe United States.

(34:31):
You never.
It never doesn't happen.
With the new focus on China'sare not just military foe, but they're
our economic foe.
It is clear that those panelsneed to be made in the United States.
So Vitro has stepped up.

(34:51):
50 communities and companiescompeted for pot of funds to give
them a little bit of taxcredit to help offset the cost of
the building.
Announced 330 million.
Inflation and other costs aregoing to run that number up.
But that was what the federalgrant was based on.
So they'll invest $330million, employ about 300 people

(35:15):
for a brand new plant.
Other than HR and you know,and accounting.
Right.
Nothing else will beinterconnected with those plants.
So the they will begin toproduce the largest.
It's the largest in theNorthern hemisphere, a plant to produce

(35:39):
glass of this kind.
Second largest in the world.
This plant will be.
We already have threecompanies who have called us to say,
I want to be next door.
We're gonna, we're gonna makethe electronics that hook to the
panel.
We're gonna make the framesthat hook to the panel.
And it doesn't make sense toship that heavy glass to Indiana
to get electronics to then goto Ohio to get a frame to then get

(36:01):
shipped to New Mexico.
Yeah.
So it's gonna be a much biggerdeal for us.
It's going to make us thecenter of that world.
And we're super excited about it.
Trump administration is verypro solar.
You're going to see windturbines, not so much, you know,
battery powered cars, not somuch solar they're in favor of.

(36:23):
So it should be a boom for us.
And it gives us.
Eventually competitors willshow up, but right now this gives
us the first one out of the gate.
And.
And we couldn't be happier.
Prouder.
It was a great collaborationwith the city, the county, the governor's
office and then the chambercoming together, figuring out how

(36:45):
we put the package togetherfor the company and how we bring
those jobs home.
And they're not just jobs for today.
We are literally setting up anentire new industry sector.
Yes.
And people don't realize whatyou said was very poignant.
And people don't realize thatMarysville, Ohio was a little nothing
town until Honda went in yearsago and put a manufacturing plan

(37:08):
in.
And all of A sudden it's like,oh, not everybody works for Honda,
but they work for Honda.
Then they work for, you know,EBC Brakes because EBC moved in there
because they make the brakesfor the Hondas and they moved.
They work for this company.
So it springs up a whole cadreof cluster of businesses that support
the main factory.
And it's great that youbrought that up.

(37:29):
Ron Kitchens is the presidentand CEO of the Wichita Falls Chamber
of Commerce.
He's our guest.
We, we've talked in the pastabout the Amazon last mile facility
that was coming to Wichita.
You haven't been out there.
It is.
You can get glimpses of it bygoing at the end of Production Boulevard
there.
Yeah.
Production boulevards under construction.
So the utilities are beingputting brand new utilities in for

(37:51):
that part of the park.
Expanded also connects intothe city systems.
And tell everybody whereProduction Boulevard is.
So the easy ways behind thejail, that's the easy way to run
over.
To that is the industrial park of.
Which that's our business park.
Yes.
And so Amazon's out there, amassive facility.

(38:12):
They've already.
It was originally going to be 120.
It's now 140,000 square feet.
They're already saying, hey,before we get done, it's probably
one 60 or 200 continues to grow.
The pad is poured for thefirst distribution center and they'll
start steel in another monthor so.

(38:33):
It's going to go up very, very quickly.
Super exciting.
And again bringing in thathousehold name that says we believe
in Wichita Falls.
Yeah.
Winco Foods, another companythat's coming to our city.
There are.
They broke ground a coupleweeks ago.
Yep.
They're stirring a lot of mud.
Yeah.
Out there.
And so that'll, you know,those projects always seem to happen

(38:57):
fast.
It takes forever to get there.
And then once those, those D9caterpillars show up.
Yeah, it goes pretty fast.
So they'll pour concrete inthe next three or four weeks.
Yeah.
Expansion of the road, theirnew facility.
It, you know, we had a lot ofpeople who've made the trip to the
Metroplex or over to Denton toshop at their stores who come back

(39:19):
and said, wow, it really isgame changing.
Yeah.
And it really will be game changing.
It's just another arrow in our quiver.
Yeah.
Never been into one, but I'vedriven by them.
There's one in Denton that'sright off 35.
Yeah.
And 380 right there as you go.
If you go past 35 at 380, it'sright there on the one things.
You'Ll find is incrediblecustomer service.
They're employee owned.

(39:39):
Yeah.
So they're owned with an esop.
So employee stock option program.
And, and so customer serviceis one of those things like Whole
Foods, where that's what theyhire for.
And then they could teach youhow to run a cash register or sock
a shelf, but they can't teachyou to have a good attitude.
Yeah, that's right.
And that, that is so criticalin customer service.

(40:00):
Before we started recordingtoday's episode, I talked about an
experience I had just recentlyin a store with a young lady who
just zero personality, zero interaction.
And you know, when I walk upto somebody in a store and they don't
talk to me, I smile at themand I ask them really loudly, how
you doing today?
I'm gonna make you talk to me.

(40:20):
You're going to interact with me.
It just drives me nuts becauseit's so important.
I think the number onecritical element in any customer
service situation, no matterwhat it is, especially when you're,
you know, public consumerfacing situation, is being able to
interact with people and justat least a little banter, you know,
act like you care to be there.

(40:41):
I have this opinion or abelief that a lot of what is causing
people to go to Amazon isthat, well, if you're not going to
get customer service locallyanyway, nobody cares that you're
there, then why not go online?
Because you know what, I canprobably get the return a lot easier
too, and I don't have to facethat part.

(41:03):
So you're putting yourself outof a job collectively if we don't
have great customer service.
Well, and I think one of thethings we have to teach is radical
ownership.
You know, nobody ever, nobodyever washes and changes the oil on
a rental car.
And so if we want people tofeel radical ownership of their jobs,

(41:23):
of their employees, we got toteach people that and have to understand
it and have to know how Iinteract today affects whether I
have a job tomorrow.
Yeah.
You know, on our team, wecoach people that, hey, we're all
of our mortgages areinterdependent on each other.
We all have to do a good job.
Somebody screws this up, itaffects everybody.

(41:44):
Here's family.
Right.
And when you understand thatit's a different set of obligations
other than I'm here to get my$12 an hour.
Well, and when I go in, justto point that out, is that when you
go into the chamber, they're,they're saying, hey, how are you
doing?
You know, and, and, well,that's because.
We'Re just trying to keep youfrom raiding the refrigerator.

(42:04):
They're stopping you, Jerry.
Hey, how you doing?
Yeah, we got our eyes on you.
We're watching you, dude.
Yeah.
And I'll say there's arestauran town that.
That teaches their employees to.
Or requires their employees togreet the customer, but they do it
all at once.
Oh, yeah.
And then it just sounds so rote.
It's not real.

(42:24):
I was.
I told my wife the other day,I went into.
And I'll say it, I went intothe Flying J to I got needy gas and
some orange juice.
You know, all this.
All this crud that's goingaround, I'm not sick.
And I'm like, orange juice ismy medicine.
So I knew I could get gas andorange juice at Flying J.
And I walked in and the guysaid, welcome, Flying Jake.
Fly Jake.
And every time that dooropened, he screamed that out.

(42:47):
Didn't look, didn't care.
And it's one of those deals.
It's like, I know he was toldto do that by some egghead somewhere,
but is so insincere.
I would rather him go, piss off.
Don't want you here.
Or just nothing.
Or just have a trigger on thedoor that an automatic speaker just
says.
If that's all it's going to be.

(43:08):
Yeah.
Because it does become arobotic response with no emotion,
no personality.
They just say it.
And I know the place you'retalking about, and it does.
It's almost a monotone drone thing.
So it's funny.
We held.
I host a monthly meeting thathas one topic.
So we invite a room full ofpeople, 10 to 20 people in, to say,

(43:32):
let's talk about one topicthat could benefit the community.
And this month's topic was retail.
And so.
And we don't put any rules on it.
Here's the topic.
Let it go.
And it became, how do we teachpeople to be good employees in retail?

(43:54):
How do we teach customer service?
That it, you know, one personsaid, you know, they only go to two
restaurants in town, andbecause those are the only two that
they get treated nice at.
And if I happen to be a womansaid, I'm gonna spend my family's
money eating out, at the veryleast, I want somebody to be nice
to me.
Yeah.

(44:14):
Oh, yeah.
You don't need somebody tobend over.
Just.
Just be respectful.
Good food is an assumption.
Yeah, I'm going there.
I'm gonna get good, safe food.
But then where's the value at?
Yeah, the value add is just benice to Me.
Exactly.
Make me feel special.
Exactly right.
And that's the whole keythere, is that it.
People don't necessarilyremember the specifics of the situation,

(44:38):
but they certainly rememberhow you.
How they felt.
There's old saying, peopledon't remember what you say.
They remember how you madethem feel.
Yeah, that's true.
And so if you.
Go ahead.
I was gonna say.
So right now, how much in dollars.
I know you get a rough estimate.
How many construction.
How many millions ofconstruction dollars are there going
on right now?
In which fell.
Falls.
We are.
We're very close to a billion dollars.

(45:01):
Wow.
I knew there's a lot going on.
Very close.
And I haven't added it.
We got one or two more.
Well, no, we're over a billion.
Because we were.
If.
If you.
Yeah, we're.
Let's see.
We were at 800 plus we'veadded another 400.
So we're at $1.2 billioncommercial on the books.

(45:23):
Yeah.
This isn't.
Hey, Ron's pitching this dealbecause in our portfolio of what
we're pitching, there's about$3 billion of things that we're pitching.
This is.
Somebody has stroked some sortof a.
Check contracts withcontractors to go build things.
And once you do that, you.
And if you back out, you owepeople a lot of money.

(45:44):
We're in the game thesethings, and we know one of them hit
a bump in the road.
Companies changing hands.
A small deal, $5 million dealand small deal, $5 million.
But the.
But that's the only one.
And they're going to restart it.
The.
And having to know for a factthat new money is coming in.

(46:05):
And so.
But yeah, that.
You know, we look at that andone of the biggest issues we have
is shortage of tradespeople.
Right now we've got about 260electricians that are working in
Abilene right now on a bigdata center project.
There's.
And so we got to get projectsthat bring them home, get those paychecks

(46:25):
here.
And.
But we've also got shortage of folks.
You know, the lot of the workfor the Amazon project to go that
fast, they had to bringworkers from Decatur up to work because
we just didn't have peoplethat had capacity to run concrete
that fast.
From the chamber'sperspective, what can we do about

(46:47):
that?
I mean, what do we really needto be doing to make that situation
better for us where thetradespeople are concerned?
Well, I think one is.
Is it starts at the cdc, youknow, with the school district of
talking about Trades are, areimportant, they're critical to us
and that, and I don't, I don'tmean that my mama cut hair.
I mean I'm not, I'm notdiminishing any of that.

(47:09):
But we need to understand, wetell people, okay, you can get, you
know, do your technicaltraining in cosmetology, you're probably
going to live on the marginyour whole life.
That's not a career that youcan support a family on, by and large.
But you know, the governorjust featured in the state of the
state a 17 year old girl.

(47:30):
And I don't remember whatschool district she was from, but
she's got so much weldingexperience and certifications that
she's already making, youknow, mid five figures.
And when she graduates withone more certification, she'll be
over $100,000 a year earningas a 18 year old in welding.

(47:51):
Yeah, yeah.
And so we've got to encouragefolks, the data center, boom.
It's going to help with thatbecause we're going to see a lot
of folks who maybe got tradeskills, but they don't want to be
on a muddy job site.
They don't want to be crawlingin attics or underneath houses.
But all of a sudden you takethose skills and your fiber optic

(48:12):
technician, well, those arejobs at 80, $90,000 a year that take
eight to 12 weeks of training.
Yeah.
But you have to havemechanical skills.
You got to be able to do that.
So we're gonna, but we got toburden people with knowledge about
what's out there.
You know, I've told the story,but you know, I graduated from high
school, I graduated as acertified welder of five certifications

(48:34):
because my grandfather said,I'm not sure this college thing is
gonna be for you, but yourwork is going to be for you your
whole life.
So let's figure out how yougot that as your backup.
Yeah.
Now if you go to college andmake it work.
Yeah.
And, and with today'stechnology, I couldn't lay a bead
of welding now to save my life.
But I, you know, it wouldn'ttake me long to get.

(48:57):
No.
Yeah, once you, you're right,you kind of lose that skill a little
bit.
But once you, once you gotthat, that got the stick in your
hand.
Yeah.
You would get it.
Something you said that wasvery interesting and it is true.
And I've seen, I saw this thelast time we kind of had an oil bust
around here and west Texas wasgoing crazy.
We lost a lot of people, anumber of people because a Lot of

(49:19):
them were my customers thatwent ahead and when they were going
to West Texas to work out there.
And after a year or two, mamaand kids were at home here and they
were tired of this longdistance thing, so they moved out
there as well.
And we lost those people.
They were.
They were people from WichitaFalls that grew up here, were raised
here, and we're making$100,000 plus a year here, and all

(49:40):
of a sudden they're making alltheir money out there when mama and
kids are living here.
Yeah, they're spending a lotof that money here.
But once they get tired ofthat long distance, they move out
there.
And now we lose those peopleand we lose those jobs.
Well, those, thoseelectricians I was telling you about
are making more than double bybeing Abilene.
And you know, that life inquality of life isn't necessarily
great because they're livingin man camps and trailers and coming

(50:02):
home on the weekend.
But that's my exact fear.
Yeah.
Somebody Abilene goes, hey,let's build a bunch of $180,000 houses.
Let's get these families tomove over here when the job's done.
They're not moving back toWichita Falls.
They're not moving back to Decatur.
They're here.
The kids are in school.
Life's good.

(50:23):
Figured it out.
Their wages go back to thenormal level once the boom's over
and they got them.
So one of the things we'vedone and we're positioning and marketing
to is we have a huge shortageof housing.
And so we've got to getworkforce housing.
That means a guy who's goingto work every day.

(50:44):
You know, maybe his wife's anurse and he's a fireman.
It's, as you know, it's toughfor them to find a house that's a
quality home in a good schoolarea that they can build a life around.
And so we've got to change that.
We can go.
Well, that's the privatesector's responsibility.
There's a whole lot of placesto invest money in this beautiful,

(51:06):
great state that we have.
And if we're not out sellingourselves, why do you think they're
going to discover us?
We got to go tell them, here'swhy you got to come, because we're
working on a data center deal, too.
That'll be 2,000 jobs for sixyears, just like the Abilene Data
Center.
And we don't capture thosefamilies now, then we're going to
see prosperity.

(51:27):
Seem to go up, but populationgo down.
Yeah, Yeah, I was going to askyou about because you mentioned the
data center in Abilene and we,we have in the past talked about
that coming here, kind ofwhere are we on that project?
So the data centers are energy hogs.
It's what they are.
We have three of thoseprojects now.

(51:50):
The good thing is last weekEncore told 30 Plus Projects.
Nope, we're not, we're noteven going to take your application
for connectivity to the system.
We don't have the engineeringcapacity, we don't have the power
capacity.
You're out.
None of our deals got cut.
So we closed a week ago, 10days ago on the first site for a

(52:17):
small data center.
A five hundred million dollardata center.
That small little tiny one.
And so we closed on that sitethere already started the process
to annex into the city andstarting cleaning the project, getting
the scrub off the property andthey're moving forward.
They're actually going to putin a gas fired turbine to provide

(52:38):
their electricity because it'sgoing to take Encore three years
to get them power since.
Wow.
Our big project, we've, we'vetalked about one that's out.
The best way to describe itout by Harley Davidson got a project
there.
It's the other motorcycle dealership.
It's nine or 10 months frombeing at a good tipping point.

(53:01):
Our major project is at thebusiness park.
We're 60 days from land saleon it.
And then once that happensthen construction will ramp up very,
very fast.
And again we're talking about hyperscale.
So the small one we did at$500 million is a data center.

(53:22):
Hyperscale is a million squarefeet or more, typically 3 million
square feet or more.
Each million square feet costsabout $5 billion, although the price
is coming down some on thoseand that's building and equipment.
So total investment for amillion square feet is about five
billion square feet.

(53:43):
Yeah.
And so we're talking about thethree point.
A typical large scale datacenter will be three and a half a
million square feet.
Two, five.
How, how large is the propertyto support that?
Acres?
350.
Yeah.
Way up.
Wow.
So, so we have something on,on the books at.

(54:05):
Under contract.
Wow.
So.
And we're working towards that.
You know it's been a two year process.
We went after this.
We saw it coming.
Got.
I'm guess it's better to belucky than smart.
Maybe we are both.
But we saw data centers coming.
We saw that we had the abilityto position ourselves and, and it's

(54:26):
been a long slog.
One we just weren't positioned well.
We didn't own mineral rightsto sites.
We didn't have the rightaccess point to the power we had
to acquire.
That we had to do a lot ofthose things to clean up work that
if we knew now that we won'tmake that mistake in the future.

(54:47):
Right.
So.
But we're.
Yeah, we're very, very close.
Will be at peak 2000construction workers.
Six year project.
Massive.
They're gonna.
Wow.
But now ultimately, what willbe the permanent employees in Those
cases?
About 300 for three million,two and a half million square feet.

(55:11):
They're gonna have about 300 employees.
Average is going to be oversix figures.
Wow.
Incredible.
And they don't have that.
And they don't have a lot ofhigh end management.
They're boosting that.
It's a lot of technical skills.
It's.
And it's not a lot of.
It's not computer programmingthat's done somewhere else.
Right.
The, these are, these arepeople that are, you know, those

(55:33):
computers.
None of them will ever be morethan three years old in there, right?
Yeah, mostly.
They'll never be more than a year.
And a half installing.
And it's constantly troubleshooting.
Vibration causes that fiberoptic connection to break.
You got to get in there andtroubleshoot it, fix it.
You know.
It's a massive complex.
Ron, let me ask you becauseyou mentioned the CDC and all these

(55:56):
skills and everything that weneed these young people to be learning
when it comes to that kind of stuff.
Where the data centers wheretheir needs are.
What are we doing or whatshould we be doing right now to start
preparing our population andin particular our young population
up and coming here.
And we're working with bothVernon College and the cdc.
Yeah.
Because on our partnershipsand they both know what we're.

(56:19):
We got.
And he sounds like, he soundslike amazing jobs, both building
curriculum out the.
You know, what's hard for themis both of those are built around
longitudinal.
It, you know, it's a two year,you know, program.
You're getting a certificate,you're getting a high school diploma
or degree at the end.

(56:39):
Yeah.
And these jobs will be 8 to 12week training programs.
So what we've got to do iswe've got to make them additive to
existing programs.
So the electrician program,the construction program, we get
that fiber optic work in therebecause, you know, that's the future.
My neighborhood's got allfiber optic lines in.
It won't be a copper cablelaid in the ground.

(57:02):
We got fiber optic out in the boonies.
Where I live.
Yeah.
So that's, that's the future.
So training that and addingthat is really important.
And getting that kid, that,that person that certification.
But then with Vernonretraining folks to be able to come
in and go, you know, I gotgood mechanical skills but you know,
I don't want to go in theattic and fix AC units anymore.

(57:25):
Right.
You know, I wanna, I want ajob in the air conditioning and you
know that's not crawling upthem damn collapsible stairs.
And, and by the way you talkabout that places like that, they're
gonna have amazing air conditioning.
Yeah.
A whole lot of electronics.
I imagine.
Solar and other technologiesthey're going to do energy wise.

(57:45):
Yeah.
So they'll.
There'll be a mix but so thesethings have to be able to run 21
days off the grid.
So if the power goes off, ifwe have another freeze and the power
goes off, they've got to have21 days.
So they'll have massivebattery banks that get them from
the light glitched to thebatteries are immediately running

(58:08):
so that computers are neverslowed down.
Right.
Wow.
Two, if the power goes off fora while they gotta have generators
underground and they'll.
Massive amounts of generatorsand diesel fuel.
Yeah.
I don't mean the FedExuninterrupted power supply.
Not only that though, the datacenters are going to have to have

(58:28):
multiple paths to the Internet.
They're going to need one.
I'm guessing maybe like for instance.
I'm not have no authority ofknowledge on this specifically but
one way to possibly to maybeOklahoma City versus Dallas Fort
Worth.
They get the Internet fromboth directions and maybe even up
from you know.
Amarillo or you think of it'salmost like a highway system through

(58:50):
a city.
You need more than one arteryto get you in and out.
That's exactly one roadcloses, you better be able to still
get home.
Exactly.
Have you heard any bandwidthrequirements from this that they
have thrown around?
I have not.
I know the power is one gig of power.
Wow.
That's more than the city,which tough all.

(59:11):
Yes.
Wow.
That's crazy.
You've been here two and ahalf years.
You've seen the, you know, thegood, the bad, the ugly warts and
all.
You've seen how this cityoperates and how things have operated.
And is it safe to say that weare about to turn a major corner
economically, strategicallyfor this city?

(59:32):
Yeah, I think we already have.
We just haven't seen theresults yet.
Right.
Yeah.
Put it perspective with thePVC pipe Plant that we did off of
Iowa Park Road at 140 million.
That was the largestindustrial deal in the history of
the community.
We did that nine months ago.
We've now done vitro at 300and it's going to get close to $400

(59:52):
million before it's all saidand done.
Largest industrial deal in thehistory of the community in two years
or actually less than a yearon both of those.
With Panda coming on board with.
I mean, I can go down the listof expansions, plants and facilities.
Part of it is just new leadership.

(01:00:14):
You look at the city counciland people left the city council
were incredible folks.
But you have.
Other than Jeff Browning, noone's been on there more than a year.
You have a new superintendentof schools who is visionary and driven
and completely honest andtransparent and says, here's the

(01:00:35):
reason we're underperformingbecause we made these decisions here.
We.
They might have made them withthe best intentions, but we got to
change those decisions.
By the way, they made them inthe last eight years.
They made them after I was off school.
I'm just kidding.
The.
And so we look at the university.
University was declined, hasbeen declining in student census

(01:00:57):
for a decade.
Up What?
They're up 800 this year.
New leadership at the university.
We have new leadership at thecity with a new city manager, new
vision by the council, wherewe're going.
New county judge who's justincredible and stepping out and leading

(01:01:17):
in the community beyond justthe, you know, the two meetings a
week that they have in the courthouse.
We.
It is a.
Is an incredible time to behere, which doesn't mean we don't
have hard things ahead of us,but we have the right people to handle
hard things without itbecoming this disaster, without everybody
retreating to their own safety shells.

(01:01:40):
It is.
It's an amazing time to be here.
And you would be a fool to betagainst us.
I like that.
That's a good way to go out.
That is awesome.
That is.
I love that.
Yeah.
Ron Kitchens, president CEO ofthe Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce,
has been our guest.
Ron, if people want to get intouch with you and learn more about
what's happening in thecommunity, what the projects, the

(01:02:03):
chambers involved in, whatever.
You go to www.wichitafallschamber.com or you can get me
at Ronichita Falls Chamber.
Okay.
Awesome.
Ron Kitchens, thank you forbeing here.
We look forward to having you back.
I know there's going to beplenty to talk about moving forward.
Absolutely.
All right, guys, we're goingto take a break.
Here.
We'll be back and wrap it upwith more Get It Right Tech Soma.

(01:02:23):
Stay tuned.
Welcome back to Get It RightTech Soma with the trio, Mike, Terry
and Trey.
And we want to thank RonKitchens, our, our guest, with some
great news.
Yeah, a lot of things happening.
Oh, man.
He didn't come in here and go,yeah, it's over.

(01:02:44):
Okay.
I mean, come on, how excitingis it going on?
All the stuff going on in wish.
Over billion dollars in construction.
Over 1.2 billion in commercial construction.
Right.
Commercial construction.
For those of you that don'tlive here, that don't live in our
community, that is sosignificant for us.
We're talking about acommunity that for years didn't see

(01:03:04):
that level of growth, didn'tsee that level of company expansion,
corporate expansion and so forth.
This is significant for us.
And as he, as he stated, someof the results of that haven't hit
yet.
So as we get deeper into this,two, three years down the road, we're
really going to start to feeland see the results of some of this

(01:03:27):
growth here.
It's going to be really incredible.
It is a major turning pointfor this area and I think it's going
to have positive implicationsfor the population of Wichita Falls
overall and really for thewhole county, for that matter.
I agree with you.
The whole region.
The whole region.
Yeah.
Well, you, you know, Wichita,Archer, Clay, Will Barger, I'd even,

(01:03:50):
I'd, I would even put Baylorcounty in there, too.
Well, not just that, Cottoncounty, of course.
You know, Cotton County,Comanche Cotton and all those right
north of the river.
Yeah, they're part of our community.
I've said it before.
I'm gonna say it again, guys.
If Wichita Falls is doingwell, everybody benefits from it.
That's why it's called Texoma.
Everybody benefits from us.
We're gonna, we're gonna wrapthis thing up.

(01:04:11):
We've run pretty long here today.
We want to thank you forjoining us.
Get it Right Texoma brought toyou in part by Eddie Hills Fun Cycles,
401 North Scott, downtownWichita Falls.
There since 1966.
Yes, long time, Eddie.
Hillsfuncycles.com we recordthis podcast in the MacTech Solutions

(01:04:36):
Pod Studios.
That's right, MacTechSolutions, 4020 Ray Road, Suite 3B
here in Wichita Falls.
If you need any kind of Appledevice repaired, this is the place
to bring it to.
Here in North Texas andSouthern Oklahoma, period.
But also B2B if you, if youneed your business and networking
and stuff.
Like that and the iPadsEverything but the iPhone.

(01:04:58):
We sell and we service everything.
We're the only full serviceApple dealer, if you will, in.
In 100 miles.
And so we.
We actually take care of you.
That's right.
It is absolutely, absolutelythe place to get it done.
And they sell.
You sell everything except theiPhone and the.
The Vision Pro or whatever.

(01:05:19):
Yeah, Apple direct only on that.
And it's also brought to youby Lollipop Sweet Shop, your online
bakery, lpsweet.com on Facebook.
Lollipop Sweet Shop.
And.
And we have a retailpartnership that is developing.
Very soon, our products willbe available at Country Blooms and
Gifts boutique in Burt Burnett.

(01:05:40):
They're located at theintersection of Highway 240 and Daniels
Road.
And our products will beavailable there in the very near
future.
We're working on acollaboration with them that we expect
will start within the next,probably three to four weeks.
Awesome.
That's great.
That's where you'll be able tofind Lolligan Pop Sweet Shop products
there.

(01:06:00):
Again, Country Blooms andGifts and Boutique at Daniels Road
and Highway 240 in Burt Burnett.
And again, that website, lpsuite.com.
well, thank you for joining us.
We want to thank Ron Kitchensfor taking time with us.
We look forward to having him back.
He's always such an incredible guest.
He always has such anincredible amount of information
to share with us.
He knows what's going on.
He is.
He has got his thumb on thepulse of everything, and we like

(01:06:24):
that.
And we've got some other great guests.
We got Wichita Falls Mayor TimShort next week.
He'll be with us.
Lots of great guests coming upin the future here on Get It Right
Texoma.
Until next time.
Y'all take care.
See you down the road.