Emporia
OUR INDUSTRY Section A A Pet Food Town PAGE 2 Ever Changing Industry PAGE 4 Pushing the Boundaries PAGE 6 Downtown Service and Retail PAGE 8 A Look Back at 2008 PAGE 11
OUR HEALTH JANUARY 29
OUR ENJOYMENT FEBRUARY 5
OUR SCHOOLS FEBRUARY 12
2018 Mon day , Janua ry 22
OUR COMMUNITY FEBRUARY 19
TEG
THE EMPORIA GAZETTE
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Monday, January 22, 2018
A PET FOOD TOWN
ZACH HACKER/GAZETTE
By Adam Blake
adam@emporia.com
A wide range of industries have naturally come and gone from the Emporia area since the town’s founding in 1857, but in the last couple decades, one field has offered a defined source of consistency and constant growth. “The Emporia Pet Food Products plant that is now owned by Cargill came in 1978, Simmons (Pet Food) came in 1997 and was operational the next year and then Hill’s (Pet Nutrition) announced in 2007 and was fully operational in 2010,” said Kent Heermann, president of the Regional Development Association of East Central Kansas. “It seems like every 10 years or so we get another pet food plant.” According to a June 2017 report by the Kansas Department of Agriculture, the dog and cat food manufacturing sector has accounted for approximately $781.2 million of Lyon County’s economic output. Currently, over 700 total employees
work at the three locations, and that number is expected to rise by over 100 when a planned flexible packaging facility expansion opens at Simmon’s in 2019. According to Heermann, Emporia has been able to attract such companies because of its unique geographic location. “Emporia sits in what we like to call a ‘zone of indifference’ running through the eastern third of Kansas, southwest corner of Missouri and northeast part of Oklahoma where a pet food plant can be placed and expect to operate successfully,” Heermann said. “These areas have easy access to all the different food resources they need, and their central location makes them a great place for shipping out product.” Like multiple other pet food companies, management from Cargill, Hill’s, and Simmons have also found their footholds in the area to be some of their most valuable and successful. Please see Pet Food, Page 3
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Monday, January 22, 2018
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PET FOOD From PAGE 2 “The Kansas City Animal Health Corridor stretches along Interstate-70 from Manhattan to Columbia, Missouri, and is home to more than 300 animal health companies,” said Hill’s Emporia Plant Manager Darren Haverkamp. “As a result, this area is teeming with a skilled workforce, advanced technology and a truly outstanding passion for animal health. “The Hill’s Emporia plant is definitely successful. Since opening in 2010, it has received a Silver Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Certification and an Energy Star Challenge for Industry Award. The plant has also been recognized by our parent company, ColgatePalmolive, for our successful efforts to reduce waste and recycle or reuse everything we can. In addition to becoming more efficient and productive every year, we have also placed a strong emphasis on safety. Hill’s Emporia has received a Gold Level in the Colgate-Palmolive President’s Award for Safety for eight straight years.” Of course, location hasn’t been the only factor in making Emporia a pet food town. When the expansion to Simmon’s was announced in November 2017, Vice President of Plant Operations Jason Beyer cited his talented workers as the main reason for the decision. “This is about the strength of 500 or so Simmons team members who are making a difference at our existing facilities by consistently delivering high-quality products that satisfy our customers,” Beyer said. “This is also a strong story about current performance building the foundation for future performance, and that’s a big part of why we are expanding our operations in Emporia.” The relationship between Emporia and its pet food plants has proven to be mutually beneficial over the years, and the future continues to look bright with even
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An artist’s rendering shows the $39 million expansion of Simmons Pet Food in Emporia, which was announced in November. more potential workers being prepared for these specific careers at area colleges. “The confidence that these companies have had in our labor market here, not only with entry-level workers but with skilled technical and professional workers, has definitely been a plus,” Heermann said. “They have great relationships with Flint Hills Technical College on the manufacturing and production side of things, and I believe there are over 50 graduates now working at Simmons. Emporia State University also has several graduates who work in accounting, quality assurance and management positions at plants around town. There is good representation from our post-secondary institutions here, and I think that will continue to make a difference in the future.” Heermann believes that the very nature of the pet food industry will cement its status as an important source of economic output in Emporia for years to come. “When we have seen industries, factories and plants leave town, the vast majority of the time it is because their products and services have become obsolete,” Heermann said. “That’s not really something that’s going to happen with the pet food industry. People will always have the need and want to feed their animals, so I’m excited for what the future will bring.”
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EVER-CHANGING INDUSTRY
Monday, January 22, 2018
Iowa Beef Processing — now Tyson Fresh Meats — after it bought out Armour & Co. in 1967.
By Ryann Brooks
brooks@emporia.com
From lumber mills to pet food manufacturing, Emporia has seen many changes in its industrial makeup since the city was first founded 161 years ago. “There’s been a lot of activity (over the years,)” said Kent Heermann, president of Regional Development Association of East Central Kansas. “Businesses evolve. They have a life and they come and go. If they don’t introduce new product lines — sometimes they go obsolete with the product lines that they have – and they have to reinvent themselves.” Emporia — named after “a flourishing market center on the African coast and founded by the Greeks” — was a business venture when it was founded in 1857. The men involved with the Emporia Town Company believed the area would lend itself to a thriving community. Emporia’s population was on an upswing in just a few years. A number of sawmills sprang up around the area, funded in part by the amount of settlers coming to Emporia to build their lives. W.T. Soden, one of the early settlers to the area, built a grist mill on the Cottonwood River, just north of the bridge on South Commercial Street in 1860. At a time when agriculture was the area’s primary industry, Soden’s Mill produced flour and cereals and opened up the market for the many farmers in the area. By the 1940s, changes in transportation and marketing had started to change how goods were shipped. After the end of World War II, Emporia’s leaders began working out plans to increase the city’s presence in industrial markets. According to “Our Land: A History of Lyon County, Kansas” Emporia would see its first major move into industrialization just a few years later when the Chamber of Commerce “undertook an industrial development program ... that (resulted) in the establishment of the Industrial Park at the northwest edge of Emporia.” Industries began trickling into the city, and as industry grew and developed, so did the population. “When you look at the population, it really took off particularly from 1960 to 1970 and then 1970 to 80,” Heermann said. “We have more things that are ag-related. We’re close to the raw materials or ingredients for (those industries).” Bunge, located at 701 E. Sixth Ave., is one of the industries which benefits from close proximity of raw materials. “They crush soybeans, and there’s a good amount of soybeans in this area,” Heermann
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE LYON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
said. “They crush it into oil and make it into soy meal as well.” The company, which has been in the area since 1922 and previously operated under Kansas Soya Products, underwent a major plant expansion in 1949. At the time, Emporia was considered to be a “Midwestern Soybean Capital.” According to an April 27, 1949, article in The Emporia Gazette, by the time the plant expanded it was producing “2,000,000 bushels annually (and) paying out over $4,000,000 per year to soybean producers in Lyon County, statewide and in Missouri and Iowa.” The expansion greatly increased those numbers. Today, Bunge has started a re-organization of operations, though the local plant is still in use. Heermann said the Armour Packing Company, which now operates as Tyson Fresh Meats, came to Emporia in the early 1960s. Armour was bought out by the Iowa Beef Packing company in 1967. IBP operated in Emporia until 2001, when Tyson bought out the company. “Armour was the slaughter and packing
plant back then,” Heermann said. “When IBP came in, they brought in a new concept called boxed beef, which revolutionized the industry. They were quite productive and profitable in those days. All of the other competitors in that industry evolved into that system.” Tyson’s upswing in the Emporia economy continued for several years until changes in cattle availability caused the company to restructure. When Emporia’s plant ceased slaughter operations in 2008, Tyson employed about 2,400 workers locally. At the same time, the plant was operating on a 10,000 - 14,000 overcapacity of cattle every day. “When Tyson was downsizing, it was related to where the cattle was coming from,” Heermann said. “That was starting to shift to the western part of the state. When they made the decision to close the slaughter size here in 2008 — they were shipping in cattle from 100 miles away — they were shipping in culled carcasses from other states. There was an overcapacity and they made a business condition to shut it down.”
Another industry that came into the city during the post-1950s boom was pet food manufacturing. Hill’s Pet Nutrition, Simmons Pet Food and Cargill Feed & Nutrition are three successful industries that have grown and expanded in Emporia in recent years. “The pet nutrition side is very interesting,” Heermann said. “That started with Safeway, and they came here in 1978. Again, they were close to the raw materials.” Heermann said each of the companies manufacturing pet food locally focuses on a different side of the market and has provided steady jobs for many people in the community. “When Hill’s Pet Nutrition was looking for a new location in 2007, we had the right attitude and site and they decided to come here,” Heermann said. “Those are good, steady jobs and usually good paying jobs. People love their pets. They call them companion animals, so during the ups and downs of the recessions, people still buy pet Please see Industry, Page 5
THE EMPORIA GAZETTE
Monday, January 22, 2018
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE LYON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE LYON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Workers on a line at Dolly Madison produce cakes in the 1960s.
Bunge as it looked in 1977.
INDUSTRY
the plant entirely in Nov. 2012.” The company was liquidated and sold, and by the summer of 2013 the Emporia plant was back in operations under the Hostess Brands banner. “Within that first 100 days, they hired back 300 people,” Heermann said. “Now they’re back to employing 500-600 people. All of the Twinkies in the United States are made here now. It’s new technology there and a lot of automation and robotics. It’s just fascinating what they’ve done.” Heermann said manufacturers that have gone out of business in Emporia, such as Didde Web Press and Modine, were casualties of changing industries. The closing of those businesses in the early 2000s represented a downturn in the local economy and leveled out population growth for a time. “It takes a long time to recover from the Tyson downsizing,” Heermann said. “We’re still not at the same employment level that we were, but it slowly comes back. Coupled
From PAGE 4 food. It’s an interesting business to be in. We probably today have between 700-800 pet food jobs and then there’s another 100 that directly support Hill’s in their warehouse operations. In the not-too-distant future, there will be over 1,000 employees in that sector.” Heermann said Emporia has also seen great success with “niche” manufacturers. “You look at Hopkins,” he said. “That was two brothers that worked in an auto body shop together and they developed a headlight aiming device and then they got into other products. What they’ve done is keep that business here because of the diversification they’ve done. They’re totally out of the headlight business because that’s changed; it’s all changed.”
Another niche company is Glendo. Don Glaser founded the company after taking up engraving as a hobby. The company has grown to be a leader in the manufacturing and distribution of engraving tools, which are used in more than 120 countries. “He made this tool that’s pneumatic-assisted engraving that helps the engravers,” Heermann said. “Instead of using the muscle and power, you have a little pneumatic that helps you engrave in the metal. Their products are known worldwide. It’s not a huge market, but it’s a niche market, and they’re the best at it.” Other companies like Vektek and Detroit Remanufacturing have also been successful in providing services for smaller, more specialized markets. “One of our longtime industries that came here in the 1960s was Dolly Madison,” Heermann said. “They went through some tough times with a couple of bankruptcies in 2004 and 2008. In 2012, they hit a real barrier and went into bankruptcy again. They shut down
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with that, in 2009 and 2010 we had companies whose orders dropped off. Maybe you had a company that laid off five or 10 very quietly. It was a time that was very tough for business. The Great Recession was a very tough time for everyone.” While Emporia is still recovering from the 2008 Tyson downsizing and recession, today more than 3,600 people are employed in Emporia’s diverse manufacturing industries, making up the largest fraction of the city’s workforce. Heermann said he feels positive about the capital investments and construction in the area. “It’s coming back and everything’s pretty good right now,” he said. “You had the announcement of Simmons on Nov. 1. They’re preparing to build a new facility and staff it. As far as other companies in town, none have really indicated to me that they have any plans for huge expansions in the future, but productions are coming up. There are some opportunities out there.”
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Monday, January 22, 2018
PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES
This map depicts the City of Emporia as it has grown. It illustrates the city limit annexation by year.
The Emporia Gazette
It all started as just one square mile. When Emporia was founded and incorporated in 1857, as one might imagine, it was quite small. East and West streets, along with 12th and South, formed the boundaries of the original townsite. Growth was relatively slow at first, moving little by little in each direction with the most notable sprawl going to the north and west. Still, it wasn’t until 1959 — more than 100 years after the town’s formation — that it reached as far west as Prairie Street. Places like Soden’s Grove to the south weren’t brought into the city limits until 1970. It sped up from there. After not hitting Prairie to the west until 1959, the town’s outer-limits stretched to Industrial Road on the U.S. Highway 50 corridor by 1971. By the 1990s and 2000s, areas were being annexed in to the southeast, southwest and northeast to form the boundaries which are more familiar today. The most recent annexations have come on the west side of town within the last few years. Much of the growth has coincided with the inclusion of industry and infrastructure. Interstate 35 sparked growth to the north during the 1970s and 80s before additions of industrial parks pushed things east and southwest in the 1990s and into the current millennia. The town now covers 7,776.03 acres — or 12.12 square miles — according to city Geographic Information System Coordinator Becky Samuelson.
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COURTESY MAP
Monday, January 22, 2018
THE EMPORIA GAZETTE
COURTESY MAP
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COURTESY MAP
This map illustrates a color ramp of the year of annexation, the areas into This map indicates municipal boundaries, metropolitan planning areas and the City of Emporia. The blue area is the original Emporia townsite, with red areas that are prone to a 1 percent annual chance of flood hazard in the City areas indicating the most recent annexations. of Emporia.
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Monday, January 22, 2018
SERVICE AND RETAIL, A GOOD DOWNTOWN MIX By Jesse Murphy
Special to The Gazette
Evolution
Glen Hadaway, owner and manager A city is only as strong as its core. of Graves Drug, said when he started his Downtown Emporia is thriving thanks business in 1972, downtown was much to efforts from organizations like Emporia different. Main Street, private investors, local gov“When I came, the majority of the reernment and many other factors. tail business was done in the core area,” It hasn’t always been that way, though, Hadaway said. “Emporia was the envy of as almost all communities experience the entire state because we had kept our ebbs and flows in business downtown retail business and commerce. Over the alive and viable. “We’re always looking to last few decades, big strides “They were constructhave been taken to secure support the next big idea.” ing the Flinthills Mall Emporia’s footprint in eastand several of the major CASEY WOODS, central Kansas. downtown players had anEmporia Main Street Director Casey Woods, director nounced that they were of Emporia Main Street, moving to the mall. Wards said the groundwork had was one, Woolworth’s was already began when he became director one of them, E&P, and it’s interesting that eight years ago. all three of those stores are gone. They “There are a lot of cities that strug- didn’t last very long when they moved.” gle with redeveloping their community He said through Project Pride, conductcores,” Woods said. “Then their entire ing business downtown became much eascommunity struggles. If you don’t have a ier for the consumer. solid core, you don’t have a solid anything. “They did a marvelous job in rearrangWe’re in an era right now where the city ing our streets downtown,” Hadaway said. and county are cooperating better than “A good part of that is still here. We had I’ve ever seen. That sort of cooperation a downtown where you could get to your is extremely important to get anything store quickly and easily. Traffic jams were done. I think they recognized that there a minimum.” was an opportunity.” Hadaway — who employs 30 people — Things like Project Pride and the added there have always been periods of streetscape project helped the aesthetics, transition, but in his opinion, Commercial but it was careful planning that brought Street has never been hurting for busiCommercial Street to where it is today. nesses.
GAZETTE FILE PHOTO
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“As time progressed there has been a steady but very slow exit of retail business to outlying areas for many reasons,” Hadaway said. “But the downtown area has remained viable and there’s very few vacant buildings, there never has been. But we have seen a transition to more servicetype businesses. “The end result is that Emporia is still envied for its fine downtown, but it’s different. It will continue to change. I think we’ve handled the years well and there’s no reason why we shouldn’t continue. There will be evolution, of course.” The ability to give good customer service is what has kept Graves in business all of these years throughout the changes, such as their new signage added just a few years ago. “Trends change, merchandise we used to sell 20 years ago we don’t sell any more,” Hadaway said. “In my opinion, we’re evolving more into a service organization. Take online sales for example. We have to focus more on face-to-face problem solving issues. Every year brings new challenges and opportunities and you just have to adapt. “We think we’ve held up our end of the bargain. We keep our sidewalk clean and we advertise. We think we’re a positive factor in the downtown area and intend to continue that way.” As the community and world change, a city’s core has to change and adapt as well.
“Retail has changed quite a bit — online sales, the advent of pushing retail through social media, the concept of maker-based businesses,” Woods said, “these have all changed the way retail operates, and you can see that downtown.” Lane Hollern at L & L Pets has been in business for 35 years and has seen the changes along Commercial. He said having the unique shops has been a big factor in keeping a vibrant city center. “It’s a lot different now — there are more Mom and Pop shops, but that gives more of a variety,” Hollern said. “We have a lot of specialty shops down here that you can’t find anywhere else. It’s nice to go through downtown and see all of the businesses. Plus, you get that personal attention that you can’t get shopping online. “If something were to happen and we were to leave, to find some place that would carry what we have would be hard. Even in Topeka and Lawrence, a lot of them have closed. So people would have a big inconvenience to drive somewhere.”
Lawyer’s Row Deb Huth, of Atherton & Huth Law Firm, is located right across the street from the courthouse. They’ve held that location on what is referred to as “Lawyer’s Row” for the last 16 years, about the same time the new courthouse opened. Please see Downtown, Page 9
Monday, January 22, 2018
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DOWNTOWN From PAGE 8
Huth was on the design committee and president of Main Street’s board of directors at the time. “There had been some talk about possibly moving the courthouse way out to the west side of town,” Huth said. “All of that had long-been settled by the time we purchased this building.” She said these similar businesses all benefit from being concentrated in one area, away from shopping or eateries. “I think it’s nice to have that here where all of the legal stuff is concentrated in one area,” Huth said. “If you keep the professional services in an area — say, if you had one retail building on this block — it wouldn’t help them. By keeping us down here, people have a purpose to come here. They don’t take up parking in front of retail, they do their business here then go to the courthouse.” Huth was part of the process that saw grants which were used for light posts, brick inlay sidewalks, curb cuts and more. There were also projects with small businesses, including painting that shows the detail on the older buildings. “They’ve done a great job with bringing out what’s already here,” Huth said. “I think that it started with the grant and once the streetscape looked good, it started spilling over into the businesses. Obviously we still have work to do. We’ve come a long way, but we can’t rest on our laurels. There’s always work to be done.”
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Events Two of Emporia’s signature annual events — the Dirty Kanza and the Glass Blown Open — have become staples, taking over Commercial Street each summer with various activities throughout the week leading up to the events themselves. Woods said focusing on entrepreneurship was a major factor in being able to compete with larger markets in every direction. “When you have that much disparity in population size, you have to think differently about how you’re going to compete,” Woods said. “There was an emphasis on entrepreneurship because we knew those businesses would be inherently different enough that we could pull people into the area. “Then you have events and activities that could serve as a draw. I don’t think any of us knew they would be as much as a draw as they have been, but we needed to offset the losses of student population during the summer and bring people in on a more consistent basis with things they could do that are unique to our geography and our history.”
For instance, there used to be one bicycle store. Now there are three. Dynamic Discs, the world’s largest disc golf manufacturer, moved from a garage to a brick and mortar front on Commercial. “We’re a really big small town,” Woods said. “When you get too metro, you don’t feel connected. That’s a place you’d visit but wouldn’t want to live there. The fact that we’re a ‘Goldilocks’ community, we hear that a lot. People think you can’t have the things that we have in a community our size, and that people are actually nice here. Part of what we did was emphasize entrepreneurship and start thinking about how Emporia was going to compete with the larger communities that surround us.” These events would typically be an annual affair, but Emporia is fortunate to have become hubs for disc golfers, cyclists and other groups. “People can always use Emporia as base camp for riding bikes and playing disc Please see Downtown, Page 10
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Monday, January 22, 2018
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DOWNTOWN From PAGE 9 golf,” Woods said. “It’s not just a one-off; it’s something that people can continually come to Emporia and experience, which gives us year-round traffic. “The culture here has allowed that to grow. The emphasis on taking an active role in making sure businesses succeed, events succeed, that we’re going to volunteer and spend our dollars at these places.”
The rolling wheel Another factor is that mixed-use buildings are becoming more popular along Commercial, especially closer to the Emporia State University campus. “It has to be a mix of uses,” Woods said. “Those are the people that support the lunch time crowd at other local businesses. It’s also important to note that we have anchors like the City of Emporia, the Lyon County Courthouse to name a few. Those folks need access to other services as well, and that builds on itself.” Main Street has worked closely with the city and county on Community Improvement Districts to carefully plan the future of Commercial. “I think the government acted as a catalyst,” Woods said. “They made sure the infrastructure was there and that there was a framework that allowed people to invest. Once people saw that local officials believed in the process, they were more willing to invest their own money. The government opened up the door, but it still took the private citizens and investors to walk through it and make their own investments.”
IMAGE BY IM DESIGN GROUP
This image shows the vision for a new downtown space for Emporia Main Street, which would include a business incubator and fabrication lab.
Woods said often a city will get the “White Knight Syndrome,” expecting someone or some entity to come in and save the town, but that’s not reality. It takes a village to make a village. “People are excited about the town and they’re engaged,” Woods said. “That doesn’t mean that we don’t have a lot more work to do, because we do. Downtown is not a finished product by any stretch of the imagination. But, I like the fact that
we’re continuing to work on it and we have the support of the city and county.” There is also support between business owners themselves, who are likely to frequent each other’s establishments to show support. That, combined with public advocacy, is a formula for success. “In the age of tight-knit social groups, with social media, those testimonials drive traffic,” Woods said. “It’s not just good enough to say, ‘I spend my dollars
here,’ it’s ‘I’m going to make sure this concept that I love succeeds.’ That’s been great.” Emporia is also drawing people in from other places. Woods said before he became director of Main Street, the pull factor was .96, and as of 2016 it is 1.15. That number reflects the difference between money from outside coming in and inside Please see Downtown, Page 11
THE EMPORIA GAZETTE
Monday, January 22, 2018
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Economic development never stops By Joey Berlin
The Emporia Gazette
✦✦To help us see where we’re going, it sometimes helps to take a look back. In this year’s edition, we are going back a decade. This story is being reprinted from Progress 2008. City Commissioner Jeff Longbine believes the commission has gotten a lot done since he first joined it last April. In fact, Longbine thinks this group of commissioners, headed by Mayor Julie Johnson and working with City Manager Matt Zimmerman, is standing out from the commissions that recently preceded them. “It’s under Mayor Johnson’s leadership and Matt’s leadership and the commission as a whole, but we’ve brought a lot of things forward and pushed them through and implemented them, I think much more than we have in recent history,” Longbine said. Economic development achievements, such as deals with Renewable Energy Group and Hill’s Pet Nutrition to build Emporia plants, count among Longbine’s list of successes. He’s pleased with the city’s emphasis on retail development, including the authorization of the Buxton study, and the way the commission has worked with the Chamber of Commerce in its Blueprint for Growth project.
DOWNTOWN From PAGE 10 going out. So, not only are Emporians spending more of their own money here (not elsewhere), more people are coming to town to spend. Woods attributes this to the entrepreneurial mindset of local businesses. “That highway goes both ways,” Woods said. “But we had to remember with development that nobody is going to leave their Old Navy to come shop at our Old Navy. It just doesn’t work that way. The unique business concept allows us to pull. When we started focusing on that, we started succeeding with that. It’s something we constantly have to work on because people forget, they get brand-addicted. That sort
three pieces of a major transition in city leadership. He and Kevin Nelson had just been sworn in as rookie commissioners the same week that Zimmerman started his job. “The things I really wanted to get a grip on were finances in the city, financial reporting, the management systems that were in place, how the departments interacted with each other, those type of things,” he said. “It was a pretty big learning curve at first, and I’m still learning as we go forward.” Longbine believes the commissioners have developed a great working relationJEFF LONGBINE, ship. 2008 City Commissioner He said the commissioners have different views and perhaps different ways of reaching the same goal, but are able to He likes the way the city has initiated work through those and work toward what community discussions on diversity is- is best for the city. sues. One thing the commission could imLongbine also credits Zimmerman and prove on, Longbine said, is making sure its Assistant City Manager Mark McAnarney with sound fiscal management, allowing the city to be under budget in 2007 and finish the year with strong reserves. “We’ve looked at enterprise funds, tried to make them more self-supporting,” Longbine said. “We’ve looked at areas that we can do our best to keep property tax rates as low as we can possibly keep them, and still provide the essential services and the quality of service that the public wants.” Ten months ago, Longbine was one of
“It becomes at times difficult because, as we bring things forward, they’re brought open to the public, and we start receiving feedback for them, and the feedback may not pertain to the direction that we think we’re going. But because we’re bringing those ideas and thoughts out so fast and so quick, there’s not a lot of formulation done before it hits the public.”
of focus over the last few years, I think, is paying dividends.” For 2018, Woods said there are at least three locations on Commercial that will provide new services to the community, including a business incubator and fabrication lab along with more housing and mixed-use spaces. In his tenure, Main Street has gone from being able to offer $120,000 in small business loans to more than $750,000 annually. “We’re always looking to support the next big idea,” Woods said. “I think Main Street’s role has been to get people the resources they need and then get out of the way. We will continue to help people as they need assistance. We’re here to help people grow and expand. When we can promote the culture of thinking outside of your business’ four walls, the community wins.”
thoughts are communicated correctly to the public. “It becomes at times difficult because, as we bring things forward, they’re brought open to the public, and we start receiving feedback for them, and the feedback may not pertain to the direction that we think we’re going,” he said. “But because we’re bringing those ideas and thoughts out so fast and so quick, there’s not a lot of formulation done before it hits the public. Which is good and bad, but at times that makes it a bit difficult.” For this year, Longbine believes the 2009 budget will be a primary issue to focus on. He also believes the city needs to follow through on the Buxton study and the Blueprint for Growth, as well as examine the results of the city’s wage-and-hour study to make sure employees are being compensated properly. “We need to continue to work on economic development,” he said. “That’s a process that never stops.”
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THE EMPORIA GAZETTE
Monday, January 22, 2018