Levelland, county seat of Hockley County, is located on the Llano Estacado, 30 miles west of Lubbock and established in 1912 by C.W. Post. Levelland’s population is 13,762 and is the 189th largest city in Texas. Keep Levelland Beautiful is happy to serve this rural community on the move.
Just like so many other affiliates, the current pandemic has caused us to cancel our Spring Cleanup. However, we are still encouraging area cleaning in Levelland. Through April 19, City of Levelland along with Republic Services will assist in cleanup efforts by providing convenient, no-cost sites for disposal of our resident’s waste. Seven containers are located around Levelland to provide easy disposal of unwanted items. Last year this event collected 640 pounds of waste.
Another way we are encouraging beautification and litter prevention is through the Don’t mess with Texas Art Contest. KLB invited Levelland students in kindergarten through twelfth grade to submit their best litter prevention-inspired artwork to be considered for the local Calendar Contest in 2020. Entries were submitted to KLB and were judged by three members of the KLB Committee. Six winners (one from each school campus) will be announced this month and awarded $20 Levelland Bucks. This year we had a record 247 entries across all campuses. KLB will be submitting the entries to KTB for judging in the DMWT Art Contest.
KLB works hard to serve the Levelland community and has successfully applied for several grants and awards that have led to our success.
In 2015, a goal was set to create a noteworthy program that would make us a strong contender for the Governors Community Achievement Award (GCAA). From the beginning, if selected, our intent was to use funds for gateway signs. As our committee members traveled across the state, many wondered why Levelland did not have them. And now that our vision became reality and the City of Levelland won the 2020 GCAA, we will begin a long-overdue process. Every community loves a visual victory, and this will be a great addition for our citizens and visitors and all because we became a part of Keep Texas Beautiful (KTB).
KTB recognized Keep Levelland Beautiful (KLB) as a recipient of a 2019 Green Bag Grant. Volunteer Committees along with railroad officials walked the area around the railroad last summer looking for ways to beautify the gateways of Levelland. Railroad bungalows, also known as switch boxes, located on Highway 114 in Levelland have been wrapped with artwork depicting the area with themes for each bungalow to include oil, soil, education and the City of Mosaics. With this grant we were able to wrap one bungalow representing agriculture. The other three bungalows were wrapped with help from local businesses and schools’ sponsorships. We will continue phase two this summer in hopes to wrap three more bungalows. Bungalows are the housing units for signals and communications computers that control switches, crossings, and other such controls, relaying information to and from the rail traffic control.
KLB received 50 trees from a tree grant affiliated with Apache, a national oilfield company that has a branch in our community. Twenty-five trees were planted at Levelland ISD campuses and the city started a new tree farm in which these trees were planted and will be nurtured to a more mature state allowing more likelihood of survival. In addition to the trees from grant, 22 other trees were planted in tree farm by city for future use. We are starting to see growth in our tree farm this spring and we are looking forward to adding more trees this year.
KLB is very honored to receive the April Affiliate of the Month recognition. We thank our fellow affiliates and KTB staff for providing leadership to a younger affiliate. We are also thankful for our volunteers and committed community members who strive to keep our town beautiful and continually work for more victories. Follow our story as we continue keeping Levelland beautiful for many more years to come! Follow us on our website, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Stay safe and vigil and we will see y’all on the other side of this challenging coronavirus time.
Blog post written by Kelly Adams, Special Projects Manager, Keep Levelland Beautiful & Mary Siders, President, Levelland Chamber of Commerce.
