STRATEGIST FSE - Key Persons

In September of 2023, Monte Walker was appointed interim City Administrator for the City of Howe as well as retaining duties as Chief Operating Officer for the Howe Community Facilities Development Corporation (Type B). He is a graduate of Howe High School and the University of Oklahoma Economic Development Institute. Walker began work as the City of Howe's Director of Economic Development in October of 2014. In that year, he started a revitalization program of our historic downtown district. Seventeen months later, every building had been refurbished mostly through private funding. Five of the historic buildings had new ownership and every possible space was filled with businesses. That same year, he spearheaded a group to restart the Howe Area Chamber of Commerce where they had 60 members in the first six months of reorganization. In 2015, he helped initiate a "Shop Local" program for Howe which led to an 11 percent increase in sales tax revenue from 2014 to 2015. That same year he gathered a group of leaders to form a committee that set out to restore a dilapidated 1893 historic former church building. Through volunteer labor and fundraising dollars, the project was concluded in 2019. The city-owned historic renovated church now serves as the home of the EDC/Chamber, Keep Howe Beautiful, the new home to city council meetings, and as an event venue called Summit Gardens. He initiated a steering committee to form the Howe Development Foundation to help supplement the economic development Type B sales tax.