A TIME FOR EXPANSION: CITY OF EMPORIA LOOKS FORWARD TO ADVANCEMENTS IN HOUSING, RETAIL, INFRASTRUCTURE

B y s h AylA G Auldin G shayla@emporia.com

With a year of much-need road and waterline repairs, housing contracts, welcoming new retailers and more under its belt, the City of Emporia is proud of its accomplishments during the past year — and looking forward to much of the same in 2023.

As he steps back into the mayoral seat, Danny Giefer said he expects the priorities facing the City of Emporia to be largely the same as last year — with a focus on improvements to infrastructure, bringing in more industry and retailers and building affordable housing to sustain an expanded workforce.

City Manager Trey Cocking agreed, adding that while the city will continue to address concerns as they arise, improvements this year will also be preventative. One such example: the city’s aging water lines.

“Obviously, we had some significant waterline failures last year, so now we are in the process of how do we make those upgrades, how do we replace those 90-plus-year-old water lines and have something that is reliable and can transfer the amount of water that we need throughout the community,” Cocking said.

The city is in the approval process of a loan from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to redo Emporia’s major stretch of transmission water lines. As of now, the city is simply waiting for the final OK, which Cocking expects in the next couple of months.

Repairs will stretch from 24th Ave. all the way to the water tower on the southeast side of town near Penny Lane and South Weaver St., which was completed in 2019.

“Flint Road is a transmission water line and then where it broke on Prairie is a transmission water line,” Cocking said. “... All of that stuff, in the next few years, will be upgraded and replaced with new lines.”

In addition to waterlines, the city will also complete major repairs to roads, such as Highland Street near Emporia State University, which will be paid for through a CDBG grant. The grant covers $750,000 of the $1.2 million project, with work completed by APACShears Kansas Division.

“This is going to be a complete reconstruction of that street where we go down, remove the street completely to the dirt, do a new storm [drain], new water, new sewer lines through there and then a new driving surface at the end of the day,” Cocking said.

In addition to infrastructure repairs, bringing more industries and retailers to the community will be on the city’s todo list for 2023.

According to Giefer, many projects are currently underway, with an expected completion date within the year.

Giefer said the city should be hearing news soon about the new travel plaza on the west end of town. Known as the Brownstone addition, the plaza will be located along Graphic Arts Road south of U.S. 50.

Across the road, in the Flint Hills Crossing Community Incentive District, construction on the new QuikTrip building will also be starting within the year.

“That should be starting sometime after mid-year, probably closer to fall,” Giefer said.

On the north end of town, Emporians will also see expansion at the Emporia Pavilions — which is now boasting four retailers: Hobby Lobby, Ross Dress for Less, Marshalls and Shoe Dept. Encore.

“They’ve got three more that they’re talking about [and] getting real close to announcing, and then there’s a few more out there that they’ve been working with so that hopefully by the end of the year, we should have that pretty close to filled up out here,” Giefer said.

Giefer said he believes the city is in a good place when it comes to industrial expansion.

“I don’t know of an industry right now in town that is talking about cutting back,” Giefer said. “They’re either at status quo or expanding.”

However, in order to accommodate expansion, the city also must provide housing for the potential workforce. According to Cocking, that is where the city is hitting a wall.

“I think we are in the place where we are trying to address housing quickly,” Cocking said. “... We need people. There are not people in the community so we are bringing in people from the outside and they need places to live.” chair of the ACC Accreditation Management Board, in a written release. “ACC Accreditation Services is proud to award Newman Regional Health with Cardiac Cath Lab Accreditation with PCI.”

The city is looking at multiple new housing additions, including the Kretsinger subdivision on South Exchange Street and east to Gavin Road, the Mahtropolis development near Whittier Street and Riley Avenue, and the Heartland Housing Partners project. The latter, being developed by Cory Haag and Ross Vogel, would include the Winston Lofts, located at 412 and 416 E. 12th Ave., the Senate Lofts, located at 1124 and 1128 Union St., and the Mallory Square Lofts, located at 1106 and 1110 Mechanic St.

A cath lab has special imaging equipment used to see the arteries and check how well blood is flowing to and from the heart.

“It’s a room with a highly specialized X-ray,” said cardiologist Dr. Michael Lloyd. “It allows you to visualize the arteries that supply the heart with blood.”

Lloyd said the cath lab was recognized for its percutaneous coronary intervention — also known as coronary angioplasty — which is a non-surgical procedure designed to relieve symptoms of heart disease or reduce heart damage during or after a heart attack. This involves opening narrowed or blocked coronary arteries with a balloon and typically stents are placed in the artery and drugs are prescribed to ensure the artery remains open after the procedure.

He said it’s important to have high-quality cardiac care available in Emporia, and that the community knows they can stay home for their heart health needs.

“This American College of Cardiology accreditation provides independent and unbiased outcomebased evidence that our patients and their families are receiving the highest quality care,” he said. “It should be very comforting to the patients and the families to know they are getting the best possible care just by staying here.”

Knobloch said she believes this accreditation helps to “uplift” Newman Regional Health with larger cardiac hospitals in the region, which have spent decades building their reputations for quality cardiac care.

“It puts us on a field to start developing that reputation with them,” she said.

APRN Krista Ohmie, who works in the cardiac cath lab, said the accreditation has reinforced the knowledge that what she does every day makes a difference in people’s lives.

“I feel like it kind of validated for us about the work that we do on a daily basis,” Ohmie said. “We’re always striving to give the best here and let our community know that they are going to get that. We are here for them.”

Knobloch said the accreditation review process took about 18 months. Throughout the process, the ACC review team was impressed with Newman Regional Health’s commitment to its community.

“He kept track of the number of times the team said ‘that’s for the community,’ and he was very impressed with that,” she said. “That’s just a reflection of the heart of our people, is that we’re here to serve.”

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