Richards revitalizing civic club

RICHARDS- Members of the Richards community gathered at the Richards Community Center to express interest in revitalizing the community and ensuring Richards isn’t forgotten.

Richards was once a thriving community with events that highlighted the small-town charm Richards offered. The major event remembered by most is Founder’s Day. During this celebration people from the community and visitors from all over enjoyed a parade, visiting vendors that lined the streets and an old-fashioned street dance.

It has been several years since the Richards Civic Club was active and the community took the initial steps to regroup. Those steps began during a meeting Tuesday, July 9, at the historic community center that was once an old bank.

The community couldn’t hold off getting the ball rolling until the start of the meeting. “I came to the community center with a weed eater to knock down the grass around the center,” explained Kara Hughes. “I just wanted to clean up the yard to make it a little more presentable before the meeting. I was surprised when community members showed up and helped not only mow the grass but clean from the floor to the ceiling in the community center. I expected cleaning in and around the facility to be one of the first discussion items at the meeting.”

Richards Volunteer Fire Department Chief Cort Nor-wood and his department were credited for doing research on the steps needed to regain possession of the community center and explore the process of re-establishing the civic club.

Norwood called the meeting to order and afforded the 28 community members in attendance an opportunity to introduce themselves, speak on their ties to the community and reminisce about what Richards once was.

In the first order of business, in accordance with the last adopted bylaws, Greg Riley was nominated and unanimously approved to lead as president. Riley began conducting the meeting and Stephanie Schuler was voted vice president, Kara Hughes voted secretary and Joan Teer accepted the nomination as treasurer.

Riley said he is excited to serve as president and will meet with the board as soon as possible to review bylaws and establish a time and date for the next monthly meeting.

Many ideas were discussed including a website for Richards, reestablishing community events to bring the community together, revamping the park, community safety, events that will attract visitors to Richards and developing short term and long-term goals for the community.

Riley listened to the plethora of ideas and assured the community that once the bylaws are reviewed and future meetings planned that all the great ideas could be explored in more detail.

Currently the August civic club meeting hasn’t been scheduled but Riley said civic club updates will be posted to the “ Richards, Texas Neighbors Helping Neighbors” Facebook page.

Updates can also be found in the Richards News column in The Examiner.