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Pride Business Edition
Scottsbluff/Gering, Nebraska
Saturday, March 5, 2016
Runza owners cite dedication to business, community as reasons for success MAUNETTE LOEKS Digital News Editor mloeks@starherald.com
A popular Internet meme touts the virtue of Nebraska, “We’ve got Runzas. You don’t.” It’s a humorous meme, but as customers line the store at the Scottsbluff Runza on a recent Tuesday one has to wonder. Is it that it’s Temperature Tuesday? A day that Runza offers its original Runza at sale price equal to the temperature at 6 a.m. No, says owners Neal and Lora Blomenkamp. “Every day is like this,” Neal says as multiple Runza employees take and give orders to customers while others are taking orders at the drive-thru window. “Sometimes, the line is out the door. It’s crazy.” Customers love their Runzas, Lora Blomenkamp said. She would know, having worked at Runza since 1979. It was her first job in high school and she worked at Runza in college. She moved to York and managed her first Runza, where she met Neal as he visited the store in a drive-thru. The couple doesn’t share too many details about what Neal said during his frequent visits to Runza that got Lora to go out with him. “I was a single guy. She was a single girl,” he said, only noting he was a frequent customer before he asked her out. His order was a cheese Runza, onion rings and a Mountain Dew. They were
MAUNETTE LOEKS/Star-Herald
Runza in Scottsbluff underwent a construction and expansion project in 2015, becoming a showcase location downtown.
in their early 20s and Neal had moved to the community to work for Wheelers. He had been in the farm supply company’s management program, working
in Lincoln, then York where he met Lora that position before managing his own and moved around serving in temporary management positions. He moved 11 store in Central City, Nebraska. The store RUNZA page 3 times in 1 1/2 years, he said, as part of
Monument Mall gets second wind under new owners MAUNETTE LOEKS Digital News Editor mloeks@starherald.com
Abbie, Sami, Jason and Jhett Webb.
Courtesy photo
Webbs work to make the community better IRENE NORTH Staff Reporter inorth@starherald.com
Jason and Sami Webb’s latest endeavor in helping expand opportunities in Scottsbluff is the Elite Health Center, an idea that began with the need to expand both their practices. Their desire to build their new offices quickly became a project that would include many providers. Their vision is to create a wellness center that would attract medical professionals to the area. “We needed new space and had other interested parties,” Sami said. Elite Health Center will house multiple medical specialties, a fitness facility, daycare and a coffee shop with healthy eating options. Jason and Sami Webb are both natives of South Dakota. Jason grew up in Lead, Sami in Spearfish. Jason and Sami began dating in high school. Both of their fathers worked in the gold mining business. Sami’s father was a chemist at the mine. Part of his job was keeping cyanide out of the water. When the mine closed, he worked with mines in Montana and Africa teaching
them how to treat the water. But Sami always knew she wanted to do something in the medical field. She likes the freedom she has in her business to make her own decisions and run it how she wants. “There are limited health care professions where you can run your own business,” Jason said. “You have the control to have things operate the way you want to.” Their road to the medical profession had a few interesting turns. They both used to sell leather items in Sturgis at the motorcycle rallies. “We grew up ten minutes from Sturgis,” Sami said. “You could make good money that week.” Sami sold knives door-to-door in college for a company out of Wisconsin. She also worked for Jon’s Notes, a company that took notes for classes and sold them to students. They both worked at Pizza Hut. For three summers in high school, Jason worked the mines. He had the chance to work full-time in the mines. “My dad talked me out of it,” he said. “It was a good choice because the mines closed 10 years later.”
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Monument Mall has once again become the place to be on Saturdays. Over the last year, Monument Mall has seen a lot of new development. Tera Willman, property manager, said. “The foot traffic on Saturdays has improved so much,” Willman said. In recent years, the mall had experienced some struggles. However, as it celebrates its 30th anniversary, new owners focused on redeveloping the mall have brought new life. Willman oversees local operations of Monument Mall and has seen it in its heyday and beyond. Just a couple months after Willman started as marketing
manager at Monument Mall in August 2002, Walmart left, moving across town to another location. Prior to Walmart’s move, Willman said, the mall was 95 percent occupied. “I have seen the mall at its peak — with Walmart here — and I’ve seen — at first not so fast — it gradually decline,” Willman said. Some businesses, like Radio Shack, left the mall because their leases included riders that they could be terminated if Walmart left. Other stores left as their leases expired and foot traffic slowed. “Some of the stores (that left) were dependent on the foot traffic that Walmart brought in,” she said. “With so many stores leaving, people were wanting to come in for next to nothing and you can’t do that.” In 2002, the mall was owned
Shoppers stop at Subway during a noon lunch hour.
by Rubloff Development Group and a new group, Perkins Properties, purchased the mall in 2006. The company, owned by Michael Perkins, based out of Omaha, bought other properties including some in Rapid City, South Dakota. However, a lack of new tenants at the mall and declining property conditions meant the mall was only a shadow of its former self. Over the years, the mall has battled a number of different “obstacles” in the retail field, Willman said. Though Scottsbluff is cited as a regional shopping hub, many companies want to know the direct population and customer base of a community and don’t consider Scottsbluff to be of adequate size. The community also is not located along an interstate, though Will-
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MAUNETTE LOEKS/Star-Herald