EXPANSION

From PAGE 5

Combined, the housing projects will bring just under 100 new housing units to Emporia.

“I think we are in a good place,” Cocking said. “We are seeing multi-family and single-family housing which then should help us on the industrial recruitment side and hopefully we start to see things pay off and more expansion and new plants coming in with that.”

In addition to improvements for the the area of South Exchange Street and east to Gavin Road on land acquired from the John D. Kretsinger and Claudia V. Kretsinger Revocable Trust dated Nov. 19, 2012. The lots would average around 7,900 square feet, with homes ranging from $200,000 - $250,000.

McKenna said, because housing has been a big priority for a long time, the chamber has been working hard on partnerships behind the scenes.

“What we are reading and finding is, there needs to be more public/private partnerships,” she said. “We’re working with the city on a partnership, and not just with Kretsinger. Kretsinger is the citizens of Emporia, the City of Emporia also has plans to continue internal improvements for its employees. Giefer and Cocking said much of that will come in continued wage studies and recruitment efforts.

“We got a wage study that we approved doing here later last year and we should get the results on that,” Giefer said. “We’re trying to make sure that our employees are paid a fair wage for what they’re doing and that wage study should tell us kind of where we’re at on that.

“We’ve made some major improvements to the wages over this past year to our employees and we’re going to continue on trying to make the right choices main one and the one everyone asks about, but we’re also working with a lot of private individuals.”

McKenna said the goal was for the chamber to act as a “conduit” to help connect people with the right resources and people in order to make new housing developments — whether they are single family or multi-unit structures — happen.

The third priority? Workforce.

The Emporia Area Chamber of Commerce recently attended the ESSDACK Career Expo in Hutchinson, where 5,700 high school students from across the state were in attendance learning about career and educational opportu - on that and a lot of those costs of money, but it’s nice to see that our revenues are up so that we can support that,” he added.

According to Cocking, staffing has improved. As of mid-January, the police department was still down three personnel, while the fire department was down six.

“Which sounds like a lot but where we were in July, August, things have improved,” Cocking said. “ … We seem to be kind of treading water right now on staffing. It’s not great but I’m not worried about the wheels falling off like I was four or five months ago.”

He also mentioned that the city nities. McKenna said Emporia’s impact at the expo was enormous.

“We did something no other community has done,” she said. “In the past it’s been universities, tech colleges, military recruiters and some businesses that have been there, and the idea is, this is a career expo where they can learn about different career options. We made sure Emporia was well represented. We had 27 spaces reserved. We took up half of one building, so when students came in, they saw Emporia.”

McKenna said she knows that some students did sign up for information from several businesses and from the Flint Hills Technical College during that event.

It was so successful, she would like to see a similar career expo in Emporia that really targets local students.

“That’s workforce, that’s people, that’s the future,” she said.

A new web site is also in the works that is all about Emporia Opportunity. More on that will be released in the coming weeks, but McKenna said it will help with job recruitment, relocation and more.

“I don’t think that people realize the wide array of opportunities that are available here,” she said. “There really are great opportunities for everyone.”

And McKenna said the Emporia Area Chamber of Commerce is always around to help — especially when it comes to business.

“We’re here to work with the business community and we’ve got great partners,” she said, adding that the chamber works well with other organizations like the City of Emporia, Ignite Emporia, the Regional Development Association, and more. “We want the community to feel good that we complement each other in our actions. That’s important for people to know.” would be looking to hire a deputy city manager and housing specialist in the coming months.

Overall, both men said they are proud of what the City of Emporia has accomplished in the past year and hopeful about what it can accomplish in the new year.

“We had probably one of our most productive years last year in 2022 and what we’ve seen, what we see and what people have talked to us about in the early stages, it looks like 2023 will be as large or larger than last year,” Giefer said. “A lot of things are happening in Emporia, Kansas right now and we’re going to continue supporting that.”